Theregulars

Yup, I’m available.

Ginger Pirlo looks up, emboldened. He surveys the landscape, he is hungry for goals, and ready for battle. can do first 3 weekends but in Canada for the final one.

I remember living in Singapore and watching NUFC get humbled by Sunderland and Bournemouth at like midnight - 2AM with the Singapore Newcastle supporters club, a few expats but mainly local Singaporeans who all fell in love with the Keegan or Robson sides on telly. Those were weirdly grim nights - everyone knew what was likely to happen, but it was like this odd ritual. That kind of crap makes this all so much better. When I arrived there we still had Pardew - I remember him making one of his double left back switches against Villa, and it was the only time I heard a Singaporean use the c word. When I lived there I couldn’t bring myself to wear a Toon top or tell people who I supported, so I literally would say Bayern Munich as my then girlfriend is from there and I could at least feign interest. It was like football become high end shopping, just following this nice to look at but ultimately meaningless designer brand. I cannot accurately relay to you how happy I am that is over. It was so discombobulating and stressful. “Bruce is doing a good job” / “what more do you want?” / “Ashley has you debt free” / “You don’t have a divine right to win the league” - all that kind of drivel is now proven for what it was and you can laugh directly in the face of the dickheads who said it. That’s another facet I love about this situation, just going up to friends and asking how Bruce got on last night or whether they think Ashley should buy Chelsea given his immense abilities as a benevolent club owner and debt-hater.

I was thinking about this as I drove home from St Mary’s. I realised that I had just had one of the best nights in years - I was purely and completely content, all sung out, felt smug and proud of the community. Letting all the love and excitement has been almost like a drug hit, I have let it wash over me over the last month. It’s been so beautiful to watch our club be competent and respectable, and attract plainly good players and decent people. I will bleat about it to whatever poor prick happens to be in the vicinity. So the circumstances that led to that being possible; that’s how it felt. The opposite of everything good about being a football supporter. If you’d have told me when I was a teenager / early twenties that Newcastle United would make me feel uncontrollably sad and furious on a daily basis, that id have to fake apathy, that id adopt other sides just like some cheap way to numb the pain, I’d have looked at you like you were pissing on my shoes while insulting my father in Spanish. In a really horrible way he was also my gateway to learning how awful and corrupt the world can be, and that having to like very viscerally understand that “bad” often wins. I genuinely couldn’t grasp for a few years why we wouldn’t try, it didn’t compute in how I used to understand the world. It really took away some innocence and joy. Just a bewilderingly slow, painful bleed which made you feel stupid and ashamed for still watching or following. I never could do the apathy, and I sincerely wanted to. I also hated the way it felt like nobody understood or really cared, because outside of us, they didn’t. It felt like someone you knew and loved was getting abused in broad daylight and nobody could do a damn thing. Fuck him, man. Fuck him. I wish him pure ill and I hope every unhappiness, misfortune and pain manifests for him. I sincerely believe that he’s a malevolent criminal sociopath. Whoever raised that should be so deeply ashamed and concerned. If he was run over by a bus then raped by a shark I’d still hope a bird shat on him. The Mike, The.

I'm in the away end for this - get in. Any fellow forumites? Last time I went here we lost 0-4 and @Neesy expertly trolled John Carver while Tim Krul looked sad yet understanding, kind of like your mate's old labrador.

Imagine this with trippier in place of Krafth and ASM in for Murphy. That’s tantalising. We look so well coached.

Circumstances have played out to leave Leeds in serious danger. Very high stakes time to appoint a comparative unknown in place of such a massive personality. I’m not sure they have the quality to stay up without whatever extra Bielsa was getting from them.

That Rodri handball decision is so blatantly wrong that it took the enjoyment out of watching Lampard lose, which takes some doing.

Sadly not, I don't use Twitter!

I’m not even convinced by the “need a squad” argument. One of the many players who have played for us during the Ashley years who you can’t conceivably see playing at another premier league side.

But what undoubtedly makes him right for the role is that he’s English. Dan can identify a bargain on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke, even through quite severe drizzle. Those limp-wristed chorizo nonces Monchi and Txiki Begiristain watch cycling and don’t even wear ties around the office, the fucking creeps. Ashworth means Ashworth.

Yeh I think that’s a pretty fair analysis, although I’d say he has set up, scored or been involved in a not inconsiderable number of goals over his time here. For the club with such a low ceiling that we were, he provided some memorable moments. It probably says more about the godawful state of the club that I like him, in all honesty.

Man, the bonk-on I’d get for beating both Lampard and Gerrard. Such overrated human beings.

Think Shelvey persistently gets a raw deal on the forum. He has his limitations but he's been one of the better performers since Howe came in and he's been nowhere near one of the worst parts of the Ashley regime. Think he's earned a regular starting berth and I don't see him being dropped for Bruno; seems to be an element of negative groupthink towards him.

If he's out, I would start Bruno - no tactical reason but think it would galvanise the crowd who might otherwise be gutted that KT isn't playing.

Good, the squad is considerably better than it was a month ago. I think there was a lot of pragmatism as well as proper ambition, and the latter netted us two (what look to be) seriously good players. In the context - some commentators saying it would be impossible to attract talent, some saying new owners don’t know what they’re doing, league position, early phase of massive transition, skeleton senior staff, clubs less willing to do deals in January, unreasonably stiff commercial conduct (Manchester United)… it’s a really good first attempt from them and everything they’ve done made sense; I also think they impressed some players and other clubs’ senior staff in negotiations. I can see the argument that we’re a player light in attack. There’s going to need to be a contribution from one / a combination of Fraser, Almirón, Willock and/or Joelinton in attack; Wilson is going to be needed again; ASM staying fit is crucial and we’re going to need Wood to justify the move to sign him. I hope improving the overall side, which has been done, will improve how they attack as a unit. Like a lot of posters, I think we were a Lingard or similar away from making survival probable / having a brilliant window. As it is, a good window.

I mainly remember trying to score from kick off and it going wider than the corner flag for a throw in. My claim that it was a plan to “box them in” fell on deaf ears. Distinctly remember @MKSCcalling me a prick, and rightly so. @Yorkiedeployed me as a false 9 - very false indeed.

1. @ManDoononce flattened me in an N-O game; he had no respect for the original Ginger Pirlo. I can attest to his magic feet. 2. Wood has played with these players and for this manager for like 3 weeks? Let’s give him a bit longer before we decide he’s sub-par.

D-D-D-D-D-D-Do the barracuda

Page 9: where Lucas (Dan)burns Matt

Cheers Matt, I will. It's people like you who keep me coming back for more. Sometimes I worry that nobody cares what I think, but I feel validated now.

Wounded? You sound like Frasier Crane for goodness sake.

Players can improve...

It's when people say stuff like "this is torture"...! It looks like we have a decent chance of signing a very good player. It is not certain yet, but how do modern football fans not know that transfers are difficult to do, especially when clubs were not originally looking to sell? It gets right on my hefty ginger tits when people slate the new owners about how they're going about their business - they are clearly trying hard and working out targets which are (I would call it) realistically ambitious. To wit; had we never gone after Botman or Carlos but signed Dan Burn outright, people would moan (I reckon) that it was a signing lacking ambition. The reports on this story are actually largely in chorus: fee agreed, details of payment not, medical pencilled in but not confirmed as on, at this stage looks likely to progress. Nobody has said we have signed him.

I agree with you that they look unlikely to win the league. I wouldn’t write them off qualifying for the CL just yet. I also agree that they’re unlikely to win the current CL, but they will sure as shit want to play their best possible side. I genuinely think they just didn’t want to get rid of him now absent silly money, because it would dent them on both league and CL fronts - arguably they can’t afford either because, as you rightly point out, they’re a long way off the league (and presumably, given their financial situation, are worried about CL qualification next year) and they need the best they can put out against a good Chelsea side in the CL. I could very well be wrong and they might be haggling knowing he’ll be off in the summer anyway (although they may, again rightly given how much we seem to rate him, think that we will be back in this summer with similar money).