We're one point and one place better off than we were at this stage last season. Yet the teams around us seem more capable of picking up points than they did last season and we know we're not going to have a January transfer window as successful as last season's. This is the season when we're really going to feel the pinch from the poor decision making that has blighted the club over the last few years. We're really going to need a huge slice of luck to pull off yet another escape. We have to hope that Anichebe stays fit because Moyes appears unwilling to set his team up to attack unless he plays and the alternative tactic is yet to yield results. In addition to Anichebe, there 3 to 4 other players that we have no realistic replacement for if they get injured. I think we have to accept that Pickford may go if we're not to spend the rest of this season on a knife edge.
I fear there's a few too many fans looking at the value of Pickford too literally. Him going for £40m in the summer after a relegation may seem like a deal some folk would brag about... 'world's most expensive keeper etc', but the truth is, £20m in Jan could be a far better deal for the club, if it was all up front. Pickford for £20m in Jan could be worth £120m to you 5 months later. Deals can be structured using that £20m for way more than just £20m worth of players, it gives you the room you need to add salaries, add Kone for £15m to that and you can do a lot of business in 31 days. What would £40m get you in the summer? Nowt, it could be soaked up by the cost of relegation... and a pointless record. Obviously there's no guarantees in football whatever you choose to do, but don't be surprised to see interested clubs low-balling offers at you on the condition that it's 100% up front cash, they get a good value deal and you get some badly needed cash freed up to avoid FFP punishment.
If our injury situation stabilizes and we sell either Khazri, Rodders or maybe even Hoff, and use the money saved to fund a loan deal for a central defender, this might be just enough to give us a chance. We need to keep Kone and Pickford for this season at least, I would like to see us build on what we have rather than a forced sale of our better players,as this would be a huge gamble and not worth taking in our current situation imo. Alternatively going back a few months the suggestion of moving Rodders back into the central defence from mid-field was mooted and this could be a gamble worth taking, just as in the case of Denayer who to me looks a mid field player rather than a central defender, Rodders looks just the oppposite.
I wonder if the likes of PSG are still interested in Asoro and if so how much we'd get for him. Obviously I'd much rather keep him but if we got good money from some rich mugs and used it well then I could live with it.
I might be wrong but I don't think we'd be able to demand very much for him because he's a youth player. On the Echo website today, Moyes is getting all frothed up over Januzaj's one decent game for us: http://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport...-sunderland-but-misses-old-trafford-1-8295404 Personally, I think he's looked like he's Made of Stone, until the Watford game and if there was any way I'd rather we cancelled his loan and used what we save on bringing in a player in a position that we don't already have adequate cover in.
We shouldn't have to be looking at selling anyone mate, what's the point of the Academy if you are producing to sell? We were sold a donkey from day one with Short, Niall's brilliant acquisition to the board room wish was a basic sell on a golf course with plenty of pocket lining for them all, I think Quinn's idea was right but as a salesman like a manager he was **** and looking for the first taker. The fact that a Texan would have any interest at all in NE football was my first alarm raiser, he was in it to make money as desperate as Quinn was to get him here. I had the ****er sussed years ago as a few on here will acknowledge and it was said on match meet ups, the man is a ****ing snake that has shafted our club. In my opinion the FFP applies to income and outgoings and seeing as we are paying off hefty high interest loans our hands are tied and it is also in my opinion that these loans were set up by Short's many avenues in the failed banking world of companies he has purchased. Like I said, in my opinion..
It says to me then NO manager will ever get the chance because of no money so what is the future of our club, Ellis blew his chance like Murray, although at least Bob came out in times of strife, as he is from Sunderland and his era was a different situation to the £120 m or so a year each club is given. We would be better off going back to the old days when gate and cup money bought the players, no player is worth more than £10,000 a week as far as I am concerned, but your Chelsea's and Man u bowed to players demands( due to one-upmanship and ego's) and greed now is going to cost us all eventually. The question is why have we never spent big on one single player in our entire history when Man c/Man u supporters etc just take it for granted. It makes me laugh the Arsenal lot want Wenger out ! it must be terrible qualifying every season for the champions and going for the league title each season, I feel sorry for them hehe.
I suppose half the point of the academy is to make money from selling some of them off for good money, I don't want to sell anyone half decent especially given how thin the squad is I'm just scraping the barrel trying to think of anyone that we could sell to get someone in January that could fit straight into the first team and help keep us up, in theory.
The debts need to be paid off and we need to start making more profit from things other than TV revenue. Then things could be improved if the club was run properly.
We really are scraping the barrel mate and that's my point.. We should be in a position now after what, 10 years in the Premier League to be keeping our stars and selling our surplus. The fact we are having to do it sums up the **** we have had running the club, especially since the Hedge fund hog got into the act..
iirc some (not all) of the money he has put into the club has been converted to loans with one of his companies. The club is being charged 8% interest and is currently paying £6m per year. I think it`s a bit more than opinion mate.
Probably.. They locked a guy up today for 13 years, over a 100 years old he is, granted for being a kiddy fiddler and shame it wasn't years ago he was brought to justice.. The point is pops, keep it to yourself , you never know you know..
You guys are onto it Try polishing the chrome under extra-ordinary income for certain EPL clubs & you'll find some nickles
Not at all, at least he's got his 24/7 care now and if it goes tits up, someone for his family to sue.. I'm sure the legal suits will be watching this one and probably Ellis too if there's cash to be made..
Am I missing something here, Jordan Pickford is our most saleable asset, his wage isn't huge I presume, having come through the Academy ranks, so selling him isn't going to 'free up' a lot of leeway in the FFP scenario. Selling him for 20+ million (providing we actually got such an offer)would allow us to buy 2 possibly 3 replacements in the squad, but how do we do that when we can't afford to pay them outside this FFP thingy. I dont want the club to sell Jordan or Kone for that matter as I think providing we avoid any more serious injuries we have just enough to keep us up this season and think after a tough start Moyes is starting to win me over and he can make a silk purse out of our sows ear of a squad. Here's hoping.
If we sell Pickford and Kone, the Ellis Short book of FFP rules will change to the supporters, to suit the situation then. In my opinion of course..
