TRon

I'd still rather be in Europe and I'm sure most at Newcastle would prefer that as well. We have a big enough squad to cope now, we can use it to give the squad players a game if we don't want to take it seriously. Although I am pretty certain we will.

I remember this same point being made last summer as well. No harm in aiming high but we seemed to get used by some players just to flush out bids from clubs they'd rather go to. We just need to catch on a bit quicker and move on.

A season with no European football whatsoever would be regarded as a failure by everyone including Eddie Howe. We'd probably end up having to sell the better players who are in demand, so I imagine that would mean Tonali and Livramento would be away, and possibly Lewis Hall as well. It would mean next summer would be more or less a rebuild rather than the progression we would have aimed for.

By getting us £125m once it was clear he was gone. If we've wasted that money afterwards that is our own fault.

He was leaving anyway once a mega club came in. Then it was just a case of getting as much money as possible.

They were the same as us except they had quality up top and that made all the difference.

Think the sale actually saved our club. We got £125m which is probably as much as he's ever going to be worth, and he's now going to be their second choice striker.

I didn't. I said before the game I was dreading Ekitike scoring, in the end it was worse than I could have imagined. He didn't just score, he tore us apart.

I'll trust your judgement on that, I haven't seen that much of him. But he signed a new contract almost as soon as we hardened our interest. Maybe you could argue we should have pushed to sign him before Wolves got him instead of persevering another season with Wilson, but there's a fair bit of hindsight at work there.

He's had pretty great support tbh, don't think you can blame those above. The DOF position was left high and dry so that was a gaffe, but they've generally tried to recruit best in class.

Calvert Lewin would have been worth a punt but his injury record probably put us off. JSL was overpriced and hasn't really done much either this season.

If last summer is the yardstick, then probably a good idea.

Not sure there's too many world class strikers going spare tbh.

I wish we had a few in our side instead of enabling their cunts tbh.

He was on fire in the first half. Looked like he lost interest after we went behind.

Always looks bright and busy, but it always comes to nothing at the end of it.

Said it in another thread but not securing top signings, then going for second or third best is probably going to cost us long term. I'm glad we haven't thrown more money at it in this window, unless we can secure the players who will really make a difference, better to hold onto the money.

Ekitike had it when he had the balls to turn us down twice because he thought he was destined for stardom. You make your own form if you've got the swagger.

He hit a couple of good sots, but he couldn't get past the full backs even once.

It's not even lack of talent, he just hasn't got the mentality to be a big club player. Look at the swagger on Ekitike and then look at Elanga.

Agree with Howe on the second goal, it was an outstanding run and finish.

He still looked lightweight compared to Ekitike. But then looks like Ekitike is going to be world class so probably not a fair comparison.

He might not be top quality but he would have run at them full pelt and shook them up a bit. Our forwards were timid in comparison to Ektike.

Don't think he can do much about a lack of quality other than make sure we don't spend money on players who don't belong on the big stage. I think that's the mistake we made this summer. Some of that is on him though.

He's a good player, just not quite good enough.