Howay

I take your point though. I think it is a difficult balance we have to strike as we need to set a tone that we won’t be pushed about as that would hurt us in future but we are also in a terrible bargaining position.

When I say over pay I’m not meaning spend €70m on Botman btw, I’m meaning if we are at €40m and they want €45m just pay it or move on. We also seem to be targeting character so I’m less worried about the overpaid mercenary fear. The issue we are butting up against is club fees not player contracts, we aren’t signing the Coutinho/Bale/Hazards. Im just meaning, regardless of where we turn this window we will “overpay” there’s no deals to be had here unless we hit a release clause. Take Digne for example he was around 25m plus a 150k a week contract, we walked away as 150k isn’t what we wanted to pay - which is fine but what now? We can only do that for so long before it’s January 22nd and we have only Trippier in. I’d have walked away from Digne due to his character but lads like Botman, Carlos etc seem to be making the right noises and acting the right way about their motives for coming (in that money is part of it but not all of it).

All spread over the length of their contract though. So the 70m on the two CBs if you overpaid by say 20m across both and they both signed 5 year deals the impact of that overpayment would only be about 4m for the year. Is that worth praying and hoping we survive? We are going to get ripped off anywhere we turn, as you note this isn’t a window people want to sell in so they’re going to ask for high prices. Villa are shelling out nearly £300k a week on Digne and Coutinho, meanwhile we have paid £12m and 100k pw to one player - we shouldn’t be concerned about FFP at all currently. On the wages I don’t think Botman will ask for more now compared to in the summer so that doesn’t really change anything.

As Wykiki mentioned we have spent £12m for FFP purposes. It’s calculated across 3 years so yeah excess spend now would impact our future spendto a degree, as would increased sponsorship money etc, this issue is what’s the point in waiting until the summer? We will be relegated which, if they care about FFP, is miles fucking worse and that hit in our finances lingers around for FFP purposes for 3 years. Any player we buy the cost is amortized over the life of their contract anyway, so if Botman signed a 5 year deal the fee would be spread over that 5 years, so that’s why I said above it effects summer spending to a degree but it wouldn’t hit us for 100% of the impact. As Gemmill was saying there’s a limit, if we are after Botman and value him at €40m but they’re demanding twice that, then I understand that level of feeling ripped off, but if we can get him for €50m tomorrow then they have to be prepared to make that leap imo if it’s a player they want. We are running out of time, Umtiti who was seen as a target in case we couldn’t get Botman looks to have signed a new deal (likely restructuring his contract) so that Avenue is likely closed.

I’m worried our lot are getting a bit too concerned with being ripped off. I understand not wanting to be pushed around but the reality is we are 19th, our squad is awful, we are desperate, we are minted, no one likes selling in this window, and everyone we are negotiating with knows all of this. We are going to have to accept being ripped off to a degree.

I’d be more likely to listen to this pidgeons craic than that Sean bloke.

Nope

Tbf we’re still in for Botman and the Wood link is 100% Luke Edwards making shite up.

We should just start pretend going for all the overpaid, lazy ex superstars throughout Europe so Steeeeeeevie Geeeeee can piss all of Villas budget on them.

It’s the £150k a week pull tbf.

Suppose they would know better. Personally as things stand I’d welcome him, unless some better target/link surfaces as I’m really worried we aren’t discussing CM’s enough. We have absolutely nothing in the centre of the park aside from Joelinton grafting his bollocks off. My worry is if they improve the defence and bring in a striker they might think that’s enough, but IMO it would be still really dicey as we’d have nobody to link the play and still be creating nothing through the middle.

The lack of games could be because of issues over him not signing a contract? He looked good last time they were in the PL and I think he was decent last season in the championship. I’d like to see him come in, but still think we need steel in CM, then we’d have a bit of creativity in Cantwell, Joe as the runner/shuttler/number 8, and then a proper defensive midfielder. The issue is these are a lot of targets to get in time for these matches and we’re already only a week before they start.

I agree tbh, we know these players are fucking shite, we also know the club are trying to bring people in so the fans may as well carry on producing a good atmosphere. The bad atmosphere under Ashley made sense as we were watching turgid football and knew the ownership wasn’t bothered about improving and we had managers who didn’t give a flying fuck.

After yesterday I absolutely want him gone. I always thought he was worth keeping around due to the squad rules but tbh he’s completely fucked me off. He’s a lad from Newcastle, with the club on the verge of potentially having this insane level of improvement, wouldn’t you think he’d be grafting his bollocks off to improve/help the team? Like how Joelinton is despite all of his limitations. I know Joelinton is clearly a better athlete and presence but Longstaff could at least fucking run. To layer on he was happy to fuck off down the tunnel with the rest of the quitters while Trippier stood on the pitch yelling at them to clap the fans, his fellow geordies who sold out the fucking ground to watch him walk about the pitch putting on one of the worst individual performances I’ve seen (might be harsh? But it was honestly embarrassing). Again add on that he has allegedly been demanding £60k a week which is why there’s been no new deal, and pushing for a move to fucking Everton, again despite the project happening at his fucking hometown club! While people will point out he’s a limited player and will likely lose his spot that’s such a fucking losers attitude, if he grafts his fucking bollocks off he could possibly be a squad player, maybe even be around to win a cup with Newcastle - and honestly if he sees it that way I also don’t see him getting into Evertons CM neither so he’d be a squad member there anyway. Another thing I’ve heard is that it’s his dad leaking things to the chronic, so he’s likely the famous mole of Bruce’s shambolic reign - again as much as Bruce is a prick you’re exposing issues about your hometown club publicly. Seeing people like Manquillo, ASM, and Shelvey run off the pitch as fast as they could is bad enough but as noted above this lad has pissed me right off. I’d bring in a CM unregister him and put him in the U-23’s for the remainder of his contract.

If this was the mackems they’d be absolutely buzzing, and probably have some new besties sort of runs against the “everyone hates the mags” narrative doesn’t it? As always the case is most don’t really care about us

I still really hope to see him bankrupt one day. The blokes an absolute cunt for a multitude of reasons. It would honestly be fucking hilarious if he lost this, then they countersued and rinsed him for £300m. I’ve absolutely no doubt that what ever he’s suing them for is minor/him being a greedy bastard.

He’d be a good signing for where we are tbh. He scores about 1 in 3 which is decent at shite teams, and I think his presence helps create goals as he’s a big busy bastard. My only thing is it’s absolutely not happening Burnley would want so much for him we could surely go and get someone better and younger. Obviously underwhelming compared to Vlahovic, but I think he’d help us stay up (provided we got what we needed elsewhere). Either way there’s no chance of it happening

Is it a requirement that we state that information? If not I’m really fucking confused as to why we’ve come out and willingly told everyone we are COMPLETELY desperate for a striker this window. I know there was a feeling that was the case but surely we could have played it off and said we were hopeful to see him back by the end of the month. Unless there’s some requirement to disclose the extent of the injury that I’m missing.

Imo we need 5 at the minimum. Trippier, Botman, and Carlos is a very good start but it doesn’t change the fact we can’t get a hold on any fucking game or pass the ball well. We desperately need a striker with Wilson out and we are screaming out for a creative CM. Obviously we need more but I think that’s the minimum now to stay up, we just create fucking nothing and end up relying on either our full backs or ASM to figure something out.

A reminder of where we are really. The players linked while exciting aren’t at the club. We desperately need forwards, and CMs to go with these CB targets. For me the decision is do we just go down, or plough money in massively to stay up - signing Trippier, Botman, and Carlos won’t keep us up

At least it might knock any hesitancy out the owners heads that we can rely on many of these players out there. We need WAY more than just the CBs sorted, the central midfield has absolutely nothing and we have zero options up top.

Sean Longstaff is like a bloke that’s never played football in his life. On the balance of this £1m is an absolute bump. Desperately need central midfielders, the ball just goes between our defence and our front line which gives Cambridge breathing space each time they repel an attack.

Our central midfield is painful to watch. Upgrading the defence is important obviously but if we don’t improve on Shelvey and Longstaff we’re in bother, they can’t even stamp their authority on this game.

At first I felt sorry for them, but I started seeing a ton of the type of comments where they slate us for disliking him as he sorted us financially etc. I don’t particularly wish him on them but if that’s how they feel they’re welcome to him. While the debt won’t be as pressing and scary as it is for them now anything he has to clean up doesn’t go away and they should know that. Fucking 14 years of bleeding our club yet that initial debt he ‘cleared’ was still owed to him. He’s a fucking parasite and I’m beyond relieved he’s gone from our club. I agree it would mean they avoid further punishment, which might be good but it fucking throttles any hope of them doing anything as a football club for as long as he owns them. While they’ll make the argument that they’re shit now and have been shit for a long time, I agree again but the problem comes 7 years down the line if they find themselves in the PL dreaming of kicking on and nope the only reason your club now exists is to finish 17th, forget about hoping or dreaming or enjoying football. Even when your club is crap there’s hope and trying but not with Ashley as owner and that’s the difference imo. Aye there’s Derby fans that will read this and laugh and think it’s all nice problems to have compared to where they are right now but tbh unless their club legitimately ceases to exist I think basically any other option is better than him being owner.