80

Really weak performance tonight. They had his number from the first whistle. Was hoping he'd pull it around with a crack from outside the box, but it never came. Glad Eddie took the initiative and withdrew him. Tonight was definitely not his night.

The club has done a great job of hiring players with the right mentality overall. Aided and abetted by many of our legacy players like Lascelles and Ritchie, in fairness to them.

Not too surprised, they've been together in videos since he joined us, but it is very pleasing to hear. Seeing how well Gordon comes across in the interview, you have to think Anderson has a similar/compatible mentality which bodes really well for him and us in the future. I think that's right. You just have to listen to the confidence with which he said "Newcastle is only going in one direction" when talking about his move here. He has total conviction in what we're doing, even if some of us here don't!

That's an eye opening sentence.

Yeah that bit always seemed mental. Possibly an indictment of whoever is/was responsible for overseeing the situation (Ashworth at the time?). But might instead be the fault of the Italian FA, in fairness.

Think the last report I saw, which was a couple of months after this one, was that he couldn't*... But it was always unclear. Guess we'll have a better idea after the Australia tour, as you'd expect he'd run out there otherwise. *Well, he was allowed to play in behind closed door friendlies, but not in front of a crowd.

Doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that! Pity about it stretching into next season mind. Seems hugely unnecessary to ban him from playing in pre season friendlies.

PIF you mean? To be fair, they've never worked in an industry with weirdly corrupt, profit limiting rules before where they're not the ones rigging the rules. To be clear, I'm not saying they're up to some Mike Ashley-style smash and grab to earn a few quid. But I could imagine them taking the view FFP means we need to move Bruno on, but also thinking the fans are too thick to understand that decision, and concluding they need to implement some preventative PR crisis management in advance.

Yeah totally, and I'm optimistic. Just, we've not really seen them in that kind of dilemma yet. Most of the original talk was about how the club needs to sell to finance other signings, so it's just interesting how lately the conversation has moved on to release clauses and 'can we keep him happy here?'. Like I said, hopefully what I was saying ends up being totally irrelevant, but it's always worth keeping in mind.

Paying much attention to this kind of chat gives no benefit whatsoever. The club probably has made a gentlemen's agreement with Bruno, because we're (apparently) run by gentlemen and Bruno's a gentleman. He probably doesn't want to feel trapped here and is more likely to want to voluntarily stay if we don't set ourselves up to look like a prison which would hang his career out to dry even if we're finishing bottom half. All the same it doesn't mean any particular outcome is inevitable. On a separate note - and I hope this warning never ends up being necessary - people would be wise to remember our club has a rich history of anonymously trashing a player's character when it wants to sell them but doesn't want to be held responsible by the fans for their departure. "Greedy cunts" etc. Don't let yourselves be taken for mugs, think about who benefits from stories.

Again, probably the right choice.

By the way, MAYBE now people will think he's more likely to stay here for good if we stop seeing ourselves as so small and impotent that he has to leave to achieve anything important in his career...

I get the impression they're imagining having a base in the region for the rest of their lives, even if he did move from here at some point. From the way his wife spoke in an interview, I don't think she's desperate for their kids to grow up in Brazil.

Bit of a schoolboy error by the Athletic then!

Good shout.

Diaby, Ekitike, Pedro, Tielemans, Digne... I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. Not saying they're all shit, but the obsession with them and only them can be mental sometimes.

It will never be learned The other one is the summer fixation. 1-3 players who we absolutely must be signing, all the evidence is there, the media says we're interested, the stats show they will take Europe by storm next season and they're exactly the profile our club needs. How could we not buy them. It will be yet another blown opportunity when they eventually sign for Fulham, another transfer window of crushing disappointment. Then they get quietly forgotten when they're shit.

The article claims his court case revealed his salary was £43k a week, but the received wisdom on here was that number was post-tax as I recall - indicating he was actually getting around £70-90k. The idea being that driving fines are based on the money someone actually receives rather than the top line figure. Anyone know for sure how it works?

Maybe they're budgeting for that this time around?

Wasn't it Joel Bland on twitter? Or someone like that. Remember thinking it could be safely ignored.

It devastated our season, and outside of playing a team of kids to give the first team a full 6 day rest, I don't think anything could've been done about it. December was a direct contributor to us not winning against the likes of Luton and Bournemouth at home in February, also.

Come on Arsenal

Pretty much the whole team to be honest!

Mainly happy for Isak's sake. Hope Wilson can come back and show he's still got it.

Agreed. PSG away was a great defensive performance. They had loads of shots but there was constantly a body narrowing shooting angles, a shin deflecting, or a nudge forcing them off balance when playing the decisive pass. They were forced to perform at a pace which made them rely on instinctive talent rather than deliberation, and their instincts weren't good enough to break us down. They absolutely could have scored two or three, but I would not say they ever carved us open - creating meaningful one on ones with Pope, or having the ball fly across the face of our goal without any defensive intervention. I don't recall any of our team ever being at 6s and 7s, spinning in circles wondering where the ball had gone without a partner nearby backing them up. Also, a bit of a bugbear of mine - goalkeepers are part of the team too. I think the position gets underweighted when declaring whether a team has had a good match. It should never be forgotten how bad the circumstances were when we played that match, due to injuries. 17 year old Miley playing one of his first games for the club in centre midfield, outfielders carrying injuries and nothing but children and pensioners on the bench. The team had already hit the point of physical exhaustion in this match, with this week of games being the final one before the grim winter took hold. They survived that match with brains and iron will. It was magnificent.