Polarboy

Havertz might prove me wrong if Arteta is going to use him more in midfield, as opposed to an out and out striker like at Chelsea, but that's a hell of a lot of money for him considering his goal involvement record since coming to the PL.

Liverpool are supposedly getting closer to sorting a deal for Thuram. Will they be less likely to go after Szoboszlai if they spend another 30, 40m on another midfielder? I know their midfield was a problem area, but surely they have other concerns for their squad, and they do have young players like Bajcetic, Jones and Elliot coming through.

It should be easy to explain the point I'm missing then.

Most likely nothing in it, but I've seen Mohammed Kudus' name mentioned for us. Brighton are supposed to be in talks for him, but if we moved we could put a very tempting offer on the table for him. 40m is the price apparently so probably doable for us. He's the right profile, as in a versatile attacker, given he's an attacking mid who can also play out wide and as a forward.

I'm sure she did get actual racist abuse in the wake of her comments which is obviously unacceptable, but I think you're on shaky ground attributing racism and sexism to individuals like Huckerby and Kenny merely because they both criticised her, if indeed that's what you are implying. Of course if they both only ever criticise female and or non-white pundits that's obviously more than a little fishy, but I haven't seen any evidence of that. It's also likely the case that male footballers would be less likely to take the piss out of another male footballer, ex or otherwise, because they might be friendly, or the friend of a friend, as opposed to any racist or sexist thoughts going through their heads.

I'm not sure Merson is the best comparison given he gets dogs abuse and called a coke head, gambling addict every time he says something stupid, or maybe that's just me who says that 🤷‍♂️

40m? Either Maddison really didn't want to move to the North East, or perhaps more accurately his missus didn't, or we genuinely just moved on to a different target. I suppose there is a third option of his wage demands potentially blowing up our structure. Edit. It does say add ons though, so perhaps the add ons wanted by Leicester take it above what we valued him at.

Given that we were linked with Matheus Franca again the other day, I wouldn't be surprised if we went for someone like that, as in less established but talented with a high ceiling, instead of paying between 50 and 70m for someone like Szoboszlai. The only thing that goes against it is that Howe talked about getting in at least two elite additions, and someone like Franca, coming from Brazil, would likely take time to settle, and maybe even need to be loaned out.

Yeah you would hope that would be one advantage and that we've turned his head. It's a tough position for Leipzig to be in. They look like they're going to lose pretty much all their top players apart from Olmo and a few others. The story in the German press could just be Leipzig using a bit of gamesmanship letting it be known that they'll be tough negotiators.

Downie saying we'll look to Szoboszlai. Whether he's gotten that knowledge first hand or is just guessing based on the sustained rumours who knows. I wouldn't be surprised if we get someone other than Szoboszlai largely out of the blue like Tonali.

Mark Douglas was saying that we're working on a mystery midfielder alongside Livramento at present. Whether that's Szoboszlai or someone else is unclear. The thing about Szoboszlai is that it's likely the case you'd have to engage in a bit of gamesmenship in order to get a decent price. So it's something that could drag on until near the end of the window. I know there's a release clause running out at the end of this month but it's actually fairly irrelevant. It would only be relevant if it was under his market value like Kim Min-jae's was.

If you think about a Livramento deal, assuming the fee is around 15m that's only 3m per year of the contract if I'm understanding this FFP craic. Although his contract might end up longer than that, not that it matters as people have said FFP only takes up to five years of a contract into consideration. And I can't imagine Livramento will be on ridiculous wages either. Very good bit of business potentially.

As people have said it does seem odd that we'd put 15 to 20m of our supposedly limited budget on a back up to Trippier. I'll be more than happy if we do sign Livramento though of course. He's an extremely promising player.

According to a Brazilian journalist we're back in for that young attacking midfielder Matheus Franca. https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2023/06/26/newcastle-set-to-launch-e22-5m-bid-for-brazilian-attacker-report/

What do you think he gets up to with these?

😂 There are I'm sure many thousands of Kevin McLaughlin's in this world. It's a comforting thought.

Just read that Robinson is actually in the top 20% in Europe for his position for successful take ons and progressive carries up the pitch per 90. So while he may not consistently make the final pass before a goal, he's still heavily involved in getting the ball into an area when other players can make that pass.

Evening Standard saying we're after Robinson the LB off Fulham. It's a few days old story at this stage. If 35m is the price I wouldn't that keen, especially seeing as he's in the final year of his contract. There's surely LB's who offer more going forward for the same price. https://www.footballfancast.com/newcastle-premier-league-antonee-robinson-transfer-news-updates/