Theregulars

Just now, Matt said:

 

Thanks mate, I wasn't aware of that possibility. Keep up the eye-opening content.

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.

22 minutes ago, Scoot said:

Sorry, its my default position now. I'm sick of being wounded in this transfer window.

Wounded? You sound like Frasier Crane for goodness sake.

40 minutes ago, Matt said:

I seem to remember him playing LB at SJP a few years back and being all over the shop. View of the BHA gives me a bit more confidence but I always thought he looked off the PL pace.

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. 

42 minutes ago, morpeth mag said:

They won't win their league, qualify for CL or win the CL. I'm not sure they are keeping Botman just to get a Europa spot. More likely they believe they can get us to pay more now or conduct an auction in the summer.

Didn't mean to be rude, just succinct.

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). 

38 minutes ago, LFEE said:

It all adds up to them not wanting to sell to us. They may have different reasons but all want the same outcome.

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.

16 minutes ago, morpeth mag said:

Lille are not in the hunt for anything

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.

7 minutes ago, LFEE said:

Just like Sevilla and Lille TBF. Hence why i struggle how some are blaming NUFC this window. Clubs really aren’t wanting to sell to us this window if they can avoid it.

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.

14 hours ago, MarkyMark said:

And Joelinton becoming a competent midfielder - and we only have a handful of games to support this - still wouldn't make him a good signing.  You wouldn't pay 40m for Joelinton - midfield dynamo.  There's obviously far better out there for that price.

 

We paid 40m because Ashley was persuaded by Nickson that the outlay would payoff - one day we'd sell him for far, far more than 40m.  Nickson is still heading up our scouting team ...

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. 

On 10/01/2022 at 20:13, Yorkie said:

I can remember chatting at some length to @Theregulars in a pub in September about how Chris Wood is the type of striker we should be going after. If this comes off I'm billing Nickson. 

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. 

5 minutes ago, nufcnick said:

ASM just fuck off you lazy fraud 

 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. 

Just now, neesy111 said:

I've never understood why you can't just keep paying their contract while they are just not in their position officially.  Must be some rules against it 

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.