Football 2025-26

[thetime]

1 hour ago, lost said:

Didn't both Jose and Ole secure 2nd place finishes too on top of the cups won during that period?

 

 

 

Jose did.

 

Don't count ole 2nd, empty stadiums covid. Pretty much a void season for football. 

[thetime]

Good window for utd, a midfielder light from a great window. Can't sort it all out in 1 window that will take a few.

 

More importantly got rid of Antony, Garnacho and Hojlund. Sancho and Rashford loaned out to cover majority of wages. Fully expect Rashford and Sancho back next summer, just loans until there contracts expire.

 

With that lot gone this season, its saving them around £50 million a year in wages. Astonishing really, for so little return. 

 

I can see Amad going next summer as well. 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2025 by thetime

[charlierc]

Wonder if Liverpool & Palace might both reflect they left it too late to get a Guehi deal over the line. Can happen on deadline day though.

[SPW]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

Good window for utd, a midfielder light from a great window. Can't sort it all out in 1 window that will take a few.

 

More importantly got rid of Antony, Garnacho and Hojlund. Sancho and Rashford loaned out to cover majority of wages. Fully expect Rashford and Sancho back next summer, just loans until there contracts expire.

 

With that lot gone this season, its saving them around £50 million a year in wages. Astonishing really, for so little return. 

 

I can see Amad going next summer as well. 

 

 

 

Midfield is a concern. Agree, it will take time to come close to sorting the basket case Utd has become. Not sure I'm overly confident in Ineos and the manager to succeed in that but time will tell......

[charlierc]

On 30/08/2025 at 00:21, thetime said:

Only utd can agree a fee, then its withdrawn an hour later. 🤣

And then 48 hour resuscitate it huh.

 

Ah well. Good for Antony to get the move he wanted and return to a club he seemed genuinely psyched to be playing for.

 

Sancho at Villa will be interesting. Lord knows they look like they've needed something given how tired they looked in their first 3 games.

[charlierc]

Less than 40 word statement put up by Newcastle to confirm Isak's departure with no thanks or well wishes. Sounds like we're taking the pretty acrimonious break-up well.

[thetime]

16 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Less than 40 word statement put up by Newcastle to confirm Isak's departure with no thanks or well wishes. Sounds like we're taking the pretty acrimonious break-up well.

 

And signing the equally suspect behaviour with Wissa. 

[thetime]

24 minutes ago, SPW said:

Midfield is a concern. Agree, it will take time to come close to sorting the basket case Utd has become. 

 

Mid next summer, still big holes. But you dont change a team finishing 15th over night. Hopefully next summer will sort the midfield and right wingback out. 

 

Although I think they are expecting big things from Kone. 

Edited September 1, 2025 by thetime

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Less than 40 word statement put up by Newcastle to confirm Isak's departure with no thanks or well wishes. Sounds like we're taking the pretty acrimonious break-up well.

Compare it to the statement for Garang Kuol's move....

[charlierc]

8 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Compare it to the statement for Garang Kuol's move....

Hilarious. But definitely a sense of how acrimonious it got behind the scenes. 

 

Barring any cup draws, we're next meant to play Liverpool in late January. That away end is going to have quite the boo target... Well assuming he isn't injured.

[charlierc]

9 hours ago, thetime said:

 

And signing the equally suspect behaviour with Wissa. 

A deal that wasn't far off falling through - Sky's NE reporter is saying the paperwork was filed 30 seconds before the deadline. 

 

I'm not pretending it was done in happy circumstances because obviously it wasn't. There are some differences - allegedly he was told he could go with it in writing before Brentford changed their minds due to the Mbuemo exit, plus I think reintegration may not have been so tricky as it would've been for Isak had that transfer somehow fallen through. Difficult, absolutely, but he was actively training with Brentford, hinting there was some way back imo. 

 

But I'm aware the differences are too subtle for people who aren't partisan to give a sh*t. Indeed, it's kinda why I was gravitating towards wanting Strand Larsen instead.  

 

Still, think we can move on from this mayhem and see what the newbies can do. Even if it has the unfortunate by-product of making September into a second pre-season given it means a lot of readjustment.

[thetime]

22 minutes ago, charlierc said:

A deal that wasn't far off falling through - Sky's NE reporter is saying the paperwork was filed 30 seconds before the deadline. 

 

I'm not pretending it was done in happy circumstances because obviously it wasn't. There are some differences - allegedly he was told he could go with it in writing before Brentford changed their minds due to the Mbuemo exit, plus I think reintegration may not have been so tricky as it would've been for Isak had that transfer somehow fallen through. Difficult, absolutely, but he was actively training with Brentford, hinting there was some way back imo. 

 

But I'm aware the differences are too subtle for people who aren't partisan to give a sh*t. Indeed, it's kinda why I was gravitating towards wanting Strand Larsen instead.  

 

Still, think we can move on from this mayhem and see what the newbies can do. Even if it has the unfortunate by-product of making September into a second pre-season given it means a lot of readjustment.

 

I just think fans think far to much of players, thinking they love there club. They dont give a toss about the club, they give a toss about wages and making money. You could pay isak the same as Liverpool, he will make far far more money being a Liverpool player. 

 

Still cant get my head round, why Newcastle fans think a player from Sweden is going to give a toss about Newcastle. Its not like he's been there long term either. 

 

Isak will do the same to Liverpool if Madrid cone calling in 2 years. Wissa will do the same to Newcastle if Utd or Arsenal come calling. Both players have showed there hand.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2025 by thetime

[charlierc]

44 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

I just think fans think far to much of players, thinking they love there club. They dont give a toss about the club, they give a toss about wages and making money. You could pay isak the same as Liverpool, he will make far far more money being a Liverpool player. 

 

Still cant get my head round, why Newcastle fans think a player from Sweden is going to give a toss about Newcastle. Its not like he's been there long term either. 

 

Isak will do the same to Liverpool if Madrid cone calling in 2 years. Wissa will do the same to Newcastle if Utd or Arsenal come calling. Both players have showed there hand.

 

 

What has this window been for if not shattering that illusion?

 

I think it was worth a shot to try and keep him around but sometimes that works on players who would rather go but accept they'll have to stay and sometimes it doesn't. In this case, it very much didn't. It may perhaps have been for the best in retrospect if the meeting between player and owners last week that lead to our overlords deciding the fight to keep him was a lost cause happened in June so we could've got Ekiteke in. But hey. It is what it is.

 

Clearly, we've also moved on to pouring scorn. I've already seen quite a lot of our fans are claiming they felt at the time that Isak downed tools after the Carabao Cup final, or indeed casting doubt on whether he was truly injured when he missed a game against Arsenal near the end of the season through that excuse. Indeed it says a lot about the easy way you can spin someone from adoration to hatred if people are willing to go along with a screengrab WhatsApp I saw earlier with claims that may or may not have come from Callum Wilson about Isak downing tools that, because its online, it must be true.

 

But not much you can do now. Just time to move on and see what the new version can do. In general, I don't think we've done that bad this window - wanted a new keeper, centre-back, creative midfielder, right-winger and one striker, which became two after Isak's antics, and got the lot. A few are overpays but the market was running very hot this summer. Just now got to hope they click.

[thetime]

In other news, Ben Chilwell to Strasburg. Which comes across as dodgy and probably corrupt. Which with multi ownership of clubs, will come out in 20 years. 

[lost]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

Still cant get my head round, why Newcastle fans think a player from Sweden is going to give a toss about Newcastle. 

 

You actually used to get loads of Swedes in Newcastle and the NE when I was a kid. Apparently it was actually cheaper for them to buy a ferry ticket and get their volvo serviced in the U.K versus a service in Sweden. Before labour introduced the beer duty escalator in the 2000's booze was also significatly cheaper (like 80%) for them. 

[thetime]

18 minutes ago, lost said:

 

You actually used to get loads of Swedes in Newcastle and the NE when I was a kid. Apparently it was actually cheaper for them to buy a ferry ticket and get their volvo serviced in the U.K versus a service in Sweden. Before labour introduced the beer duty escalator in the 2000's booze was also significatly cheaper (like 80%) for them. 

 

Perhaps thats why they think Isak owes them. 😃

[balti-pie]

I was having a think about this earlier - Guehi clearly has his heart set on a move to Liverpool, behaved impeccably, didnt throw his toys out of the pram, and did everything right by palace - and it fell through. 

Wissa and Isak both moaned, agitated and behaved like arseholes, and their moves got done by the deadline.

Rewarding sh*tty behavior! Aren't we just going to see more and more of this going forward, seeing how its worked out for those three? I hope not, its really grubby 

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

I just think fans think far to much of players, thinking they love there club. They dont give a toss about the club, they give a toss about wages and making money. You could pay isak the same as Liverpool, he will make far far more money being a Liverpool player. 

 

Still cant get my head round, why Newcastle fans think a player from Sweden is going to give a toss about Newcastle. Its not like he's been there long term either. 

 

Isak will do the same to Liverpool if Madrid cone calling in 2 years. Wissa will do the same to Newcastle if Utd or Arsenal come calling. Both players have showed there hand.

I don't think many Newcastle fans thought Isak loved the club in the way Bruno does. I think most of us expected Isak to leave for a bigger team next summer, and would have wished him well and thanked him for the service. The tantrum and level of it shocked us, not that he wanted to move on.

 

As @charlierc said, the Wissa parallels are enough that not many Newc fans want to completely dismiss them, but they're not completely the same. I will say that Wissa's interview (which I don't expect non-geordies to have watched), came across as respectful to Brentford, and highlighted that he did actively want Newcastle, instead of 'bigger club on bigger wages'. He cites watching not just Shearer, but said that Ba and Cisse as African strikers were huge influences on him wanting to move to the Prem, and his eyes light up when he gets a video message from Papiss congratulating him on the move and the no 9 shirt.

 

I think removing Brentford from his social media early was incredibly petty, the downing-tools (even if only for a few days) is a bad sulk, etc etc, but he's thanked his former teammates, manager, fans, and the board for his time at Brentford.

[thetime]

18 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

I was having a think about this earlier - Guehi clearly has his heart set on a move to Liverpool, behaved impeccably, didnt throw his toys out of the pram, and did everything right by palace - and it fell through. 

Wissa and Isak both moaned, agitated and behaved like arseholes, and their moves got done by the deadline.

Rewarding sh*tty behavior! Aren't we just going to see more and more of this going forward, seeing how its worked out for those three? I hope not, its really grubby 

 

Its always happened, players acting up for a move. I remember John Gregory comments about Dwight Yorke going utd, 'if I had a gun'. 

 

All clubs have done it, are still doing it. They all tap up players up. Its the Newcastle stance, then sign Wissa in similar circumstances thats amusing. 

 

 

[kaosmark2]

19 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

I was having a think about this earlier - Guehi clearly has his heart set on a move to Liverpool, behaved impeccably, didnt throw his toys out of the pram, and did everything right by palace - and it fell through. 

Wissa and Isak both moaned, agitated and behaved like arseholes, and their moves got done by the deadline.

Rewarding sh*tty behavior! Aren't we just going to see more and more of this going forward, seeing how its worked out for those three? I hope not, its really grubby 

I get the impression Guehi knows that he gets a big signing-on bonus if it's on a free next year. Similar to how players in the last year of their contract don't sulk about their team turning down Real Madrid's token offers.

 

I'd also say Eze got the move he wanted despite not doing these shenanigans. Similarly Elanga, Mbuemo, the inevitable hordes at Chelsea, etc etc.

 

I hope you're wrong though, and I do suspect we will see somewhat more of it, but I don't think that's the 'lesson of the window' as I saw it described somewhere.

[lost]

Zinchenko to forest. That one completely passed me by.

 

Fulham keeping up the tradition of Brazilians with great one word English names e.g Alan, Fred etc. by signing Kevin. 

 

Read a great stat on twitter regarding Everton signing Röhl. Apparently he was born the same week Moyes made his first signing for Everton Joseph Yobo. People saying he's going to be this teams fellaini/soucek.

[charlierc]

52 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

I was having a think about this earlier - Guehi clearly has his heart set on a move to Liverpool, behaved impeccably, didnt throw his toys out of the pram, and did everything right by palace - and it fell through. 

Wissa and Isak both moaned, agitated and behaved like arseholes, and their moves got done by the deadline.

Rewarding sh*tty behavior! Aren't we just going to see more and more of this going forward, seeing how its worked out for those three? I hope not, its really grubby 

This has been a popular thought process tbf. But I'm not sure it's that simple. Guehi didn't seem like he was as desperate to move as some of the others in this window. Plus as said he might well have landed a chunky sell on next year. 

 

It's also fair that the desperation that defined it may actually have been from Palace. Glasner seemed to be considering quitting if Palace sold him on without a replacement and after a few moves weren't going to happen, it really did seem like they had no good answers. 

[charlierc]

36 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I don't think many Newcastle fans thought Isak loved the club in the way Bruno does. I think most of us expected Isak to leave for a bigger team next summer, and would have wished him well and thanked him for the service. The tantrum and level of it shocked us, not that he wanted to move on.

 

As @charlierc said, the Wissa parallels are enough that not many Newc fans want to completely dismiss them, but they're not completely the same. I will say that Wissa's interview (which I don't expect non-geordies to have watched), came across as respectful to Brentford, and highlighted that he did actively want Newcastle, instead of 'bigger club on bigger wages'. He cites watching not just Shearer, but said that Ba and Cisse as African strikers were huge influences on him wanting to move to the Prem, and his eyes light up when he gets a video message from Papiss congratulating him on the move and the no 9 shirt.

 

I think removing Brentford from his social media early was incredibly petty, the downing-tools (even if only for a few days) is a bad sulk, etc etc, but he's thanked his former teammates, manager, fans, and the board for his time at Brentford.

We're getting old if we're signing players who talk about watching our Cisse-Ba partnership as something they were watching when growing up. It's cool they got Cisse to do the video though. 

 

But yeah. Player wants to move for more money and the perceived better opportunity to get trophies - not a shock. That's what they do. It definitely felt excessive with this case though. 

[kaosmark2]

3 minutes ago, lost said:

Zinchenko to forest. That one completely passed me by.

 

Fulham keeping up the tradition of Brazilians with great one word English names e.g Alan, Fred etc. by signing Kevin. 

 

Read a great stat on twitter regarding Everton signing Röhl. Apparently he was born the same week Moyes made his first signing for Everton Joseph Yobo. People saying he's going to be this teams fellaini/soucek.

I think Forest have had a pretty good window - Elanga sale aside. 3 promising wingers and 2 forwards who can play centrally or wide, as well as James MacAtee, adds a lot of depth for trying to compete in Europe alongside the PL, and they've kept their core of that CB pairing and MGW/Anderson in midfield. They looked like they just ran out of energy around April with having little quality in depth. I do think they'll struggle a bit with teams respecting them this season though - they picked up a lot of points in August/September/October hitting teams on the counter that set-up to dominate them, instead of contest them.

[kaosmark2]

3 minutes ago, charlierc said:

We're getting old if we're signing players who talk about watching our Cisse-Ba partnership as something they were watching when growing up. It's cool they got Cisse to do the video though. 

 

But yeah. Player wants to move for more money and the perceived better opportunity to get trophies - not a shock. That's what they do. It definitely felt excessive with this case though. 

Don't remind me, particularly as Wissa turns 29 tomorrow.... But yeah, I thought it was a good video, and I generally think new-signing videos are pretty bland.

 

Amusingly, Cisse's still playing! In the 2nd division of the UAE having moved last summer from Ligue 2, but still a professional footballer. He just keeps dropping down leagues and not retiring.