TRon

Same. But I don't want to say it too enthusiastically just yet in case it all turns out to be a dud story. In which case he'll go back to being a one dimensional talentless shitbag with not tricks up his sleeve.

Well a lot of people pooh pooh-ing over the idea of Harrison, maybe because he doesn't do the fancy step overs, but he might do a lot of things right which don't catch the eye. I know many of us thought James Milner wasn't good enough, but he's won umpteen trophies since at Liverpool. Those numbers do suggest Harrison has something about him.

But we do probably need the option of four CBs so I could understand if Howe thought he could be one of them. Obviously not first team though.

What about Milner? Or is that reaching?

What is it you don't like about him?

There's definitely a deal to be done there if they have put a price on him.

Well if he loves being here, and is proud to pull on the shirt, it will help with that. Anyone who's been a part of team sport knows the importance of a genuine leader. Would make more sense to move on the likes of Fede and Clark.

Anyway, nice to see a few new names in the mix, can enjoy it for a few hours anyway before someone inevitably pours cold water on it. I'm still quite keen on Harrison fwiw, if Howe likes him it will be for good reason. No one can touch ASM for beating players one on one, but sometimes just passing the ball to the man in space can be the better option.

I was surprised how quick he is tbh, wasn't sure if all the talk of him being slow was a piss take in case he went to Milan.

Literally everyone on the same page...on this page.

I'm going to double down on my previous policy of refusing to watch videos of prospective signings unless they are looking definite signings. Got burned by letting standards slide with Ekiteke and now he's at PSG. Once it's confirmed that Sesko is flying in for a medical I'll start hitting youtube. Until then, fuck him and Diaby.

The one who I thought was happy to be associated with rumours of a move to us, but probably wants to flush out a CL club.

Realistically those clubs are not as high profile as Newcastle, and are traditionally seen as smaller clubs. The main clubs in London are Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea. West Ham are a tier below, and have gates to match. Leicester are similar in that they have a ground on the small capacity side compared to the bigger clubs. My point being, they can only improve so much compared to the more glamorous clubs. Yes they are further ahead than NUFC, but I still think we will be up there punching with them if we get two high calibre forwards in. It's not the end of the world if we have to wait another season but I'm not going to pretend it won't be disappointing.

I do care where we finish tbh. I thought the January window was always going to be really tricky, but we did pretty well in hindsight. I was expecting us to land 3-4 big targets this summer though, when we would have more time to set deals up. It might still happen tbh, but I don't expect us to have a season treading water. We can't challenge the top six, but I would have expected us to be chopping down the next tier, the likes of West Ham and Leicester.

Looks like West Ham are in line to get both Broja and Lingard. While I'm not sure either of them are ideal signings from our POV, it still strengthens them significantly, and they are obviously better than the likes of Muphy. Almiron and Wood. As things stand we aren't likely to finish ahead of West Ham. A lot will depend on if we still have options up our sleeve to bring in more firepower.

We have enough to go on to see that he can control a ball better than Murphy.

The result wasn't important, it was the same failings by the same players which underlined how they aren't good enough to be relied on this season. Some of them are just bad footballers, lose the ball under the slightest pressure, and run into defenders like lemmings.

He's the same age as Ekiteke if I'm not mistaken, pretty sure he would have been in our first team squad and not sent out on loan.

I thought Shelvey was alright tbh, he might not do a load of running, but he tends to keep possession well.

They've had plenty of support to try and make them a big club, but I don't think it can work long term. They just don't have the pulling power re support.

Well you can glean some patterns repeating themselves, like the bad players still looking pretty useless, so you can draw some conclusions.

If that game taught us anything, it's that tried and tested flops like Almiron and Murphy are out of their depth at this level. Miggy wasn't awful, but ultimately he just buzzed around like a pesky mosquito.

He's already better than 70% of our squad, it makes no sense to send him out on loan while keeping useless duffers around.

Botman showed a nice turn of pace btw, I'm relieved rumours of his lack of it have been exaggerated.