No definitely not but I suspected this was going to be the case like many others. They're going to blow the entire budget on a cb and another keeper.
Unfathomable shambles. 5 ****ing goalkeepers including one that we used £20m on, and an entire month trying to pay £70m on Marc ****ing Guehi. We will now enter this season with both Murphy and Almiron. I just ****ing can’t.
If Guehi comes in or any decent cb I'll take it at this point. Rw is not as urgent despite what some people think.
I'd be fine with just Guehi. Although if we don't end up signing him, the time wasted will have been ridiculous.
It is what it is.. I expected this period to come... another two years and things will change.. a big player will be sold soon enough and things will kick on.
Basically I think EH wants a quality rw and a quality cb. Finances mean e we can’t have both this year. No point wasting £20m on a player not significantly better than Murphy/Almiron though have a feeling we’re going to not play them anyway.
Can anyone clear up the PSR state of play? What budget are we actually playing with here? Trying to get my head around it, if 21-24 period meant we had to sell Minteh/Anderson for £65m, then 22-25 means we have £65m of sales on the books without the deficit, right? If we then add in UCL revenue, Adidas revenue, additional sponsors, then how do we only have around £80m of a budget? In terms of the squad: GK; Pope's ok, but awful with the ball at his feet, and could be upgraded. The other 4 GK's are ****. RB; Trippier was awful last season, isn't any younger. Tino has had his moments. Krafth is rubbish. Ashby anonymous. LB; Another one we haven't sorted. Hall has potential, but Kelly and Burn aren't LB's and Targett is pointless. CB; Clearly short at RCB due to Schar's erratic play and age; Botman's good, Burn's done a job, but Kelly/Lascelles again average or worse. CDM; Bruno needs to stay fit and play the entire season as we have no other options. CM; Tonali, Willock, Joelinton are decent. Longstaff is dogwater. Miley's got potential. RW; Utter crap. LW; Decent - overstocked, if anything. CF; As good as can be expected. Few young lads look like they have potential - Harrison, Sanusi, J. Miley. So, for me, we should have prioritised a RCB and RW, not one or the other, for the first XI. That we have spent £500m and stil haven't really fixed LB is staggering. That there's no real CDM or even backup for Bruno is poor. That we look like we'll be paying the salaries of Hayden, Lewis, Fraser, Dubravka, Targett and others is astonishing. I said earlier in the window that for the past two years we have always come up 2 players short every time. This time we could've been ok by adding 2 players, but look like we'll be 2 short again. We'll never get an explanation. The optimists will claim January will see a spend, which is bollocks because for the past two January's we've been told it's a "difficult" window. Been nice hearing Howe repeatedly saying THIS window is "the most difficult he's ever experienced". Yet we're the only club not to have strengthened. Well, it is what it is. Couple of other defenders - Danso and Koussonou - have both gone for around £20m. Both look as good as Guehi.
What have other clubs got to do with it? It's about the financial conditions he has had to deal with at this club.
He has over £70m to spend and is choosing to throw it all at Guehi. Meanwhile International CB's like those I mentioned have gone for £20-25m. If there are financial conditions at this club, why aren't we operating accordingly? Where's the scouting, where's the hidden talent? Nobody can ever tell me there aren't players out there better than Murphy, Almiron, Krafth or Lascelles. Brighton bought two right wingers for £35m and £25m. Madueke went to Chelsea for £30m last year. Chiesa is available for £15m. Completely understand we can't necessarily compete with Chelsea or Liverpool, by the way, but we just don't seem to be cutting our cloth accordingly.
They may be good enough, but they're probably not English enough for the NUFC management Roland. You've got to get your priorities straight mate. Think like Eddie.
I'm sensing the good old fan splitting has returned. The return of the unrealistic expectation slants will come at us soon. Everyone must remember to be very grateful at the end of the day. Howes says everyone is doing their best...that's enough.
Quick note as well, Howe gave Almiron a contract extension in 2023. That said, the amount of sub-standard clart that other clubs sell is incredible - McTominay, Hannibal, Skipp, Godfrey, Sangala, Rodon and goodness knows how many others. Honestly, we'd be better off spending our budget terminating contracts and negotiating cheaper exits at this point.
Funny thing is Howe said the other day "draw was fair result", when everyone could see we were lucky to draw against them.
