OTF

Not much.

If that is all true then it's bloody hilarious.

That's fine. The point is don't comment on things you know nothing about.

I don't mind it in isolation, but it doesn't strike me as very Newcastley. A few good results in it and I'll change my mind.

Honestly comments like that, apart from being an obvious trolling attempt, are just holding your hand up and admitting to having no idea about the talent being discussed.

Szoboszlai was a much better fit for our team IMO and his stock is on a continued rise where-as I feel Maddison, after his last season, doesn't have the application that Howe desires. Szoboszlai has done it at every level for a number of years, people on here who hadn't heard of him before our interest honestly need not comment on it.

I wasn't saying that they're not 'elite', more that we have to take advantage of our advance in schedule to buy this level and age of player. An important aspect with Szoboszlai was wages. He's on wages now where we could afford to give him a hefty bump without breaking the structure and/or bank. That requires the rare balance of age, skill and club. Plus physically I think he would have fit right in. Now I have to hope that I was spectacularly wrong with my thoughts on him, and that he fails miserably at Liverpool.

This makes a lot of sense. But I really, really wanted Szoboszlai.

None will be more upset about it than me (on here). Even more so if he goes to Liverpool. Sure we're not there yet, as far as being an elite club, but we're in the Champions League and they're not. I believe we have an elite club level hierarchy in place and an eager manager who is doing a phenomenal job and IMO will improve because he's young and adaptive. We need that sort of signing to try to maintain our champions league status through increasing our overall quality and depth.

Definitely not going to ask how you know that.

Off-brand Florian Lejeune.

Saudi Hawaybia

Exactly, it's always money but the club has to be a fit for the player's ambition when that player is highly regarded as Tonali is.

He's a bit too tall and skinny for the midfield if you ask me. Long head also.

These days the authorities have to line everything up before they so much as make.an accusation. Of course it all just ends up petering away in a prolonged legal battle.

Spending big money is really the only way to improve your status dramatically in the short term. I don't think it will be financially effective, but there should at least be a resulting improvement in the domestic players as they are exposed to a higher calibre of footballer. Of course, if those players don't give a toss and are there entirely for the money (rather than 95% for the money) it may end up just taking the piss out of the league. The truth will probably be somewhere in between. They're seemingly willing to throw big bikkies away to have a shot. Not like they have to answer to FFP or anything like that. I actually feel that this is going to make our process a much more fulfilling one. We can't just be Chelsea or Man City spending without limit.

This bloke is much more in the Howe physicality mould as compared to Tonali or Barella. Not to say that our future is only full of tall and physical players. Howe knows that's what we've built our success on, but that as we aim to maintain and improve our standing we'll need to improve our attacking versatility especially as teams are likely to become more and more defensively staunch against us. So someone like Nemcha can slot straight into our team, someone like Barella can evolve and improve the way we play.

Far from being simply used to "revamp and re-market Saudi Arabia" we're part of the diversification of their wealth away from the source of it; oil. It's part of a broader strategy under which divestment from oil and traditional streams of renevue are or will soon be occurring. I'm not suggesting you don't know any of this, just pointing out that they're not throwing money away in a marketing campaign for the country, but rather will be operating the club as part of a broader portfolio that is ultimately designed to maintain and increase their wealth over the long term.

If it means we commit to Szoboszlai this is a goog thing IMO. But the waters have been muddied and my affection diverted my the mention of Barella. Maddison's value IMO has decreased though this season.

Was expecting Dean Windass

Did you see the goal?

Paging Dr. @Monkeys Fist