The College Dropout

They played better against Liverpool. But Liverpool put up more of a fight.

Honestly don’t like that. PSG were great but Inter were bad. PAG weren’t even that great either.

On paper Villa might Be better than Inter.

The semi?

Inter have played too nice. Should’ve started aggressively, fouls and all. Try to rattle PSG physically and mentally. Tbeuve let PSG dance all game

Often does that when I see him. He looks great on the eye the way he plays but….

Inter need to get to kicking PSG and grown manning them.

Oh and he's got no presence.

No he is not. All that shouting he does unsettles a defence. Pickford does not command his area because he's too small - inviting pressure on a defence. Nick Pope coming and plucking balls from the sky does so much to reduce pressure on our defence and act as a leader. Pickford can be a ping a ball and is a good shot stopper. And to his credit, always turns up and performs for England. But he wouldn't be an improvement on Pope for us. He's only 31, rarely injured. We could get him for a decent fee... but he wouldn't be an upgrade.

Nick Pope is better than Jordan Pickford though.

Good.

Because Trent is brilliant at defending

I’m with you here. But nothing concrete has landed. Tonali came out of left field though rather than months of rumour. I’m

I don’t agree. People act like Bruno Fernandes is prime Gareth Bale.

Florian Havwirtz

I’m convinced you can’t build an elite side with Bruno Fernandes. If they get Cunha that would have replaced the goals and assists. Cunha + £40m is a great deal for them.

They don't have a RB at all

Our best players were signed from abroad. I'm happy to continue with that. Howe was happy to go for Etikite and JP previously.

Is he the only person at the club that does this? Mitchell's job was to sign players, negotiate contracts and negotiate sales. The identification of players will involve numerous people/scouts, manager. No way does Mitchell lead the scouting, that's not his job. His job was to set direction on what the scouts should look for and decide who we should decide and work with CEO on budgeting and strategy. Mitchell might have an in with certain agents though.

Honestly, don't think Fernandes will be a crazy loss.

Constantly changing DOFs now doesn’t have a massive impact. None of them have stayed long enough to have made a meaningful long term impact that we’ll have to adjust.

This is not true. The biggest issue is our FFP position. We did plenty of work with no DOF. We did plenty of work with Ashworth. We had little money to spend with Mitchell. Next season we’ve got some funds from sales, additional sponsor revenue and additional revenues from CL. We’ll get work done. From the recruitment side all we’ve lost is a negotiator. Nickson, Howe nephew, Howe, the data and scouts all still there

From what I can see. They use consultants to hire "best in class" people. But they aren't strongly led or empowered in strategic direction. And as you say, big decisions are slow. Staveley is a big miss. She had drive, direction and influence, although she seems to love spending other people's money a bit recklessly. Disappointed in Eales handling of the DOF role. It seems a power play in retrospect because he didn't have the power.

I do think journalists do hear things they can't share - frequently. I've not paid close attention but oftentimes they do share small tidbits that turn out to have a lot of truth behind them. Football clubs are fairly large businesses. Newcastle isn't that big of a city.

I've said this for a long time. Ligue 1 is the best league for it too - physical. La Liga, Belgium works well. I think FSG are looking into it. Chelsea, Man City, Brighton already at it. It's part of my "PIF don't do everything they can to make us a success" view. They give our rivals massive money. They don't use the Saudi league to park players for us.