Sifu

The ballot closes this Thursday at 10am so no rush on having to do it today. Crossed fingers and hope in regards to a ballot success.

Carragher was especially awful, whatever he said against the Ashley era can be commended but whatever he says nowadays is in tandem with the "we don't like Newcastle" rhetoric. It's only during American broadcasts where he doesn't spout (as much) shite.

Definitely never again imo. Anywhere that's remotely Salford is awful and it's more or less because of the Man Utd contingent in around there. Still remember when we lost 4-1 at Old Trafford in 2017 (when we just came back up) and I was given all sorts of grief, can guarantee that I haven't the same grief from Man City fans.

Ah, well people there don't exactly like Newcastle fans...

You still in Manchester? If so, where did you watch it?

Second half was stressful it must be said but enjoyed the day overall!

I was indeed in the Leazes, L4?

Yep, it's literally just come in this season.

The pre-season CB pairings have been Krafth-Burn and Schar-Kelly - Schar is pretty much a nailed on starter (if he's fit for Saturday that is) so would think that if Howe had no intention to start Kelly at CB with Schar then he'd have gone with Schar-Burn for the pre-season game against Brest. (Of course though, all could change if the new CB signing is sorted this week).

Kelly has started CB in all his pre-season games, hasn't featured at LB at all.

It's a Flixbus coach I'm getting so would think none of them will be on it (certainly not all the way from Manc).

My coach from Manc gets in at John Dobson Street at around half 11 on Saturday, long walk round to the ground it is.

Having read the article more closely, yeah, Bordeaux have just accepted their fate of full on relegation to the third tier from the sounds of it so preemptively announced its intention to give up their professional status. It's a travesty what's happened to them over the years.

Having skim read the article in question, it's because they've had to accept relegation to the third tier of French football that they've had to give up their professional licence by default. Hopefully in the years to come they can recover and get back to Ligue 1 where they belong.

Based on social media, sounds like no confirmation emails have been sent out as yet. Also, sounds like the alert people had on their accounts has disappeared too.

Lucky sods but fuck it, ENGLAND

My take on it is Liverpool made an enquiry and we said he's maybe available if Quansah is involved in a prospective deal, Liverpool said no and then the press release came out (from them rather than us) to make it out that we were the ones actively contacting Liverpool. The above is all very leaned to us but a Gordon sale don't make sense.

That is basically a rehash of what Sky said on air (almost word for word on some bits) so either it's lazy journalism from the BBC's part or the media have been given the same statement/brief.

After the certainty he had about Tosin, Hope definitely isn't one to trust on much transfer wise.

I'm visualising all those old N-O related memes again.

Going to keep telling myself that it's, first and foremost, all about getting out of the group and then we can "express ourselves" in the knockout rounds. *Head in sand moment*

Honestly think that Foden being inside a lot more is down to him doing so himself rather than instruction. The times we've had the ball inside and Foden's got it, it's only really been Tripps out on his own on the left, Bellingham has half heartedly gone out to the left wing to cover.

Never want to hear James McFadden on co-commentary ever again, offered no real insight whatsoever.

Group stage games are always edgy and hard to call mind when the main thing is getting out of the group - Portugal did it without winning a game and ended up winning the whole thing in 2016. Lots of questions will be rightly asked of England from a tactical point of view tonight but I'd have taken a scrappy win tonight even if the performance annoyed me to fuck (which it did).

Another thing to add in defence of Southgate is he is not solely responsible for the style of play. From what I read a while back, Steve Holland seems to have a bit of a big say in what we do in an attacking sense so it's as much on him as it is on Southgate; seems to me that Southgate puts a lot of trust in Holland that he doesn't really question much. Might be revisionism on my part, bias or whatever but England looked more of a cohesive unit in an attacking sense when Jones was part of the setup.