TRon

Yep. A couple of exciting signings might convince him he can still achieve everything here. But getting into the CL this year would really seal the deal, and I still think it's on.

It won't be like any normal game though will it? It's a cup final with fans travelling a long way to see us play in it. I would imagine a lot of the normal season ticket holders who turn up and sit mute might not bother leaving some room for fans desperate to see us at Wembley.

I think we can keep Isak for one more year if we fail to qualify for the CL, simply because he's still got 3 years of his contract left. If he does push to leave, we would probably agree to a sale, but it would have to be on our terms.

I don't know why anyone would be worried about fans who are going all the way to Wembey to support the lads. They'll do their part make no mistake. It is the players who will need to throw off any inhibitions and turn up, something Newcastle teams haven't done in my lifetime. Yes being big underdogs should help, but really we just need to have a plan and execute it. Forget about the occasion and if it works great. If not, then not much anybody can do about it.

If this was Chelsea or Aston Villa I could understand these arguments. But didn't Forest and Bournemouth just come out of the Championship themselves not too long ago? How have they built a better squad? Some of the players being mentioned, we could have bought them if we wanted, but we didn't go for them, presumably because Howe wanted proven Premier players. Actually I am not even a critic of our signings, I think we've signed well compared to others, but we obviously paid top dollar for a lot of them to get them out of their clubs.

This. He wasn't as good going forward as Hall obviously, but he could ping in a decent cross, and arguably was a better defender.

I wasn't paying that much attention to the tracking back part, but find it hard to believe Howe would have wanted him so bad if that wasn't part of his game. But I disagree he does nothing else, even if he doesn't have many tricks, he looks a better footballer than Murphy in general. The ball doesn't bounce off his instep a yard when he's trying to control it, and he carries it better in general.

I would like to think our players and squad are better than Bournemouth and Forest. If they aren't then something has gone wrong with the recruitment during Eddie's time here, and he would have to take some responsibility since he had a big say in who was coming in.

I mentioned this in the Bruno thread where everyone was outraged at the thought of selling Bruno. It is outrageous...but in a PSR world, if you don't get CL then you have to start looking at selling 27yr olds before they start depreciating if you want to have spending power in the future. Ugly but true.

This is it for me as well. I remember in our CL qualifying season his work rate was insane. Even without the goals he was all over the pitch harrying the opposition and attacking them from the left. We have seen glimpses of the latter, even today, but he doesn't look like he's busting a gut any more. He plays like it's a job and he's not particularly enjoying it.

Well yeah, it's because it was in the face he got sent off.

Still everything to play for here, lest we forget. Just need to figure out a way to protect our defence until we can take one of our opportunities.

Don't rate him massively, but I thought he did well for the first 20 mins or so. Looked less clumsy on the ball than Murphy IMO.

I think he was trying to shove him off, don't think he was trying to strike him, but when you raise your hands that high, you can't really complain if you get sent off.

It didn't help that Matt Targett looked like a donkey when he came on in the second half either.

Agree. He's done a great job, but we have clear issues with ball retention and at the back, and we have to consider how best to address it.

I don't want to sell him, he's one of our best players without a doubt. But he's also 27, so like Barnes there will be a window to maximise his resale value. Sorry to have to put this here, but I can guarantee if we are still hamstrung by PSR next season, the club will have to consider a sale if a big offer comes in. Right now we are being pushed to operate like Brighton, not Chelsea.

Apart from the red card, he's not really contributed to many goals recently either has he? In general I think he's one of our better players, tries to make things happen, but his end product has been missing lately.

Both had good moments, both gave the ball away a few times. They were mitigated by having to fight their way past 3 Brighton players usually, maybe we should be looking at why there weren't more options available instead.

Where do you go if you want to discuss substitutions, squad rotation and game management? Not everything is about sacking or selling, but we should be able to discuss how to get the best out of the squad available.

I don't think it's the losses against the top clubs which draws criticism though. It's when teams with less resources get the better of us. That's why the league is more important for me, don't think it's fair to expect a cup win against Liverpool, however negative that sounds.

They got some great last minute blocks in tbf.

Yeah no arguments there, I said it was just for me the league games are more important since I personally don't believe we have the players to win against Liverpool in a cup final. I don't think the players believe it, that's the problem.

I can get my head round it because even during his purple patch I thought his possession and ball control was patchy at best. But his end product was winning points. But that sort of sloppy football loses you plenty as well, and it's a big reason we can't control games.