Gemmill

The scousers are watching and drinking your tears.

Exactly. We'll have no more of this "ugh I can't face the season" talk either. There'll be scouse cunts looking in here to see what the reaction is. Fuck them, fuck all their mates in the media and absolutely fuck their club. If this Swedish meff wants to turn out for these, on you fucking go son, but at a price of OUR choosing.

No matter how much the press want to make you believe that Isak is now in Liverpool's tractor beam, and resistance is futile, that's bollocks. Given where they've started their bidding, there's a decent enough chance we keep the player for another season. We knew this was coming. I honestly thought they'd come with better than they have.

Anyway lads, what will be will be. But it doesn't look like we've got any appetite to let them take the piss, which is at least something.

I thought Liverpool were respectfully waiting until invited to make a bid because they didn't want to be making speculative offers. According to the lying cunts in the media anyway.

GEORDIE JOURNOS ASSEMBLE! "HOWAY!"

Well aye, obviously I'd rather have Isak, but I'm talking about if he goes. Whoever comes in, we're taking a backwards step player for player. We can end up stronger as a squad but our starting 11 is weakened.

Watkins still looked quality to me last season.

Hope's version. I'd be happy to see Watkins here. Be odd for Villa to sell to us though.

So their "informal enquiry" was supposedly £120m and their official bid was £100m. Even fucking Isak should see that they're taking the piss here.

I've said from before the season ended, that for free and on wages that reflect his injury record, he's a practically zero risk addition to the squad. But that was before Isakgate and everyone assuming that that means you think he's a replacement for Isak.

Hope has confirmed it too.

There's nowt to dislike about him when you hear him in interview.

https://archive.ph/HjnAO New interview.

Only if we're happy to accept points deductions. That's the short term fix discussion though.

DCL for free, and on sensible wages that recognise his injury record and status as second string, would be fine as a backup. If it's true he's demanding £150k a week, he's an idiot. He's not a lad that's refused to extend contracts and gone on a free as some sort of hot property. He's free cos even Everton didn't want him. That's not the sort of free transfer where you name your price on wages.

There's been no lack of effort to strengthen this summer though. You (and DK) said that the PSR rules will stop us getting there in the long run, and that's what I was contradicting. If there is will from the ownership, and if they install the correct people at the club, we can absolutely bridge the gap given time. We do need to see some of the above from the ownership though, I agree. It'll be them, rather than the rules, to blame if we can't even get there in the long run.

This isn't true. We can match their revenues in the long term if the will is there from the owners. But yeah there's gonna be a lot to be said for trying to accept our situation and enjoy the journey, because otherwise we're gonna he spending the next 10 years moaning about how unfair it is.

I mean there's literally nothing that can stop us doing it over an extended period of time. The rules curtail teams from making massive progression in a short period of time, but not over the longer term.

That's not a PSR issue though, it's a relative success problem. They've won everything in the last 30 years, we've won one thing in the last 55. It's all very well us going "yeah but no CL and they finished in the bottom half last season", but we were getting relegated on the semi-reg not that long ago. It's gonna take AGES to flip that script.

There's space for everyone on here man. No one needs to leave unless they really want to. We just need the season to start and the frustration of this window to fuck off.

We can get there but it's gonna take a long time and it's gonna require patience. Ideally we continue to pick up the odd Carabao or FA Cup along the way. They can't stop us getting there, but they can stop us getting there quickly. But the problem of them beating us to our targets will likely still happen even when we can match them for wages. Until we can prove that we can regularly beat them to league titles etc. Which at the minute feels daft to even talk about, but 5 or 10 years from now, if somebody starts running the club properly, it's doable.

That's definitely the best approach to minimise our chance of signing the player.

I think the reality is that we will always be second choice when one of these "legacy clubs", as Simon Jordan calls them, comes in. You're right that it flushes them out, but we'll just be made to wait with a bid accepted while the player hopes and prays Man United can match our bid. I don't know why we would do that (as much as I would like this to be over by us pricing them out of the race). There's no great urgency to bid now, cos we've got Isak.

If we think Man United need to sell before they can buy, but that the player would prefer to go to Man United, then that's why we aren't making a bid. Cos he's not gonna come here until they rule themselves out, and we risk looking like cunts again if we show our hand now. So I think we're waiting to see how that plays out. Cos the same goes for Man United. If they've got the money now and the player has said he wants to go there, why haven't they put a bid in. I suspect it's because they haven't got the money now. If they can't get the money, then at some point they'll have to walk away. At which point we can put a bid in with some certainty of getting the player.