Rich

Meeting this geezer tonight. I think.

I hope he gets on well with himself, he deserves to.

It really doesn't need to be this difficult.

Chalobah, Hughes and Richarlison?

Not sure Hardy is the type to talk shite in such an open way. Why would he risk his relationship with Benitez for a Q&A with Sky? I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks very carefully about what he says about the club and the manager, to the extent he'll even be trotting out a particular message to suit the latter's agenda.

It paints a very bleak picture and is coming from the most reliable source yet, I personally haven't seen the "four players" or "top five" bit mentioned anywhere else but I might have missed it.

Full story: http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11678/10979114/rafa8217s-way-the-resurrection-of-newcastle-united Blergh.

Krul, Hanley, Good, Haidara, Lazaar, Saivet and Riviere are the ones that absolutely need to be moved on ASAP, with Colback not far behind them. Provided we're able to do this and get some incoming business underway, then the likes of Gamez, De Jong and Mitrovic could be for the chop too. However, things have really moved at a snail's pace in terms of outgoings and we're left hoping that teams start to get desperate at the end of the window. Save for another summit between Ashley and Benitez, whereby the latter convinces the former to extend the overdraft or to underwrite more debt in the very short-term (i.e. less than 12 months), then we're looking a bit stuck. If the money's not there and we don't have the ability to take on more debt, what can we do other than to back-load deals like we did with Merino? Not every club is going to go for that, unfortunately.

4-4-1-1 and 4-2-3-1 are largely interchangeable, but think your version is more accurate.

Elliot Manquillo Lejeune Clark Dummett Shelvey Hayden Ritchie De Jong Atsu Gayle Seems like De Jong/Gayle and Perez/Mitrovic are the pairings at the moment, this is assuming Gayle passes fit. 2-2

Another eccentric older goalkeeper who loves rushing off his line. I'm seeing a pattern here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4758566/De-Jong-targeting-route-freak-injuries.html Worth a read. Find myself really pulling for this guy to succeed here, there's a lot to like about his game but worry about his athleticism. However, he's only up against Perez and Diame in that respect so there's not a particular high bar.

Decent stuff on finances on this thread from the man formerly known as Happy Face.

Constantly impressed by Skybet, wiping the floor with most other retail operations when it comes to marketing and promotions.

For the bold/those with ScriptSafe installed: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/jonjo-shelvey-reveals-newcastle-united-13426799 Part of the reason I think we'll be alright is because we have looked very dangerous when able to play a more cautious/counter-attacking approach with this group of players. There's no doubt our possession % is going to drop significantly this season, so it's great to hear that we're working meticulously on being effective when that's the case. Could still do with adding some more options with pace, but we're building a decent core of people who can facilitate us playing quickly now. Quick brains, quick feet.

Most of the talk in here is reacting directly to a Mark Douglas article from today where he specifically says we're having to be creative about how we structure deals, mainly because we haven't been able to sell some of the players we thought we would have by now to boost the budget to be able to afford outright deals of significant value. Now naturally the article itself could be bollocks, but that's why people are discussing the implication and wondering about ways we could get around it. Truth is nobody knows what the precise financial situation is at NUFC right now, but the evidence is currently pointing towards us not having that much in the bank versus us having the £70-100m that was suggested after promotion was secured.

Unless I'm missing something, the only way we could go out and spend money we don't yet have in the bank is if Ashley loaned the club more (or if we extended the overdraft facility). Obviously I think he should given the circumstances, but the club itself likely doesn't have the capital to do what we want them to do.

Yes and No. Cheers. Waiting on that striker signing...

Did Perez play up top for the first half of the second half? If so, did he do alright?

Mama mia.

Wolfsburg are not arsed in the slightest.

Mitro's not on fire.

If there's less than 3 goals in this game I'll give you all a quid.

Picture is quality. Someone belting out Any O'Brien there.

Aye.