Hazbro

You can’t sell Trossard if someone isn’t buying. And nobody was buying (it was widely reported we were already open to selling him this summer but nobody offered anything close to what we wanted). You’re manipulating the scenarios so you don’t have to make the tough choices the club did.

It is generally more expensive to sign a player midseason, but there was a clause which only became active in January. Given that the same clause reduced price further in summer 2026 there’s even more reason to think it would’ve been significantly higher in summer 2025 than January.

He’s absolutely been targeting this game. I reckon he could’ve played against Spurs but they didn’t want any setbacks for this one. I think we’re going to use him sparingly, Chelsea, City, and CL latter stages, and trust Gyokeres, who’s found some form, to play the bulk.

Agreed. It would’ve meant missing out on other players. And again, maybe we look back in May and say that would’ve been better. Or maybe we look back in May grateful for the business we did.

Assuming we know which in February is a bit presumptuous imo.

There was a release that became active in January, wasn’t in the summer. Obviously any player is available if the price is right, but what if the price in summer was £90m? £100m? It was widely reported they turned down £70m. What if it meant no Eze as well as no Noni?

Wasn’t available in the summer. Not sure we survive the start of the season without Saka if we didn’t have someone to fill in for him but maybe we could’ve?

And he scored one today. The same as Madueke managed against the same team. We scored 4 against this team. They managed 1. He didn’t win them the game today. One goal that early didn’t win them the game. The rest of the team were just as important.

Definitely seemed like he was planning on staying another season. Several clubs were in for him in the summer, if he wanted to move, he doesn’t sign the thing. People act like there wasn’t any interest from other clubs in the summer and the only reason he signed was bc of us not moving in.

You’re making assumptions. He wasn’t available in the summer. He was available in January. That’s what we know to be true. Anything else is just assuming.

I think there’s a tendency for those of us outside the club to assume those in charge are making mistakes, despite the fact we have a fraction of the information they have available to them. I’m guilty of it too. Of course you can question things, but it pays to consider they know more than we do.

And without Mosquera we’d have dropped points when the defence was all out injured. If Norgaard lets us keep Rice/Zubi fitter for Europe we’ll be glad of him too.

We’ll see how it all shakes out in May.

It’s not, it would’ve meant losing out on other targets. We’re not Man City who can ignore PSR. There’s a reason why Berta’s first act was renegotiating the Zubi deal to pay more but spread the payments out.

I agree we opted for depth over one or two big splashes. Not sure we were wrong to do it.

I also wanted him last January ,but the fee being reported was higher, and of course we don’t know what impact it would’ve had on other plans. The fact Berta even renegotiated Zubi to be paid over a longer period (but pay more) shows we were looking for more wiggle room in the budget.

There is, but there’s also a £16m difference, and reportedly the Noni payments are very very spread out whereas the Semenyo one was a release and those normally have to be paid immediately to trigger the release.

I suspect we were interested in him, but for *next* season.

That’s the thing. The release clause was only active from January. I think there was an amount if it went beyond the second week of January but it was higher. And it was reportedly set to go lower in the summer so we may have banked on that.

Norgaard was only £10m (albeit with add-ons, but given how little he has played, I doubt he’s triggered any) so I went for the player with the value closest to the gap.

I believe you’re right and the release clause only became active in January, so he wasn’t available in the summer.

Frankly not sure why we bother even playing the league when one team’s allowed to get away with stuff like that.

If Rodri was an Arsenal player he gets at least a 5 game ban.

Two of whom should’ve been banned for this game…

£16 million difference. So it probably would’ve meant not signing Cristhian Mosquera (who cost about £13m).

All while 115 continues to drag on.

Ever since Rodri said the things he’s been charged for, but no punishment.

We won this same fixture 4-0 about 4 weeks ago by the way. And yet we’re the boring ones…

Exactly. We also know they do all sorts to cook the books for wages too. You can bet all the players get bonuses and endorsements from associated parties that don’t strictly fall under City’s spend but is coming from the same people.

Well, that doesn’t actually impact net spend bc that’s just transfer fees. But it does impact PSR calculations.

The thing with net spend is simply that they started the massive spending ages ago, and at a certain point that means the players you sell are worth more, so the net spend comes down.

Not a single number. Used up all my luck I guess.

Not happening.

And let’s hope it’s just the 2.

“bUt nEt sPenD!”

Oh I don’t care how we score them it’s the hypocrisy and double standards. It actually makes being hated for this shit so much more satisfying, bc it exposes their bias and that only makes me want to boil their piss even more. Fuck em.

Meanwhile it’s 10 open play PL goals since our last set piece goal…