J7

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.

He's quality. Has improved those around him so much too. Just the attitude we needed.

I've no issue with this signing and was impressed with him at Leeds, but the fact remains that with Wilson out for nearly the whole of the rest of the season, we're weaker in attacking areas than we were in early December. Can't help but think we should have also brought in a younger forward player, even from the Championship in January. They didn't need to be a long term option.

5 for me. That's not being critical of anyone either as I understand the difficulties of the January window. I just think we've made a marginal improvement at CB, and the same in attack. I'm not sure Targett is a huge upgrade, though I'm delighted with Trippier and Bruno. Don't get be wrong, this is so much better than what has gone before, but I'm not sure if it has improved our survival chances by a huge amount and I'm 50/50 on that. I actually think there's a good chance that Burnley end up better of with Weghorst than Wood and I expect Watford to improve now. Lingard or van de Beek would have made it a 7 or an 8 for me.

Wood was good against Leeds I thought.

Get to know someone who has quite a few loyalty points and ask them to order them for you if they're not going. You get the ticket, they get an extra loyalty point. I've not has an ST since Bruce came, but my mate managed to get me one for Leeds. Hoping to get an ST again in the summer but will be starting from 0 points again.

I get that, though were a bit different to Man City in the fact that we're far more desperate, and clubs know that.

A DoF would still face the same problem that we do now. Anyone seeing us coming will try and drag it out as long as possible to see how desperate we get towards the end of the window. If you were in charge of another club with a player we wanted, why would you you sell now? They're only really going to sell if they're desperate for the money and we can show them that we won't go back at a later date if they don't accept now. Watford seem to be getting a lot of players in, but clubs know they don't have unlimited money. If we'd went in for the same players it would probably still be dragging on, with far higher offers needed than Watford paid. This was always going to be a problem in January. Meeting release clauses or hoping a player would take a huff to come is probably our only way in most cases.

The persistence with Ritchie at left back is worrying, especially when Manquillo is on the bench. Ritchie was never that great, is long past his best, and isn't a left back. He can't even hold the line.

His achievements in Scotland were average at best. I was surprised to see some fans wanting him here. He won one trophy in about nine or ten attempts while Celtic were on the down. Granted they were unbeaten last season and he did fairly well in Europe, but Calum Davidson at St Johnstone still won more over the same period. I'd have had him over Lampard, but thats not saying much. For Samuel to claim there would have been joyous scenes on Tyneside is bizarre. Why would we be celebrating snapping up a legend at another club who hasn't managed at this level before?

They were 13 points clear of the relegation zone. He changed the way they played and improved throughout the season. They're now sitting 7th with only 2 defeats in 11 games. I think he's done a fairly impressive job.

Quite highly from what I have seen and read. Brighton have come on a lot since Hughton left, who also did a good job. Their style of play is also good.

I'd have OGS last of the lot. Absolutely nothing to suggest he's a good manager.

Bournemouth still had a wage bill of £100m plus and were signing players for decent transfer fees. It doesn't really matter the 'size' of the club. That said, I would take Howe. Its a bad job at the moment for the reasons others have mentioned. I highly doubt we'd be able to attract our long term manager now, under our ideal club structure. We're heading down at the moment.

Belittled the club the whole time he's been here, then claimed to not know he was doing it. Loser. Get rid already.