Benwell Lad

Ticket prices are expensive and have shot up rapidly, but how often you go, how many shirts etc you buy, where you travel to, and in what style, really are lifestyle choices like anything else, albeit one that most of us have very little choice in because we were born into it. It might be golf, theatre, good restaurants, travel or many different things, it all adds up and it gets expensive.

He must have got confused, the post was supposed to be for the Miley thread.

Going to be another very tough game.

Yes. Nick is an exceptional player, something different, but he's young and new to the PL. Good thing is he comes across as intelligent, calm and humble so he should pick things up very quite quickly.

Shaking things up with Wissa on a match to match or in match basis, even playing them together at times will help him a lot.

It was full, except the away section, despite so many tickets on resale, but overall a very poor atmosphere. Some midweek games there's this sense that "I'm here and so pleased to be part of this occasion" last night it felt more like "I'm here because I have to be". 8.15 is a really shit kick off time, yes it's only 30 minutes later than normal but it affects so many last buses and trains home and even little things like that impact.

Got to say I really like Ramsdale and glad he's at the club and I'm fully aware of the parts of his game where he's stronger than Pope but Pope saves both of those efforts last night, he really is a shot stopper supreme and we need to appreciate that. We've got two very good keepers in the club and we need them both in the matchday squad. At the minute we're a mistimed tackle or muscle strain away from Jak Alnwick playing against the mackems.

"I have a slot available on Saturday morning at my kids' coaching classes if you're interested, but I'm not really sure what I could do about the attitude problems"

I'm no great fan of stats as presented nowadays, and sure they can be misleading over a short period, but eventually they start creating a picture. In fact it's a huge part of modern day football planning and coaching. There's no way they are not aware of it. Perhaps they're just well ahead of the game in terms of evolution, 532, 433, 442 whatever, play out from the back, high press, revert to long direct etc. Maybe they've formulated a genius system where somehow you can be second best at everything except scoring

Agree with all of that but if I supported them, god forbid, of course I'd be delighted with the way things have panned out, but being a pragmatist I'd be very concerned at how you can play sixteen consecutive games in which you are second best in all the major statistical metrics despite the results. If games were decided on xG ( I know they're not ) I think they'd have lost every game this season as well as the play offs. It's unsustainable and they will be found out eventually, but every game their luck holds out is another step toward safety. For now.

Without even having seen him in a Newcastle shirt you just know that, with him being the type of player he is, we would have extra points on the board had he played. The absence of an out and out central striker definitely cost us in games like Villa, Leeds and Liverpool for example. Looking forward to seeing him, we continue to be a dream set up for an out and out striker.

Goes without saying that to be a top player you need an incredible first touch but this kid's first touch is just something else.

It's not like his emergence is a surprise either, he looked superb at Chelsea as a kid when he first emerged. Can only assume Newcastle offered him a clearer pathway.

It's not just maturity beyond his years it's also versatility way beyond his tender years too and still so much to come in an attacking sense as his game grows and he starts to express himself more. Yesterday, or what he does in the future, really shouldn't surprise anyone, he was putting in strong performances against top class opposition two years ago as a 17 year old. Since then he's been playing very much to instruction in his limited game time.

As always UEFA will sweep any negative stuff under the carpet. They won't associate anything negative with their shiny jewel product. It's bad from a marketing point of view, and the reality is they give not one fuck about what real fans have to put up with when travelling to these places that have had the same problem for years, without ever being addressed. A UEFA official and a French politician should be made to endure the day long fan experience and see what it really is. Perhaps an investigative journalist (if such a thing still exists rather than UEFA's client journalists) may find a trip away to certain places interesting ? Glad that the club are at least making some kind of stand.

Wonder if half the cheeky lovable scouse chappies will now desert them like they did when things went badly under Roy Hodgson.

True, Brits are not good, but in fairness a lot is to do with the necessity to be able to speak the language and level of exposure to it. English is the international language. What would help Brits abroad a lot would be, at very least, that they realise they're talking to someone who's first language isn't English and not some bloke in their local pub on a Friday night.

It's like we spend all this time scouting and spending hundreds of millions and somehow we end up with a squad of eleven players. OK slight exaggeration. 14 or 15 players.

Yeah we were beaten by a better team. If only every fixture was played at home under the lights we might start progressing

Howay the Reyrolles !

It would definitely be their best ever seller

Sadly across the nation Sunderland's identity nowadays is probably framed by the Brexit night referendum count, and the gullible celebrating the division and economic hardship it was about to bring, especially in deprived areas of the north east - oh the irony.

Aren't the majority of major cities in the UK "by the sea" ? What a weird thing to use in an attempt to create an identity .

Any outfield fit first team squad member who didn't play on Saturday surely has to feature at some point tomorrow night ?

"£125M player makes his own chances" Yeah, like a top PL club eyeing a decade of domination might do it's homework on what makes a player tick before shelling out £125M on him.