The College Dropout

The Geordie Journos said they had heard things about Mitchell

Bit of a rehash that one. We knew most of this.

Hislop sometimes talks some real shit about us on ESPN.

Lad would turn down Barca because of the locks rivalry? I respect it so deeply.

Casemiro's going newhere. He loves Manchester.

Osimhen. Toney maybe.

Kamara is rumoured to be on £125k-175k

We could also just build the club in Eddie’s image even after he leaves. A big physical team of athletes that can press. Iraola could work with that. For almost 20 years Chelsea more or less had a team in a certain image that Mourinho built. Ancelotti made it work. The Conte and Tuchel teams were similar. every great Newcastle side plays fast aggressive football with pace. ITS THE NEWCASTLE WAY.

There's a big difference between influence (Guardiola, Arteta) and zero control (Maresca, Slot). It's not semantics. Eales decided unilaterally to change Howe's job. Pocchetino left Chelsea when they insisted on that model.

Merino, Onana, Lavia/Dewsbury Hall and Curtis Jones 4th man at their clubs. Ours is Joe Willock. It’s not going to work.

Not happening unless there’s a release clause.

I don’t think Howe expects full control. He just wants strong influence. From the Eales quotes - Mitchell was brought in to decide contract extensions, sign and sell players without permission from Eddie. Howe focuses on coaching. Howe is not a finance man. He can’t make all the decisions. Some players will need to be sold that he wants to keep. He’s aware of that. But he wants players that he wants. And he wants his voice heard when players contract are up for renewal. Eddie would’ve taken Etikite or Joao Pedro it seems but Isak was the number one target. im not sure if Eales was in post. But PIF and Ashworth were there when we decided to go from £20m on Etikite, £30m on Joao Pedro, to £60m on Isak. But it was Amanda and some degree Howe that’s blamed for the splurging. Same goes for everyone else we bought at a premium - Eales was right there.

Think the problem was Mitchell was brought in to do it a very different way to Eddie. One that would fundamentally change Eddie’s role or force him to leave. Eddie has disagreements with Ashworth but they worked well together enough that Ashworth wanted Howe at Man U. But Ashworth wasn’t a transfer target man, Mitchell is. And I do think some Ashworth era signings weren’t Howe’s first choice but Howe was happy enough to take them. Eg I just think Antonee Robinson is a perfect Howe player and we were linked but we got Hall instead - probably a higher cielinf.

We do need to get someone in that can give this lad a rest.

Bruno is the best at finding a cute pass, he was rushing everything. Howe got it right - ‘we were making wrong decision after wrong decision’. We do struggle against a low block and a decent defence that is true. We often start pressing aggressively and if we don’t score can run out of ideas in the second half of games and lose belief. But the cageyness, the rushing, the slipping, that was pressure and it was evident from the start.

Think he wanted to wait for the bounce but the bounce did him

Could be a player if he gets Howe’d. Adrian throws in the equaliser.

Adrian. Fornals. Isco. What a team this is.

It was a power play by Eales man. He knows Mitchell well. I'm convinced they set Howe up to fail and be seen as someone that can't work within "a system". Everyone's language in the press was pointed and purposeful. Had we finished 8th, no trophy, most people would be happy for Howe to go - thank him for his work - and go ahead into a new direction. Or at least have Eddie do what Mitchell and Eales wanted - for him to focus on coaching. We still need someone to challenge Eddie but they have to be better aligned than what Mitchell brought to the table.

They did - but they also made us 98% of the decisions to win a trophy and qualify for CL 2 seasons out of 3. And it's not like PIF and Eales weren't present for the money splashing.

Think going against Mitchell would've been a Mehrdad and Amanda vote. Also think they were essentially running the club how they saw fit. Eales, Ashworth and co. basically on the periphery. They where very close to the ground and with Howe. As soon as Ashworth left, we quickly sorted a deal to extend Joelinton, which was Staveley and Howe's choice anad Ashworth was holding it up. Again, there was good reason for that if we could sell Joelinton and bring in Ederson for a similar fee. So when we got in the mess, they left because those led those decisions. As others have said - everyone was there and got excited enough to buy Isak when we were close to signing Joao Pedro for half the fee. Everyone was beaming when we bought Tonali. It wasn't ust Staveley and Husband but that's life and business, someone needs to take the fall and the equity stuff is real.

Backs up what many on here have said. Those initial interviews were abrasive and you could make some easy logical conclusions. I think a lot of what Mitchell said and meant was correct in theory but the delivery was wrong. I too think Tino and Hall were £5-10m overpriced - we did pay a premium. But they are also worth it.

Brentford are setup to score lots of goals. Wissa had as many open play goals as Isak.

They wouldn't pay £100m for either. Harry Kane is a level above.

Think Fernandes leaving for £100m is excellent business for them. I don't think you can build an elite side with him. I said it before - he's not Barca/Real good. That level below that can only pay £40m-£55m or he goes to Saudi.