TRon

They could deliver all of that and still be miles away from the cartel clubs. There is no real commercial reason to deliver on any of it without borrowing against the club.

I don't really care about fans complaints that he can't be bothered to warm up on the touchline. This is where I would rather trust Howe and his coaching staff. If they are not playing him it might be because he's an awful person. It might be because he's not match fit. For all we know, Howe might still mean it when he says that he can still come good here after a pre-season.

The reality is PSR has fucked us. Now it could be that if there was no PSR, the Saudis might still not have spent gazillions to buy success. How would we even know? As far as I'm concerned they bought the club for primarily PR reasons to give themselves a global presence. Obviously a winning club gives them far more of that. All the stuff about why they have been slow on training grounds, new stadium etc is just speculative. There are probably very good reasons for all of them. And by the way, they aren't obliged to do any of them despite our fans entitled expectations to think they are.

Howe gets a lot of credit for improving our players. I think Anderson must have slipped the net, because he looked half the player he has since he left.

He's actually put plenty of running in this season. He just can't put anything on the end of it.

I'll believe it when I see it.

I agree FWIW.

The prestige would be multiplied x10 if we were allowed to build a winning team. If prestige is the reason they want us, that's also the biggest reason for optimism.

Like I said earlier, if PIF refused to sell then there would be no sale. Isak could go on strike for three months but he still couldn't force a move. The decision to sell was down to the owners at the end of the day, although I am sure they took Howe's advice on board as well.

This is what I have an issue with as well. I was willing to believe it was just a mental issue of playing for a big club - which is a massive problem in itself - but he's not even doing the basics right like first touch or short passes. Sometimes he can play a sublime first time pass, next time it pings off his shins into touch. It just reeks of poor control.

We didn't want to sell and he was still under a contract for at least 2 years. We shouldn't have left ourselves in a position to be scrabbling around looking for replacements we weren't happy with unless we agreed a fee. Which we didn't.

Yes.

I think what's inexcusable is chasing him for a year without apparently watching him that closely.

That was a disaster. Ultimately they should just have made a decision early in the summer and stuck to it. If Liverpool could meet the asking price, pay it by a certain date, otherwise he's not for sale. If he refused to play, make him train alone for a few months until he's ready to come back.

Howe would have been the deciding factor IMO. I think he wanted him out of Newcastle once he'd shown he was determined to leave. But PIF should have stood firm at the end of the day, and that means they take ultimate responsibility.

There's always going to be people who view things differently. I tend to look at the direction. If it looks like there is progression then I don't mind taking one step back to take two steps forward. It's possible that a new bunch of players could make all the difference in the world. But I just don't think Howe has made the best of the ones we have here this season. It might have required a change in style, but he seems wedded to his 4-3-3, and we don't have the players for it this season.

Everyone is committed to money, including some of our biggest stars. I don't know why we use this to bash him with singularly. There's lots of talk about him not being arsed but Howe hasn't indicated this. We just know he's not showing enough in training, although apparently that's improving as well.

He shouldn't even be on the bench if he can't be arsed warming up.

We might find out next season. I do wonder if his system isn't the problem and it's just the players aren't good enough. But on the other hand, he always seems reactive, slow to make changes when it's not working, and doesn't seem to be able to adapt to the players he's got. Most of which were his choices in the first place.

He's not been pulling up any trees for the national team either then I take it? I only watched him play one game for Germany after we signed him, and he was invisible in that.

You will always have a vocal minority expressing all sorts of views. We missed out on Europe a couple of years ago but most fans accepted that as just a dip which often follows a CL campaign. I think if we were to fail to qualify for Europe this season, fans would be miffed, but could accept it as another blip if we had a campaign where we ever looked like being involved in a top 6 race. This season has been a disaster in terms of results and form. That's why criticism is valid.

I mean no one really takes that sort of talk seriously. It's just the type of big talk you get across the Atlantic. Aim high and all that shit.

I think the public expectation of a European place wasn't unfair pressure tbh. We've been spending heavily since he got here, no one does that without expecting results to match. It's not like he was being asked to qualify for CL every season.

Surprised he overturned it once he give it mind. Didn't deserve it but still technically a foul.

Buy low, sell high. £80m off you fuck then.