The Fish

Atmosphere should be good tonight; return of key players, return of disliked manager, the takeover news.

We maybe can surpass them, but if they sell their top players, they'll get a shit load of money on top of the impressive budgets they normally have. That shitload of money will be reinvested into playing staff. Eriksen, Alli, Dier, cost Spurs comparative buttons. # Club(s) Seasons Expenditures Income Balance Gross Spend per Season Balance per season 1 Chelsea 14 £1,480,000,000 £785,670,000 -£776,200,000 £105,714,286 -£55,442,857 2 Man City 14 £1,470,000,000 £427,260,000 -£1,156,850,000 £105,000,000 -£82,632,143 3 Man Utd 14 £1,170,000,000 £456,710,000 -£791,410,000 £83,571,429 -£56,529,286 4 Liverpool 14 £997,410,000 £624,520,000 -£414,320,000 £71,243,571 -£29,594,286 5 Tottenham 14 £880,760,000 £676,230,000 -£227,260,000 £62,911,429 -£16,232,857 6 Arsenal 14 £615,490,000 £403,930,000 -£235,070,000 £43,963,571 -£16,790,714 7 Everton 14 £498,670,000 £353,380,000 -£161,440,000 £35,619,286 -£11,531,429 8 Newcastle Utd 12 £483,290,000 £374,310,000 -£121,090,000 £40,274,167 -£10,090,833 9 West Ham 12 £425,590,000 £288,650,000 -£152,160,000 £35,465,833 -£12,680,000 10 Aston Villa 12 £412,970,000 £245,390,000 -£186,210,000 £34,414,167 -£15,517,500 11 Sunderland 11 £385,680,000 £224,290,000 -£179,320,000 £35,061,818 -£16,301,818 12 Southampton 7 £354,950,000 £350,990,000 -£4,400,000 £50,707,143 -£628,571 13 Leicester 6 £267,100,000 £132,140,000 -£149,960,000 £44,516,667 -£24,993,333 14 WBA 11 £258,510,000 £122,220,000 -£151,440,000 £23,500,909 -£13,767,273 15 Stoke City 10 £249,870,000 £86,670,000 -£181,330,000 £24,987,000 -£18,133,000 16 Middlesbrough 7 £246,320,000 £163,050,000 -£92,520,000 £35,188,571 -£13,217,143 17 Fulham 11 £238,620,000 £192,240,000 -£51,530,000 £21,692,727 -£4,684,545 18 Crystal Palace 5 £235,460,000 £104,730,000 -£145,250,000 £47,092,000 -£29,050,000 19 Watford 3 £226,310,000 £126,980,000 -£110,370,000 £75,436,667 -£36,790,000 20 Swansea 7 £216,970,000 £222,670,000 £6,340,000 £30,995,714 £905,714 Look at the gap between the spend of the title challengers (and Liverpool) and the rest! And Liverpool aren't realistically anywhere near challenging for the title. Even if they do have great forwards, Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd are much better. And should Liverpool fix their defence, those three will just spend another couple hundred million to keep the distance.

You wouldn't like, if you read what I said and refrained from acting the quim, you'd think that it's unlikely that the new owners will be able to finance an assault on the title given how competitive it is already, how well heeled the competitors are and how far behind them we are. Trouble is you can't refrain from acting the quim long enough to see that.

Yeah, I reckon when Man City fans heard they were being bought out by an Oil state they thought they could muscle in on the title challenge, I mean it was only Man Utd and Chelsea operating with that amount of money at the time. Plus Arsenal's grip on 4th. Now there's Chelsea, Man city and Man Utd who have unlimited funds, Spurs are up there in terms of quality and aren't short a bob or two. Then there's Liverpool and Arsenal I stand by what I said. Whoever buys us out will likely pump cash into the club and the squad. But how much will it cost to challenge for the title? Genuinely, how much? To be fair, Quiff lifted a conversation I was having on RTG about expectations. Not Hopes and Dreams. That's on him, not me. I'm not sure if he's as excited, but I don't know if he's bothered enough to pull back his investment.

Then Ginger Biff is comparing his hopes and dreams, to my expectations. For the interweb lols.

Pardew's season was a one off. Sneaking a top four finish is possible, but not consistently. If Chelsea drop out of the top 4, what will they do? They'll spend £200m on the best players around, appoint a top class coach and yada yada. Best bet is to swell the group competing for the CL spot, but that's not top 4, that's 4-8, isn't it?

I'm hoping for us to separate from the rest of the league and join the big boys table. I'm hoping that we compete for CL spots when Chelsea and the Manchester clubs have a bad season. I'm hoping that we see some great football again. I'm hoping we win so many cups we stop caring about them. If you want to dream about become Man City, you crack on, but I don't think mine are risible.

I'm supposing that whoever buys us will have to rapidly catch up, then compete with the spending powers of Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd, they'll have to build a squad of top class players (who'll need to be convinced to join a newly promoted side) all the while they'll need to obey FFP which will mean they can't simply throw £500m at the problem in each of the next 3 windows. Do you honestly think that Daddy Warbucks is going to buy the club for £300m, then pump £1bn into playing staff?

Aye, because it's feasible to turn Liverpool into a title challenging side. How much would an owner need to invest and for how long to turn Newcastle United into a title challenging side, and who the fuck are we usurping? Man Utd? Man City? Chelsea? they've all spent £1bn on players. One billion pounds. Are our new owners going to throw £1bn at the squad? Can they? Spurs? they've one of the best young sides in the league already, they've a good coach, they're moving into a new larger stadium and are one of the richest clubs on the planet already.

Tory innit.

And what are yours Quiff? Title challenges? Champions League? The Ginger Biff more like.

Where'd you read this?

They've been pretty lucky xG-wise, and would be 15pts worse off were their goal scorers not overachieving. https://understat.com/league/EPL/2017 № Team M W D L G GA PTS xG xGA xPTS 1 Manchester City 16 15 1 0 48 11 46 43.98-4.02 11.17+0.17 39.78-6.22 7 Tottenham 16 8 4 4 28 14 28 28.53+0.53 12.20-1.80 33.19+5.19 5 Liverpool 16 8 6 2 34 20 30 33.25-0.75 18.96-1.04 32.23+2.23 6 Arsenal 16 9 2 5 30 20 29 34.77+4.77 18.45-1.55 31.71+2.71 3 Chelsea 17 11 2 4 31 14 35 24.68-6.32 14.43+0.43 30.52-4.48 2 Manchester United 16 11 2 3 36 11 35 31.84-4.16 21.03+10.03 28.10-6.90 17 Crystal Palace 17 3 5 9 12 28 14 23.79+11.79 25.76-2.24 24.58+10.58 11 Southampton 16 4 6 6 16 19 18 20.41+4.41 18.95-0.05 23.09+5.09 8 Leicester 16 6 5 5 23 22 23 19.36-3.64 20.63-1.37 22.43-0.57 9 Watford 17 6 4 7 26 29 22 22.83-3.17 25.12-3.88 22.13+0.13 16 Newcastle United 16 4 3 9 16 25 15 16.74+0.74 21.23-3.77 19.00+4.00 10 Everton 16 5 4 7 20 29 19 18.06-1.94 24.60-4.40 18.84-0.16 15 Stoke 17 4 4 9 19 36 16 17.47-1.53 28.21-7.79 18.18+2.18 18 West Bromwich Albion 16 2 7 7 12 22 13 13.32+1.32 20.14-1.86 16.73+3.73 20 Swansea 16 3 3 10 9 18 12 12.86+3.86 22.36+4.36 16.56+4.56 4 Burnley 17 9 4 4 16 12 31 10.84-5.16 21.96+9.96 15.82-15.18 12 Huddersfield 17 5 3 9 12 29 18 12.90+0.90 25.33-3.67 15.48-2.52 13 Brighton 16 4 5 7 14 21 17 12.43-1.57 22.62+1.62 15.02-1.98 19 West Ham 16 3 4 9 14 32 13 13.96-0.04 26.40-5.60 14.19+1.19 14 Bournemouth 16 4 4 8 15 19 16 13.32-1.68 25.76+6.76 14.18-1.82

Yeah, that's what I thought.

If there wasn't the takeover stuff I'd agree.

Thought you'd gone a bit Burnley for a moment

If it wasn't Newcastle I'd agree, but he'd love to stick the boot in. He'll set up for a 1-0 and we'll get an equaliser as he drops further and further back to protect the lead.

If it's true, it's a concern, but is, for me, indicative of the ongoing nature of the takeover talks. If they were dead in the water, I don't think he'd be as unsure of his budget as he is. I'm more concerned with Benitez's reticence to play Mitrovic and Shelvey to be honest.Our squad is thin on quality and these two have shown in the past they're capable of performing in the top flight.

Just because Benitez says in a press conference “We’re monitoring players and talking to people. We still don’t know how much money is available. We know what we need, can we get that, I don’t know." that doesn't mean; the deal won't be done by the time the January window closes, that approaches can't be made for players, that there aren't tentative talks with the potential new owners, or that Benitez doesn't, in fact know how much is available.

I'm just not as convinced these quotes mean the catastrophe that people seem to be predicting. It would be great if Benitez was assured that there would be £100m to spend on players in January, but if this takeover is going through it's no great surprise that the transfer budgets aren't sorted yet. And, we know Benitez loves a power play and this could well be another one. I'm not convinced we'll spend huge sums in January regardless of who the owner is, but I'm not as confident as others that this means doom.

Team News Newcastle United Jamaal Lascelles and Christian Atsu were both named on the bench against Leicester at the weekend and will push for starts against Everton in midweek. Everton Sam Allardyce isn't expected to recover any of his injured players in time for the trip to Newcastle on Wednesday. Michael Keane and Phil Jagielka are available again and one could be called upon here if Ashley Williams is not fit enough to play twice in a short space of time. Yannick Bolasie featured for the Everton U23s on Monday after more than a year on the sidelines but he isn't expected back for the first-team until 2018. Match Facts Newcastle have seen over 2.5 goals in 10 of their last 11 matches against Everton in all competitions. Everton have failed to win their last 16 away matches (Premier League). There have been over 2.5 goals scored in Newcastle's last 5games (Premier League). Newcastle have lost 6 of their last 7 matches (Premier League). Everton have won 6 of their last 7 matches against Newcastle in all competitions. Everton have scored at least 2 goals in 8 of their last 9 matches against Newcastle in all competitions. Everton have kept a clean sheet in their last 3 matches against Newcastle in all competitions. Newcastle have conceded at least 2 goals in their last 5matches (Premier League).

What are you talking about dicksplash, or course I know it's not just Americans and Brits. There's the Germans too. How should Christians go against Muslims? Bake sales and coffee mornings.

Nobody else was doing it.

Nope, but Charnley is the Ashley/Benitez go between, isn't he? So whatever is happening, he'll be the one benitez talks to first about it. Those quotes could be spun the other way; Benitez expects takeover updates soon.