TRon

Replace Mike Williamson with Dan Burn and it's not that different.

Well by all reports, we've made two separate bids for him in the summer, someone at the club clearly rates him.

You could also probably assume that he would have been more than happy to come to Newcastle if Chelsea hadn't stepped in. It's similar to the Szoboszlai situation when he moved. In most scenarios these guys would jump at an opportunity to move here, but if the cartel clubs are after them then they can pay more and at this point they have more pulling power due to higher status.

Apart from his general lack of end product, which is probably reflected in his stats, I don't think he combines particularly well with the RB either. Miggy has awful end product, and he is equally frustrating, but I think it's easier for the RB to overlap him as Miggy does have far better close control and is good with the short passing.

I wonder what he would be worth now if he was put up for sale? He's still relatively young, but along with his poor injury record over the last 12 months, his goals have dried up as well.

They've still got a much better squad, and as we saw in the second half of last season, that ultimately counts. Of course we've got a chance of getting a result, if we can stop conceding soft goals that would really help.

The only real solution is to lower expectations. Instead of looking at top 6, be happy with top 8. Then anything above that is a bonus. Maybe we just have unrealistic ambitons.

We sort of sacked off last season as well, we couldn't afford to make the signings we needed when we got a boatload of injuries, then weren't really in a position to fix it in January without selling Miggy to the Saudi league which was blocked by the player. Same could happen this season as well. We wanted a CB and couldn't get Guehi through the door. As it turns out, we seem to have bigger issues at RW and striker cover, and this isn't likely to be fixed this season either. It might take a couple of seasons of trading, and bringing in some Mitchell signings who will hopefully prove instant hits, to plug those gaps. With PSR restrictions we can't do it any other way.

Effectively that means he's not good enough at present though, and probably not for this season realistically. That leaves us with one striker carrying the load who is not really suited to doing that over a prolonged period.

We didn't need a proven third striker, just a promising young one who is good enough to throw on for the odd game when your main strikers are out.

Of all the defenders he looked the one who was caught napping, the two full backs were left trying to close the gap in the middle which meant they were always playing catch up.

It cost us last season, and is already costing us this season. Not sure there's much we could do about it under current PSR rules other than sell players more aggressively and then hope to replace them like Brighton do, but there's no guarantees the replacement players will be as good as the ones who leave.

Bit late for football to find it's moral bearings about Saudis once you've already opened the gate for the Russians and Abu Dhabi.

We have played a fair chunk of the season and are not scoring goals whichever way you want to look at it. That's after a fairly easy start as well, so I don't think we should avoid any inclination to sugarcoat it. There's been some sloppy points dropped against lesser teams, we'll now have to beat better teams to make that up.

It's not exactly Mary Poppins levels of positivity, but he's not wrong.

Not sure he did as bad as is being made out tbh. Him and Hall were having to come across and cover the central defenders mistakes, they risked taking out the player and conceding a pen if they dived in last ditch from that angle, you could see they were both wary of that.

It's not even that we particularly want to sell purples, I just think not having alternatives has allowed them to gain too much self importance for a club aspiring to CL football. Isak is starting every game even when he's not fit. Gordon is first name on the teamsheet but he's not really producing so far this season. Murphy is just Murphy, ditto Almiron. That front three looks a lot less dangerous than it should.

He needs competition. If Wilson's not breathing down his neck, it means Isak's starting place is not on the line, which is never a healthy position for any player. Given that he's often playing when he's not 100% fit that takes even more edge off his game. Bringing in a 3rd striker who effectively isn't fit for purpose is already costing us points.

Whether we end up sacrificing one or two purples or not, it's pretty clear that our squad isn't deep enough. We need to be less reliant on those purples so they don't get ideas above their station, especially when they aren't really producing the stats to back up their self importance.

We've only scored 8 goals in 8 matches as well, so it's not like it was just a one off. Our end product is definitely not top tier.

What does that mean though? He's either a good player or he isn't. If he's shit then that means our scouting and recruitment team at that time got it wrong.

Everton are the only side I can recall who showed serious interest in him, and that was because Rafa was there, and he did suit Rafa's low possession football. Not sure if there was talk of Forest being interested last year, but don't think there was ever a fee talked about. I always think this is the acid test of a player's worth. Do other teams actually want him?

Would love to believe that's true.

At this point I don't think anyone really gives a fuck.

Striker is the most difficult position to buy so it would be a gamble at best. Just got to look at Man U throwing good money after bad at signing them. But like I said, the way PSR is currently rigged, the only way to grow is to sell players at a profit. It's like a souped up version of Mike Ashley's Newcastle.