Not a chance. We'll be constantly used by agents looking for their last big cheque, but Newcastle will not be spending £70m on 27 year old players.
100% agree, Skriniar is not happening. Now if we have that money (which I don't think we do), why not go all in on Gvardiol? Him and Botman at CB for then next 10 years would be amazing!
This would appeal to the club I think. No fee... but maybe a signing on fee or at least £200k a week with add ons. Good business if we can do it.
Yeah, and it ticks a box - we do need a CB upgrade, Schar's 30 now I think? So Skriniar comes with a solid rep, is Eastern European which is very dependable. And it's another big FFP play.
I think we will be keeping an eye on left back as well. Gvardiol is likely too expensive, but the lad Sosa at LB for Croatia looks decent.
I think we are deliberately steering clear of free transfers. The wages a free transfer would demand would properly **** up our wage structure.
Think it depends on the player and situation. If it's Jessie Lingard coming in on 180k per week then yes there'll be a handful of players asking why they aren't on comparable wages. If it's Eriksen then I think the other players can understand why the club is paying a premium to get them on a free, he's going to be on a lot more than Shelvey/Longstaff/Willock whether free or not! (I also think we were after Eriksen but probably weren't after Lingard in the summer) We've got some trash who are on over 50k per week iirc, so genuinely major improvements are allowed to be on genuinely larger salaries.
I thought this was a thread about IKEA furniture when I read the title. Anyway he sounds good, as long as he doesn’t need assembling first.