Rich

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.

Am I right in thinking we can only register 25 players (not including any players under 21?) Yes, but U21s don't count towards this total. But the only U21s anywhere near first team reckoning are Woodman and Armstrong (hypothetically in the latter's case). Merino and Aarons? Good shout, Merino is technically "U21" but Aarons isn't. Makes that signing look even better. Players born on or after January 1st 1996 for 2017/18 season.

Błaszczykowski in the back pocket. If you didn't need to look that up then I tip my hat to you sir.

Elliot Manquillo Lejeune Clark Dummett Hayden Shelvey Ritchie Perez Atsu Mitrovic Darlow Gamez Lascelles Mbemba Colback Diame Merino Murphy De Jong Aarons Gayle + Woodman and Yedlin for the 24 players who currently make up our senior squad and aren't sure to be sold. Interesting to see the Perez/Mitrovic and De Jong/Gayle thing persisting.

Should get to see Colback at LB

Am I right in thinking we can only register 25 players (not including any players under 21?) Yes, but U21s don't count towards this total. But the only U21s anywhere near first team reckoning are Woodman and Armstrong (hypothetically in the latter's case).

We're currently at 35 players who would need a squad place, provided Toney is indeed off to Wigan.

This lot are absolutely fucked.

Rafa saying he's nowhere near up to speed currently, so think he only starts if Hayden or Shelvey (...or Colback) are absent.

Just to give some reason for my apparent optimism: We took 12 points from 18 in our last six games in the Premier League under Benitez and these were the players that started (all 4-2-3-1, of course): Darlow; Janmaat, Taylor, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Mitrovic (Beat Spurs 5-1) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Cisse (Drew 0-0 with Villa) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Cisse (Beat Palace 1-0) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Perez; Cisse (Drew 2-2 with Liverpool) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Perez; Cisse (Drew 1-1 with Man City) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Cisse (Beat Swansea 3-0) Currently this seems to be the consensus on our starting team, with some business still to be done: Elliot; Yedlin, Lejeune/Lascelles, Clark, Dummett; Hayden/Merino, Shelvey; Ritchie, Diame/Perez/De Jong, Murphy; Gayle In my opinion we're only noticeably weaker on the flanks and in the number ten role. Elliot's a slight improvement on Darlow in goal. Yedlin is a good upgrade on Anita at right-back, the centre-backs are much of a muchness but have improved with experience from those games and Lejuene/Clark is probably a better pairing, Dummett kicked on a little last season and should benefit from that. Tiote was excellent in that run of matches but he was lumbered with Colback, so I think that zone has been improved upon with Hayden/Merino and Shelvey being revitalised. Ritchie is probably a slightly poorer man's Townsend but is our talisman, none of our current number 10's can touch Sissoko from that time, Murphy's an unknown quantity but it's probably a stretch to assume he'd be better than Wijnaldum from the get-go (at home, at least). Gayle is significantly better than the version of Cisse who featured back then. Most importantly, Rafa's now had almost 18 months to implement his ideas rather than the month he'd had before the run began.

Still too early to say but my range is 8th-14th currently.