buzza

Huddersfield outplayed us for most of the firzt half. They were constructive and had a gameplan to get their fullbacks and wingers high up the pitch. I didn't like our lack of pressing, looked like gayle and perez were i structed to drop deep and hold instead of pressing, at least I hope thaT is why they were so lacklustre. Manquillo got skinned every time by van whateverhisname. Not impressed. Merino in the middle had as many mistakes as positives in his debut, some dangerous lost passes didn't fare well for us. He did, however, show for the ball all the time and show confidence and positivity in his attempted play. Will take the positives over the negatives. Not close to shelvey though... Gayle up front and perez aswell were very poor aTtacking wise, we desperately need a number 10 , diame is a phantom footballer now. Aarons and murphy should have been on the pitch second half, ritchie and atsu had bad games. They didnt get many passes mind, ritchie dropping into defence to get the ball at times. Defence was poor. Dummet you'Re forgiven! Lejuene come and play with clark asap! Yedlin, get better soon! To sum up; it's a shame Rafa didnt get his targets. Somebody mentioned earlier- the players we have bought are not better than what we have... we are going to struggle!

Ta!!!

Who has gone off? Lejuene injured amd who else?₩

Nice bit of pace with front three, perez can supply through balls with baaldy and lejuene. Possible upset on the cards! 2-1 with Mitro late sub to take the plaudits

If he's been promised the prem money we will accumulate until crimbo and next zummer, is this enough of a carrot and sufficient funding for Rafa to execute his long term plans? I think this could be whT he is doing, but if fatboy then pulls the carpet from under him... he will no doubt walk! Safe for the moment, only one rotund MF who can fcuk the whole thing up....

Just read that Villareal are about to put in a bid for Lucas Perez. Charnley, y' bald cnut, pull your finger out!

Charming...

I dont want correa, think be's too fragile for the prem and bis final ball is lacking a lot. Need a back up striker or no10 a lot more tbh...

Get Lucas and move ritchie i to the no10 slot. Happy days...

Unreal, Rafa spunk the 70M on him, super class at defending and splitting up play and class at dictating rythym. Top Top player, never understood how casemeiro keeps him out the team...

How tall is de jong? Just looked at some training photos and he looks massive...

If we do sign Ojo, somebody mentioned in another thread about putting Ritchie in at nº10; he scores goals works hard and is reasonably tricky, could be the perfect answer. We would have some pace and guile up front with Gayle, Ritchie, Murphy, Atsu & (Ojo?)

This signing grabs a whole lot more significance after the latest quotes

As we are now... 16th. With three more signings (striker included) I would go up to 11-12th. Out of the top eight the rest of the league is very average

My main worry is cover for Gayle, if we go into the season without a second striker who can get a reasonable amount of goals we are taking a huge risk. We know that gayle will have a hamstring pull or two during the season and god forbid he gets a long term injury... Wish we would start following, monitoring, enquiring and then doing something about strikers tbh! Chuck in a fast number ten and a defensive midfielder and we will be sound. FWIW I am not worried at the moment, it is early days and i reckon we will do our business nearer the end of the window when clubs get twitchy about not selling...

If there was any chance of kovacic from madrid it would be a steal. Excellent player from the little I have seen of him. Box to box midfielder, with defensive attributes slightly better than attacking, good on ball and controls game rythym well...

It´s quite a reality check when we are talking about other teams´ strikers: Giroud, Lukaku, Sanchez, Aguero, Ibra, Rashford, Costa, Kane, vardy, Hazard, Mane, Coutinho... Mind, the ones out of the top ten are all pretty "normal".

"Honestly, no njeed to worry" - yep, second guessing the fat bar-steward is a lottery (my positive take...)

Honestly, no need to worry, reading between the lines and taking into account the desire to sell a part of NUFc; this guy has been brought in to prepare the paperwork and re-order finances before presenting to external interested parties. Sounds like an internal due-diligence exercise which saves you a lot of time when trying to sell a complicated asset... Very typical in large multinationals and the likes.

Tadic for our missig no10 signing... we can dream

Did cairney play for scotland yesterday? if so, any good?

Have an outline agreement with NewcStle for the next four years. Looking good!

Well... I wouldn´t mind too much if Liverpool, Rangers or Manu got landed with the fake for a couple of years

A realistic placing perhaps is ninth to forteenth. We are a long way off any european places. Rafa obviously knows what he is doing and has a definitive blueprint he wants to implement. I am happy with this, but we need to temper expectations, we will need two to three years before we get close to top six competitive, that as well having luck with signings and injuries... Seventeenth is obviously a wind up, who would set the target so low as just to avoid relegation, it would de-motivate all related to the club, fans included (see Pardle et all...). We have the beginnings of a decent squad, if clark, yedlin, gayle, ritchie, hayden and shelvey all translate their play to the prem we will have the spine we need. Some astute signings and we will be a lot more competitive.

N´zonzi, oops!