J7

Really impressed with Miley and Anderson. Bruno and Tonali looked like they were working together when we were in possession, but when Villa were breaking it was painful. Would be interesting to see them with Joelinton on the pitch at the same time. That said, it was only a friendly. Interesting to see how things come together.

Gordon can play on the right too, and I’m sure Howe isn’t going to do anything to stall his development. I suspect you’ve barely watched Diaby and you don’t have much of a clue as to the kind of player that the manager has been looking for.

Any Newcastle pubs before tonight’s game? Suspect they’ll be strict in the city going by previous visits.

Maybe its just me, but I quite like that the seats are grey. Looks classier imo.

People are going to have to get used to the fact that we will need to sell players (some who may even be popular) who are actually worth something if we want to progress. I love him and he's unplayable on his day, but he's injury prone and inconsistent. If we can get £30m plus for him we should be selling.

You know what I mean. There's nothing on his own social media which is the norm now. Don't worry, I'm not in meltdown about it.

I'll look forward to it. Just strange at least not to get a comment from the player. Suppose that could come before the weekend.

Bit of a weird unveiling compared to our previous ones under the new ownership. Nowt more than a cartoon with the shirt on and nothing on his own social media beyond a bye bye video for Milan.

I'm not sure I'd class Villa and West Ham getting £100m plus for one player each as them being pillaged.

Yeah, if only they let us sign a load of has beens.

Two big signings and some bargains is hardly the worst thing in the world. I think it was the Tifo podcast recently that talked about us following a similar pattern to early Klopp Liverpool that was pretty much this.

We've already spent over £200m without bringing barely anything in. That said, I agree not to spend this window given what kind of attraction we will be with Champions League football would be a mistake. It's the perfect opportunity to take a leap in terms of quality that might not be there next year if we didn't qualify again, which is still more likely than not I'd say.

We've just qualified for the Champions League ffs. I'd expect us to make a few big signings, despite any noises coming out of the club. It doesn't do us any good if other clubs are expecting us to go crazy. I'd expect the owners to take advantage of this opportunity where we've qualified for the CL probably 3 or 4 years ahead of schedule. Spend money and make the right signings and you have the potential to go far in the competition, as well as have a better chance of qualifying again. If it was just 2 or 3 and then just relying on the current squad, you might end up 6th or 7th next year and it be a lot harder to get a higher standard of player in.

Cunt didn't realise what he had. Idiot.

They're quite a good team to watch, though have a few bombscares at the back. Boro/Mackems in the playoffs would be funny.

There's never a perfect way to allocate tickets. I don't really agree with the huff that ST holders are always the most loyal though. I gave up mine when Bruce came in, and it was pure luck I got into the first 1000 in the queue in the summer. I'm probably not any more deserving than many members. You'll also get those who spend thousands on travel every year to get to SJP, but cannot make midweek games due to public transport or work or whatever so will struggle for cup games. The last train north is before 10pm from what I remember. Personally think the loyalty points system needs overhauled as you certain people controlling tens of tickets. There are people with 50+ loyalty points who've barely been away, but what can you do. There'll never be a perfect system. We could go on and on about the fairness of any system or allocation of tickets.

Morning Ryanair flight from Edinburgh that I got £31.00 return. Two nights in central London and that Boxpark booked for before the game.

Four in 133. Stress over.

They may have behaved like c**ts to us in January, but it's better having a good relationship with them as opposed to a bad one when doing transfer business. I don't think keeping a player who wants to leave looks particularly good either. Top clubs buy and sell players, even from their starting 11, fairly regularly and that will happen with us in future too as the manager looks to refresh the squad. I don't think keeping an unhappy player does us any good personally.

He's an absolute beast.

He basically made the winner v Leicester regardless of this 'no assists' stat, and in doing so did more than Murphy did all season. I like Murphy, but he's not on the same level.

I had thought pretty much everyone who was wanting a season ticket was getting memberships in October as there was talk back then of there being half season tickets on sale like there usually is. Pretty much all of my WhatsApp group of Newcastle supporting mates did that. Have to say I agree with the linked accounts thing too. We used it throughout last season so that we could sit together or close at games, with one person ordering. We'd never be together otherwise and some of my mates work jobs where they can't just sit on the ticket website at 10am some random Tuesday morning.

We got 4, spaced over 5 seats at the top of Gallowgate. I got in at 16k in the queue, another mate at 8k, but the lad who got it was in the 500s. We had 5 linked tickets and no idea why the 5th person wasn't eligible as they had a membership last season. 2 of us (including me) gave up our tickets when Rafa went, and the other two is a mate and his lad who went to nearly every game last season through membership sale.

Like they'd give a flying fuck about sportswashing if they were bought by a group from the Middle East. ha. It's just the only thing that they can try and cling to at the moment.

Shelvey can't be far off a suspension anyway.