TRon

Hard for me to associate Hall with anything other than good times tbh. He gave us the best time of our lives, yes he made money out of it, and that was probably his main motivating factor, but we spent big then. It was our money, but at least he made sure we invested it in the team and aimed for the top. I think that's about all you could ask for back then.

It's not Eddie's style to get dragged into pissing contests, he leaves that for rabid bespectacled German managers with chimpanzee teeth.

Yeah considering his prime years were at a club funded by Russian wealth.

Well at least they're unique. What else would you have on there? Everyone else has lions. Ooh yeah so majestic, every single one. You have two lions? We have three!

Van Gaal might not rate him, but I saw Ten Haag pulled him up for a chat when they were coming off the pitch. It immediately raised my opinion of Ten Haag, which was already pretty high tbh. Man U seem to have a good one there.

Their signings really helped, how much of it was down to Frank I'm not sure, but once we dropped out of the Tarkowski race that allowed them to pick him up. I still don't rate him as a manager, but they'll do ok as a defensive team for now. Won't be easy to break down, especially without Maxi who tore them a new one last season.

Felt for him when he was subbed, he looked a bit forlorn. Can barely recall a single decent cross which he might have converted. I'm prepared to give Miggy a pass as he does so much other good work, but Murphy, fuck me.

He's a cracking player but I agree. I think you can have one player who is not the fastest, especially one who basically controls the game like Bruno, but I would be wary of having too many, especially if he's an attacker. Not sure about Madisson's pace mind, is he lacking a bit in that department?

I thought that as well, but then I have been defending Willock for some time as I think he gets underrated quite a bit because his shooting has gone to shit. Longstaff puts in a good shift, but he's noticeably one of those who gives the ball away regularly, there's a clear drop in quality with some of our fringe players.

They do still have a better squad and it showed. Murphy's not good enough in games like this one, don't think he provided anything in the final third. If Maxi or Isak were fit could have been a win for us I reckon

Pretty much.

So the bench is looking shite again for this one. And that's with Murphy starting.

He came back with an injury from international duty didn't he? If it was linked to his fitness issues with us then he shouldn't have gone there.

Not the most flattering pic that like. Makes it look like he's been eating donuts for his entire spell recuperating in France.

Agree, I've always thought Sunderland were so green with envy over our badge that they copied the basic style and put lions instead of seahorses either side. Absolutely love our crest, am surprised to hear any complaints about it, although I suspect we are just talking about cosmetic changes.

Agree with a lot of what you wrote there, but giving Pardew credit for those 5th, 16th, 10th, 9th positions is classic stat-padding. I doubt he even knew half of the players that were signed for him, probably the only one he took credit for was Obertan. He was the first and iconic manager who could be described as a fraud IMO. Where is he now?

Not sure what to make of it tbh. They were playing some really nice stuff to create chances, similar to how we did against 10 men against Fulham. How that will translate against us I'm not sure. They do still have some very good players, but against that we are not going to let them have the run of the park. I think a point apiece is probably a good shout, but I'll certainly accept a strategic win.

Do you know something I don't? Is there any talk of Bruno being out or is this just based on him going off early last week?

Definitely will always be Pardew and Allardyce for me, always got the feeling Allardyce didn't really like Newcastle either, don't know whether that is just me being suspicious of his Sunderland links as a player. But in any case he was an insufferable cunt regardless.

I didn't mind Klopp's over the top mannerisms previously, he has brought colour and some great football to the Premier. But everything has it's place, and I can't for the life of me work out why he has come out all aggressive and downright disrespectful of NUFC this season. The guy looked seriously unhinged, and now it just comes across as plain ugly. I think he realised this and when they lost against Arsenal he was far more gracious, but the damage is done from our POV. We've got one of the most respectful managers in the game, so it doesn't play well when you get Klopp ranting and raving after a game he was lucky to get anything from.

Still really rankles with me that Ashley sold off the land behind St James and that might have affected our expansion plans. Even if it didn't, it was an asset which he probably creamed off for himself, I doubt the club got the money.

Yep. And that's just one revenue stream, easy for us to dismiss £25m/year, but I would imagine funding a club this size to the tune of competing for CL football will mean we'll need lots of these type of deals. In isolation they might not look that much, but when NUFC's income on an ongoing basis will be made up of lots of such revenue streams, PIF are an investment organisation at the end of the day, the club will have to be self-sustaining. I'm not saying I want to do this btw, but if we want to compete at the top level then we have to consider it.

Isn't the alternative renaming the stadium altogether assuming you want to bring in significant money on an ongoing basis? Although some of them like Arsenal have used building a new ground altogether as a route to doing this.

Read that this morning, I was surprised how much detail he was prepared to tell the journalists about his methods. The sign of a man truly confident in his own ideas, he knows the secret sauce is only part of it, the most important factor is still the chef.

Yes @brummie has always been the first to call out useless PFM managers who hide behind soundbites and ex-pro fame. How much better is it in the current era when the best British managers are being appreciated for their intelligence and diligence with the likes of Howe and Potter? Honestly makes me sick when football owners keep going back to the well to dredge up football's dinosaurs.