Theregulars

Agreed - and think that was always going to be an issue this window. I’m not going to criticise them for aiming high, but would revisit that if the back-up options aren’t sensible and available.

They’re still in the Champions League and 2 points off European football in the league. Being dismissive without any acknowledgement of reality is basic.

I can see this being the case for PL teams but not abroad - I think in the case of Botman and Carlos their respective teams are in the hunt for trophies and don’t want to lose key players absent crazy money.

Seems like a negotiating move I would make if I knew a cash rich club was after a fringe player who was interested in leaving.

I couldn't care less about fees really. Quite happy for NUFC to be ripped off for the time being, just want to reduce / eliminate the amount of gurning / indigestion which happens when I read our teamsheets.

Or because he’s foreign and successful. Racism amongst pundits is definitely an active issue.

I’d take him back right now. Accept that it’s knee-jerk but I’ve not seen enough from Howe yet to suggest that something positive is round the corner. We still look muddled, scared and like we find no joy in playing.

Alternately, it was hard for Nickson to find genuine talent within the strict budget and profit-motivated approach that he worked under. Maybe other scouts with a higher profile may have also had to take more of a risk than they wanted or not pursue a player they thought would cut it. Whatever his role this January, one signing has been way beyond our reasonable expectations and one has been pragmatic and sensible, in my view.

Steady on.

Yeh, nominally at least you'd say that this new version of the club has more long-term ambition than Burnley do. Under Ashley it would have been a sideways step.

Eminently sensible signing based on (i) how the manager wants to play (wide full-backs peppering the box with crosses), (ii) the fact he is, in the long run, either to be twinned with or perhaps understudy to Wilson or someone better who we sign in the future and (iii) because for 4 years he's regularly scored in this division with a team which doesn't, as an occasional outside viewer, seem to create a lot of chances. I think people looking down on him are doing so because he's associated with an unfashionable / unambitious / unglamorous club and style of play. To my (limited) mind, there don't seem many "plug in and go" striker options available for money which leaves us with money to use elsewhere. As others mentioned, it also weakens a rival. Solid and pragmatic signing - those saying this is like Ashley missed the point: under Ashley we tended not to make pragmatic signings based on what was required, instead just buying what was available / cheap / likely to be flipped for more money.

I confirm. Did I agree with you or throw your pint on your lap?

I always thought he got slightly shafted bu Rafa - for me he’d earned a crack at being the main man for the first season back up, at least until Christmas. I trust Rafa but just thought it became too public knowledge too quickly that he didn’t think Gayle was up to it, needless knock to his confidence. For the present moment though it’s just a situation that’s gone on way too long with no manager or fan believing in him while he sucks up his wages.

Not for me. Woeful start, worrying. Not at all convinced.

I think the reality is that it will be a bit dampened but still buoyant, and if we play well / score early then it will still be decent.

Just touched down at @LFEE’s palace ahead of the match. Bringing my girlfriend who is from Canada and has never been to a live football match - convcined her to come as it would be a proper unique experience if the atmosphere lands right. I hope it does, certainly I think about town beforehand, Wor Flags display and immediately before kick off she won’t have seen anything like it. Given her a print out of blaydon races to learn.

I guess this is basic but if he doesn’t want to manage us then he can go fuck himself. This is some incredible project for someone to take on and if he’d rather sit with his mid table Spanish club, so be it. I back whoever takes this on and they have all my love and support.

Wash your mouth out with soap, silly child.

I don’t think it’s as complex as people, and some opinion columns in particular, are making out. Everything in life is multi-faceted but we seem to have this need to declare something either good or bad as a binary matter. In most walks of life, things are both good and bad at the same time. A basic example is how I feel about work: it’s great to have a salary and some spending money, occasionally work is quite fun and interesting to the mind and you make friends. On the other hand, it can be boring and repetitive, it’s too constant and intrudes on your private life more than you want. In this instance, there are many good things - a club which has been neglected and ruined gets reinvigorated and a region which needs investment gets it when it wouldn’t have otherwise, benefitting millions of people. There are also bad things about it, because the people ultimately behind the money get up to some pretty nasty shit and are arguably doing this to distract from that. It also is the latest step in our national sport being a persistent commodity for sale. In our world it doesn’t seem normal or fashionable to view things analytically and consider both sides and say that neither “wins out”: you are pressured to have a resolution because maybe we can’t deal with any degree of complexity anymore. Everything that’s been said about the takeover is pretty valid. It doesn’t make one a hypocrite to enjoy supporting Newcastle again while KSA stones women or murders dissidents, in my opinion. You can be both delighted at the investment and deeply perturbed by the terrible acts at the same time - most things exist in conflict and we’ve always got to take the good and the bad.

You can, but it’s more desirable to lump sum it for income tax purposes for both parties. One law firm I left I got 6 months pay, 3 months normal salary on gardening leave and 3 months lump sum.

I think Ashley quite deliberately overpaid them and gave them a huge payout at the end because he deliberately employed managers as yes men meat shields. Of all the dross, only McLaren got the sack and that’s a mix of looming relegation and Rafa falling into his lap. I think with Bruce it is a case of taking the money to deflect the blame, accept the complete non-ambition and telling him he was trying to sell, and if he took his orders he’d get a nice big payout from new owners because the contract would be passed along with purchase. If he did have to sack him with relegation looming next year, pay out of revenue the club generates.

Congratulations, everybody. What an absolutely sordid and soul-crushing 14 years that was. Thank you all for helping me bear what has been one of the most dispiriting situations in my life with some degree of humour and solidarity. I am genuinely in tears.

Your second post is a non-sequitur. Your point was that Bruce’s lack of aptitude / not caring is somehow beneficial to young players, which in my view is clutching at straws. Bruce is the worst manager in the division, and probably one of the worst in the top 2 divisions, so I don’t really back the view that this may be beneficial to a young player. If I was a young player, if I had other coaching options I’d not be opting for Steve Bruce on the basis that I could do whatever I wanted. That discussion point has nothing to do with other clubs’ interest in Willock or otherwise - it may be that Willock likes playing for Bruce, but I’d wager he just enjoyed playing games, which didn’t appear to be much of an option for him at Arsenal. Either way, Bruce is shit.

Did any of the the straws stick within your grasp?

I’ll never not care and I resent myself a lot for it, which in turn makes me resent Ashley/Bruce/PL/aggressive free market capitalism in sports even more. It’s a really grim cycle and not one a 7 year old version of me could have ever anticipated, but at this stage I genuinely wish I had never taken an active interest in football. The bad outweighs the good so massively. Was at an (outdoors!) meet up for a friend’s birthday yesterday and Man U and Liverpool fans were there excitedly talking about the new season, asked who I support and I said “cricket”. It’s just easier at this point.