TheFish

I remember when we were told we couldn't afford to sign Hamza Choudury on loan from you. Now there's a much better class of player we're told we can't afford to sign. Jokes aside, I like Longstaff, he's a decent PL midfielder, he works hard, pops up with goals, is an intelligent footballer, has good technique and all that good stuff. Unfortunately, his sale would represent a huge windfall in PSR terms. €25m of pure profit. I'd rather keep the local lad, but rules being what they are, the "Richest club in the world" is forced to sell, yet again.

Geordie back and not on the wind up or anything. From a Newcastle POV, I think we were clearly up for it after the humbling at Brentford and (Botman and Pope aside), we're starting to see a settled first choice team. Gordon, Bruno and Isak all played like they had something to prove, and frankly they did. Gone missing in a few games against sides outside the title challengers. Bruno was a lucky boy, another day, another referee and he could get a yellow for that dive. However if he does get that yellow, I don't think he makes that yellow card tackle immediately afterwards. Definitely think you've got enough to survive, Southampton and Wolves are both a mess and while Ipswich are game they ultimately haven't the quality that you and Everton do. So hopefully see you up here again in 25/26. Hope all that made the trip had a good day out regardless. P.S. Would you like to buy Longstaff for £30-40m?

Harvey Lewis Barnes is an odd one. Clearly, clearly a brilliant finisher and has been unreal when introduced from the bench. But whenever he starts a game, he simply cannot impose himself on it. He's got the pace, the intelligence and his finishing is some of the best I've seen. He's had opportunities to impress, but hasn't done enough to hold down that starting position ahead of Joelinton or Willock. I'd be open to selling him, IF we can get roughly what we paid for him (£30-40m). But I doubt he'll attract that kind of money now. No point in loaning him out unless they'll pay his wages + a fee (which is unlikely). Best thing for us is keep him, use him as an impact sub, and just tell the Premier League to shove the PSR rules up their arse.

Geordie here and not on the wind up or anything. We're such a weird side this season. Beating the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, but can't put away teams that are struggling like Palace or West Ham. We're definitely much, much stronger at home, but we're not in good form with just 2 wins from 11 in the League. Hugely frustrating that Wilson has picked up yet another injury, because if he was able to stay fit, he's a 1 in 2 striker. And his availability to relieve some pressure on Isak's body, at the same time as putting the pressure on him to stay sharp. Feel for Howe, as I think the PSR rules have stalled the incredible progress we were making. Having to sell the likes of Anderson and Minteh purely to show we're not broke, despite having the richest owners in world football bankrolling us (with blood money, but that's another argument). It's a mess of a system when Manchester United can drop €650m on mostly shit players, for a manager they don't even particularly want, while €0.92bn in debt. But ambitious clubs like Aston Villa, Newcastle, Brighton, Brentford have to sell their assets to satisfy the appearance of sustainability. Any way, back to shit you actually could care about; Pubs and food advice. For anyone coming up for the game there's 100+ pubs in walking/staggering distance from the stadium. None of them is what you'd call an 'away' pub. You'll be welcome in any pub as long as you don't act the idiot. Bridge Tavern is good for food and the terrace if you fancy braving the winter chill etc. The Forth is a personal favourite, decent selection of beers, good crowd, really close to the ground. Get out to the Ouseburn area and you'll find some good bars/pubs, Tyne Bar chief among them (great view of the quayside and bridges up the Tyne). The Wylam Brewery in Exhibition park is a massive taproom in a Grade II listed building constructed to exhibit art back in the 1920s. Tilleys is a bit less refined than the Forth, but it's got the sport on, and a good selection of beers too. If you're getting the train up there's a stack of good pubs between you and the ground, if you're staying over there's loads of good options for food and drink, if you're driving up I'd recommend parking at the Metrocentre just off the A1; free, CCTV-ed car park, plenty of the food options that you'd expect from a shopping centre, and then a quick train/bus over the river into Newcastle proper. Happy to suggest some pubs, restaurants or "stuff to see to cure the hangover". Hope all who manage to get up have a good time, regardless of the result.

We sold Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Townsend, Janmaat, Cabella and Cisse for about £100m when we went down, losing in transfers or loans about 20 players from our squad. Spent about £60m on some players, + a couple of loans. We came back up as Champions and finished 10th in the top flight the following year. You'd have had to have been circling the drain in the top flight for ages to have a squad incapable of doing well in the Championship. I'd be staggered if you didn't come straight back up. Maybe as champions, maybe not, but you will be back in 24/25, I'm convinced of it.

There's the rub, most of our fans are like me. Unfortunately, like I said, people seem to think social media is a true reflection of the fanbase. It really isn't, most of the East Stand are old men who think anything developed after colour television is new-fangled nonsense. Doesn't help when the daft lads who listen to talksport, hear the even dafter lads who pay the premium rate to make ridiculous claims. Yeah, it's kind of the price we have to pay. Wish more of the loud Newcastle voices would stop hearing criticisms of the owners as criticisms of the club. I wish they'd not fall into the traps of opposition fans and engage in spurious whataboutery or whatever. I know I've been guilty of it, despite being aware of the distinction.

Man Utd just paid a fine for breaking FFP despite a ridiculous commercial income. So far, we've kept within those restrictions. Like I said above, unfortunately owners have used their clubs to trade players between themselves for a while now. So if a KSA owned Saudi club bought ASM it will have the stink of that. Regardless of whomever else those state owned clubs buy, any transfer involving Newcastle will be painted as some sort of insider trading. It's not something that seems to bother UEFA and FIFA or the various league associations, but it's valid criticism, in my opinion. I think your wrong about the proportion of Newcastle fans who've fully bought into the Saudi ownership. The percentage who wore tea towels is tiny, the number online with Saudi flags in their bios are small in number, but loud as hell. Majority of the fans I've spoken to don't like the fact we're owner by despots, some don't care, some think they've 'saved the club'. Ironically, we're not all united. Hope you haven't mistaken anything I've said for defending the Saudi regime or the amoral stance the PL, FA and Government took in permitting the takeover. I'm going to ignore the little digs at the club I support, if that's all right?

My tongue was firmly in cheek. You're right, no ownership should be able to trade players between their clubs, unfortunately it's a well trodden path.

Can't win, do what Man Utd and the others have done and we'd be shot with shit, don't break FFP and we're criticised as well.

The real truth on 'Newcastle United offer club record £82m for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia' - NUFC The Mag

What's the source for that? I've only seen media outlets quoting other media outlets quoting some random Saudi website called WinWinAllSports. Nothing remotely credible.

Our budget is tighter than people expect, not necessarily because of fees (we can amortise them over 5yr deals), it's the wages that are posing the problem. For example, that link to Kvaratskhelia is nonsense. Not only would that equate to about £16m a season for a 5yr deal, he'd be demanding huge wages, comfortably over £150k a week and we don't have the room in the budget to accommodate that. Not without getting rid of a few players who're on good wages already. And we don't have that many players who are already on big deals. ASM 'only' earns about £70k, and our other saleable assets are closer to £40k pw. Barnes for £40-45m plus decent wage vs Kvaratskhelia for £82m + big wage? No brainer for me.

You shouldn't be buying potential at 25. Cool. Of course these transfers are purely because of the new owners. Ashley wouldn't stump up £500k to loan Hamza Choudhury.

🤔 Rumour review | NUFC Transfer Links | Wingers & Forwards - June 2023 (substack.com)

Like I said, Barnes is a genuine goal threat, plays line breaking passes and is an intelligent footballer. Gordon can play anywhere across the front.

We were paying for potential and for the qualities reflected in his performance metrics. It's too early to call him a flop, until he flops I'm happy with the deal.

No, unfortunately you can't see the percentiles you have to use the players, but there's loads of people on twitter who've scraped the data and punched it in data vis. You might get what you're looking for there?

£45m for a highly rated young English player who just collected player of the tournament in the U21s Euro winning campaign. Gordon slots in perfectly with how Eddie wants us to play; high pressing, good finisher, creative etc. I thought it was pricey, but then I've watched him play. It could turn out a very fair price. Edit - also at the time we were taking a double figure scoring striker off a direct rival in our survival bid.

That tax doesn't seem to be happening a lot. We don't engage in bidding wars, we walk away from deals when the selling club values their player more than we do. Even with Chris Wood, who everyone thought we overpaid for, we got £20m of the £25m back.

fbref does have it. It's in the complete scouting report; Harvey Barnes Scouting Report for Last 365 Days Men's Big 5 Leagues, UCL, UEL | FBref.com

Wait you're talking £40m + add ons? I thought it was £40m total. We bought Bruno for less than that. Botman too. I'm not being arrogant when I say they're better than Barnes is.

Just using them in line with the quoted figures in the press e.g. Press is saying around £35m, on here you're mostly talking about c£40m, right? Barnes is valued £32m, so not a million miles off.

Barnes puts chances on a plate and has played alongside better finishers than ASM has for the majority of his PL career. Where Barnes had Maddison and Vardy et al, ASM has had Shelvey and Joelinton. Most of ASM's chances have fallen to poor finishers, or himself (equally poor).

Can you maybe clear something up? I'm being accused of being arrogant, right? I'm not wholly sure why? The reported fees for Barnes are around what I suggested, and align with Transfermarkt's valuation too. So, if we can use Transfermarkt as a very rough guide, then ASM is around the same valuation. I don't think anything there is arrogant. Now, if I'd said Barnes wasn't good enough for us, or that ASM was worth Maddison numbers, then, sure, call me arrogant.

No, I'm a fish.