Greg

Use the match thread now: http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,99998.0.html

Not unless they have got their hands on a time machine.

We can't go half a season with our only midfield options being Merino, Diame and Hayden. Two of them aren't good enough and one is very inconsistent in his first season in a new league. I can't see anyone being willing to buy Shelvey either, even with these links to West Ham. The fat cunt needs to find £30m for a new striker without selling any of our starting players.

Because people think it may be the only way we can buy and he's been s****. To be fair to Shelvey he has nobody to play the ball to. The 4 players in front on the centre mid are not intelligent enough and have s*** movement. If we weren't so rigid in attack he may shine a lot more. Merino suffered from the exact same issues against Brighton.

Yes because whenever we've sold first team players in the last ten years under Ashley they've always been replaced.

Would take some form to get to 12 points clear of relegation.

Carl Serrant.

Saivet perhaps. Merino had a stinker 2 days ago and isn't fit enough for two games in three days.

What nonsense. It reeks of setting up a pacey team to counter attack away from home. Would you prefer long balls to Joselu?

Decent team tbh given the options and given many games in just a few days.

2-2!

Murphy as a 10 maybe?

Played his best football for up front when he first arrived.

SCFC: Butland; Edwards, Zouma, Wimmer Pieters, Cameron; Adam, Allen, Shaqiri; Choupo-Moting, Crouch Subs: Grant, Ireland, Berahino, Diouf, Fletcher, Ramadan, Souttar NUFC: Darlow; Yedlin, Lascelles, Clark, Manquillo; Ritchie, Murphy, Shelvey, Atsu, Diame; Perez. Subs: Woodman, Dummett, Haidara, Hayden, Merino, Gayle, Joselu. Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Manchester) Attendance: 28,471 Final score: 0-1 73' Perez Booked: Wimmer Choupo-Moting Allen Manquillo Sent off: Post-match reaction can be found from here: http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,99998.msg6600715.html#msg6600715 UK Television coverage: None Radio coverage: BBC Radio Newcastle Online radio coverage: https://www.nufc.co.uk/liveaudio.html PLEASE DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DISCUSS, REQUEST OR PROVIDE LINKS TO ILLEGAL MATCH STREAMS. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL BE BANNED. See www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php?topic=19161.0 for more information.

They were scared of attacking us. And we were scared of attacking them after 5 home defeats in a row.

Mathew Ryan keeping Brighton in it.

No new signings yet. Ashley out.

Players half-arsed tracking back, nobody willing to take responsibility in the middle of the park, half arsed casual passing, aimless hoofs rather than thinking about it and an obvious lack of movement up top. Those boos are kinda justified imo. A lot of these are not down to not working hard - some ability and many not being able to handle the pressure or not having the balls to take risks. They should be rousing themselves to get over the pressure and should find the balls to take those risks. I’ve been critical of the crowd a lot in the past and Saturday p*ssed me off at times too but I think the players not having it within themselves to shake off such fear was bordering into the lazy department. It’s game of football, not a war zone. If you can’t, at some point, find the courage to take risks and drop any fear of making a mistake in front of a big crowd then why are you in football? But then that’s the problem with the state of the game in regards to average/poor players at this level being on massive money, that then becomes a comfort zone. We have a very young team and it's nothing new, we suffered with the same issues last season. SJP is clearly a hard place to play football for our team when we aren't winning. The mental side of things is very complicated, what you are saying is akin to telling someone with depressing to just man up - it's a lot more complicated than that. Obviously I wouldn’t think of telling someone with depression to man up but I know what your saying. The thing is the support has been good at times this year. Granted not all the time and there’s still that whingey element but I think SJP used to be a lot, lot worse between late SBR era up till 2008. There’s always good support from the Gallowgate end now. A lot of fans are singing there hearts out non-stop and I can’t believe the players can’t hear it, towards that side of the pitch anyway. It’s there to feed off. There wasn’t any disssent at the beginning of the game v Brighton and I thought we looked nervous from the off. The mental side is complicated I agree. But this is what they’ve trained for & strived for. Playing in front of a crowd has been factored into their careers more and more through their development. It’s not like they’ve only just began to play in stadiums. There was too much of an acceptance that we weren’t going to win from the players, to me, whatever the reason. I agree. I do wonder if, given our recent run, Rafa had simply instructed them to take no risks and make sure we don't get beat first and foremost and that was playing on their minds. We lacked urgency or desire to get forward throughout the game. Darlow slow with his distribution, Yedlin barely crossed the half way line bar a few times etc. Both central midfielders sitting very deep, too deep for my liking. As if we were set up not to get beat. Perhaps a mixture of both but we had lost the last five in a row at home.

Players half-arsed tracking back, nobody willing to take responsibility in the middle of the park, half arsed casual passing, aimless hoofs rather than thinking about it and an obvious lack of movement up top. Those boos are kinda justified imo. A lot of these are not down to not working hard - some ability and many not being able to handle the pressure or not having the balls to take risks. They should be rousing themselves to get over the pressure and should find the balls to take those risks. I’ve been critical of the crowd a lot in the past and Saturday p*ssed me off at times too but I think the players not having it within themselves to shake off such fear was bordering into the lazy department. It’s game of football, not a war zone. If you can’t, at some point, find the courage to take risks and drop any fear of making a mistake in front of a big crowd then why are you in football? But then that’s the problem with the state of the game in regards to average/poor players at this level being on massive money, that then becomes a comfort zone. We have a very young team and it's nothing new, we suffered with the same issues last season. SJP is clearly a hard place to play football for our team when we aren't winning. The mental side of things is very complicated, what you are saying is akin to telling someone with depressing to just man up - it's a lot more complicated than that.

Not possible as per Premier League rules. If Toon No9 wants to wear a coat, I can't see the the Premier League can do much about it. Depends if it's a Canada Goose?

Players half-arsed tracking back, nobody willing to take responsibility in the middle of the park, half arsed casual passing, aimless hoofs rather than thinking about it and an obvious lack of movement up top. Those boos are kinda justified imo. A lot of these are not down to not working hard - some ability and many not being able to handle the pressure or not having the balls to take risks.

I reckon they still want to buy, just not the price Ashley is wanting because of the real fear of relegation. It's obviously a factor otherwise the deal would have been done by now. I agree this seems to be the sticking point from what we've heard, but Ashley clearly also now wants out which gives me some hope that a compromise can be reached. Though we know with Ashley is a hard bugger to deal with. The curry and photos are a bit odd given how things have now panned out. Interesting times, but we shall see. We're screwed if the club isn't sold.

It's all conjecture. All we know is that reputable sources have said that PCP remain confident of doing a deal but no deal has been done yet and that MA is away on holiday. These things take time when done properly. Time will tell. We all know that Ashley has wanted out for over a year now, and every decision at the club has been made with that in mind. Justin Barnes was brought into the club to help sell it, the lead up to this has been ongoing for a while. If PCP thought there was no prospect of a deal they would have walked away by now.