MrBlack

Anyone know anywhere that will confirm whether Diaby is at training today? Are they streaming it on YouTube again?

I agree FFP isn't fair, but it does limit what they can do slightly. A free for all leaves Newcastle and Man City walking away with everything.

I think these season tickets (as you rightly point out) don't entitle them to many of the same benefits of a season ticket holder (like access to away tickets). It also doesn't guarantee them the same seat next season. Its like a season ticket light, a different offering If you will. I think that they did withdraw some "season ticket non-renewals" from normal resale, so guess they are taking the place of some Waiting list people that otherwise would have been offered one of those seats. It's bad but it's not horrific I don't think.

Just a feeling. Like the Pau news that floated around before the signing, there feels like there is genuine truth behind our interest in him and his in us. Which just means it's about agreeing with Leverkusen (in my opinion).

We are the Villans of course.

Yeah, I think Diaby is ours of we will pay what Leverkusen want (I'm not sure Saudi bidding whether real or not impacts this as he wants to come to us seemingly). More generally speaking I'm concerned with how they're acting and how much they're willing to pay the likes of Henderson. It doesn't strike me as though they just want to have a decent league for their country to watch and be proud of.

It's worth noting that the majority of the waiting list joined over 2 seasons ago when the prices were reasonable. It will be interesting to see how much further they can push it, as I imagine the tipping point for most existing ST holders will be similar to those on the waiting list, possibly even higher due to the connection they'll have with their seat. Maybe you get one season out of someone that's been on the waiting list for 5 years, as a treat, before they too realise the cost isn't sustainable. Atmosphere won't be helped by any of this.

Us signing (or not) Diaby from Leverkusen is hardly ruining football. We'd probably happily sell them they're former best player back if they wanted to offer us less than we paid for him. Saudi on the other hand are definitely enabling certain clubs to circumvent FFP regulations, but seemingly not us. (So far...) FFP is arguably the cause of the problem there, although now that states own Newcastle and Man City FFP is somewhat preventing an ever worse situation.

I'm not sure it would take all that much organisation anyway. Just a couple of agents that like to share their deals with anyone that will offer them more money. The second the scummy agents realise they can get more money flogging their players to a Saudi team they'll absolutely start sharing information with them. Then it just needs said billionaires to send an offer the agents way, before then sending an offer to said club from whichever of the 4 clubs they own.

Diaby hasn't (yet) destroyed his hamstrings. And the market has moved on a huge amount since we signed Bailey. I feel like 50m is just the inflationary equivalent of what we signed Bailey for pretty much...and Diaby has nearly twice the number of assists as Bailey over the same time frame.

That's my point. Anywhere. We have reawrved 50m to spend on those backup positions? Make it 40m and chuck the extra 10 at Diaby if that's what is needed. If we sell Digne we'll get a fair amount of money for him and free up loads of FFP wiggle room anyway with his £500m salary off the books

They got me with this one :(. Really thought it was Diaby. Congratulations anyway Josh.

If you rate Diaby and think he's a good option for us, then you shouldn't object to us paying 50m. That is easily the going rate for a decent winger these days. There's no reason not to pay it, although every reason to try and get it lowered. If we're stuck at our FFP limits then I'd say we make a sacrifice elsewhere on the pitch as no other signing we make now will have a bigger impact on our form. The right back, back up gk, "other forward" are all nice to haves. They won't elevate us to another level.

Rail seating is mentioned in the website article as being located there

Let's hope the high quality coverage isn't just because he's a fan then...

Anyone got any Southampton following friends who know whether his coverage of them is any good?

I get that this gentrification of the Holte isn't a good thing for keeping the atmosphere. But not sure those are examples of things that we should lament being rid of.

It's only really relevant comparing forwards, and probably even more specifically wingers. It's also more important to note that Diaby isn't any of those players and so he's worth qualifying in his own right. I assume our scouting team (combined with our now very well experienced leadership team of Emery and Monchi) will have enough data to have made a more formed view of him. He's got consistency on his side over the last few seasons, and I think he'd make the transition better than Bailey did (primarily because he doesn't have the same injury record as Bailey now has)

That I agree with. I am really intrigued what back 4 we'll end up with on that topic. And I mean the preferred choice, recognising that we will rotate as needed. Pau is definitely starting in Emery's preferred line up. Which leaves one spot for 3 centre backs, two of whom were responsible for one of the tightest defences in the league last season - Mings probably won't be anywhere near as good playing on the right, but having not played there maybe he starts favourite Until proven otherwise? - Konsa isn't as good as Mings, but certainly no slouch, so might face the drop, but is naturally more suited to the right. Maybe he will replace cash... - Carlos is an unknown quantity really, but has played on the right hand side for a very strong sevilla defence before now, and we spent a lot of money on him. If he's fully recovered, he's a more natural ball playing centre back than either Mings or Konsa.. It's a nice problem to have, and I'd rather not see any of them sold to give us that strength in depth. Be interesting to see what happens with right back position before the end of the window as that will answer the question about whether Konsa is expected to be an option there.

And if we ignore all the links what would we talk about in this thread? The majority are indeed horse turd, but this thread is to discuss the relative merits of players we might sign, how much we might have to pay for them and generally pass the time between the actual confirmed signings. It's a valid question to ask who you might want to sign? It's a valid response to say "whoever Emery wants"... but you can still hold a separate opinion yourself.

I think that's what the "wow" was for. How the club had used the responses to justify their actions, despite what you've said above.

I thought we'd already agreed terms with him... these ITKs need to get their stories straight.

I think they absolutely have the sense to not help villa unless it also helps them. But idon't think they're consciously ignoring our players You only have to look at them buying Fabinho (as mentioned above) off Liverpool to know that they will help Newcastle's rivals if it helps them. I suspect the Coutinho situation is one where he's just not interested. Traoré maybe doesn't have the same appeal or there are other options that they're looking at first. I'd be fine keeping Traore around to bring on in the kind of gamed where we're either comfortable or struggling to unlock a defence. He scored our goal of the season last year, and even if he only played 5 games this year I wouldn't be surprised if he did it again. Football is shit enough these days with all that's going on, but at least Traore brings entertainment to the game.

Yep. It's kind of a bi- product of our fairly rapid transformation from bottom half club fighting for survival to European contenders. They're players that aren't good enough for where we are as first teamers, but they're on first team salaries. The benefit is it does give us a fair amount of depth compared with some of the other clubs around us. Ideally we'd replace them with younger prospects on less money, but it's going to be difficult with how much money is in the PL. Guilbert is already gone by the way, although i don't think we for anything for him