Sure, that may well be what we are pushing for, but NUFC will know, as we both know, that promotion is unlikely so they would probably get him back at the end of the season if they do a deal with us. There may be other takers who would be prepared to take him or have better promotion prospects.
There may well be a completely different explanation for this, but imagine if it's as is reported/it appears, and we're considering a deal that forces us to pay somewhere in the region of £5m for barely-a-footballer-going-on-recent-history Jamal Lewis at some point in the near future, whilst steadfastly refusing to pay the £2m that would be needed to secure a current proven performer in Callum Styles.
We won't pay £5m for Lewis unless we are guaranteed prem money. If that's the deal we won't sign him.
I know, that's why I said 'considering' and 'somewhere in the region' and caveated it with the first part and the 'near future' waffle.
Hope those deals are properly audited, would be outrageous if they spent, let's say, £16m on a mediocre left-back
I think any reference to £5m is a complete red herring from the Darlow confusion earlier in the thread.
Would suggest it's not far down the line though if we're even interested otherwise surely staying in the UK but would be a better idea. If his move is imminent why are Newcastle playing him
I'm totally bemused of the manner in which we are doing our business this summer, we either haven't got a pot to piss in or I'm starting to worry about our recruitment team. Seem to be making good progress on a lot of deals without ever closing.
Wonder if just leaking out because agents don't really want their clients coming to our mental case of a club and so want to attract any other interest?
TBF we have absolutely no idea what the recruitment team doing and who we are in for. All these twitter rumours are good fun to while away the summer weeks but are probably all nonsense.
Its probably a little bit of both. It does make you wonder though with how some of our potential transfers have progressed. Styles being a perfect example, its reported that we've agreed personal terms yet weeks later it seems we've given up. If we couldnt afford the 2 million upfront to activate his release clause then why were we targeting a player we couldnt afford to begin with or is it just a case of the club repeating it's old trick of trying to low ball the selling club to get the player because we seemingly cant help ourselves?
The new players look like they'll fit the system, and if we really have been looking to get in the likes of Styles, then I think it shows there is joined up thinking in terms of recruitment, but just that we don't have a pot to piss in
The 'agreed personal terms' thing seems to happen before nearly every transfer these days. Not sure what happened to the whole tapping up concept but no one seems to bat an eyelid anymore, where a decade or so ago clubs went batshit if there was even a hint another club had spoken to their player without permission.
Definitely seem to be nailing the style/suitability of the players - the issue is more as alluded to above, why target players if we seemingly can't afford them? The required financial package is known super early in negotiations, we seem to approach, agree terms, then walk away.
No idea, just absolutely bizarre he'd travel to the US with Newcastle with the deal supposedly in the place it was!
It’s because we don’t have a pot. Approach Newcastle goes okay about loan. They want £x million at end of Season. We say how about only on promotion? Newcastle say no and decide to wait for a team that has a viable future cash flow. Our finances are in the mud. We will either pay nothing because they are directing all resource to repair the problem or we are genuinely &&&&ed and won’t be able to pay the bills in a year if we don’t go up.
Debt free doesn’t mean you have pots of cash to spend. I suspect sarr is the big holding up point before we hit the trigger so to speak both wages and fee wise
It sounds to me the Pozzo have listened to customer / supporter feedback that we were better off before them, and go back to a hard working team than can get 50 points + a season, with very little player spend. This approach will enable us to balance the books, and preferable to 6 seasons in the PL, 2 promotions and 3 Wembley appearances. Hats off that Gino has finally got the message
I suspect it will be something like saying the (original) debts have gone, whilst neglecting to mention we've got new ones just a big as we've consolidated our loans into one. That or Gino has sunk so much in and we just break even that there's nothing to work with.
Going to be like some sports team from a 3rd world dictatorship, he'll do a runner at half time and claim asylum when found 3 weeks later!
