The College Dropout

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.

That squad was so over rated. Brilliant footballers = Ba, HBA, Cabaye. Remy, Debuchy, Colo at times. For much of his time Sissoko Cisse and co were our best players. Rivière Colback Anita. He wasn’t a great manager but he was more competent than McClaren who relegated us with a far better squad the next season. His smarminess probably helped him get along with footballers and he could ride waves of positivity into results. Something McClaren could never do. Don’t dislike McClaren either even though his bullshit interviews were worse always trying to smile and laugh things off. Pards always looked like death when under pressure which I kind of appreciate.

And the likes of Allardyce and Souness won’t even do that. They seem to have genuine contempt for the club and the fans. I don’t mind any of the other managers personally. They all tried their best. Some were better than others. Some were smarmy. The ones with proper professional pride didn’t last long under Ashley.

The ends justify the means.

Must be a bitter sweet feeling for the lad. Did he play in the QF or semi at all?

Brighton themselves are doing this by signing the likes of Minteh. A lot of our activity will depend on what European competition we end up in. Ultimately, the price someone was bought for last summer doesn't matter. We sold Minteh for 4x what we paid after 12 months - yeh he played in Europe but he mostly played at a lower level. He's a brilliant signing at £8m. At £30m, first year in the PL at 20 - he's playing to the level you would expect just about. The bit of pedigree and trajectory he has justifies the fee. Same with Huijsen potentially. I'm pretty confident we'll land a good CB whoever we eventually sign. There's a lot of talent out there. It's RW that's a bit more tricky and more varied profiles.

He was excellent. Still has so much to offer us. Get us back into the CL lad.

Rewatching the entire run in highlights because why not? We were 3-1 down in the shoot out to Forest. Totally forgot about that. Forest lads threw it away with Bruno and Longstaff holding their nerve.

IMO this season has been his worst. Last season he was superb from start to finish imo. Him, Isak,Schar, Tino, Gordon were the main reasons we finished a respectable 7th. Balled out.

Lascelles was captain and immediately dropped from the side. It says a lot about him as a professional that he kept his professionalism at the top level and made sure he was ready when his opportunity came. At times last season he was even zinging balls through the lines and out wide. I’ve got so much love for him, Krafth and the like. I never want a squad of over pampered primadonnas. If he wants a job in the backroom where he’s allowed to beat up lazy premierleague footballers let’s give it to him.

I had a few likely outcomes bfore the match: - Routine loss (like the others in my life). Lose to nil. Most likely. - Glorious defeat. Score a goal, probably concede late - nail biting win - Routine win (least likely) When Burn scored, routine loss was out but the glorious defeat and nail biting win the next most likely outcomes. So when Isak scored - after having one ruled out - it was the first time I was truly confident we would win. His composure helped as well. Like "wow... we are actually going to do this".

Building on this point. We've been talking about Phase 2 of our evolution. Replacing the last of the Ashley signings and first window signings - probably with younger players. Some of that is necessary but you don't want to fall into Spurs-ification with a lack of leadership. This is where i'm glad we have Howe. He's very big on personality profiles. He's signed a bunch of leaders in Trippier, Burn, Bruno and Sandro and we were linked with Guehi - another leader and top professional. I think Maresca has spoken about Tosin's leadership qualities too. As we eventually have to phase the Dan Burn, Fab Schar etc. out having Howe being so big on personality is massive. Also I guess the style of football requires all-action from everyone. Hall had to learn the mentality - he didn't come with it. Again without Howe I think you inevitably get Spurs-ification. A manager with little say in transfers, prioritising technical profiles over mental ones. Chelsea have become Spurs. Talented players but no bite. We need to think about that when we talk about how few targets we seem to have. We had 3 known CB targets - 2 with top mentality from what we know minimum

Squires did tbf. It’s all good joke and satire material.

Nunez has been particularly bad this season

Toni Kroos couldn’t run for the last 8 years of his career either. And put in half the graft. Bruno isn’t as good as Kroos but you can be world class and have deficiencies in your game. I think Tonali’s sometimes carelessness on the ball is a bigger weakness. If Tonali is an A Bruno is a A for me.

I’m the same - some variation of ‘rule that one off’. That feeling of righteous indignation. That ruled off one should’ve stood.

Fab isn't event that old for his position either. I can forgive Trippier for needing to "get up" for a big game but not managing to play at that level consistently. But Fab I expect to play closer to that level regularly.

He mentioned something I think is a big deal for Newcastle. We have a fairly old squad but it's a bit of an advantage. A lot of our squad players are older and proper good pros who want to be part of our success. Dubs has had his ups and downs but this season you can tell he has the bit between his teeth and his attitude has been phenomenal - he took his opportunity this season in a way he didn't last season. Lascelles, Krafth have both hit the ground running when brought into the side and seem like great figures in the dressing room. And then we've got the older regular players like Burn, Schar, Bruno etc. that set the level. There's a great culture for the likes of Hall and Osula to learn from and be a part of.

Said this before the final - on paper Dan Burns atttibutes are of a midtable CB. But his performances speak for themselves and he brings intangible qualities to the setup. He’s been our best CB all season.