Beren

The pressure on Howe is now such that I can't help but wonder if he is trying to prove the signings which he pounded the table for we're not wasted money - behind Elanga I'm genuinely not sure who those would be of the latest batch - but I'd not be surprised to see Elanga to get a lot more minutes this year.

Definitely this. I think you and me are in lockstep Deuce, but I do think best case scenario we're probably in for a bit of a rebuild personnel wise next year or two.

Howay Brighton. Thank goodness we have 12 points on Spurs

Another cracking take tbh. Made himself a nuisance all game with no service. Really pleased to see his development.

Thanks for everything Eddie. Club should move with purpose to find someone to reset this rotting situation, and put ourselves in the best position to find a good manager while others dither. Andy's point about ending up like Spurs feels very prescient.

So thoroughly outplayed despite a small resurgence after Osula's well taken goal. We're a sloppy, disorganised collective of individuals. So many times they played a ball that took out 3 Newcastle players. So few times we did the same. The difficulty we had advancing the ball to even midfield in stoppage time was a huge credit to Bournemouth. We're not gonna recycle 22 players, and who we'd recycle changes from week to week. Not along ago Tino was indispensable and Osula wasn't worth a packet of chewing gum.

Well, at least it's a sunny day eh. Outcoached first half. The team is not playing with belief in the strategy - even if they back Howe in terms of commitment. Don't know what to do with the ball, after a bright opening 7 minutes. Only time Petrovic has been called into action is from a set piece. Jimenez locked down Barnes, apart from that foul in the 40th minute. Bournemouth look confident and purposeful, well organised. No Gordon to blame today.

Why is Botman starting over Burn?

More entertaining than 99% of our games this year Can't help but swoon over Wolte the guy.

That clip is definitely a bad look for him!

I don't blame you tbf - I think you and I are both liable to overindex on instances where he does/doesn't track back to support our view, and be more dismissive of instances of the opposite. I'm not a stats-person, but I'd be interested to see how many sprints he does per game vs the rest of the team/league, and how much ground he covers in general. Not sure if that type of information is publicly available.

Gordon has been one of the few bright spots in a drab season. The ask for him to 'shine even brighter' rather than looking at the utter dross served up by the likes of Barnes, Willock and Murphy is wild. We've seen how hard it is to recruit players who can destabilise defences consistently (Elanga, Wissa and even our dear Woltemade*) - why on earth would you accept even £80m for Gordon when the chances of his replacement being up to snuff is a complete lottery. *- still hoping he can end the season strong

This is pish IMO. He tracks back all the time and works so hard for the team (although I don't agree with how he is deployed to press, but that is a tactical instruction from Howe no doubt). He is penalised for being fast and making lung-busting runs because he can't do it for 90 minutes straight.

Ian W in!

We'd get utterly battered, but it'd be good to play Bayern Munich or Real Madrid next time. (Whenever the fuck that is). Had my fill of PSG and Barca.

Olise was elite all game. Ball on a string.

Madrid keeper is a joke He'd not have got there, but how is he diving right there

Want to buy my kids flights to Barcelona, so they can ape Yamal's infuriatingly prickish shrug celebration right back in his stupid floppy-haired face

Terrible idea to move him on.

Think he means compared to previous season which is fair comment. However I do think that interview was less scripted and unguarded than usual from Howe - and he doesn't seem to understand the issues, much less how to address them.

He's been poor but he's still a cracking player IMO. MotM for me in the cup final. Can't defend his performances lately. Hope he gets the summer off and comes back stronger.

I thought he did alright and interlinked some play quite well. If this was Football Manager, I'd want to build around Miley, Thiaw, Ramsey, Gordon and Hall. But realistically, we're not going to be trading 10 players. If we can get truly great value for Tonali, I wouldn't abhor it, but I do think he could flourish beautifully under a different system, so he's not first out the door at all. I'd want to get cheap, young and hungry replacements for Willock, Murphy, Botman, Trippier, Barnes and Wissa as a priority. They won't generate much return financially. Wish we'd capitalised on Murphy after his wonder-stats season.

It's definitely a penalty. The floodgates argument is a poor one IMO.

Could have made a fucking mint by religiously betting on Newcastle to lose games in the 75th minute this year.