TRon

It's so cute how there's still some clinging to the old perception that the Big Six can buy our players, when reality is probably moving in the opposite direction. Not sure if there are any Man U players I actually want though.

Maybe he actually does a good job for Brazil. International football is different from the Premier League, it's usually played at a slower pace with more emphasis on possesion and less physical tussles in the midfield. Maybe Fred is considered a bit more reliable in keeping possession than Joelinton. Joe is perfect for the Premier because physicality plays a big part.

Him on the left and Miggy on the right is suddenly starting to look very tasty.

Not going to lie, I can't help thinking less of Emery after the way he bottled taking the Newcastle job after initially accepting it. Looks like he's now realised he made a mistake and has taken the next job available in the Premier. That said, it's worked out brilliantly for us, we've ended up with the perfect manager, and I really do think Emery is a decent-ish manager. In other circumstances I would normally wish him well. At least I won't hate Villa like I did under the unsufferable Gerrard though. Before this weird rivalry business which developed in our relegation season, I always liked Villa as a club.

Yeah I can see any new players being blended in slowly, first they would have to be brought up to speed into our playing style and intensity. Just have to look at how Miggy, Willock and Longstaff have improved immeasurablly since they have been drilled into playing the Howe way. It can take time with even the best players to get up to speed.

He's definitely gained confidence this season on the ball, he'll try the casual flicks or dummies to throw his markers, and it's coming off quite often as well. Makes our football look top level when he's on his game.

Blast from the past reading. I identified with a lot of it, especially the suspicion that we had somehow fluked 5th place despite having an absolute clown in charge.

We should be happy with a point but let's face it, after the month we've had, you'd be disappointed with anything less than a win. We are starting to look relentless now, I think other teams are starting to fear us.

They could be a secondary big club, in the same way Everton are always going to be secondary to Liverpool. But that's the problem, it absolutely infuriates them that they will always be considered secondary to Newcastle, even on their best days. If they could just accept they will always have a faint stench of shitness about them, then would help them look slightly less pathetic.

They're absolutely massive in China, can only assume the Chinese paupers couldn't afford the massive sums to buy the previous owners out and use SAFC as an associative brand.

Nice to see one of Howe's contemporaries giving some credit to the manager rather than whinging about unfair financial advantages and gamesmanship.

He's an out and out striker though, while he deserves to be in there, it should be Miggy taking the honours. But I agree, it probably won't. Haaland is taking the Premier by storm, most fans won't be looking past him the amount of attention he's got since he landed.

You also know that 90% of fans wish their own clubs had been bought by PIF instead of Newcastle. I'm sure there would be a very small percentage of them who would be outraged enough to stop supporting the club as well, but money calls the shots, and it has done since Qatari and Russian money snatched the PL glory over the last 20 years.

It also works the other way. By 'adopting' a western football team, the Saudi public will be exposed to a lot of modern culture and practices that they were blocked from previously. I'm sure there will be plenty of traditionalists over there who are seething at being associated with the west as well.

I think that's fair enough, but the overriding problem still remains money. It overrides everything including human rights and principle. This is why football, and no doubt most other spheres of life in today's world are where we are today.

I was wondering about the striker situation as well, but I guess we might wait to see how we cope once Isak and Wilson are both available at the same time. A young CF who can lead the line makes sense, but might be difficult to persuade one of sufficient quality to come here with those two in front of him.

It puts us in the fabulous position of not desperately looking to plug gaps in every area of the pitch and risk spreading the money around too thinly to address any of them properly, and instead maybe look to make a couple of real impact signings who can take us to the next level instead. Seems like our summer policy of not spending on placeholder signings like Dennis or Sarr for example, has really paid off. Got to hand it to Howe again on this one, he could have panicked and whinged about his squad like Bruce did, but instead he insisted his players were already good enough, they just needed proper coaching. Now we can look to bring in only players we really think will make a difference long term.

The problem with that though, is that the only reason we have the Saudi 'baggage' is money. Without it, would the Reubens and Stavely even be interested in owning Newcastle? If they wanted to own a club for sentimental purposes they could have bought Blyth Spartans or Tranmere Rovers. Football sold out a long time ago, and let's face it, British football clubs now dominate the world because of it. You are either on the inside enjoying the success that comes with it, or on the outside looking in. Barcelona used to hold the principle that they would never allow a sponsor to despoil their shirt a couple of decades ago, I wonder what happened to that?

Haaland is the only possible alternative I can see, maybe the more popular choice from a Big Six perspective, and that has to be taken into account.

I read it this morning, and those were my exact thoughts on it. Even though I had more or less given up on him last year, after his pre-season exploits I did wonder if Howe had unlocked Miggy's potential with some direction and coaching.

What's so gratifying is that just as Grealish's riduculing of Miggy made the national press, now the shoe's on the other foot and the whole of the football world is mocking Grealish instead. Every news article about Miggy's form is comparing his success to the absolute car crash form of the floppy haired fop we know as Jack G.

Apart from the obvious goals scored, what I'm really most enjoying is his increased directness and aggression which was perfectly demonstrated by his goal yesterday. First the strength and tenacity to hustle Sessegnon out of the way, then just tearing past the left back before arrowing in on goal.

I think without him we don't win. Even a knackered Bruno who hasn't had much sleep knows how to get his foot in and get the ball moving forward.

He came back into the team at the right time, we needed his pace and power in there to disrupt Spurs attacks. For the first twenty mins we were struggling to keep up, but we got stronger as the game went on, and he was a big part of it.