The College Dropout

Neither was Hall at 18 really. I think both have tremendously high ceilings.

PL clubs that will have FFP issues I'm guessing: Leicester Chelsea Maybe Forest Dont' see anyone else. §

Think it's a fairly high priority if we finish in the CL. Massive drop off from The Shield to any of their understudies. We need a 4th musketeer to compete with them. RW GK CB CM Fullback ST

MLS is the real deal but Hall is more developed imo. Tuchel is taking a proper 16-month view of the England squad maybe even shorter. Kyle Walker will be 36 at the World Cup. Take him out.

More impressively - he’s found different ways to do it.

I’ve always been impressed with how he has overcome difficult periods. I thought he did well to get 7th last season. Mid season I think he made a lot of mistakes but we ended strongly. This season I had no idea what to expect. Would we challenge with top 5 due to less games? Would we fall away due to squad staleness? I backed Howe to get the full season no matter what but I was deeply concerned after West Ham. I never questioned his job but all the indicators were poor. Then we turned it around. Went on a great run. Most people in football media expected us to fade this season. Few pundits expected us to get Europe at all. Now o would be disappointed with anything less than Europa League.

We wouldn’t be as successful as we’ve been without Saudi ownership. The potential we have now has had a tangible impact on performance and bringing in best of class ppl. And also several of our largest sponsors are Saudi owned.

If the current top 3 (City not Forest) put up the money Isak would go. None of them will imo.

If they have the money I think Liverpool, City & Arsenal could sign him and he would go for football reasons. Being able to stump up the cash for him is a sign of intent but I can only see Liverpool being willing to go there. But as you say, it's a different day and era. The top 6 no longer exist in terms of on-the-pitch success. After Leicester won the PL the top 6 monopolised the CL places for 7-8 years straight. In that period, moving to any of the top 6 clubs was a genuine step up for footballing reasons. We will have a 3rd season in a row where a non-top 6 club will qualify for the CL again. Us doing so for the second time in 3 years. The only PL clubs that are worth moving from us need to be title challengers, the top 3 of the previous 2 seasons.

My guess is that HBA had a poor work ethic in training and in games. And a spikey personality. That’s fine when the team is winning and he’s magic. That’s Eric Cantona. But on a losing team that quickly becomes a massive issue. That side particularly got through on waves of good form where team spirit, last ditch tackles etc. won points. If HBA went on to become Eric Cantona I would say the squad was wrong. But HBA only ever thrived as a big fish in a small pond at a few clubs for a short period. Most times he would fall out with the coach or squad.

I don’t say it half heartedly when I say he was gifted. But he doesn’t last 6 months with Howe. Hatem played more league games for Pardew than any other manager he played for according to his wiki. I can’t look at how Ben Arfa’s career panned out and think Pardew was the core of the problem with Hatem here. By all accounts the squad had soured on HBA by the time he was ostracised. And that was a lenient dressing room considering Pardew himself never fully lost them. Ben Arfa was more talented than Karim Benzema. A talent like that doesn’t end up at Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United without significant character defects.

You think Howe would tolerate Ben Arfa? You think Ben Arfa could tolerate Howe for 3.5 years? Fantastically gifted player that fell out with most of his managers and team mates throughout his career.

Anita Colback Sissoko Jonas Obertan Cisse Williamson Yanga Mbiwa Santon etc. Mediocre. Only players from that era that maybe startfor us now - Remy and Cabaye. Maybe.

I’d like PIF to set up an expensive invitational tournament that we get invited too every season. Bring a red top a long so it’s legal.

Aye people thought managers couldn’t get any worse. So Ashley didn’t bother appointing one. Then appointed a worse one. It was the Pardew era when I finally understood Ashley’s game. Truly honourable men that want to be the best they can be don’t work - they demand too much from Ashley - so they left/got sacked that’s Houghton and Rafa. Overly incompetent leads to relegation like McClaren or Carver. So you want someone that will keep us in the PL more often than not in your Pardews and Bruce. Thats the sweet spot.