Makis

God forbid we ever signed another Drogba.

He's already what, 23? And couldn't cut it in the Championship.

This explains a lot. https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/744235880605319168

What exactly is wrong with that? Mentioning that she did this is hardly that big an issue. If it had been a brexiter how much drumming would there have been? Front pages would be full of it. Somehow I get the impression that brexiters are shitting themselves because they realise how bad this is for them. So this is just an attempt to shift blame.

That renovation is probably peanuts and it will take several years before the new stadium is ready.

Of course, but that holds true with Putin, Trump etc. as well. And, frankly, those are the people I'd last want to help with their vested interests.

Sorry but what are the arguments? Preferably ones that have nothing to do with sentiment? Of course it's a valid reason as any, but not really an argument.

Why do you hope Strootman never comes back from his injury?

BTW, when people like Putin, Trump and most right wing politicians in Europe (including Farage) support the Brexit it for me proves what a bad idea it is... the worst of the remain camp are nowhere near the asshattery level of the Brexit camp's finest.

Eventually, maybe. When Soviet Union collapsed Finland hit the worst recession in its history even though exports to SU only amounted to less than 10%. There is a huge knock-down effect. It's not just the companies that directly produce the exported goods, it's also the companies that service those companies that are hit hard. And when unemployment rises, the service sector is also hit (people have less money to spend). There were other issues as well at the time, but the collapse of SU was a major reason. Thankfully Nokia turned into the biggest mobile phone company in the world and by the end of the 90's the recession was over. But it was a very bad time for many. Lots of people lost their business, their savings and many lost their life (usually by their own hand). So yeah, of course you'll eventually crawl out of the hole you are digging but it will be preceded by a recession that makes this one look like a golden age. That's my estimation, anyways. Just the possibility that the Brexit might happen has hit the big companies' stocks hard. And what do they do when the share prices plummet? They lay people off. I would also guess that companies that are dependant on EU business are quite willing to relocate to the continent. If your business is selling goods a German manufacturer and suddenly the cost of your products for them is higher thanks to import taxes, they quite likely look for other sources. BTW, how do you reckon the cost of the Brexit will be paid for? My guess is more cuts to NHS, education and so on and higher taxes. But as I said, you are free to make your own mistakes. My main worry is that it will give more traction to the right wing parties in Europe. Hungary is already controlled by them and Poland is going to a less desirable decision. Front Nacional in france and Pegida in Germany are quite popular. EU breaks and we'll be back to the good ol' Europe where we had smaller or bigger conflicts every generation. And of course there would be no real counterforce to Russia (USA is more concerned about the Far East and this will clearly be the target of their foreign policy in the future). They already took Crimea (and this was partly possible because of the muted response to them grabbing land from Georgia earlier) and are waging war in Ukraine. There are other countries in the Eastern Europe that have large Russian minorities so if they are not kept in check they will eventually demand those parts should also be allowed to vote if they want to join Russia -> conflicts ensue. It's folly to think war is impossible. That's what Europeans have thought many times in the past. After the Peace of Westphalia and after the Treaty of Versailles, for instance. After the latter, they even created the League of Nations to make sure there would be no more wars. Leaders in France and Germany realised this after World War II and that's why they created the seed that has grown in the EU. And as the popularity of the right wing parties prove, people haven't really changed. And you prove there are enough people who don't care. But you British obviously don't care. You sit on your comfy little island. You have been given much more concessions than other countries and yet you complain. This has pissed off a lot of people on the continent. I really do hope if Brexit happens that Scotland gets a new referendum. That would be fun and I suspect this time the Queen driving around Scotland in a Range Rover won't swing the vote.

So effectively you want to replace your trade with Germany, France etc. with countries outside of Europe? Fair enough and good luck with that.

30 million seems to be the new 15 million. I would be very sceptical about any fees mentioned.

Actually the thing with Greece was two-fold. First there definitely was a will in the eurozone to get them in, but the Greek government cooked the books to fill the criteria. If they hadn't they would never have been allowed in. The problem with the euro is, as you say, that a common currency would require much tighter fiscal policies. Still, there has been definite advantages. They just tend not to be as tangible and only can be seen on the long run.

So, let's assume trade between Britain and EU stops. Which party is hit worse? You can trade with the rest of the world as you like but if you are outside of EU you trade on our terms, just like the Swiss. US is the biggest trade partner for Britain, but the next four biggest countries where Britain exports goods and services are in the EU (Germany, France, Netherlands, Ireland). https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/OverseasTradeStatistics/Pages/OTS.aspx As an example, let's say there is a commodity that is made both in Britain and some other EU member state. If Britain is outside the EU why would EU let Britain export that commodity freely to EU? Britain would almost certainly have to give bigger concessions to the EU to get that agreement. Unless Britain produces something no-one else does.

So what should it do then? Hold meetings and do absolutely nothing?

Which is what?

RS were linked with ter Stegen some time ago but apparently baulked at the price. Plus he has recently said he wants to stay at Barca.

ter Stegen's release clause is 56 million. Lacazette at that price is a big gamble. Calhanoglu is a strange guy, he has a, erm, colourful career so far.

I think that's the crux of the issue. Britain has always distanced itself from the rest of the Europe. A common theme seems to be "us" vs "them".

Brexiters are a funny bunch, I have to say. I guess many of you have to make up (poor) excuses so that you don't have to admit it's just about xenophobia as that would associate you with the UKIP? I mean it's not news that Brits are xenophobic even without voting for UKIP so why bother with the other excuses? As an outsider I have tried to find a single fact that supports Britain leaving EU but it's all either emotional or basically complete hogwash (plus not a small amount of lies). I think you lot have the right to make your own mistakes so I'm not interested in changing someone's mind (and I can see that most have already made up their mind anyways). If you vote to leave then you leave. But please don't fool yourself into thinking you somehow get more leverage over the rest of Europe that way. Which is more important, rest of EU to British trade or Britain to the trade of the rest of the EU? There's very little leverage for Brits, you WILL have to make more concession than you do now. In fact the concessions EU have given to Britain to keep you in annoy a lot of high-ranking people in France and Germany already, there is absolutely no way the trade agreements with a Britain outside of EU would be better for you lot. Plus if you wanted to export something to the remaining EU your products and services would have to comply with laws you had 0% input in. The thing about WWIII is OTT but the basic idea is that EU is weaker without Britain. Russia will have even less opposition to their expansion so the risk they step over some boundary grows greater. Putin specifically would love for EU to break down as after that there would be no real opposition in Europe with USA turning its attention to Far East. Remember, Russia took a large patch of land in Europe and is keeping a war in Central Europe going already. What would an EU-less Europe do if it started pressing other neighbours?

I'm not saying I'd pick Arnautovic as my first choice, mind. But I understand not every player we sign this summer will be a 20+ million player. I'm pretty sure there will be one or two players specifically signed to fit Koeman's tactics.

And why would he come here? No shortage of takers if he decided to leave. He's first choice at Inter so unless we paid him silly money why would he move? Thing is, we are not going to sign a team of world class players. That 100 million includes wages so if Koeman signs two 30 million pound players at 100.000 pounds per week, that's 70 million used up already. How many players do you reckon we need? Many think seven which would mean an average cost of about 10-12 million (60.000 pounds per week means 3 million on wages per year and I think that's where the wages for players of that caliber will ask at a minimum).

Not even close to 100 million without Moshiri money. More like 30-40 million.

You forget everyone else in the PL is also sorted with six (irc) teams offering Euro football. And FFP means the wage bill can only be increased by 7 million per year. The only way to go above that as far as I know are player sales. So yes, we could sell Lukaku, but then we couldn't use all the money on transfer fees.

This would mean paying players more than they are worth as others would be willing to pay what they really are worth (some even more than that). And this is not insignificant. Let's say a worldie wants £100,000 per week, but since we don't have European footy we would have to pay that much more to convince him to come play for money alone. How much extra would that be? 20,000? That would be an extra million pounds per year. And I'm not sure 20% is enough, but nevertheless, those millions stack up quickly. Then there's the FFP consideration.