TRon

We need to start Wissa because he's the best fit for Howe's way of playing.

You didn''t address the financial institution part. That is pretty central as to why the new ground hasn't gone up already or how it will be done eventually. Because financially it probably doesn't make much sense unless it's done by borrowing against the club and putting us in debt to a considerable tune. You also ignored the bit about an alternative owner who might be able to deliver better results. Like I said, I don't really see any who would want to take on the challenge of building a top club with the cartel and their rulebook ready to throw at us.

Don't shoot the messenger mate, anyone who has been on here will know that there have been plenty of "jokes" about this down the years.

The age of African footballers is often questioned here, maybe they don't have proper age documentation in some countries over there.

What difference does it make? They are a financial institution, I don't really see anyone else out there who can deliver any better given the restrictions imposed by the cartel.

I hope it's just rust and not long term after effects of his injury. He's only 29 (supposedly) so he should be able to make a full recovery. But anyone with more medical knowledge feel free to shed light on the matter.

Nowt wrong with that tbh, it's the job of any respectable journalist. If we just want people fawning over Eddie you could give just have fan talk-ins.

We aren't going to win all of those so we will need to get more points on the road from somewhere.

I think he'll adapt according to what's happened this season. If you look at his career at Bournemouth he stuck very rigidly to Plan A right up until the end. After he was sacked he went to Spain to learn from Simeone and added a few strings to his bow. He is a clever fella so I think we will see a different version of Newcastle and yes, with a few different players who will suit his philosophy. I'm just not really sure what that is at the moment, but he will know, and you would imagine he'll make a better crack of it next time round.

Generally the case for anyone half decent tbh. Top level football is designed that way, we just have to get used to it and cut our cloth accordingly.

Not convinced on the idea of Tonali hitting nice thru balls, or being creative tbh. But he's a box to box action man who can work with other creative players if his job is just to win the ball and pass it quickly to someone who IS creative. Funnily enough, I think he'll look very effective with the right players around him, and us playing in a less ping pong style.

He said again yesterday that he was forced into playing a different system due to the circumstances, but he'd always rather go with Plan A and get that right. So he needs to stick with Wissa up front for me and just get us playing a system where everyone is doing their job and it looks like a plan. We might not always win, but we have enough high value players in the squad to get better results than we have in the first half of the season.

While I can understand that we didn't want to spend more money in this transfer window after going big in the summer, I do see the same problems coming up again before the next transfer window. We made big noises about Kees Smit, but by the time the next window comes round, every club will be in for him. It's the time when all the big clubs do their business so we are going to have daunting competition again. I hope we've got some ducks lined up this time.

Our spending power hasn't though. PIF could buy every EPL club in England collectively, but we can't buy players unless we get the green light from the cartel appointed PL authorities. That's why it matters.

When I saw his Villa highlights reel I was thinking if nothing else, looks like he might be a goal threat. He's looked far less of a threat than Willock tbh.

Exactly. In my head both those players are already on their way out. The thinking now should be getting the replacements in FIRST, then maximising the fee we get for them. If they end up staying then great, I'm thinking we will be looking at younger players for replacements in any case so we can use them as squad players.

He looks like he's threatening to be a good player but forgets his lines once he's about to deliver the finale.

On the part about not expecting the Isak strike, it worries me that it came as such a bombshell. I thought Howe would have had a bit more of a clue that one of his players wasn't happy. It's easy enough to blame it on Mitchell, but he was gone long before Isak downed tools. We are likely going to see this repeated with Tonali and Tino. I hope we aren't going to respond with "Bugger me, I didn't see that coming..."

I don't really see this as a must win game because I feel this season is going nowhere. The fixture list looks really tough coming up, I think we've blown it. Maybe we could still get 7th if we can work out a way to get the summer signings to click. Thiaw apart, none of them have really looked up to it so far.

Staveley was also at the helm when we had to sell Minteh and Anderson to balance the books after miscalculating the PSR implications.

I agree, but that's my point. It was widely reported that Howe won the battle of wills with Mitchell who was the DOF, and when he left, it was Howe's team that picked the transfer targets. I'm not convinced that Ross Wilson would have got the DOF role without Howe approval either. Hopefully he's great at his job though, and we can start rebuilding this summer.

I know one who claimed to have started watching his local team (North Shields) instead, which is fine, nothing wrong with it. But I don't really want to read about it on a NUFC forum. Find one for your local team.

Ah ok.

That's the drum I've been banging for weeks now. I can accept him making the odd cock up, but he has to run at these defenders like he's going to skin them alive. If he kicks the odd ball 10 yards too far then fuck it. Just get em.

He needs space or defenders to be less physical when they are pressing him. That's not going to happen in the PL.