Beren

Liverpool losing is unreasonably satisfying.

Brighton not breaking down Ipswich feels like it might have a sting in the tail. Reckon Ipswich will be fine with their CBs having 300 passes each.

Palace 2 down. Offer them £5m.

Triple captained Haaland. Wanted to in week 2, but I was prevented after a week 1 wildcard () to bring him. Didn't realise you couldn't do both. Then missed it last gameweek, but figure he's likely to slow down once the CL starts, so now is as good as any other time.

I just don't see what everyone else does with Guehi. (and Mainoo while we're at it).

Early kick off is a win-win-win today.

Andy Cole was quite widely characterised as a 'one goal in five shots' striker from what I recall.

Liverpool too. Spurs are probably too cheap/sideways.

I know you're not having a go at him, but I disagree with this massively. We've used him like he's Dirk Kuyt. Him being gassed/sloppy as a consequence of this is not on him or his consistency.

Yeah I'm about done with this. Didn't captain Haaland, don't have Salah.

Love that Murphy is a proper Spurs-slayer. Like Shola vs the mackems and Jonas vs Wolves. Inexplicably and almost exclusively terrorises them

They wasted good positions/chances. I guess that's not entirely coaching-independent, mind you. Overall though they dominated the play and looked more threatening. Thought Ange's post match comments on the BBC rung true from what I saw.

I only saw the second half but they seemed better coached to me.

Only caught the last 40 minutes due to circumstances. From what I saw: good result and valour, and commitment as usual. Thought Krafth has got a good kicking on here lately but seemed really tenacious and dutiful. Pope was pretty careless on the goal I thought. A lot of possession given up cheaply in our own half. The side seems to be a bit of a confidence team. When they've got a bit of belief, they can play the ball well and break the press - when they're a bit low, they make unforced 10 yard passes to the opposition. Very streaky. Isak looked cut adrift for long spells. Got a goal on a plate, some nice hold up moments - but on balance continue to be both under-utilised and misused IMO. Bruno's leadership and energy was appreciated, but not the smartest game from him - seems to be in quite bad form IMO. Loved Tino as usual, but he did try to beat a fifth Spurs player near our box, for no reason. Overall Howe seems to place a heavy reliance on our success on fitness. Doesn't feel very sustainable for that to be our edge, especially when you coach a style where Isak admits they won't have the ball. Again, I find myself hoping Tonali and first choice CBs are the silver bullet to this issue. Delighted for the 3 points, but didn't feel deserved and Spurs looked way better coached. Onwards.

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.