TRon

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.

Amen.

Kane was always a great footballer, but at Bayern what he's doing is immense considering how fast the football is played, and him being 32. Wissa's age wouldn't have been such an issue if he'd been able to perform at this level in what should still be his peak years.

Harry was pretty hard to knock off the ball like. Wolte might need to start eating his weetabix and become a bit more of a cunt if he wants to follow in Kane's footsteps.

Then why was he brought on with half an hour to go against Arsenal?

Getting the links laughed off by Bayern might have brought him down a peg or 3.

I think this season might have helped him come round to the realisation that taking a step back from player recruitment isn't the worst option.

Yep. For us it makes no sense to sell unless we get a fee which makes it worthwhile. But I'm not sure we will so some of these players with ideas above their station might be in for a rude awakening in the summer. I just hope they don't agitate for lower fees so they can go sit on the bench somewhere else.

I'm just saying those are the standards being set. It's football how it should be played IMO.

Pressing that high works for the first 45 mins but it inevitably ends up leaving everyone exhausted for the second half and we end up conceding goals later on. You can see it coming. Maybe if we had exceptional forwards and we could build 2-3 goal leads then it would work better.

I think only Hall is the really important one to keep. Everyone else has shown enough limitations to make me doubt the top teams would even want them badly enough unless they were paying a lower fee. These players are not worth as much as we would like to think they are. Is anyone really going to pay £75m for either Gordon or Tonali?

I'm still wondering which team is going to pay us a fee to make it worthwhile selling him.

This has been the big doubt for me. We have done brilliantly well with the high press during Howe's term, but this season whenever we have come up against the better teams in the UCL, they have passed all round our press and made us look average. Watching the game between PSG and Bayern yesterday was an education as well. You could argue defensively it was poor, but the level of passing and movement was something else. Our high press would be destroyed by either team. Obviously you need the best players to play that stuff, but it is what it takes to go next level.

I've long maintained this view. I think it was first mentioned wrt Isak, but you only had to look at his two finishes on his debut against Liverpool to see he didn't need much improving. He's certainly drilled a work ethos into his players, and he deserves credit for that though. But most managers will get their players to follow some sort of drill, other than Bruce.

Speak for yourself. Would much rather watch an Arsenal set piece or a Brentford long throw.