The College Dropout

Raheem shrugs off a couple defenders and puts it in the top bins.

This is what is making you lose hope? I’ve been lost hope but regardless. Diame is our first choice CM. Getting a new contract is ok. We need to shift Hayden and get someone in to make Diame the back up.

In a struggling team a player like Shelvey will always come a bit to deep to get the ball. After the great Wham debut he did this a lot in his first season and did it a fair bit during our great run too.

Originally planned to bring in Sterling and Jimenez for Lacazette and Maddison and make Raheem captain. Ended up taking Richarlison out for Sterling, bringing in Jiménez but making Aguero captain. A good week regardless but could’ve been 110+ week. Into the top 10% of the NO league. 58 points in the lead in a paid league (which swayed me to choose a conservative captain that would keep me in the lead) and barely atop my old work league. Considering Arnautovic for Aguero. Then improve the squad over the coming weeks. Also tempted to stick then make a double change the next week.

Agree with the Shelvey / Ki takes here. One thing to add - the players know each others game. With Ki the lads know he wants to play it short and move so you play accordingly.

A lot of it is due to the fact that we often don't have a lot of possession which means our midfielders don't make that many passes in general. And we are also pretty direct, not much in the way of build-up. A lot of our attacks are get the ball to Shelvey, he'll ping it behind the defence and hopefully create a goalscoring opportunity.

Statistically Burnley have always conceded a lot of shots on target. Even last season. Much like the Pardew era a lot of their good results are down to heroic last ditch, bodies on the line defending which is difficult to maintain. I don't think they'll be relegated but they'll be down with us lot. Same with Southampton. They're just bad.

It's just human nature and Neville's style is combative. Redknapp managed Spurs to a top 4 finish.. maybe even 2. He also got them into the CL quarter finals. That ranks high in his achievements in a 30-year career as a football manager which was largely successful. Then Gary Neville saunters on TV calling pre-Pocchettino Spurs "spineless", "soft" etc. I think Gary was overly loose-lipped with that comment. Especially as I think it's mostly in reference to the Spurs sides he faced in the PL and not the Modric and Bale team that Redknapp managed. Redknapp's well in his rights to be upset over those comments. Especially from a man that failed miserably in his own managerial career at a big club. Generally, I think Neville's analysis is thoughtful but he's wrong in this one. That reminds me how people in the media often forget about Sir Bobby's time with us. Battling for the CL 3 years in a row. It wasn't just the KK years we had good teams after that.

It's very easy for certain types of people to get labelled "flash" and difficult for some others.

I don’t think it’s true. But Puma could still design it and not manufacture it... I guess.

Freddie Shephard was more David Sullivan than Daniel Levy. He made one excellent appointment that was easy to make. The rest were bad/ok. He had standards mind you. Vastly superior to Ashley. He was at least ambitious for the club.

It's come to the point where i'm disappointed when our players sign new contracts

Shelvey plays deep because he likes to have time on the ball to pick a long pass. Also allows him to get on the ball more.

I believe if we are a proper mid table club in the championship the fans would make it untenable for him to stay. Mass boycotts, low attendances, demonstrations the works. This won’t happen while we are a good Championship team or PL club. That’s my belief. I don’t think our fans will make enough commotion while we have Rafa in the PL. it’s taken him to take the piss with Rafa for many to realise he’s the cancer at the club. There’s no way we’ll be a profitable championship club after 3 or 4 seasons. As someone said any attempt to do so will incur further relegation. There’s four paths of the club being sold. They may work in conjunction. 1) some rich bastard doesn’t care about the price and buys it overvalued 2) fans make it untenable for him to remain. Too toxic. Bad press. Constant demonstrations. Very low attendances. 3) club becomes massively unprofitable and a drain and he decides to cut his losses. 4) he needs the money so sells us I think a combination of 2 and 3 is most likely.

Just wondering, what sort of buyer do you think we could attract if we spent a few years in the lower divisions as you and others seem to think is the only way to go? Personally I think we'd be off the map by then to the big foreign investors, we'd only be able to attract the cheap n' cheerful Barry Moat chancers who wouldn't have the means or the vision to be able to invest in a city. Some might well prefer supporting a lower division team free of Ashley, and I can get that, but I think the big investors would want to buy a Premier league club. Point 1 - we cannot attract any buyers at the moment. Because Ashley doesn't want to sell. The key here is making Ashley want to sell. That won't happen as a yo-yo PL club. That's the most important thing here. All the money Wolves have spent - buying the club, investing in the players, stadium etc. so far would've cost the amount it would have taken to purchase the club from Ashley in the first place. You can buy Wolves, invest in them, get promoted and do small stadium improvements all for the money Ashley is asking for a terrible PL team. Same thing happened to Southampton and Leicester. Both clubs bought in League 1 iirc. But what you had is good catchment areas for fans and talent. Decent stadiums. Premier league heritage and recognition. Again, smart business people will want to buy something undervalued, at a low then bring it up. Why buy Newcastle for £300m when you can buy Wolves for £45m? £100m to get promoted. £50m on a new stand. £20m on training. Still have money to spend. You honestly think the selling price will get anywhere near 45 million with Ashley in charge - there is a reason these people went for these clubs and that is Ashley will not budge on his required price. You can argue all day that a spell of two to three years in the Championship would do that - for one, Ashley will just use the premiership money saved the last two years to outspend other clubs in the division like last time and two, there is not a chance in hell he would go down that low at anytime, it's just not the way the fat cunt operates. I really think people are living on a different planet to think this owner will reduce the price to the amounts offered for Wolves, leicester etc. for people to buy the club at such a reduced price. We will see as I think we will be relegated this year but as I said I certainly wouldn't hold your breath. Hear where your coming from but totally disagree with what you're saying - time will tell though. Go back to point 1. We can't attract any buyers because the price is artificially too high. I've never said the price will go as low as Wolves but it might go to a reasonable price. NUFC isn't hard to sell. He just wants too much money and is happy to yo-yo. 5 years in the Championship if need be. He'll not sell in the PL in this market. And get back to the point I was making in answer to that - he won't change that price in the Championship to the level to attract another buyer. We are going around in circles. I’m convinced while we are a PL or yo-yo club his asking price will be too high and he doesn’t want to sell. History suggests he’s happy to do this. I’m also convinced the fans won’t make it toxic enough to force him out while we are in the PL or winning Championship games. Rafa and co. get 40 points the fans will be satisfied. I am not convinced he’s happy to maintain NUFC as a midtable Championship club which will have tried to invest for promotion. I’m even less convinced the fanship will be so docile with a mid table championship club.

Just wondering, what sort of buyer do you think we could attract if we spent a few years in the lower divisions as you and others seem to think is the only way to go? Personally I think we'd be off the map by then to the big foreign investors, we'd only be able to attract the cheap n' cheerful Barry Moat chancers who wouldn't have the means or the vision to be able to invest in a city. Some might well prefer supporting a lower division team free of Ashley, and I can get that, but I think the big investors would want to buy a Premier league club. Point 1 - we cannot attract any buyers at the moment. Because Ashley doesn't want to sell. The key here is making Ashley want to sell. That won't happen as a yo-yo PL club. That's the most important thing here. All the money Wolves have spent - buying the club, investing in the players, stadium etc. so far would've cost the amount it would have taken to purchase the club from Ashley in the first place. You can buy Wolves, invest in them, get promoted and do small stadium improvements all for the money Ashley is asking for a terrible PL team. Same thing happened to Southampton and Leicester. Both clubs bought in League 1 iirc. But what you had is good catchment areas for fans and talent. Decent stadiums. Premier league heritage and recognition. Again, smart business people will want to buy something undervalued, at a low then bring it up. Why buy Newcastle for £300m when you can buy Wolves for £45m? £100m to get promoted. £50m on a new stand. £20m on training. Still have money to spend. You honestly think the selling price will get anywhere near 45 million with Ashley in charge - there is a reason these people went for these clubs and that is Ashley will not budge on his required price. You can argue all day that a spell of two to three years in the Championship would do that - for one, Ashley will just use the premiership money saved the last two years to outspend other clubs in the division like last time and two, there is not a chance in hell he would go down that low at anytime, it's just not the way the fat cunt operates. I really think people are living on a different planet to think this owner will reduce the price to the amounts offered for Wolves, leicester etc. for people to buy the club at such a reduced price. We will see as I think we will be relegated this year but as I said I certainly wouldn't hold your breath. Hear where your coming from but totally disagree with what you're saying - time will tell though. Go back to point 1. We can't attract any buyers because the price is artificially too high. I've never said the price will go as low as Wolves but it might go to a reasonable price. NUFC isn't hard to sell. He just wants too much money and is happy to yo-yo. 5 years in the Championship if need be. He'll not sell in the PL in this market. He'll make money even in the championship. I wish I could believe it would be different, but he'll always demand a price that is too high to make it a worthwhile purchase, we've seen this previously regardless of which division we are in. The only way he might leave is if the campaign against him turns absolutely militant, that will be a few years off if it ever happens. A mid table Newcastle United in the championship game would actually have the fans consistently revolt. We would force him out. We would finally get sub 40k attendances consistently maybe even sub 30k. I don’t think the fans will be militant enough while we are in the PL or winning Championship games looking like we’ll get promoted.

In what way? I found it an awful watch. Martial breakdown. I was shocked by his stats over a full season. Barkley analysis. Stuff we already know but the graphics and statistics drive the points home even further. The Man City squad. Good points. Spurs debate at the end. They both make cases though I lean towards Carragher. Just felt myself nodding along with everything said last night. Ahh ok, thought you meant the match itself. Highlights what I like about Sterling with the goal he scored against us. He has a tremendous appreciation of the game. Off the ball movement, making a penetrating run. Gets the ball by the touchline pops it to a CM, darts as fast as possible into a goalscoring position against a deep defence and slots it in. Martial and Sane would've stood there by the touchline after making the pass. When people say he's just an athlete I can't help but think they're being facile. He got a dozen tap-ins last season because he makes dangerous runs and gets himself a couple yards free in the box time and time again.

Alternatively, Owen and Rooney were finished on the sunny side of 30. I used those 3 as they weren't elite talents at a young age but they got a lot of game time. Owen, Fabregas, Rooney maybe even Sterling were elite talents at a young age. It's a different bracket. When Milner was with us, many felt we could do better than him at RW. Owen and Rooney were almost as good as it got aged 19-21. I look at Sturridge and wonder how good he could've become playing regularly when he was younger. Lingard, RLC etc.

Just wondering, what sort of buyer do you think we could attract if we spent a few years in the lower divisions as you and others seem to think is the only way to go? Personally I think we'd be off the map by then to the big foreign investors, we'd only be able to attract the cheap n' cheerful Barry Moat chancers who wouldn't have the means or the vision to be able to invest in a city. Some might well prefer supporting a lower division team free of Ashley, and I can get that, but I think the big investors would want to buy a Premier league club. Point 1 - we cannot attract any buyers at the moment. Because Ashley doesn't want to sell. The key here is making Ashley want to sell. That won't happen as a yo-yo PL club. That's the most important thing here. All the money Wolves have spent - buying the club, investing in the players, stadium etc. so far would've cost the amount it would have taken to purchase the club from Ashley in the first place. You can buy Wolves, invest in them, get promoted and do small stadium improvements all for the money Ashley is asking for a terrible PL team. Same thing happened to Southampton and Leicester. Both clubs bought in League 1 iirc. But what you had is good catchment areas for fans and talent. Decent stadiums. Premier league heritage and recognition. Again, smart business people will want to buy something undervalued, at a low then bring it up. Why buy Newcastle for £300m when you can buy Wolves for £45m? £100m to get promoted. £50m on a new stand. £20m on training. Still have money to spend. You honestly think the selling price will get anywhere near 45 million with Ashley in charge - there is a reason these people went for these clubs and that is Ashley will not budge on his required price. You can argue all day that a spell of two to three years in the Championship would do that - for one, Ashley will just use the premiership money saved the last two years to outspend other clubs in the division like last time and two, there is not a chance in hell he would go down that low at anytime, it's just not the way the fat cunt operates. I really think people are living on a different planet to think this owner will reduce the price to the amounts offered for Wolves, leicester etc. for people to buy the club at such a reduced price. We will see as I think we will be relegated this year but as I said I certainly wouldn't hold your breath. Hear where your coming from but totally disagree with what you're saying - time will tell though. Go back to point 1. We can't attract any buyers because the price is artificially too high. I've never said the price will go as low as Wolves but it might go to a reasonable price. NUFC isn't hard to sell. He just wants too much money and is happy to yo-yo. 5 years in the Championship if need be. He'll not sell in the PL in this market.

Wiggle, Chainreaction Cycles or Edinburgh Cycles are my other shops. You've also got a great local bike shop in Cramlington: CJ Performance Cycles...but as a LBS prices aren't always the best on accessories. Bikes however are competitive and even will negotiate (I got 10% worth of accessories instore when i bought through them) a deal when you buy. Aye, one of my good mates works at Start Cycles as well, so they're always an option with mates rates etc as well. It's only the Pinnacle part of it that I'm bothered about really, I really liked the look of them in terms of bang for your buck. Good bikes imo. Bought a Trek for slightly more than my Pinnacle and the Pinnacle is probably better.

The thing about Spurs is that the Levy approach has been working.

Obviously more talented players get more game time but getting appearances at a young age is so crucial for development. Players like Barry, Milner and Henderson really maxed out their potential imo. Partly through being given a lot of game time at a young age.

Critically, I don't see the fans making a big enough deal about things while we are in the PL. If Rafa keeps us up the pressure will not be there.

Just wondering, what sort of buyer do you think we could attract if we spent a few years in the lower divisions as you and others seem to think is the only way to go? Personally I think we'd be off the map by then to the big foreign investors, we'd only be able to attract the cheap n' cheerful Barry Moat chancers who wouldn't have the means or the vision to be able to invest in a city. Some might well prefer supporting a lower division team free of Ashley, and I can get that, but I think the big investors would want to buy a Premier league club. Point 1 - we cannot attract any buyers at the moment. Because Ashley doesn't want to sell. The key here is making Ashley want to sell. That won't happen as a yo-yo PL club. That's the most important thing here. All the money Wolves have spent - buying the club, investing in the players, stadium etc. so far would've cost the amount it would have taken to purchase the club from Ashley in the first place. You can buy Wolves, invest in them, get promoted and do small stadium improvements all for the money Ashley is asking for a terrible PL team. Same thing happened to Southampton and Leicester. Both clubs bought in League 1 iirc. But what you had is good catchment areas for fans and talent. Decent stadiums. Premier league heritage and recognition. Again, smart business people will want to buy something undervalued, at a low then bring it up. Why buy Newcastle for £300m when you can buy Wolves for £45m? £100m to get promoted. £50m on a new stand. £20m on training. Still have money to spend.

That was classic Moussa for NUFC tbh. The team he was in was largely shit through no fault of his own. He got on the ball, moved the ball up the pitch, even won it a few times, decent runs but ultimately lacked that little bit of quality in the final. He's not a bad player Moussa lad. He's fairly good (not £30m good but still) and can be a good squad player for Spurs. I don't think he let them or himself down tonight and was probably their best player on the night. As someone mentioned, he's miles better than Ritchie, Atsu and Murphy