Davvo

I don't believe for one second that he doesn't know where he's playing next season. 1. If he was staying, you'd think a deal would be agreed/announced by now. 2. If he was going overseas, you'd think he'd have signed and announced a pre-contract by now. 3. If he planned to sign for another English club, he'd have to keep quiet til the end of the season. Hard to look past 3 in the circumstances.

Keita should be included in these net spend arguments, because it's a fee we have committed to. When it appears in the accounts is a completely different discussion. You either talk about gross fee's in and out, or you talk about the accounting of them. In accounting terms, it'll only start to show from year ending 2019 I'd imagine, and even then only 20% of it will show in the loss column for that year (assuming he's signing a 5yr deal). Players are assets, worth the full value of their transfer fee, and depreciating over the course of their contract. Coutinho's sale on the other hand, will show in 2018's accounts as a profit almost equal to his transfer fee, regardless of when we actually receive any cash, as his asset value will have amortised down to a million or two by now. This is why I think we'll continue to sell one player for a high fee/massive profit every year or two.

It does seem like something Gazza would do. Costa on Shawcross couple of years ago is the first one google throws up. That's enough of my time wasted.

You said it wasn't a thing, you'd never heard of it. Now it's the first time you've seen it in years, and the last time was a 'white guy' to a 'black guy', nd it's been around for a while. OK. Odd thing to kick off about, but the fact is it was a common 'thing', and if anyone could be remotely arsed ( I certainly can't), examples would be a plenty.

No idea what this incident is about, but you're definitely wrong about that. There was a time where it was quite a common, if s***, way of responding to a player getting in your face. Player A dives, player B gets in his face shouting and calling him a cheat, player A (bang to rights) backs away wafting his hand suggesting player B stinks. Avoidance banter or some such. Can't recall any recent instance, but definitely seen it plenty in many different sports.

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That article starts out quite interesting. Then it's like the writer falls asleep, wakes a few hours later, and types THE END.

10:54, but yes.

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He does have contacts, but gets plenty wrong. I've been convinced we'd sell Phil this Summer though, especially if Barca or Real came in. In the FSG model, that sort of fee, for a guy with almost zero asset value on our books, is almost impossible for them to turn down. Let alone his own ambitions. We can but hope.

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They can, I agree. They've been slow, steady, cautious, maybe even meticulous. The next step requires a little more than that you'd think. I don't think the term apologist, applies to anyone in reference to FSG to be honest. There are some who feel they don't deserve the vitriol they receive, but I can't think of anyone that's blindly defended them.

Good point this. Which other current owners do those dissaisfied fans think are better ? I'm not 100% happy by any means, but I think we are well off in comparison to the vast majority, or indeed compared to our previous owners. It's healthy to want more from the owners however, and I'd like to see them continue to take us further forward from where we were when they bought us.

Love how he wants to turn and look up the pitch, rather than just look back and sideways. Think he's there specifically to get us looking forward, and he does it great. Sign of a top CM is the way he so often seems to have time on the ball, really clever footballer who's just going to get better and better.

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