Dr Gloom

i don't see us selling isak and going into a CL season with strand larsen and osula - that's nowhere near enough depth for the amount of games.

so isak stays then? i'm not sure. i still think there's a chance he goes

who replaces wilson then?

if we sign strand larsen and wissa for a combined £130m then sell isak to liverpool for the same price, is that good business from a PSR perspective? I presume it is because there presumably a bigger lump sum up front for Isak. from a footballing perspective, we would be covered with two CFs with experience scoring goals in the PL, but it would feel a bit underwhelming still. We're probably better off overall as we have two good toptions and wilson looked finished. but feels a little underwheling as we will have replaced one brilliant striker, and one on his last legs, and with two good if unspectacular strikers. or maybe the plan really is to just sign one of wissa or strand larsen and hold on to isak. i still find it hard to see how that plays out. such a shame we couldn't get ekitike done. he would have been unreal for us. if liverpool do get isak their CF options are pure filth.

the club have tried to sign wilson's replacement all summer but we've gone after players that the legacy clubs all targeted and missed out because they all have bigger pull and can offer more wedge. i'm all for buying players with PL experience but you always pay a premium for them, especially in our current situation, and who knows what that means for our future dealings because of PSR? maybe the club have some massive commercial deals lined up to mitigate some of that - i hope so. but if they don't, we could end up exactly where we were last summer. i'm surprised we haven't explored the european market more. there is clearly better value there. maybe none that eddie fancies. or maybe we're not across it to the extent we should be because we're operating without a DoF

i'm not proposing anything. i'm speculating that there is better value to be found overseas, as other clubs in the PL have demonstrated this summer with their transfer business. vlahovic might be one of those options, he might not. but i'm not sure i'm taking your word for it either way, fabrizio

we're fucking desperate. wolves know it, brentford know it. liverpool know it. we are in panic buy territory. if strand larsen is the bloke eddie wants, fair fucks, but we are absolutely having our pants pulled down if we pay £70m for him. it's what liverpool paid for ekitike and i don't think strand larsen is in the same league. if money was no object i'd say pay the asking price but we all know how careful we have to be because of PSR. he could prove to be a very good player for us but lessons have to be learnt from this summer's window. haggling over price doesn't always get you the player you want for the price you want and might force you to end up overpaying if you leave it until too late in the window, which is exactly what looks like happening here. hopefully it doesn't lead to more PSR problems in the future. i hope the club does something on the commercial side to address that after what's happened this summer.

i didn't realise you had a direct line to his agent

there were stories floating around earlier in the summer that he would take a wage cut.

you could offer him a fat signing on fee and a lower wage than he's currently on so his wages don't break our structure and it's still probably coming in way less than what fulham and brentford are asking for their strikers. depends on how much the kid wants to play football in the PL.

not sure i've done that according to ben jacobs, vlahovic is available for 30m euros because juve want to get his wages off the books. that would be a punt for other reasons but he was talked about as one of europe's top young strikers a couple of seasons back and has a record of a goal every two games.

Isak is worth around the £150m we’re asking for because he’s had two PL seasons scoring over 20 goals. Is Strand Larsen worth £70m? He might prove to be but it’s a massive punt that only a desperate club would make. They literally just signed him for less than half that amount

exactly! This greedy cunt has got some gall thinking he can walk away with a loyalty bonus after downing tools

Seems unlikely the closer we get to Sep 1

We simply can’t let him go without getting two strikers of sufficient quality. Can all of this really happen with less than a week of the window to go?

We have to sign soneone but there is better value to be found elsewhere. Vlahovic is apparently available for €30m. PL clubs are taking the piss out of us with their valuations. European clubs are more likely to fold if we go in with an offer of about half what the PL clubs are asking because they need the cash more

we’re having our pants pulled down if we pay that. Get Vlahovic in for €30m

Were there any anti-Isak chants in the ground last night? I watched in the boozer and couldn’t really hear

Put it a transfer request then you greedy bastard!

and hopefully he's given the responsibility to do his job without everything having to go through saudi! we need to move more quickly and not be so reactive

it was the chairman himself who said he wanted us to be number one but unless those things change we aren't going to compete for the league title any time soon.

no, i don't think so. i just don't think we're pif's biggest priority - and never have been. i hope that our saudi overlords have learnt from this summer. mistakes have been made. there is an obvious need for a proper structure above the manager so everything isn't left to howe and his nephew. whatever structure they implement has to be nimble. it's been far too cumbersome and slow and decision-making has to be moved from saudi to newcastle. they need to appoint someone they trust to make decisions more quickly. and they need to find a way to grow commercial revenues. whether that's through chelsea-style creative accounting, pushing the boundaries of ps or not, i don't know. it might be through more aggressive moves for sponsorship deals - training ground sponsor, training kit sponsor, stadium sponsor, fucking man u-style tractor sponsors etc - or appointing a new commercial director capable of making it happen - get it done.

we deserved all three points. I’m still raging about it. fucking football. Another nine months of 11 overpaid men dictating my mood at the start of the week. It really shouldn’t still bother me at this ripe old age but it does.

He’ll miss so many crucial CL fixtures. We need a new midfielder if true