get what you can now - especially with their need for body - then splash the cash in summer when more options are likely to be available. after you have splash the cash and he starts warming benches (except as target man when you are chasing, samba-style), he still counts for your english quota. it's a fairly smart move. that we couldn't convince them to grab auba - for a minimal fee - is a fail on our part.
What makes you think we've been trying to sell Auba to NUFC, let alone anyone at this point? p.s. Even this season's subpar Auba is better than Wood.
That’s the problem Newcastle is facing, potential big money transfers want European football, not a relegation fight.
why shouldn't we? as much as i like aubameyang and, yes, i'm still happy about the extension (even if i can admit to it not being great business): 1) it appears he does not/cannot get on with the manager who has the backing of ownership. 2) it appears his style of play does not match in anyway with the manager who has the backing of ownership. 3) between his age, his contract, this market and our inability to raise (or even maintain) value of our assets, his option is limited. 4) they are unlikely to get any big name/high profile transfer. he fills a need for both position and name.
Does Wood count as homegrown? Edit: He apparently does. I have no recollection of this guy before like two years ago but he’s apparently been in England since he was 17.
I don't necessarily disagree with any of this. I was only questioning the basis of your post which implied that we wanted or tried to sell him to NUFC... and failed.
Remember when Kane swore on…was it his daughter’s or mother’s life or something that he touched a cross that ended up going in?
Barely. But there’s more motivation for Kane to lie in that situation, i.e. to increment his goal tally for the season. Whereas that was 100% Winks’ goal regardless of whether he intended it or not.
apropos of nothing . . . Footballers as Easter Island heads🗿⚽️1 - Jamie Carragher pic.twitter.com/zV9JGxNFQs— Bryan’s Gunn (@bryansgunn) January 12, 2022
I just finished fast-watching Ghana’s opening match in CAF against Morocco from Sunday. I was cycling and primarily watching because of Partey. He played as a DM/CM. It was either a 2 or 3 man midfield I couldn’t quite tell, but he played very much smack in the middle, having quite a few touches. Nothing very remarkable I thought. And not much different than how he plays for us. He did some fairly persistent fouling early on, which could’ve earned him a yellow. Morocco seemed the better team all along and then with 8 mins to go Thomas ended up being the unwitting provider of Morocco’s only and game-winning goal… pretty random deflection off his leg which he couldn’t really have done much about. He was subbed off right after that, but I suppose that was more due to a shape change in a drastic attempt to equalize. My lasting impression was that neither he nor his team was particularly good on the day, and so with any luck he will stay fit and we’ll get him back soon.
Yeah. Apparently he had a $34M release clause and NUFC triggered it with their new found oil money. I'm not sure there's too many clubs out there who would want to do likewise... for Chris Wood. So it will both fill a striker hole for Newcastle and create a new one at Burnley, their nearest direct rival in the relegation spots. Clever. Unless Burnley have something even cleverer up their sleeves.
all the notes i've read have said 20, too. it feels like a white flag but that's probably as much money as they'll get for wood and they were getting relegated anyway . . .
NBC was the source and I double-checked that they wrote $34M, which equates to <25M in pounds, so who knows. Anyway it's probably more than he's really worth. Maybe they just paid 25% over the release clause amount just to ensure that the deal would be accepted? And perhaps more importantly there's that clever aspect of NUFC filling a hole while simultaneously creating a new hole at BFC, which has to be filled one would think. Unless they truly are waving the white flag. But with Burnley's escape history it's hard for me to completely buy that theory.
Everyone knows that if a player has a release clause of, I don't know, say £40m, you bid £40,000,001 and it is automatically accepted. Right? Right? But we are talking about religiously observant Saudis...so yeah...hookers and blow.
Yes, but my comment was based on Bigman saying the word was that the release clause isn't in effect til summer, so they decided to just bid well over that now to induce the deal. It's all speculation. But the key thing, which I think Mebe was perhaps alluding to is that NUFC take a key offensive force away from their most direct rival.