Ha ha, aye I noticed that as well, absolute quality. I expect that sort of **** from Big Joe but not Wor Alex like.
Haaland signs 500k a week deal for 9.5 years. And Isak is a better player. We won’t be able to offer Isak anywhere near that kind of contract. Possibly half if we need to in 2/3 years time.
Yep, it will happen one day. But the big plus this time is that (if we play our cards right) we could buy a whole new squad from the proceeds. Get an official release clause of oat least £150m on him now and sort out a better / extended contract asap.
Realistically, who can afford him? Arsenal can't, man u would struggle, city probably but they've got Haaland, Liverpool is doubtful, Chelsea would easily find a way, but there squad is so big, Barca havent got a pot to piss in and Madrid dont need him.
I think (hope) we are fine for now, especially if we can continue to compete domestically and potentially get back into European competitions. But in say 2-3 years, who knows who might come sniffing with big offers. The salaries some players are on at other clubs are just obscene. So he could be easily tempted in that sense
This is a good point. We could be in a situation in 2 years where he doesn’t sign a contract extension and we want to sell him to get them proceeds but can’t. Madrid maybe could. Bayern possibly.
It’s also suggests to me that Man City are in the clear on the legal case with the PL. They wouldn’t commit that kind of contract if they where worried about being hit with points deductions or relegations.
Yeah and they are about to sign 3 new players. That's big for a January transfer window. I bet they held back in the summer to see how things were looking with the court case and have now gone "Right then, here go!".
Things can change pretty fast. Liverpool for example, if Salah goes in the Summer then that's a big hole to fill on the pitch but also plenty on the wage bill so they could afford him and use him. Most of the biggest teams could move things around to accommodate a player like Isak, we just need to make sure the fees involved are enough to deter them or compensate ourselves adequately.
Kelly - £150k Trippier - £120k Targett - £100k Wilson - £80k Theres £450k saved off the current wage bill (on top of his £120k) - get him signed up on a 9.5 year deal! between them they've managed 853 mins this season - not even 10 games between them.
Then the other players start knocking on doors saying I want something similar I'm important to the team also.
Not going to happen at City though is it, so we don't have to let it happen here. I don't think anyone should earn 500k a week to play football anyway but I was just showing we've got room to spare once we get rid of the dead wood to increase wages - give Isak, Tonali, Bruno and Botman an extra 100k each and get that spine tied down and you've got 50k to spare.
At City the players are probably all already on wages far higher than our highest... most of their key players for sure... just a guess tbh. They're getting more money and almost guaranteed success. It is impossible for Newcastle to match the wages of the clubs making much higher revenues and the new psr rules surrounding squad cost ratios will make that even worse.
The difficulty will be in offloading them. Aside from Wilson, whose contract expires in June. Tripps & Targett both have another year and I can't see too many offers coming in for them. Kelly has another 5 years. Hopefully Jose bids a bit more for him and we accept.
Just need to be smart about it, of course we can't offer City type wages but if we turn around and offer all of those above an extra £100k p/w then I'd bet 2/3 of them sign those deals and the others would be sold for over £100million currently so we'd have money and wages to spare to spend on their replacement. The 4 leaving above still leaves 50k left over and that would still be with players like Ruddy, Gillespie, Lascelles, Krafth, Lewis, Hayden, Almiron, Oddyseas and to a lesser extent Longstaff, Barnes etc who can all be used to clear more wages for first team players and none of whom start regularly in the first team anyway. Think we will see a lot of the squad filler pushed out the door in the next 18-24 months as contracts finish and young, upcoming players coming in to replace them behind a star studded 11-16 man squad
You then have the squad is too small argument and not being able to rotate players issue. You then sign the next Murphinho to upgrade the first team who not too surprisingly wants something close to Isak’s wage and we can’t afford him. Totally agree that these wages are obscene. Not sure how City can afford that commitment especially with the “new” PSR rules coming in tying salaries to percentage of turnover and how the other players in the team may feel. Yes he may be one of their top players but he must now be being paid way more than any of the others. I do wonder, for example, what Rodri gets paid and what he’s now thinking.
