James

oh he's probably bored to tears of my whining and our Liverpool-supporting friend gloating. So naturally, I persist.

This is great. It sums up my POV on competitiveness in the PL / what I've been ranting to friends about (inc. Joe C. - @chrisnee.co.uk !)

"The regulatory framework exacerbates a pecking order that seems more crystallised than ever despite every club in the Premier League being absolutely minted."

This is the galling thing about the wage advantage of the big six, you also miss out on the release clause bargains.

I had a similar POV at the time, and am happy to admit I was wrong and/or impatient (not suggesting anyone else should too). My POV now is that Howe has faults, like every manager, but we could be a lot worse off; and the cup win and league finish was exceptional, and a slap on the wrist for me 🤷‍♂️

I'd rather have fewer but more considered conversations here, and be slower to news; than be inundated with engagement, hysteria and false mania over there. But I do see that it's hard to leave somewhere with so much going on. BlueSky just takes acclimatising to, IMO. "Different strokes.." etc.

You're right. I'm just petty 😂

Very good point.

I'm irrationally and emotionally opposed, but I imagine it makes a lot of sense. (One thing I am almost ideologically opposed to now though, is lining the pockets of Chelsea et al. I know that's silly.)

Yep, we need to...

oh man, that sucks.

I've enjoyed your recent TF appearances, by the way!

Get who though (for ST at least)? There are no doubt plenty of Thiaw-level options for CB, probably some good CM options; but there's no obvious replacement for Isak. And reintegrating Isak might be as big a job as signing a replacement.

And yeah - it's dreadful. It's essentially a 'participative entertainment' platform, not a social media platform. It's also lots of far worse things, of course.

Yeah, I had a dip in to see the inevitable about Sesko. I'm quite at peace with being late to stuff now :-)

I took a peek this week - it's completely hysterical. There's a few characters on here who'd be better off on there, but "variety is the spice..." and all that.

With the odd exception, the #NUFC crowd on here is great. You can have sensible, but still animated, conversations; can disagree agreeably (again, odd exception); have your perspective or opinion changed (I have plenty); and 'therapise' (for want of a better term). Imagine 'NUFC X' right now 😵‍💫

Yep, agree with all of that. Judge it by the end of the window, and all that. I think the 'running order' is a factor: we may well do some realistic deals from here on in; but the fan sentiment might have been a lot better at this point if we'd done the realistic deals before trying the big ones.

The 'big 6's transfer operations can be characterised by doing big* deals, quickly (wages on offer makes this possible etc etc).

The only other club I believe comes close to them in that respect is Villa.

We do really good deals, just rarely quickly enough.

*not necesarily *good* deals, just big

Very fair point, I just don't want us to help oil their machines any further though. It's dreadful that transfer windows are becoming as 'important' as the actual football competitions themselves, but we sort of need to box clever in who we buy from now.

Completely agree on that. There's a major infrastructure issue.

Completely agree. 'Nouse' is conspicuously missing. I do think we're in a - somewhat - uniquely tricky position though 👇
bsky.app/profile/jbmi...

My take is that we need a blend of the two, but obviously currently we're doing neither.

I agree with the latter point, but semi disagree with the first. We need to pursue the top targets, because they sustain where we are on the pitch/in UCL etc. We have a top striker, so we need another to replace him (or at least a high ceiling one). But yeah, it's tough to land them.

The time to move on was the moment they bid, unfortunately.

For me the more alarming realisation that this summer may bring - if it isn't rescued by some remarkable late trading - is: how do we keep up with Howe's, not Isak's, expectations? If Howe goes, who comes in that is better? Or able to work within the £ constraints? We're at a huge juncture.

I think the below is the crux of a lot of NUFC's issues (but also that several things can be true at once: PSR, poor trading, poor planning etc).

NUFC have one unique, and significant 'force multiplier': Howe. I had my doubts, but we could be a lot worse off without his player improvement impact.

I wish this had been the case, but as soon as that Man U bid went in, it was over. The player will have chosen MUFC, and left them and Leipzig to work out the small matter of the ~£5M difference. I never got excited about Sesko because Man U were always waiting in the wings. It's a real shame :/

Has NUFC reached a 'correction point' of sorts? As in, has our on-field competitiveness now outstripped our 'commercial/wage/appeal competitiveness', to the point where we're now going to hit a ceiling in terms of league/cup progression? (I think so, even if we'd operated better this window.)

And there it is. Sesko will be a Man U player by Friday. We go again 😂

a man with sweat running down his face ALT: a man with sweat running down his face

If you think this window is a rollercoaster for NUFC, imagine Isak’s agent right now.

I agree. But there’s so much reporting that it’s Sesko’s decision now, that you can’t ignore it.