Gemmill

Luckily Edmund Hercules Howe is the ultimate article finisher.

I think the old bloke in his trunks in the background of Hope's video thinks he's perving with his selfie stick.

The straight dope from Craig Hope.

I appreciate the advice from a level-headed zen master like you who as recently as yesterday wished death on the player.

We should get aggressive and say we acknowledge the player's position and await a formal bid from his stated preferred destination. If this is not received by next Friday, the player can leave next summer as it doesn't leave us enough time to find a replacement.

All of which is basically "crickets". Actually it's not quite crickets cos the major piece of news the day after the player announces he wants to leave is the confirmation that we've just missed out on the keeper we've been targeting for the last 18 months. I don't know what the club should be doing, but the day after its most valuable asset has announced his desire to leave, I'm not sure "just keep shtum lads" is the appropriate response. Eales probably thinks it's Howe's job.

I wonder what's actually going on now in terms of him leaving. Are we now just in a situation where the player has said he wants to leave followed by the sound of crickets?

Ok well scratch the injury prone bit (although there's definitely something up with his groin and I'm sure he's had recurrent thigh problems too). I still think having two capable forwards would be better than our setup for the last couple of seasons. Although I'm definitely trying to look on the bright side cos he's either gonna leave this summer or he's gonna stay in a huff cos no one met our valuation.

If Sesko doesn't work up front, Howe would just him into the next Joelinton. Maybe even the next Ederson.

I'm pretty confident that if we sell him in good time, we'll replace him. I think we'd be looking for a new manager if we sold him and didn't replace him.

Aye I'd agree with a lot of this. I particular that simply having two capable forwards in place of one that's class but injury prone, and one that is totally buckled, is already an improvement. Plus money left over from the dealwhen we already had cash to spend. It could genuinely be transformative, but it needs to happen quick or it's another window blown.

You don't know he hasn't done that though - recognise the mentorship. He might have been absolutely class with Howe, and just said look I'm nearly 26, I cannot stay here until this club makes the strides that we all want it to make. Of course there's some blame on PSR, and I think in general it's good that we've been sensible, but the more that goes on the less I rate the job that they're doing. In particular the state of this fucking transfer window. This is another transfer window that has been completely fucked up. When Mitchell went, why the fuck did we not appoint someone on a consultancy basis to run the window for us. There must be capable people with contacts in the induatry that can do a better job of this than the manager and a couple of scouts. Instead we've just shrugged our shoulders and turned again to Howe, a bloke just coming off a brush with pneumonia. Eales has presided over this. And I know he's not well, but if he's not well enough to do the job then he should have been moved on quicker. It doesn't take this long to even IDENTIFY your replacement ffs. I'm not talking about getting them in post, I'm talking about knowing who your preferred candidate is and making them an offer. We're 10 months into that process ffs.

Yup. They're class lads that we've got in this squad, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that some of the better ones don't have ambitions that extend beyond NUFC in its current form. It's the responsibility of the club to deliver on the story we spun them.

I don't really have a problem with it other than the timing. And if he's being difficult behind the scenes and refusing to go to Singapore etc but that's not the line that's being taken at least. It's naive to think that a lad from Sweden with no links to the club should owe the club anything really. It's a shame he's on a different trajectory to us, but I put the blame for that on our execs and Chairman.

All of this just to stop Renton's kids btw.

A VPN will resolve this, I assume.

The Mancunian Journos will be all over it.

Has anyone seen HMHM this week btw? He's been strangely absent.

The Geordie Journos (look away now Wykiki) were making this point yesterday, that instead of focusing on a lot of the sponsorship deals that they've yet to touch, they haven't missed a beat when taking more money off the fans.

https://archive.ph/HiiJQ Some reaction from the rest of the squad. Specifically Burn and Bruno.

That is fucking class. Finally someone fact checking this cunt in real time.

UNSUBSCRIBE.

I like how Hope is suddenly the golden source btw. He's usually ANOTHER one that you're slagging off. And Edwards. And Caulkin.

Like it's such an outlandish claim. I'd be amazed if senior players HADN'T done that after two windows with no first team players signed. Hope has talked about it before btw. He's talked about Howe having to speak to players with questions about the club's trajectory/ambition.