Rich

Snowflakes, innit?

For now, aye. I think he's been our best midfielder over the last month or so and has made that left-sided CM slot his own. We've seen this season how fluid things can be in the wide positions and up front, I'd expect to see much more of that from next season when we've got more options and more need to juggle playing time. We ideally want two players in every position where we're not cringing when one gets selected, and we're not a million miles away from that now.

Proper tickles me how much Ando loves Isak, mind, he's defo got a poster of him on his wall.

Four points from the next two, however they come, and we are laughing.

You could just ignore the bait, like. Anyway, this Isak's canny good isn't he? Could do with a song (that people can grasp).

Have to say, it's a proper novelty looking at a 25-man squad list plus a couple of youngsters and not thinking >50% of it is absolutely rotten. I couldn't make a case to shift any of the names listed above, bar perhaps Lascelles, and even then I'd be pushing it based on how important he appears to be off the pitch. Krafth is an unknown quantity after an injury of this severity, but I hope he makes as full a recovery as possible and goes on to play a big part here in the squad for another season or two yet. His performances last year have probably earned him that. Trippier needs his snus mule, an' all.

This is where I've got us as it currently stands, coming into the summer: Pope Dúbravka Karius -- Trippier Krafth Schär XXXXX (centre-back capable of playing right-back if needed) Lascelles Botman Burn XXXXX (pure left-back) Targett -- Joelinton S. Longstaff Guimarães XXXXX (defensive-minded central midfielder) Willock XXXXX (offensive-minded central midfielder/number ten) Anderson [U21] -- XXXXX (goalscoring winger, ideally capable of playing up front) Almirón Murphy Saint-Maximin Gordon -- Isak Wilson Kuol [U21] ---- If we qualify for the Europa League/Conference League instead of the Champions League, I'd keep Ashby here and give him all of our cup games. If we qualify for the Champions League, which I think we will, we probably need to get him out on loan somewhere that he can play week-in, week-out. Probably top-end Championship, bottom-end Premier League. This would also mean I wouldn't bother signing another centre-back, as Ashby takes a squad place, unless it was an U21 that didn't need to be registered next season. Kuol obviously needs a better loan, and I suppose more depth would give Anderson the chance to get out to somewhere decent if we qualify for the CL. ---- Have I missed anything?

Mad how anyone can watch that and deduce that it’s acceptable behaviour in the circumstances.

Cost them a goal now as well

I disagree, he was a busted flush. This Kristiansen is foul.

Think sacking Vieira might’ve been the right move, you know?

I don’t have the greatest memory, but was Andy Hinchcliffe the best player in the world at one time?

Who said this?

Bruno playing through pain after twisting his ankle again in the warm-up and Big Jo having played fewer than 90 minutes in that position in a 4-2-3-1 in his career, an’ all. Madness.

Wilson talked about it on his pod last month: “We only do late at the minute at Newcastle. We have a wheel and you spin it and on the wheel, there are just figures and that's what you have to pay. The maximum is three figures and it's kept quite low-key." Also mentioned that has changed massively from Bournemouth, where they still used the wheel but it had much more varied consequences and they were penalised over a lot more than just being late for stuff.

Aye.

I’d be happy enough just keeping Lascelles for now, if he’s happy in the role he’s currently performing. I might be totally clouded by optimism, though. Think it could be at least a season too early to sign a Botman type who would probably expect to play every game fairly sharpish.

Still think his absolute peak future position is in a double pivot like we saw in the second half yesterday. He’s the right-footed, less polished, and slightly more radge second coming of Mousa Dembele, I’m telling you.

He’s quality, I thought we’d go for him in the first January but we got Burn instead. Think we were strongly after him way back when Hughton was here weren’t we?

Are we the only team that hasn’t lost in London this season?

Worth adding that the original discussion wasn’t in here, btw, it was in transfer rumours after some media links to MS.

Does the fact we didn’t go for Billing despite all of that not mean he wouldn’t have been a smart signing, though? It did look like a possible no-brainer based on some of what you mention after Shelvey left, but it doesn’t even look like we made an enquiry.

It’s amazing how bad the decisions are even when the referees are given time to review them endlessly, mind. Were they all pretty much just guessing on the pitch before the advent of the VAR or something?

Proof, if it was ever needed, that hipsters have great recall. Quite like Billing myself to be honest, but not sure he’s someone you sign to move forward with where we’re now at. I would’ve been happy to see him coming in after Shelvey, though, and think he could’ve been useful to us this season with the lack of numbers in midfield. We’ll surely be aiming higher come the summer? Someone like Milinkovic-Savic, perhaps?