Especially English players, seems to have been a focus since the take over instead of signing flashy unproven foreign ****e, ie the Gordon signing. We have a decent chance of Bruno staying despite the clause, if we get Europe, seeing as his mate Joelinton just extended and he obviously loves it here.
Even if it's triggered, it still only means he leaves if he wants to leave - might mean a contract renegotiation with us. It's a risk, of course, but few teams can / will pay £100m for anyone in the current market. I honestly don't see any top names leaving this season, especially if we can claim 6th. We've a year left in the current FFP climate before rule changes (which will help a little) to grow the revenue, hopefully with another European campaign to bolster the pot. Keep the faith.
The fact he seems to love it here is quite key imo. Ie the last time we had a clause triggered against us was Demba Ba, who we had got cos he insisted on a release clause if West Ham went down, and immediately insisted on a release clause that let him go for a bargain price from us. Colo giving him a boot in the face was appreciated by many. Bruno bigs up the other players and goes on about how he loves the team and the City, Ba never did any of that.
I'm sorry lads, but if a big club wants him he will go. He's aware his career isn't long and he's aware the opportunity to join a club that wins trophies won't necessarily come again and they can double his wages and offer a better lifestyle for his family in Spain.
Another factor is if a big club wants him tbf, City, Real, Liverpool, Bayern all have better options than him.
I think a few clubs will think about it and we'll hear a lot about man city and anyone else with the ffp space to trigger the clause... But it will probably be PSG that actually bid. I suspect he may be gone, which would be a shame, but at least the fee would drive us forward in the transfer window.
Rumours today that we've decided against signing a new striker due to financial constraints. Only looking to strengthen at RW (that Leeds player is suggested as being our number one target for there) and RCB.
Aston Villa are a bigger club but no it won't be them. People take the piss but villa have won far more trophies than Newcastle including the European Cup. They will be likely adding another this year and qualifying for the champions league. Newcastle are not what our fans like to think ... we're a club with some success many moons ago and a club with potential but not quite up there with Villa or Everton.
They are daft enough I suppose and Villa are more restricted than us. I can deffo see Unai going too. One of the really big Euro clubs would tempt him away very easily.
Villa will hopefully **** up in the summer because if they get it right it'll be a disaster for the toon hopes.