80

So what did he say about Ashley and approximately when?

...For what purpose?

Yeah I'm not too excited about signing a player with overt boo boo face.

I don't hate the guy, I'm not sure many do, but sometimes decisions are taken in life and should be stuck to. I imagine him coming back would send a weird message to the other players who've developed a real siege mentality while Dubravka was trying and failing to skulk off on another baggage train. I hope he's a makeweight in this transfer window.

No real surprise, good luck to him. Funny that 9 months ago I assumed he would be the keeper over Almiron.

Sure, as I say, I have faith, I'm not expecting to get humped. I just think we are a bit psychologically tired and have had the same team playing week in week out for a while, so won't have quite as much snap as we might have had two weeks either side of this game. As Bruno said post match yesterday, which I agreed with, he thought the team played with a bit too much anxiety to get the result against Leeds. A little bit similar to Everton away last season. So I hope we don't carry that instability over into this match.

It feels like this is coming at a bad time for us, unfortunately. All the same, I have faith.

That's the kind of plus we can take from yesterday. In spite of everything, that never really looked like a risk due to our solid foundations.

Yes, I was thinking that might have been the difference between opting to play ASM from the start yesterday. So this situation may be affecting choices on him too.

Not a bad shout to be fair. Better than the alternatives I've heard of.

Listened to Howe's post match interview just now, hadn't realised Targett's apparently been playing through pain with this injury for a while now. So perhaps that helps explain his lack of involvement and form in addition to Burn's performances.

That's a pity. Wonder how long for. Starting to get a bit thin at the back. Assuming Ashby is joining us, I hope it's at the beginning of Jan...

How the fuck Trippier was first in the book I do not know.

Weird to feel as I do about this result. Think my brain has been heavily recalibrated over the past few months It was bound to happen eventually. Move on and respond like champions.

To me, they're the definition of a team we should be playing. Like, I can't stand Everton and hope they go down, but with all due respect to Bournemouth and co. they're the kind of team who in the long run should be up there and winding us up. It'd get boring otherwise.

Surely Hayden would have something to say about that...

I don't think it's possible to go over the top with him. He's put in one of the greatest managerial 12 months in footballing history, no exaggeration. Not claiming he's one of the greats yet, but what's been done so far has been profoundly exceptional.

It is, and always will be, difficult to compare Woodgate and Botman because Botman has the advantage of playing in a far better structured defending unit alongside better defenders. It's not the fault of either of them, and you could argue that Woodgate was made to look more herculean due to how dire the alternates around him were. But all the same, he was utterly brilliant and raised the whole team WHEN he was playing. Botman hasn't had that challenge, yet (thankfully).

I assume it'll be in the eventual fan cam.

I think the wider media really can't get it's head around how mean our defense is. It's not what Newcastle are supposed to do, therefore it can't be happening. This many cleansheets, you'd expect to hear it remarked upon more.

Adjusted above. Second verse: With a Nick Pope here And a Botman there Sean Longstaff, Big Dan Burn, everywhere Fabien Schär

He's basically playing a game of FIFA with Almiron under his control.

People talking about Trippier potentially being a good manager, I think Bruno possibly could be great as he has the obsessive nature that seems to be necessary nowadays.

His reaction to his tackle towards the end of the game said it all about him. Not just an ordinary player.

Didn't rate his performance as highly as some today, but here's a thing - as much as we worry every time both our tippy top forwards are out injured, which has been a lot, we've still come away with results on every occasion. It can't be a total coincidence and we should probably stop worrying quite as much...