midds

I'm not too disheartened by the developments tbh, they've made the bids which means the money is there to be spent. We're not done for this window by a long shot, cash has been put up and if it's not spent on Maddison then it'll be spent on someone else in the next month. Also encouraged by Howe's quotes today as they know exactly where they're looking to strengthen and they'll have a list and they'll fill those gaps and I'm 100% on that. That said I'd still like Maddison, I think he'll add goals, quality and creativity when we're all crying out for exactly that, it seems to be the only thing that's missing. I'm slightly concerned that this might be out one and only chance to get him though, if he's still available next year then we don't stand a chance, it's shit or bust. But if it doesn't happen then fair enough, Leicester are asking a good price for a good player, they're doing exactly what they should be doing. Either way I'm pretty chill about it

I don't think any neutral fan would think "Leicester have had their eyes out there mind" if we eventually ended up paying about £50m(ish) for Maddison. I think that's a perfectly reasonable deal to make and some would argue that's still a little on the cheap side given how good he is, we're certainly not being ripped off here. It's a big fee for a very good player, these are the fees that will eventually need to be paid out if they're serious about moving into a position to have a crack at the top 6.

If (big if) we got him then do you think Howe would switch to a 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot of Bruno and Joelinton? Or do you just put him on the right of the midfield 3?

I'll stand by this tbh

It is it

'spitballing' surely?

The fact Fofana has 5 years left and Maddison only has 2 will come into play. Leicester know they only have 2.5 windows left to flog Maddison before his value is 0, they can be much bolder when handling the Fofana situation as there is no rush at all, they can dig their heels in and demand whatever they like for Fofana but the clock is very much ticking for Maddison. I'll stick my neck on the line and say he'll be in the squad for Saturday

Utter rubbish. It was 80%

Absolutely no beef with Leicester at all tbh. Was rooting for them when they won the League as 5000/1 outsiders and it must have been unbelievable. To follow it up with a decent run in Europe and an FA Cup a few years later is also unheard of here. Well run club, liked the owners and they way the players responded after the helicopter crash was very dignified and classy.

Cleaning house

£40m is pretty low tbh but who ever accepts the first offer? They'll have a price and it'll probably be fairly high and it's fair enough as he's quality. It's up to us to creep towards the price until the number becomes big enough for them to agree to it. Who on earth says "right, what do you want for Maddison?"......"£60m. Not a penny less"......"ok, here's £60m and we'll give you another £10m next summer just to make sure". It's the very start of negotiating a deal, for all we know things could have happened today that haven't even made the press yet.

When I think of a classic Haaland goal it always involves him running at pace at a defence who can't handle him. He runs past them and smashes it into the net, that seems to be his forte and he's unreal at that, quick break and he's probably the best in the world at punishing it. But City don't play like that. They dominate possession, the opposition sit deep and allow no space to run into, the quick breaks I'm imagining just wont happen. They need movement in the box rather than his sprint into the box. He's obviously still a fantastic striker and he'll still score loads but he'll need to adapt his game. He'll need to be sharp in the box rather than outside of it, find space rather than use his pace to run into space. He'll score loads but he'll need to adapt.

Strange things can happen when playing a team where about 6 or 7 are making their debuts. I'd much rather play them in November but that's the way it's worked so fuck it. Should beat them but they'll be far easier to beat after the WC after the momentum has disappeared. Worst time to play them tbh.

Fuck that shit, I want every single position filled (with proper backups) and I want it right now. Fuck your 'building', I want it all and I want it sorting this summer. I'm not prepared to wait. This is outrageous.

Looks a diamond on first viewing. As he should for the money we paid obviously but he's unphased by anything and deals with everything with minimal fuss. Didn't seem to get caught out of position, read the game well and can also pick a pass into midfield too. He's another rock (alongside Bruno) who will be here for years to build a team around, he's excellent

Don't think you go in with £40m then just drop it immediately once they, correctly, reject it out of hand. If they were prepared to drop 40 then they'll be back in this week with 48+. Once the numbers get that big then a deal becomes more likely as the 2 sides edge closer. Not saying it'll definitely happen but this is the start of it, not the end of it imo

Dummett is absolutely fine until you ask him to actually play football

MLFs currently sobbing uncontrollably, frantically smashing the messages out whilst wiping mascara all over their faces like jilted lovers

In the 26th minute he controlled a pass into him, took a further 2 simple touches then laid the ball off to a teammate about 7 yards away. This was the first adequate thing he did in the match. He's so far removed from being a threat that it's just embarrassing at this point. He's a lemon, they bought a dud and he'll not be the last dud they buy either. The lad simply offers zero, he tries, he's sometimes involved in play and I'm sitting there begging him to not be awful when he gets the ball but he invariably just is.

Hard to believe just 12 months ago a sizeable chunk of Newcastle fans would have willingly and genuinely accepted relegation to get rid of Ashley. Yet here we are. Moaning because we still have 2 positions to cover and only a handful of Internationals to do it.

Bruce mused... Lying fat knacker is absolutely shameless. I'll not look back at his time here with anything other than shame, embarrassment and disgust. He is, was, and always will be an obnoxious, incompetent, gormless, classless fat cunt.

Same here. Depends on how much you normally bet probably.

Wonder how they'd react if roles were reversed and Newcastle fans in a queue were spoken to by a Sunderland security guard like that?

Here's the man I trust

Not going to pretend I know how or why this has happened, no clue whatsoever. But I do know that in the past few weeks/months we've appointed 3 people who were specifically chosen for their expertise in running large football clubs behind the scenes. We've also dropped £90m+ in January, and £60m+ this summer already. This is already on top of the billion the Saudis spent to drop the piracy claims which allowed them to drop a further £300m+ to buy the club and doesn't include the cash spent on SJP or the plans to upgrade the training facilities. It's pretty clear they're in this for the long haul and not exactly pissing about, they want to row the club asap and if bringing forward the guaranteed payments id what they've decided to do then I'm going to let them get on with it. I reckon they know exactly what they're doing and it'll all make sense in due time, I'm just going to roll with it and look forward to Friday night.