TRon

Yeah she was dragging him all round the north east with a big smie on her face, really threw herself into the move at the time. He himself looked like a fish out of water in them early days.

He was always punching tbh, but at least he got it out of his system.

Sorry but no excuses. If there's a banana skin we need to spike it and dump it in the trash along with Everton. Top 6 or bust.

I think Eddie's summed it up perfectly tbh, his views match mine. While I understand the fears about moving away from St James, I don't want us to be boxed into becoming a 2nd tier club whose ceiling will become top 6 instead of champions one day.

If we are talking about cost/benefit analysis, PIF are probably the only owners who could buy out the lease and not really give a fuck. Anyone else - or even PIF themselves - will probably have to budget to be a top 6 club rather than a CL club if we can't expand St James to somewhere close to the capacity of the cartel clubs. Maybe if PSR is lifted then they could have a blast at it while they are here, but if they sold up, it would revert to top 6 at best, as no new owner is going to throw their own money into it in an effort to keep up.

This is going to be a problem if you relocate anywhere tbh, unless it's far enough out of town. The traffic grinds to a halt in the city centre on a matchday as well, including surrounding areas on the way in. I suppose it's mitigated somewhat by people being able to walk there as it is bang in the city centre.

It's still part of Newcastle, what are you on about?

It's all very well wanting it to be that, but there will only be one party that will foot the bill for an expensive refurb of St James, and as has already been said in that article, they don't want to spend on a massive rebuild only to still end up with a stadium which isn't going to close the PSR gap. Maybe PIF don't mind spunking the best part of a billion on a refurb, but if they don't do it, can't see any future owners going for that option. Not without the option for getting viable returns through commercial activity that a new stadium would provide.

It's the only realistic path to keeping pace with the big hitters long term.

I think we need to win it. If it was Villa or Liverpool coming off a loss against Fulham, you would expect them to win the next winnable fixture to get back on track. It's just about keeping momentum, and we have to win as many of our easier fixtures as possible, regardless of home or away.

Probably why the club is so slow to release information as well. It's not going to be a universally popular decision to move to a new site, so from their POV might as well let it percolate while people come to terms with the constraints of a rebuild and the impact it would have on our declared aim of being number One.

Look mate, it was you who was describing him as a nothing player just a few days ago. Also complaining about his reported wages and being a step down from Dan Burn just a few posts up. Not really sure what you are complaining about if you think he's a perfectly decent back up player who improves the squad.

Don't really pay too much mind to data, and I haven't seen enough of him for the eye test. I just find it strange we would buy someone who doesn't really identify as either a CB or a LB. Especially one who isn't particularly good at either, if what you are saying is true. Although I'll hold judgement on that until I've seen him as a CB.

You don't need pace to press attackers, but you do need pace for recovery if you lose the ball while pressing high up the pitch. Also you keep mentioning Kelly's lack of ability to win headers. Is that something which is an actual weakness or just something which you have assumed because he is not 6'4"+? If it was you would think Bournemouth fans would have expressed this, but they seemed to rate him highly as a CB.

But wasn't the problem with Burn in either position the lack of pace and ability to bring the ball out? How does he cope if we press high which is your preferred way of us playing?

We don't really have any other options seeing as how Osula isn't considered ready for PL action. Is there not a scenario where Gordon's pace and movement could cause their CB's problems?

Just goes to show 50k a week is still a hefty salary for sides outside the top half of the Premier.

He's effectively 4th choice if Gordon is 3rd. Which is not a problem if Gordon can reproduce the City performance regularly tbh, let's hope he can. As for Osula, I think he's done encouragingly well. Obviously he's a long way from starting matches, but he's shown enough to suggest he can cause teams problems if we are forced to chuck him in the deep end. I'm pleased we didn't loan him out, with Wilson and Isak prone to injuries, we need him here. I hope he gets more run outs as sub tbh, it will all add to his experience.

This game shows how important it is to have good footballers all over the pitch. When you have 11 men parking the bus, you don't really want defenders who can't bring the ball out and just waste time passing it between themselves in front of empty space. We looked much better once Hall came on and Tino could get back onto the right. Also putting Kelly into a CB position instead of Krafth didn't hurt from an offensive POV.

Yep. Showed just how big a miss he is when he's out of the team.

Been banging the drum for Willock for a long time, but that was a disappointing performance last night. Said in the match thread that when he doesn't have space to run into, he looks kind of lost. I think he needs to be taking players on a bit more given he's one of our attacking players. No need to do anything daft, even just quick give and go's would be better than turning back and passing backwards.

His wages are going to be significantly higher than some prospect we could potentially sign if we give him a new contract. How much would Kobbie Mainoo have been earning a couple of years ago? This is the trade off if we want to keep him around in the squad on decent wages. He'll end up taking up the place of someone who could have a much higher ceiling.

If Dubs is out, then I hope he gets the nod based on this performance. Obviously he'll get tested more, but he's on our books now and this is what he's paid for.

He was very busy, and his general play was better than most on the night. But he still got in good positions then turned back too often instead of going for the jugular. That is a weakness in his game that is not going to be fixed at 30 yrs old.