Interesting to read through these BBC Sport ‘neutrals’ comments, following on from an article they published on Tottenham reportedly having an opening offer of £80m for Sandro Tonali turned down by Newcastle United.
The BBC Sport readers comments from neutrals reacting to it, Newcastle United fans as well, plus clearly many Tottenham fans and the odd Mackem.
Here is a selection of responses from the ‘neutrals’ to the Sandro Tonali situation and the claimed Tottenham interest and bid piece on BBC Sport:
‘So SCR is working nicely. Spurs and Liverpool breaking the bank, whilst Newcastle and Villa look to be selling off their best players again. What a meritocracy.’
‘Newcastle don’t have to sell him. They will consider selling him if they get an offer for extremely good money, and can secure a replacement without Big 6 clubs jumping in and turning their head.
Call me sceptical but I think clubs are reluctant to commit so much money to a ban risk, and I don’t think Big 6 revenue monsters can stop themselves stealing Newcastle targets. My instinct is he stays.’
‘Very correct imo. Newcastle are far better placed to keep a player, as it will be a long time before Tottenham can match anything Newcastle could achieve.’
‘Same situation as last year, Newcastle have said what it will take to sell him: £100m (or maybe £120m) plus their having signed a replacement.
I suspect the main difference is Tonali is a professional who will honour his contract instead of throwing his toys out of the pram, feigning injury, ducking out of a club tour, running away to Spain and putting out childish “he said she said” statements.’
‘I’m sure Tonali can do a lot better than Spurs.
All Spurs have done is alert better teams to the race for him.’
‘He’s already doing 5 places better than Spurs.
12 places better the previous season.’
‘So, what you’re saying is that other clubs weren’t aware of Tonali’s talent until Spurs put a bid in?’
‘Middle or lower middle makes no difference. Tottenham have more potential. Newcastle is just a feeder club to the mid table.’
‘Tonali won’t waste his best years at Newcastle, guaranteed.’
‘It’s so obvious that so many don’t understand Spurs’s finances. The one thing Levy did was leave the coffers full, he was averse to spending it! Plus we won the UEL and made a good fist of the UCL until the Tudor debacle. With the new spending rules, not being in Europe give more wriggle room too.
I think it also shows how ridiculous the market has become, prices and wages are, imo, obscene.’
”Spuds had their pants pulled down by Brighton and they’re about to have them pulled down again by Newcastle.
At least Spuds are spreading the wealth!’
‘You do understand that the PSR rules had to be signed off by the majority of the premier clubs at the time. If it was only the 6 clubs it would never of been ratified. Its a shame more fans don’t care enough about protecting their club and are willing to put the club they claim to support in jeopardy to spend way beyond their means.’
‘The clubs that have no hope of catching the Big 6 were always going to agree to it. They don’t like having 6 uncatchable monsters they have to contend with, but from their point of view it’s better than having 7, or 8, or 9.
And the 6 clubs who initiated the thing knew that fine well. The aspirational clubs (probably Newcastle, Villa and Forest) would always be in a minority.’
‘And this is what stinks in the kingdom of the Premier League. Spurs finished one place above relegation, have no European football yet have the resources to go in for £100m + players? Have they sold anyone worth that much to start with? Yet Newcastle can’t get a round of drinks in without worrying about PSR and FFP. How do these clubs pay the wages without penalty? Crazy.’
‘And £700m in debt. Yet still allowed to spend hundreds of millions more than the other 14 teams.
PSR totally ignores the possibility of their revenue taking a sudden dramatic drop and them ending up in real financial trouble.
According to the PL’s FFP rules it’s absolutely impossible that a club like Spurs could ever get relegated.’
‘PSR works for the so-called Big Six. Why the hell should Beyonce concerts and NFL games give you more to spend in the PL? It stinks, it’s corrupt, and until they punish clubs like Cheatski and 115FC properly – not clubs like Everton and Hull – then the putrid stench will never go away.’
‘You really don’t understand how PSR works. Spurs generate massive income so they can spend. Newcastle generate match day income and not much else. If Newcastle want to spend, generate income from sources other than football.’
‘Getting income from other sources should not be allowed.’
‘Absolutely right , totally corrupt !’
‘Tottenham are THE example of building up a club without oil or Russian money. The club is run as a sustainable business and it’s taken 20 years to get to where it is. This is why I don’t pity Newcastle or Villa as much because Spurs are the model showing how it can be done within FFP and PSR.’
‘What’s questionable is that Newcastle spent years as a mid-table or relegation-threatened club, only to be transformed overnight by one of the wealthiest ownership groups in world football. Money can buy players and success, but it can’t buy the history, tradition, or achievements that other clubs have spent decades building.’
‘Newcastle fans deluded enough to think they’ve a big club after a couple top 5 finishes and a league cup. Complaining that spurs can spend money, even though spurs only spend what they make. They’re not relying on a state fund to buy success.’
‘You understand PSR applies to Newcastle too, right..?
Having a state fund is pointless if a) 6 clubs with much much much higher revenues have decided to implement a revenue-based regulatory system; and b) every time you bid for a player within the PSR rules, one of those 6 clubs hijack the move and offer much higher wages.
But yeah, keep pushing that completely irrelevant talking point!’
‘(Sunderland fan) Tonali will go for 90m probably I think, he’s not a 100m player. Not unique enough.’
‘I don’t think Spurs planned to be bad last season either.
They had ambition last season as well – don’t get relegated – and it worked, just!
‘The Big 6 are removing Newcastle’s incentive to sell players to them by blocking their attempts to buy new players.
If we have to press on with the same squad, so be it.
Last season’s cup performances were fine and there were many, many league games that were tight and may well have gone the other way without Euro-fatigue or if our strikers had had a proper pre-season.’
‘(Sunderland fan) The most important players in the team will leave now and next summer, that is obvious now if Tonali wants out even.’
‘To be fair, I haven’t even heard that Tonali has said he “wants to leave” Newcastle.
All I’ve heard is reports that he is allegedly open to moving to spurs….anyone can make those comments up whether it’s actually been said or not!’
‘Well Tonali had clearly already spoken to Spurs and decided to go there or they wouldn’t have bidded.’
‘”Clearly?”
Newcastle bid all the time for players. Sometimes they’ve spoken to them in advance, sometimes they haven’t, sometimes the players have agreed terms and expressed a willingness to sign.
It means absolutely nothing.’
‘What’s wrong is trying to work within the financial restraints, imposed by the Premier League. They were under the guise of ensuring clubs were safe from reckless spending, but they’re more specifically designed to hamper clubs with rich owners (so no chance of going into administration) from spending freely. Big 6 don’t fancy a challenge’
‘Spurs have been well within FFP for years and could still spend a ton of money without breaching rules, hundreds of millions even. They are clearly going for it this summer and I think this is one of many that’s going to happen, especially when they start to sell on the deadwood like Romero etc’
‘Spurs are “clearly going for it”, what are Spurs clearly going for? Having less than three Managers in one season, or finishing next season in the heady heights of mid table obscurity? Help me out here.’
‘I’ve been reading some of the comments, and what I really don’t understand is why Newcastle fans hate Spurs so much. As a Spurs fan, I couldn’t give a monkeys about a club 300 miles up the road. And as for selling their best players to Spurs… they’ve been doing it for decades. Waddle, Gazza, Ginola, Les Ferdinand – and the list goes on.’
‘Oh and thanks for the cash from Sissoko too. By the way spurs have a current gross financial dept of approx £851 million.’
‘I can’t see anywhere that anyone has said they hate spurs. In fact spurs are probably the london team the majority of fans from Newcastle don’t mind. The bars in Newcastle were all shouting for spurs season last in your Europa League final. Poor comment.’
‘If Tonali is valued at more than £80m, Anderson at over £120m and an untested 19 year old Ivorian at over £120m then this is going to be a very painful window for everyone. It is getting ridiculous.’
‘Newcastle fans are basically angry that they can’t financially dope their way to success.
Top clubs can spend big money because they’ve sustained success in some manner for decades, Newcastle are not in that category and PSR is there so that an oil state (for example) doesn’t come in and destroy the league. City/Etihad are about to learn this the hard way.’
‘Given that Tonali is contracted to Newcastle until 2030, if Spurs want to buy him then they will need to dig deeper and pay the £100M asking price. This will be a good test if the Spurs Board have turned over a new leaf and will pursue a player whatever it takes. Sadly that was clearly not the case in previous seasons.’