Maureen will have Sandcastle in his sights already…
The bluffing fucker will be working and polishing up on his interview technique at this moment
Think Sandcastle will opt for a winner on the big stage rather than a manager with hype…
Will be interesting to see how long they stick with Howe… To me he was chosen because he never makes waves in the media or is controversial in any way… Sandcastle I feel, are attempting to come under the radar as much as that is possible until the Hoo Haa surrounding the purchase subsides… Howe was suitable for that role.
Hence Maureen in a year or two when they probably won’t give a flying f*** anymore what pundits and fans think of them…
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Rafael Benitez might be a option.
Ponchettino wouldn’t surprise me.
He doesnt need to be. He just needs to be good enough to get them to upper mid table so they become attractive enough to the next caliber up of player who might then, with a new manager, take them into the CL.
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I had hoped that they would go mad and overspend on big player names looking for their final pay day (C Ronaldo style). Instead, they have a plan and are getting in experienced players to help them move up the table.
A couple of years of this, and they will be regular CL place contenders.
Can only hope that they don’t get off to a good start, and the higher ups decide to bin their plan and ring the changes by splurging (and get a few Robinho type of signings).
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Exactly that. Howe is for Newcastle what Sparky was for City.
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Looks they’ve taken good notes from their Abu Dhabi neighbors on how to circumvent FFP rules.
Will the FA EVER do anything?
Probably have to be another conflict this time over that way. Sad but that’s all that will ever make these businesses think twice.
Nothing surpises me anymore.
Have to say they’re impressing me in the transfer market.
Quietly going about their business and a way which will improve their first 11.
Backed by all these billions and not really made a big splash yet. Wonder if that will come this window?
I believe they have a five year plan. They know they’re not going to attract world stars at the moment, so are building a squad to challenge for the European places over the next couple of seasons and will then go for the big names once they are able to offer European football.
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The position they are in now is not to dissimilar to what Man City we’re in when they got a load of cash. I’d be surprised if they didn’t make a Robinho style signing.
Their acquisition of Brighton’s director of football suggests otherwise - I’ve actually been impressed by their signings and gradual growth and improvement of the squad. I think that they are trying to learn from the mistakes of other state-owned club - I don’t think I’ve seen any indications of possible Robinho-style signings, all those players who are/were reliably linked with them are usually young. Botman and Guimaraes should be pretty good players and that Ekitike kid seems to be highly rated (if they manage to pull it off). Nick Pope is a signing that could win them a fair few points next season and he kind of went under the radar. All in all, I think they know what they’re doing.
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Didn’t City only pull off the Robinho signing because he thought he was signing for United or Chelsea, or is that just an urban legend?
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I thought it was because he didn’t realise there were two Manchester clubs and he thought he was signing for United at the time. I’m sure that can’t be true but funny if it was.
It seems UEFA is introducing new financial controls on clubs that is going to allow for rich benefactors to inject more money into the club. From what I took from the Swiss Ramble twitter thread on it, it seemed the basic premise was owners could now cover three times what the current maximum losses are but that couldn’t be in the form of loans, it had to be cash injection.
However, wage spending will be capped at 70% of revenues and lots of the “additional” stuff that used to be exempt from FFP, like infrastructure projects or youth team spending, will now be included in FFP calculations.
It’s hard to work out what it all means, even with the explanation from someone like the Swiss Ramble but it seems the upshot is owners will be able to pump more money in but the wage to revenue cap should then limit it just becoming the richest owner wins as you need to generate revenue too. Sounds like City will benefit most from this and the path for Newcastle to replicate might well need to be slower and more considered. I suspect they go for rising talent like Botman where the wages will be lower and accept they’ll probably sell a few along the way until they can inflate their revenues in a more “organic growth” looking fashion.
It’s just the start, we’ll see a little bit later. Right now, some transfers are maybe not even realistic for them. When they get more comfortable, we’ll see how they build that side. Too early to tell.
The way the Sheikh and Oligarch clubs are conning their revenues, it will barely make any sense.
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