2025-26 Season - Discussion Thread
 

pre-season begins in earnest

Man Utd held to a 0-0 draw by Leeds United in the first pre-season friendly of the 25-26 season.

Celtic 4 Newcastle 0 lol

Not sure why we are starting this thread so early or even bothering to report preseason results....they're irrelevant.

Only objective is to get match fit without getting hurt.....

Yeah just messing around. Obviously a meaningless result.

[QUOTE=mfw13;19965764]Not sure why we are starting this thread so early

Only objective is to get match fit without getting hurt.....[/QUOTE]

Because 25/26 is underway. There’s life outside the big four leagues!

Yes, 2025/26 definitely underway, including preliminary rounds in the main UEFA competitions. These are very important across many footballing countries due to the potential profile and revenue in qualifying for the Group stages.

Shelbourne (Republic of Ireland) defeated Linfield (Northern Ireland) in the initial Champions League preliminary round. It has been a fairly disappointing set of results for Northern Ireland teams so far; Cliftonville were put out by St Joseph's of Gilbratrar.

Anybody else think that it's weird that the transfer deadline is always several weeks into the season?

Why not make the transfer deadline 72 hours before the first league match of the season?

It's not like clubs don't already have plenty of time to get transfers done! Making the deadline August 31st/September 1st just allows clubs to drag their feet.

Well, the Premier League tried to stop that a few years ago and it flopped massively. It meant that Premier League teams were helpless as European clubs picked off their players and they were completely powerless to replace them.

[QUOTE=YayNJ;19966166]Well, the Premier League tried to stop that a few years ago and it flopped massively. It meant that Premier League teams were helpless as European clubs picked off their players and they were completely powerless to replace them.[/QUOTE]

I was thinking that it would be uniform across UEFA, not EPL only.

All the various leagues generally start the same weekend these days.

Rangers Vs ex- Champions League Finalists Panathinaikos tonight in the CL for all you fanatics.

[QUOTE=YayNJ;19967781]Rangers Vs ex- Champions League Finalists Panathinaikos tonight in the CL for all you fanatics.[/QUOTE]

Will definitely watch the game. Its a big on for Greece

Isak demanding £300,000 a week to stay at Newcastle.

[I]for the love of the game [/I]

[QUOTE=YayNJ;19968385]Isak demanding £300,000 a week to stay at Newcastle. [/QUOTE]

That was "reported" by one questionable source.....no idea if it's true or not....lots of poorly sources rumors and leaks out there.

That said, it's not an unreasonable amount for a top striker....Haaland, Mbappe, and Lewandowski are reportedly on 500K+ a week, and Harry Kane is on roughly 480K a week at Bayern Munich.

[QUOTE=mfw13;19968443]That was "reported" by one questionable source.....no idea if it's true or not....lots of poorly sources rumors and leaks out there.

That said, it's not an unreasonable amount for a top striker....Haaland, Mbappe, and Lewandowski are reportedly on 500K+ a week, and Harry Kane is on roughly 480K a week at Bayern Munich.[/QUOTE]

Graeme Bailey is 100% legit, he's well connected in the North East. He does write for some crap websites though.

Isak left out of the Newcastle pre-season squad.

Isak tells Newcastle he wants to leave.

That's a massive blow for the Magpies.

For Isak the wage demands and the transfer fee Newcastle will ask for means the market for him is really small. I know there's a lot of talk about Liverpool (with Ektitke?) but they've spent an absolute boatload this summer. Chelsea or Saudi seem the best bets.

It's all a shame - he's a great player and he and Newcastle have both benefitted from their marriage. Of course, as a Gunners fans, I'd be happy to see him move to some other league and never play him again.

Realistically he's got a choice between Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea. Maybe Arsenal.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris.

Personally, I think he goes to Liverpool. Infact, I'm certain he will.

[QUOTE=YayNJ;19969832]Isak tells Newcastle he wants to leave.

That's a massive blow for the Magpies.[/QUOTE]

We've yet to hear a single word from Isak himself.....for all we know it's just his agent posturing and leaking to friendly journalists....hasn't been a single quote from a named source yet....just a lot of anonymous sources.

Given the timing (i.e. late in the window after most other clubs that he could potentially move to have already spent big), this seems like a poorly timed effort by his agent to put pressure on Newcastle.

Given that he's under contract for [B]three[/B] more seasons, Newcastle don't have to do anything. Isak can decide whether he wants to show up and play under his current contract or actually start losing money by refusing to play.

Also worth noting is that Newcastle current highest earner is Bruno, the team captain, on 160K a week.....Isak is asking 300K, and Newcastle have offered 200K.

As good as he is when healthy, he also seems to suffer from a lot of niggly injuries, which may be why Newcastle are reluctant to offer too much more than they have. Likewise, given that their revenues are a lot lower than the perennial Champions League clubs, they also have to worry about PSR, as well as the fact that giving Isak a huge raise might lead other Newcastle players to also ask for raises, thus busting their wage structure.

Newcastle fell to an Arsenal team today that fielded a child that only recently turned 15 years old.

are we putting real stock in pre-season results?

Dele Ali ditched by Como after just 9 minutes of football... what a fall from grace that lad has had. Rightly considered one of the best attacking midfielders in the world when he was 20/21 years of age.

Three big games in the Champions League tonight

Red Bull Salzburg Vs. Club Brugge
Feyenoord Vs. Fenerbahce
Nice Vs. Benfica

My EPL predictions...with what we have seen in the transfer market, I think this is going to be one of the most exciting seasons we have seen in a long time. I want to see the season go down to the final day. I genuinely think any of the top 3 have the chance to win the league, and more importantly, I don't think all of the promoted 3 are going back down.

1. Liverpool
2. Arsenal
3. Chelsea
4. Manchester City
5. Aston Villa
6. Manchester United
7. Tottenham
8. Newcastle United
9. Everton
10. Crystal Palace
11. Brighton
12. Nottingham Forest
13. Fulham
14. Bournemouth
15. Leeds United
16. Wolverhampton
17. Sunderland
18. West Ham
19. Brentford
20. Burnley

FA Cup: Chelsea
Carabao Cup: Everton
Europa League: Aston Villa
Champions League: Barcelona

Pointless to make any predictions until the transfer window closes.....

And beyond idiotic that the transfer window remains open for two weeks after the season starts.....why not close the transfer window at 11:59pm on the night before the first match of the season?