TRon

Howe had more control over the signatures than at any time in his tenure here. Maybe he shouldn't have, but you can't pretend those strikers were pushed on him.

And people on here moan about our fans being spoiled.

We bought them though, we can't turn round and say we've got no strikers now. It's not like we paid peanuts either, we paid over the top money to secure their signatures.

See I don't understand that, because if that's true, it means we didn't do any background checks on him. It's not like he was a last minute signing, we identified him as Wilson's replacement early on in the summer transfer window.

Should be back in IMO, but I thought that a few games ago.

Tbh, if a club like Man U or Liverpool come in for him, and he decides to walk away, I wouldn't blame him. Not because we've done him wrong, I think he's highly appreciated at Newcastle. But he must have ambitions to work with the best players and not constantly have to worry about having to lose the ones he's got. Not that different to players moving to fulfil their ambitions and improve their pay, except a manager has a longer shelf life so normally can hope to achieve them without moving at the right club.

I wonder if there's even a tiny chance that Wissa could start up front? I know it won't happen, but Howe himself said a few weeks back that he's as fit as he's ever been since signing.

What a way to end a great career.

Howe with another impeccable presser. He deals with any potentially disturbing questions almost perfectly. I particularly liked his answer on dealing with his best players potentially being sold off. He was just honest and said he's dealt with it all his career, and if that's what the club has to do, then that's what the club has to do. But it just has to line up with expectations of the players who are here, and that is spot on.

Nah. But we aren't playing Arsenal, it's Crystal Palace so no excuses. If Miley is fit, I would put him in.

He's out of contract. Despite how good he's been, I'm not sure we should be giving him an extension.

Very important with Bruno out for another two games.

We shouldn't be so reliant on one player. I would like to think our squad building has been a bit better than that.

Howe will be judged on the season, not on one game. That's how it should be as well. Still 7 games to go, we can finish strong and that will lift a lot of the gloom.

If you have no faith in the higher ups getting someone more qualified, why would you want his position to be up for review?

7 games should be more than enough to see off that bunch of second-raters.

Fair question in my book. No doubt crafty Eddie will duck the issue in his normal deadbat fashion.

Tino is the one I was thinking we have to sell. The others like Tonali and Gordon would have to kick up a stink as they are on long contracts.

I hope we only sell one tbh, but if Tonali really wants to leave, it might be two.

That's why this summer's transfer activity is going to be so interesting for me tbh. I think the club have recognised the reality, and we will have to trade differently. We gave it a good go going big on transfers, but without the CL that isn't sustainable.

This. Although since Wilson has been hired to prevent exactly such a situation in the future, I'm surprised we are even looking at him in the first place. Makes you wonder how serious the rumours are, or is it just clickbait based on his former Forest connections?

I don't think fans or even the board realised the true impact of PSR back then either.

Well at least he's consistent, I'll give him that. I kind of agree with him that we need to progress to a more possession based game, but not sure how realistic that is without buying better players, and they cost a lot of money. How likely are we to be able to do that by shopping in the hopeful aisle of the transfer market? I haven't seen him address that.

In reality, those sort of signings will get us better value anyway. If we are going to use Europe as an attraction to sign bigger hitters, more likely we will just end up missing out because we will be outbit by the cartel clubs. We need to target the players before they reach proven level otherwise it will be a repeat of last summer.

It's already too late for him then.