Beren

Knackered from never having the ball.

Southampton lose again

Don't imagine Chelsea are particularly interested in strengthening a Newcastle team who finished 3 points behind them for loan fee change.

Adjusted for inflation Stones and Maguire aren't that different IMO for a English CB. Albeit in a different PSR environment. Don't think the club would need to retain confidence in recouping full value, given sale is a back up plan anyway. I don't think fan service is factoring into decision making and that's a good thing IMO. The other thing which I think could be at play (and I admit this is quite conspiratorial) is other big clubs making a concerted effort to create a barrier to entry through transfer market gazumping at lower price points. Like with Tosin. Or an alternative structure could be pay a little more than Newcastle and/or agree to loan them back to the selling club. Anyway, don't know how stumbled into the mantle of club guardian. I want a new goalkeeper Actually thought Carlos Miguel looked alright overall on Wednesday.

Really good point. I think resale is a partial fallback. Ideally we're not a selling club in 3-5 year's time. The sale of a different player is likely funding this.

Playing devil's advocate, would you have said the same when we signed Anthony Gordon for £50m?

Perhaps. He isn't yet in the prime of his career, and if the club really believes in his talent and potential - they may accept him as part of the recycling of purples (recognising we realistically can't have unlimited purples). So maybe Bruno goes, for example, but we retain a spine of Guehi, Gordon, Isak, Tonali.

Reframe it differently and it's plausible IMO. The only position worth creating a future liability of that size for is a 24 year old, PL proven, English CB with a high probability of retaining his resale value, who can make an immediate difference to the first team and allow us to control possession.

I think it's plausibly tenable tbh. If they don't want to sign just another body, they want to get a purple (apologies Froggy) - there aren't unlimited CB options available who are a) for sale, and are b) proven in the league. Once you add in his age, growth potential and nationality (rightly or wrongly ), his value is likely to hold or increase too. I'm no PSR expert, but I can understand why spending near to the value reported on Guehi isn't the same pot of money available for a GK or a RW upgrade, for example. Given what happened with Minteh and Anderson, it's creating a future liability - so unless you had confidence what that player brought to the team would translate to on field success, you wouldn't create it speculatively on a signing like, for example, Diaby for Villa last summer. I'm not saying this is what happened, and I'm not ITK on this, but I can see it.

Well deserved.

Aye, Newcastle famous for not losing to lower tier opposition in cup competitions

Sir Les was bricking it for us. Nice to see.

The ignominy for Forest, losing to wor Longstaff Great pen, fair play Sean. Overall though... blimey, pretty concerning. Notwithstanding the future potential of Tonali in club colours, the two most influential players Isak and Bruno seriously struggled to get involved in that game. Bruno was more or less exclusively recycling the ball back to centre backs. Isak was running almost exclusively for nowt. When he did have the ball to his feet, he was either knackered or did quite poorly (tough to apportion blame from my couch). Grateful to be through but quite worried about Howe's control over the team atm. Looking distinctly less than the sum of our parts so far. On the positive side, Tonali was excellent in his time. Barnes wasn't fantastic, but it was promising to see shoots of creativity and chemistry between him and Tino down the right.

It's just so annoying we play this way. We've not got a huge squad, or quality depth. Playing in the most taxing way possible is so mad.

Good post Kaka. His vision and spatial awareness was faster on some of his one touch plays than me watching on TV with an aerial view of the pitch.

Feel really bad for Willock. Looked gutted. Tonali looks bloody class. What a return. Hall needs to study film for six hours a day. He loves losing possession when not under pressure. Pope is Pope. Can't command the air in the slightest. Isak is running pointless wind sprints as usual (not his fault). Looking like a fucking slog against their second string. Going to be gassed vs Spurs. Shame.

Pope is weak as piss on crosses for a big man.

Lot of pressure on Tonali to play like Maradona this evening

No issue with him playing three times a week occasionally - so long as he isn't pressing by himself and chasing lost causes for 90 minutes.

"Hardest shot at the club" sounds good. Feels like we haven't had a decent striker from range in bloody ages. Schar isn't bad I suppose but doesn't have a crack that often any more.

This looks like his Arrested Development "chicken". Koo koo ka cha!

The Champions League qualification season indicated we were somewhere between the dominance of the "big 3" and the increasingly competitive middle of the pack. Last year indicated, NUFC were closer to the latter than the former - with the disclaimer that prolonged periods of crippling injuries had something to do with this. There's a few absences to start this season, but nothing to convince me that Newcastle are closer to Liverpool than Bournemouth. A generous appraisal would point to four points from six being a decent start, but results ultimately follow performances so I think it's a bit deceptive (albeit with a few minor extenuating circumstances). Bournemouth should have been out of sight yesterday but for some casual finishing. Recruitment and coaching needs to focus on controlling games IMO, rather than improving as a shootout team in basketball-style contests, which feels like low-probability stuff over the course of 38 games when you have some great midtable counterattacking teams. Someone pointed to Newcastle scoring a buttload of goals last year, but I think that overstates our attacking prowess if that's achieved through being as open as we were defensively. Desperately hoping there is an intention from Howe to shift the team dynamic, and Tonali is instrumental in effecting this. We're due a bit of an evolution in style of play. I'd persist with Hall while he learns to defend. Play Big Jo, Tonali and Bruno in the middle, with Barnes and Gordon wide - as our main starters. Barnes deserves a run of games now he's healthy. Hope we can get a new keeper, CB, and RW when financial constraints permit.

100%.

Pope kicks like Andre the Giant. Can't command his area for toffee either.

Credit to Bournemouth. Better side after the first 15 mins.