Rich

I watched quite a few of their games last few seasons due to having Polish TV, but have to admit that since the takeover I’ve barely seen any. Don’t really have the time to follow two teams properly, but he’s always stood out due to his age more than anything. It’s also pretty rare for them to have players in the national squad, especially so young, so it was inevitable he’d be transferred. Good all rounder. Brighton seem to like a Pole, and £8m is nowt these days. Hope he does well, but would rather he was coming here!

(Wife’s home city.)

Random Polish club, how very dare you.

One more sleep.

Should have had him years ago.

Whisper it quietly but he might have made that position his own tonight, at least for a little while. Thought he did really well, particularly aerially.

He’s surely only going to get better as he learns this role? Genuinely can’t get over it. That interview was mint despite the interviewer, too, he looked touched by Longstaff’s words. Love to hear that from him too, good lad.

Krafth RB and Manquillo LB?

Couldn't give a fuck about Christmas, roll on next Saturday.

He plays central midfield like a prime Moussa Dembele.

It wouldn't be very sensible of Staveley to come out and say we've got hundreds of billions to spend, would it? For multiple reasons. Unfortunately, all we can do is wait and see. Pointless fretting about it, I'm just excited that we're entering a January transfer window looking like we might spend something.

Why's he always injured? Never want to see him playing for us again.

I’ll expect a scary letter from their solicitors post-haste.

Emery, aye, but Emenalo? Howay.

(Original: https://www.nufc.co.uk/media/63058/st-james-park-wide-new.jpg)

Was intended as a follow-on to the quotes I posted about him doing a lot of the groundwork in overhauling Celtic's recruitment processes. Imagine he'll be doing a bit of that here, but obviously needs to be able to make a short-term impact too.

https://www.talkceltic.net/forums/threads/nick-hammond.152853/ A bit of context^. Seems a 50/50 split.

They've done some good business this season, to be fair. My Celtic-supporting mate loves Furuhashi and Jota. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10285525/Newcastle-hire-recruitment-firm-new-director-football.html Hope was onto this 10 days ago, by the way^. Definitely emerged as the most reliable source for news at the minute press-wise.

If the signings are the right ones, it's quality over quantity every time. Remember the impact Bellamy and Robert had, or Ben Arfa and Tiote. Probably more examples than those, but they are the ones that spring to mind where two players (however briefly in the latter case) completely transformed a side. We've got to be in the market for at least three players that are comfortably better than what we have and can hit the ground running. A CB and CM (DM) go without saying, for me, and a quality 10 could be the real difference. We're crying out for better decision making in the final third. Three would be enough, I reckon, but I'm not going to moan if we go out and bring in more .

Still a 6 for me, was pleasantly surprised by last night.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Spent a long time at Reading in a Sporting Director/Director of Football type role, then was at WBA as Technical Director, and most recently Celtic in an even broader capacity. Was one of the pioneers of the DoF position in the English game, so is vastly experienced. Some recent quotes from John Kennedy (scout/coach) of Celtic on him: “We wish Nick all the best,” Kennedy said. “He’s decided himself to step away from his position and look for new challenges. “From my time working with Nick, he’s a really nice guy, good guy, terrific guy, who spent a lot of time building things up, in terms of the recruitment side. He put processes in place and brought in people in positions that the club needed filling. And then the process over the last year has got underway now. “Again, things take time. When you have had a tough season a lot of things get questioned. Recruitment falls in that. There are still some players here who haven’t hit the heights we expect of them, but again we hope in time that comes. “As always, judgements are made very quickly, from all quarters. You just have to live with that and trust our processes. With Nick deciding to step away the club will be looking at what they do, whether there is a change of structure, or whether it is a change of personnel there. But also behind Nick there is a recruitment team there: you have a head of recruitment and a team of scouts and analysts and everything else. “The work still goes on behind the scenes. Nick has had a big impact in putting a lot of groundwork into the process and certain things, and where we are looking and how we find players. Hopefully that comes to fruition in time, in terms of the process producing more and more of the players we are looking for. “Again, you have seen seasons in the past when the recruitment has been deemed good, you always have some that didn’t work out, for one reason or another, and there are a number of challenges. “This year, more than ever there have been more challenges for any player coming in to the situation we find ourselves in - both football, and life in general.”

COVID

Apologies if I've missed this, but what's the general story with Trippier? Why are Atletico looking to sell and why is he keen to move back to England?