TRon

Felt like the Jon Dahl Tomasson signing under Dalglish. Right player, wrong time and manager.

He was one of our top players under Rafa, and had a great season where we qualified for the CL. I think he stayed a season too long and it's probably cost us a replacement, so my effusing eulogies are probably tempered by that.

He's gone to Hartlepool so not sure about that.

Was about to say this. As long as we are challenging for CL, no one is going to be unhappy. If we finish well I expect us to do some significant business in the summer, that should be more than enough to keep our few top performers onside, especially if we make CL.

Bye and good luck.

It might be his salary, probably on the high end for a full back. Plus he's 29 so no resale value. Good defender though, would definitely do a sterling job for a lower or mid-tier PL club.

Iraola looks destined for a big club anyway. My money is on him ending up at Spurs. Whether he's better than Howe only time will tell, but he won the head to head pretty comprehensively. Howe will need to sort them out in the return fixture.

Not arsed anyway. He's only just turned 26 so he's a squad player for us at a decent age. I still reckon he's a lot better than he's performed so far. He was great in the cup win against Chelsea.

Some of the same ones shedding a tear would be throwing telly's out the window.

I mean, Howe pretty much said it even before the window opened. The priority was on keeping the players we've got. The decent ones I assume.

He'd be a very good LB for a promoted side, he is a pretty decent full back at PL level.

He's worth what other teams will pay for him ultimately. You'd like to think you can get more than £12m for him, but there isn't exactly a stampede for his signature. If we got £15m for him I'd be more than happy. People tend to way overvalue our players because they are fond of them. We had them on here claiming we were going to get £20m+ for a 33 year old Trippier a year ago. The only real test is the transfer market. We can make up all sorts of imaginary scenarios but until the bids come in, that's all it is.

I think the Saudi ship has sailed. Other clubs seem to have milked it far more effectively than us.

It helps that the Reubens are on board as they do actually have local connections. But the limitations of FFP/PSR do mean that PIF themselves have no incentive to break any rules or invest huge amounts in a hurry, they can quite happily just treat the whole thing as an investment.

Technically Joelinton is not really a top level midfielder, but you could argue his wrecking ball physicality more than makes up for it. Teams must hate playing against him.

https://www.intelligenceonline.com/international-dealmaking/2025/01/28/dazn-newcastle-neom-the-line-mbs-s-powerful-financier-on-the-line,110368358-eve There was some suggestion right there a few posts back.

I think that might also have been the reason they bought us though. If it was a vanity project they'll have had no problem throwing money at it assuming that they could very quickly build a team that won everything. The cartel and their minions at PL headquarters have acted to make sure they can't do this, and I always fear that if they aren't allowed to win stuff, they might well sell up and invest in another club that can. Effectively it works in the same way as PSR. The best owners as well as the best players are prodded and cajoled towards the approved cartel clubs. This is just me speculating by the way, but it's the direction I'm seeing.

Except it means we are effectively scouting for Man City.

Fabulous. I think the only way the penny will drop for the PL is if they start losing players to other leagues because no one in England can afford them. There again, the cartel clubs will probably figure it's worth going through some short term pain for long term gain.

Ashley really did come at the wrong time for Newcastle. Shepherd tried to maintain our brand, but he was just too small time in the end, and couldn't think beyond running the club like it was a family business. Ashley was just asset stripping. We went from being one of the top 5 clubs in England to relegation candidates in the space of a decade.

I said a while back that it would make far more sense for City to target Tonali rather than Bruno for just that reason. But this is just fans/journalists having wet dreams about signing him, there's no actual substance behind them. It gets fucking tiresome though.

Sums him up perfectly tbh. I think many people have said more or less the same thing in non-graph form.

He makes those finishes look easy tbf. A bit like he made the penalty look easy.

We could maybe move Willock out there at a push. I think the bigger issue is if Isak gets injured, that will basically end our Europe hopes. Unless Wilson can stay fit for the rest of the season.