Rayvin

The suggestion is actually that we might have the greater capability in wages at the moment... if our plan is to shift Isak then there's nothing stopping us offering him a good 200k a week or so. Whether he's worth it or not is another question.

There is this really weird narrative out there at the moment that if we don't sell Isak by the end of this window we'll be in some sort of panic. I'm really not sure where the thinking behind that comes from though, there's zero chance he's going to down tools.

Yeah I heard he was a Forest fan actually.

He's funny when they lose, that's about the only reason I watch any of these people, but in this case I watched the one earlier cos someone here linked it Probably you now I think about it.

Not that I'm saying he knows anything at all, but Goldbridge was saying earlier that the release clause was what we offered and that the only thing we could out-negotiate them on was payment terms.

In my head it was said in a very matter of fact way tbh That twat just harps on and on, stirring shit in the background on behalf of all these shadowy bellends working for players.

Romano needs someone to punt him wholesale into the nearest collapsing star.

PIF's stance on this all summer was that he wasn't for sale unless we got 150m, and that we were going to get another striker. The only thing that might now force our hand is if we can't reconcile with him. So this is I suppose the point where we see how much of a bitch he wants to be about it.

£130m if we really can't bed him back in might well be ok. He's not really worth that much on paper, they'd be overpaying to get him early.

Not sure that changes much from our side, especially if they come back with another pathetic offer.

I think the actual truth is probably less about ignorance and more about malice. It serves her purposes, so she says it. She'll be fully aware of the implications. I'm never convinced that there is such a thing as a genuinely bad person, but sometimes you do have to wonder about it. If you arm someone with all the knowledge and experience to have compassion, show them the consequences of going the other way, and they choose it regardless.. I think those are the people I have the most issue with in life. But that said, we're all guilty of it to some extent, it's just about degrees I suppose.

Presumably no real internal consistency in her thinking, whatever is politically expedient in the moment? Weirdly I'm not that fussed on what she or the Tories get up, they look fully dead electorally speaking.

What have Tripps and Gordon said?

All of this, while progress, sounds a lot less convincing than that Slovenian report yesterday. Which doesn't really mean anything tbh but still. If it's still a choice between us and Man Utd then I'm a bit less confident.

I reckon if he stays they'll write a narrative around him slotting back in one way or another. I still doubt the situation is that badly deteriorated behind the scenes. Howe could play it off as Isak vs hierarchy rather than the manager or team.

I thought the deal with German clubs was that you couldn't bid unless you had agreement with the player? Or is that just a rule Frankfurt had?

My mum is a boomer, and just because I dont think she was provided with the critical thinking skills to be allowed on the Internet, doesnt mean I dont feel bad for her.

An attitude which extends to all people other than myself I consider it a virtue, believe it or not.

Only that the link KD shared suggested that we had won the day by simply brute forcing it on both fee and contract. I agree on Sesko generally, I'm a big fan of the deal tbh

I just can't shake the idea that we wouldn't overbid for Sesko unless Isak was moving, but I badly want to believe in the alternative...

It'd be worth it just to see the collective meltdown. Liverpool fans are convinced this means they've got Isak, especially with Klopp's alleged involvement.

I hope so cos that would be one hell of a power play.

Is that because of Isak's situation? Has our hand been forced?

There's some suggestion that the players are trying to talk him down, which suggests bridges aren't fully burned yet. Also some nutjobs have noted there's a private jet chartered to fly from Sociedad to Newcastle tomorrow..

In a way, I still feel for him. If you look at the timing of his fiasco around this it's clear that our complete inability to land anyone at all has had an impact on this. The lad wants to compete and kick on but can't see Newcastle getting there quickly enough - and if that is his view, he's fucking right about how this summer has gone. We've been shambolic. Was just after we failed on Ekitike I think that he pulled the trigger on the whole thing. Ekitike maybe not our fault tbh, but the others? Pedro it sounds like got Mitchell'd, Trafford got Mitchell'd, Mbuemo we didn't even bother in the end, Delap we were slow... we have been absolute shit and I really suspect he's just had enough of waiting for the mismanagement at the top to get its act together. Ultimately the whole thing just shows that Howe isn't enough - no manager, no matter how good, would be enough. We need the commercials to compete for these names in the paypacket or we just aren't ever going to make it.