David Kelly

If we weren't failing to sign the outfield players there wouldn't be much anger.

I do think Dubravka wants to be away, which is very understandable as he'll be wanting to play in the world cup. Clearly Howe has no interest in playing the Greek and we are just hoping to offload him. Ruddy is only there to be a third choice desperate situation and training keeper, and Gillespie is only there to be a training keeper. So it does make sense to either be looking for someone who can improve on Pope or who can replace Dubravka as backup. Ramsdale isn't better than Pope for me, and in the last year or more he has actually looked a pretty dodgy keeper. I'm not massively against signing him, Howe must have confidence in him from their previous time together but he would be an uninspiring signing I think we can all agree. He doesn't improve us but would maybe keep us as we have been. But no one would be kicking up about it if we hadn't been making glacial progress in the last two years whenever we have tried to sign anyone. I appreciate the different position we are in now with PSR compared to when Staveley was in running things but the fact is we have been unable to make most if not all of the signings we really wanted to make since we signed Tonali (or certainly since that summer). So there is an understandable lack of confidence that we can do multiple deals in time for the end of the transfer window (never mind the start of the season). You could genuinely see a scenario where we do sign Ramsdale and no one else by the end of the window. And whether Isak stays or not (most likely not) that would be a fucking disaster. So I think it's understandable that people want to see movement on other areas first.

I'm not at all convinced we have the manpower to be simultaneously involved in two negotiations at this point and if we have, we could still be better using that manpower than on a keeper who's not better than Pope. We have centrebacks who are either aging or struggling for fitness, a massive drop off in quality in midfield if any of the main three don't play and no strikers to speak of. Even if we have someone in talks with Sesko (which I have doubts about) we should be putting more energy into those positions than fucking about for a keeper that's not very good and we wouldn't have needed to look at if we hadn't fucked about for 12 months over Trafford.

Think the bigger concern is that we are short in many other positions, with striker obviously being of particular concern, and we're putting our seemingly very limited resources into something that doesn't much improve the squad let alone the first team. We need action on much more important areas.

Based on what we're seeing from the club it wouldn't be surprising. If some podcasters know but none of the press that cover us know that would be a surprise.

FYP

There is a question mark about how much he really wants to move given how late in the window it is that this request has come out. Surely the better move for him was to tell us straight away before before Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea all signed new forwards so there was more options for him and we had a more realistic opportunity to replace him. Leaving it this late in the window suggests that something hasn't happened that he expected (new contract or new players) and he's pissed off that or that he's doing this to push us into action on those fronts. For us it's hopefully the latter but more likely to be the former.

I agree, we are still in a strong position and we can say no you have a contract and we don't want or need to accept any bid for you and you just have to deal with it. I doubt he would refuse to play, certainly not for very long, as it would ultimately harm him. But you would have a player who is less likely to perform anywhere near his best. It may be that a new contract and some signings can placate him, at least to an extent, we don't know that at this stage. I'd be disappointed, particularly to sell him to them cunts, but still positive enough if I had any faith in us signing someone remotely at his level to replace him (Sesko and Wisa as backup for example). I think given our current management issues, it will be far more likely that we end up with no one/DCL as his replacement if he is sold and that is the biggest concern. On that basis I think we have to keep him and just deal with the likelihood that we'll have a player who isn't as motivated as he previously was. That would still be preferable to having Osula or someone like DCL as our starting striker going into the champions league.

I'm pretty sure we voted for FFP the same as the rest of them. We have always been a club who is better supported than most so has a better possibility of being able to challenge the status quo than the likes of Fulham or Bournemouth but we (admittedly under Ashley) seen a financial benefit to bring these rules in (probably the safety net that made relegation less likely and promotion more likely if we did go down). So it's to be expected that everyone except us, Villa, Forrest and possibly Everton going forward, don't really see any benefits in changing the rules.

I would say generally high performers in 'normal jobs' do leave jobs the really like for others with better money. That's how they push themselves to do bigger and better things and end up being high earners. Others are quite happy earning what they earn and having an easier life. We are wanting to have players who will push us on to performing better as a team and those sorts of players are going to want to keep pushing and being correctly compensated for that. If we won't or can't compensate them appropriately and can't provide them with the tools to keep progressing, when those were the very methods we used to sign them in first place, we can't expect them to want to stay. With Shearer we had the fact that he supported us to compensate for the fact that we didn't always move forward when he was here to go with the ability to pay him what he wanted. That's not going to be the case with foreign players (or even every local player).

Don't see how it could be a good time to sell at all. We clearly aren't prepared to be able to react quickly enough in the time we have to do what we need to do to take any sort of advantage of it. I'd be amazed from where we are currently, if we don't go into this new season with a big cloud hanging over the club.

I've avoided reading any comments on twitter or looking in the 'For You' section since the news broke for this very reason. It's absolutely unbearable as a medium at times like this (and a lot of the rest of the time).

https://x.com/henrywinter/status/1948689619286884727#:~:text=Henry Winter,future %23NUFC Very good points.

Yeah he picks up bits and pieces I agree with that but he compares favourably to most of our team. There's only really Bruno, Burn and Schar who have played more than in the last two seasons at least. He's probably had to play when not fully fit more than he'd have wanted to and we'd have liked if Wilson's form and fitness had allowed.

I'm not sure where this injury prone image has come from. In the last 6 seasons he has only played less than 40 games once. I'd be very happy if all of our players were that injury prone.

I'm shocked anyone can see any positives in all of this. If we were a club that was being run at all (which it seems we are not at the moment beyond what Howe can try and keep together) I would agree that we always knew there would likely come a time where we would need to sell a top player to release the financial headroom to add a number of other top players to the squad. The problem is now, we are a rudderless ship so how can we have any confidence that if we sold Isak for £150m+, we would then see two new quality strikers, a midfielder, a central defender and a keeper come in who could all positively impact the team next season? How can we have any confidence that the powers that aren't there can convince Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, Tino etc that we are still a project moving forward and that we can match their sporting and financial ambitions? I had every faith that we would make signings this summer to improve the squad but lets face the fact that this summer has pretty much been an absolute clusterfuck and the five weeks or so that remain of the transfer window look like they may as well be five minutes at this point. The most likely scenario now is one way or another we will be in a weaker position at the start of this season than we were at the start of last. We will either have an unhappy, unmotivated striker or a new one who is not as good. I have no expectation that we can even replace the other positions that we have lost players in since the start of last season let alone improve on them.

Jesus wept. I mean it's a thankless job running the clubs social media this summer but they really don't help themselves.

I don't think any of us thought that we'd get Isak staying for the rest of his career, but for this to happen a good way into a transfer window that has been a long way from being a success so far, has seen us without any upper management and has seen most possible replacements already move, is a massive kick in the cunt.

Aye I bet Elanga is delighted about how he's going to play with his international colleague..

Not from what I've seen of him. Doesn't look in the same league.

100% tell him he can explore a move to Saudi.

Hope now tweeting that Isak has told club he wants to explore move away.

We started looking like a well run club and that seems to have completely gone out of the window now and shit like this shows a definite lack of thought as to how everything we are doing looks. First we release the squad list for the tour which everyone can immediately see doesn't include Isak but no mention is made of it. Then we release a second, piss weak, statement that he is staying behind to work on an injury and then a couple of hours later we release the news of signing a kid for the reserves. Anyone in the right mind would know what the Isak news would bring with it so why wouldn't you announce this signing before that. This absolutely looks like a piss take now.

Unfortunately we appear to very much asleep at the wheel at the moment in terms of the management of the club. Anything other than selling Adidas replica products and we're not interested. Signings, contracts, stadiums, training grounds and sponsorships seem to be very much on the back burner. At the womens team seem to be giving it a go. They might get promoted so we can maybe sell them to ourselves in a few years time when we get round to it.

If this is as bad as it looks, you have to worry about Howe's position as well. His demands for early business haven't been met (whether that's through lack of effort, mismanagement or things outside our control) and we're currently going into the season without a fit striker (at best). He can't be expected to work miracles with a squad that's weaker than the one we started last season with and has the extra workload of european football.