I’ll say it at the start of this blog and just leave it there. The Premier League have been a disgrace! The length of time it’s taking to decide is absurd and disgraceful. Even more so because they won’t say what if anything is holding it up and give us an update.
Now, they may well have given the club and the prospective buyers an indication about what’s going on. With the money involved I would seriously hope they have. But the current regime at our club are not in the habit of giving us news and especially good news.
Any prospective buyer probably wants to keep quiet so as not to jeopardise anything. But the Premier League should be explaining why the delay is happening and why their happy for one of their member clubs to be in limbo.
Although uncertainty has taken over, there are a few senior players in the current squad who look all but certain to leave this summer – whether new owners arrive or not.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Fabian Schar, DeAndre Yedlin, Christian Atsu and Yoshinori Muto. Quite simply I can’t see that quartet having a future no matter who’s in charge. Assuming there are some takers that is.
Fabian Schar
He’s done little indeed to suggest his heart’s in it and also doesn’t suit a 4-man defence – which seems a little ominous given this is the new system Steve Bruce looks set to go with from this point onwards.
With only 1 year left on his current deal I think we should cash in while we can still get a decent bit of money for him, although his latest shoulder injury could cause problems.
The Athletic said a few weeks back that we were planning to be open to offers for Schar before lockdown. The way he’s played since we came back seems to suggest he believe it as well.
DeAndre Yedlin
CBS Sport in America also said last week that Yedlin was “90% certain” to leave this summer with him no seemingly behind Manquillo and Krafth in pecking order.
He’s also out of contract next summer too and at the moment doesn’t even look like he knows how to play soccer, with him offering nothing at either end of the pitch in his last two appearances against Spurs and Man City.
He’s done a job over the years as a £5m player, but he could be another player who just doesn’t fit in our side anymore now we’ve moved back to a four-man defence. After all, his pace can be an asset but there’s only so much it can make up for his lack of awareness and poor positioning.
Christian Atsu
Atsu is another who just isn’t getting a look in now. The Ghanaian used to play the odd bit before lockdown, but remember he very nearly left in January.
He rejected loan offers from the likes of Nottingham Forest six months ago to ‘fight for his future’ at the club but that hasn’t worked for him, and he’ll be keen to get regular game time as a 28-year-old edging closer to the twilight years of his career.
He’s far too inconsistent and wouldn’t be missed at all in my opinion. Even if we don’t get taken over, we can get better as a backup wide man than him. Which brings me to Muto.
Yoshinori Muto
Some might say he’s been unlucky. Not me. He couldn’t force his way past that prolific trio of high-quality goal scorers in Gayle, Joelinton and Carroll! He’s ok as a player but just ok. My view is that he was vastly overpriced at £9m and is nowhere near Premier League quality.
I’m not even sure if we know his best position! To me he seemed like a publicity and promotional signing at the time and has never proven to be anything other than perhaps being more capable of opening far east trade lines than Premier League defences.
There are just four I’d pick out as surplus to ANYONE’s requirements. We could then talk about the three loanees. Rose I would sign BUT only at £5m and not the new ridiculous £14m I’ve heard quoted.
Bentaleb and Lazaro have not done enough to clinch permanent deals and there has to be question marks over whether either of them even wants to stay. I see it’s been rumoured that Lazaro might stay on loan next season. I’d be happy with that but not happy to pay £20m for him.
Then there are the likes of Lazaar, Saivet, Murphy and Aarons. All of whom need to move on. In the case of Aarons, it’s a shame as he looked like a talent and it’s frustrating it never came through. The other three I find unbelievable that they are still NUFC players.
It leaves us with so many to sort out yet so little time to do so and the takeover delay is not helping is deal with all of the above! Outgoings to me will be just as crucial and interesting as incomings but with the limbo situation the Club has YET another difficult period ahead.
How can you call Gayle, Joelinton and Carol prolific? All three hardly know where the net is let alone putting the ball in it
Danny(Quote)
What absolute garbage – how can you say the Premier League has been a disgrace when you have no idea of the complexities of their investigation?
Qatar initiated an investigation with the World Trade Organisation in November last year, and that was concluded only in June – 7 months. The WTO is a much larger organisation with more resources available to it, and they were able to carry out the majority of their work before the global lockdown.
The EPL will have to investigate not only the piracy issues but also anything else that may result in any of the buyers being considered unfit. They will have to investigate the relationship between MBS and PIF. And if they decide that MBS is in anyway accountable they have to consider things like Yemen and Khashoggi, because the wording of the Premier League Handbook is such that if MBS is considered to be responsible for the actions of his government he can be considered unfit.
They will also have to go through legal counsel to decide if they might face legal action if they disqualify him, or his proxies.
This is not a five minute job and is hugely complex. Where the WTO took 7 months to produce a non-legally binding report essentially covering one topic, the EPL have fewer people, more ground to cover and have been working in an environment where they can’t just jump on a plane to Riyadh, pop into a shop and ask for a BeoutQ box. Plus it all has to be wrapped up with a pretty legal bow that ensures they don’t get hit with a lawsuit.
The only thing disgraceful here is the attitude of ignorant fans who have read a couple of newspaper articles, think it should be finished in 8 weeks and are now slagging off the EPL because the toon coffers are not overflowing with billions of Saudi Riyals.
It’s no wonder we get such a bad rap as fans. Clueless!
You come out with all this indignation when you don’t even know for sure when/if paperwork was submitted to the EPL.
Helen Clarey(Quote)
I think you might’ve missed Jeff’s sarcasm, Danny ? 😆
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
I’m afraid that the playing staff ie players need to be with one or two exceptions totally substituted for ones that can really play football. Present players total rubbish laughing stock of premier league.
Letting club,city,most of all the faithful fans down. 👿
P Rubery(Quote)
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uuwaew(Quote)