80

I'd be foaming if it happened to Pope, to be honest. And that's including the fact his arm was down across his chest rather than over his throat, too.

I wasn't having it when many people said it at the time, but in retrospect it looks like they were right - Bruno's form improved as soon as he got a new contract. In other words, he wasn't playing well because he wasn't happy. Hopefully something similar happens with Gordon.

Stepping back for a second, it would be pretty fucking funny if we managed to get ourselves yet another owner that does fake "we tried" transfer sagas.

This was the moment. He absolutely wasn't very good for Howe for 15 months. Him getting replaced by Murphy was a big part of getting us out of our goal drought and back in the CL hunt in early 2023.

This has been bugging me. Yadda yadda usual caveats apply about believing what Eddie says, but you're right. I reject the idea that good players who can be moulded through tactics and training into being effective parts of serious teams are as rare as rocking horse shit. It sounds like we're unnecessarily narrowing our potential talent pool. Being very exacting about what we want is great, but not to the extent it paralyses us and/or leads to PSR bankruptcy. Would Joelinton, Willock and Murphy have been on our shopping list in January 22 if we hadn't already owned them? Pretty obviously not. We need more of the make it work mentality.

I've been kind of assuming he starts against Forest. But it depends on the attitude Howe takes to this cup, I guess. I'd be a bit annoyed if it's an almost unchanged 'first team'. We have to be able to use the squad through the season.

Never thought he would.

Not wanting to pick a fight on Barnes, especially today. But focusing on his goal numbers as being outright justification for playing him is the same argument for having Kevin Nolan in the team. There's more to it than that. And I say that as a fan of Nolan's back in the day. And as I say, credit it to him, he gave us a good deal more than just an assist today.

There really are no excuses for us to look badly prepared this season.

They do, he's just genuinely not very good at it. Not easy to improve upon him overall, though.

Credit to him. Came on and gave it a real go. Showed what we were missing with Gordon there.

Need a first rate right winger before we can ever feel comfortable about waving him goodbye.

As Groundhog says, yes, but maybe even worse was the fatigue that the players on the pitch had. It was the first time that season you saw their backs break mid-match. Might as well not have played the last twenty minutes or so.

Believe the polite term is now commentators of colour.

I think the answer was relatively straightforward, the question being if he was excited by the idea of having Sandro in the team. Something like second to last question. His face was a picture, though. I hadn't been aware of the context of Louise Taylor stirring shit with the deleted question at the time, probably came immediately after that which helped explain the vibes coming off him.

It was one of the few questions that cheered him up in the most recent press conference

Hmm. Wasn't aware of Palace's biggest shareholder also owning Lyon who bid an unexpected £40m for Minteh. Wonder what our relationship with him is like.

This one has totally passed me by. How did you hear this? Wondered why the video was shorter this week.

Which was so strange. Stranger to hear him comment about that, because I'd kind of thought the change had come through management decision - maybe due to the FA persecuting us for beating their favourites or something. Not that he'll ever say it, but I'd be interested to hear his analysis of why it went away, in that case. Because it was different right from the beginning of the season - nothing to do with injuries or fatigue on this occasion.

Yes, his end product is pretty decent. It's the beginning and middle which he struggles with. I like Murphy, but I don't think many people realise what a difference a really quality RW would make to us - in defence as much as anything, through retained possession, threat and turning periodic spells of dominance into actual leads without having to throw our kitchen sink.

On this occasion it looks like all the leaking is coming from the selling club though, who are dodgy by nature and very motivated to make the deal sound as big as possible - clearly hoping others would come in. The Newcastle journalists seem to keep getting fed messages from us about 'not recognising the public descriptions' of the deal. So I don't think we can stake our lives on those reports being true. There's definitely something weird going on, just not sure who the weirdos are.

I've got mixed views on this whole situation. I really think people should hold off on kicking off over what the board have done this summer until the window's closed - if for no other reason than it will make your argument a lot more persuasive. Too easy to be written off as a hothead at the minute. The fact is we genuinely don't know what's going on behind the scenes. There's a few plausible ideas, and some of them are pretty grim, and some of them are very reasonable. Mostly I think we're going to have to wait and see to get a clearer idea of the reality. If Eddie Howe stays at the club and appears happy, that's a big signal we shouldn't get too paranoid. Not a guarantee, but a very positive sign.

Well, strictly speaking our owners are cash rich, but whether they choose to put that money into the club is another matter. That's what he's getting at.

I think Bellamy was just hurt over the whole thing. He's a bit of a fucked up bloke, by his own admission.

God that's overstepping the mark.