TRon

Poor first touch by Murphy, should have been 1-0.

Not a bad effort from Murphy. Might struggle with listening to Hoddle's smug commentary for 90 mins.

I think there's a lot of value on being the right age bracket right now with the PSR restrictions, if we are going to sell we can definitely do it on our terms.

Even if he's not fine, there's no way he's going to miss the opportunity to get the record of 8(?) successive goals for Newcastle in the PL>

Why? He's only 25 and I don't buy that Howe would have let him come here if he was a dud.

Everyone was cock-a-hoop when they thought we'd got £35m for him. It was a bit of a crash back down to earth when we realised Vlachy had come the other way for £20m. This is one of the biggest pitfalls of PSR though. There's no way we would have sold either Elliott or Minteh if we weren't forced to, both were classed as promising youngsters, and there's something wrong with any rules which force you to sell them when you don't have to.

He's not going to Turkey, it's just a shit link pulled out of someone's arse for clicks.

He does seem weak in the air from what I've seen so far, but I assume we bought him on Howe's recommendation. I doubt Howe would buy a CB who was weak in the air so I am thinking there must be more to him than we've seen so far.

Yeah, that's why I said long term replacement for Burn who is what - 33 now? In any case I already said I think we see Kelly as an asset same way as Chelsea probably saw Tosin. Free signing who can probably be moved on for a fee down the line if someone comes in.

Is it possible he's not a shit defender based on a couple of mistakes made early in his career at Newcastle?

Kelly has to be seen as a long term replacement for Burn. I'm sure we would sell at a decent fee, but would take more than £10m. Just because we signed him on a free doesn't mean we have to give him away. Could easily get £15m considering he's only 25 and was highly rated at Bournemouth.

He wouldn't be able to pull wide left like Joelinton does. Miley strikes me as more of a Bruno replacement.

Agree, but not sure if we have someone in the squad who is capable. Willock would have been the obvious choice, but he's a bit loose with possession to be described as an upgrade technically.

Agree. I rate Rice, but wouldn't swap him for Tonali. There's talk that with Bruno, Tonali and Joelinton we have the best midfield in the PL, and that's coming from outsiders not Newcastle fans. I think it's a stretch to include Joelinton as an elite midfielder, but combined with the other two, it must be pretty formidable to come up against.

He is a good player but it's a fair point that we got Bruno and Tonali combined for the sort of money they spent on Rice.

I think it affects our bench options more than anything else. He has been very capable of coming on and snatching important goals. Don't think he's been as effective starting, but was still a good option for resting Gordon.

The PL won't care as their remit is to make sure the cartel clubs are happy, as they are the big money spinners for the PL, and that is the bottom line. The only threat to FFP that I can see is the stagnant transfer market it has created. Eventually that will mean less money being spent and less money coming in. Does that trickle down to lower wages eventually? It will make players over 27 worth a lot less for sure as clubs won't want to spend big fees which they can't recoup.

Not how I would put it, but the PSR mismanagement shouldn't overule the success of our signings either. Bruno and Isak would rake in big profit if we sold them now. Howe has turned out to be a great appointment, and even if I'm not a fan of having a manager having too much say over our signings, he's got an eye for a player. Nathan Aki and Solanke haven't turned out too bad even if you disregard our players.

Vlachodimos must have pissed in Eddie's tea.

He's been a bit unlucky that in both games he's started he's been up against packed defences. Every time I was looking for him he was a lone presence in the box surrounded by defenders. You can definitely see he could be a handful even if he is a bit raw.

Probably one of the reasons he's in a hurry to go to Saudi then. I hope we aren't so desperate to keep him we end up giving him a contract extension on stupid wages. He can see out his contract in that case.

I think everyone was under the impression that we were getting money from a Saudi club. A fee of around £6m has even done the rounds. The only reason any fan would want him sold is PSR so we can make signings in the future. If we don't have any restrictions on our spending then we can have 10 keepers far as I'm concerned.

He's just a really good footballer, even when he wasn't really old enough he looked like he belonged at the top level.

Really? If anything I think he dreads the thought of not being here. Just not his sort of game where he's not going to get space, then his close control comes under more pressure.

Cup double looks on.