Elma

Watching Bournemouth v Chelsea on S Sport in Turkey and they are advertising Newcastle v Bournemouth as being live next week. Suggests it's the 3pm Saturday Live International broadcast.

Think I looked it up the other day. Although after only nine games, off the top of my head we had the 4th best defence (behind Man U, Man C and Spurs), and the 9th best attack. So not as bad as you would think. Agree though, can't see a Benitez side shipping four or five goals - there's me put the kybosh on it!

P19 W7 D6 L6. Averages out to 54 points. Upper mid-table at least. Three of those six defeats were in the first four games with someone else's demoralised team. Will be interesting to see how the stats stack up after we hit the more difficult fixtures in a couple of games time. We're currently 1-3-1 under Rafa against the top six.

In Prem games alone it's 20 goals in 19 games. That's half a season - projected to 40 goals conceded across a whole season. Bear in mind however that over half of the goals conceded (12) were with someone else's team and eight of those were in the first four games. In the subsequent 15 prem games we've only conceded 12 including Spurs (twice), Liverpool (twice) and Man City.

Agree with all that. I'd certainly be looking to dispose of any UK-based assets and get rid of sterling at the moment, that's for sure. I think he may feel he's lost control of the club to Rafa and that Rafa (backed properly) represents the best chance of success....plus of course, it's probably the perfect time to sell with the new TV deal coming up further inflating the price.

Didn't Fox pay $200 million to pip ESPN to the rights for Russia 2018?

Absolutely no blame from me for the goal. Perhaps a keeper with an excellent reach like Forster might have got a hand on it but I can't blame Elliot for that. Like most of the current squad he's limited in ability but is trying 110% and has come on leaps and bounds (probably not the best metaphor where he is concerned) since he first arrived. No complaints here. Very few mistakes (which all keepers make over a season) and he does the basics right. Would prefer Reina for the fact that Rafa wants him and knows him well, but failing that, it's telling that Rafa trusts Elliot.

The main reason I (now) think we'll stay up this season is Rafa's coaching and organisation. We don't have a vastly different squad now to that which was relegated, but the reason we went down was McClaren and the time it took to replace him. Rafa's main attributes are his organisation and tactical ability, schooling players so they all know what their job is. He isn't likely to throw tea cups around and bully performance out of players. With that in mind, he was arguably the wrong manager to give ten critical games to, although I don't regret that for one moment. The only regret is that the muppets in charge didn't give him at least two more games to at least give him more of a chance. The only possible criticism of Rafa from me would be too much negativity in the way we set up away at Villa. After facing three away games (we had no idea how to handle away games at the time) and one home game in the first four (that was a derby), he then sorted them out and took 12 points from 6 games, scoring 12 and conceding 4, remaining unbeaten. The current team isn't vastly different from that which finished that season, and most of them have now had 18 months playing in Rafa's system. Less games also means more time for preparation this season and hopefully, seeing as our squad isn't too deep in some areas, less injuries. Going out of the league cup may help, especially since we would have been away at Chelsea next round anyway. I just hope we now give the FA Cup a good go as there is no reason not to. I'm not suggesting we're going to average two points a game, but 1.2-1.25 per game would appear within reach, a total that would have brought a top half finish last season.

One of the great things about Merino is that he's keeping Shelvey out of the team. I was furious that Shelvey cost us at least a point in the important opening game and hopefully Merino's form is giving him further cause to reconsider his actions. We need players like Merino and Hayden who display controlled agression, and who can follow Rafa's instructions without being a liability. Same goes for Mitro as for Shelvey.

Am a big fan of Eddie Howe but Bournemouth look to have gone backwards. That goal was coming.

I was actually looking forward to this. Prefer this sort of live game to the top six all the time. Thought it would be canny with Bournemouth needing points on the board and Brighton trying to build on last week by picking them off on the break. Disappointing fare so far… 😕

Good spot. On a related note, anyone see Clark prematurely celebrating Joselu's header in the first half? He was convinced it was in. Can laugh about it now we've got the three points

Colleague over here who is a Besiktas fan just told me we've apparently offered 12.5m Euros and it looks like the deal is on. He doesn't want to lose him, as they have to publish their CL squad tomorrow and he doesn't think there is enough time to find a replacement. Mid twenties and scored 20 goas for them last season apparently. Gayle replacement? What's his play style like? That's a key question. I'm sure we'll get 100 new Turkish members once he signs, they'll be able to tell us I live in Beşiktas but still can't tell you much about him. Got the Super Lig on TV for this month as a free offer when I bought the package for the Premier League, but only seen one of their games so far. Seems well liked here and is a 20 goal a season striker, but outside of the top five teams the standard isn't great. If I see a helicopter taking off I'll let you all know....

Seriously, anyone at the match or who watched this on TV saw the referee talk to Mitro and the West Ham players about it. The incident was seen by the ref and not determined to be a foul. That is irrespective of whether it was a foul or not. If the ref saw it and took no action then the FA taking matters into their own hands sets a very difficult precident that would mean they are now prepared to re-referee games. We have a number of injustices that happened against us, namely that big nosed c*** Harry Kane for one!! Would that be refereed again - no, of course not! I know it is "only Newcastle" and we are not that significant but, the FA taking such a step opens up a minefield and undermines their referees decisions. I saw it live on TV and thought at the time that he's bound to get a ban for that. It's different to Kane who got a yellow card for a challenge that was probably a yellow in the laws/rules of the game. As the ball had gone, my guess is that Swarbrick followed the ball and didn't see it clearly. He had a word as he knew something had happened, but hadn't seen it clearly enough to act upon. I believe that now, if the referee deems the challenge worse than first thought at the time, then it can be later referred up for review. If he feels he would have given a red had he seen it clearly, then the FA can review it. If the FA ban him for three games they'll be within their rights to do so. Only Mitrovic to blame if they do, for something that was as pointless as Shelvey's two weeks previously. Both are a liability and I'd be much happier if we could replace them both with players with an ounce of common sense/self-control.

Spurs' last two away games have finished 1-6 and 1-7. To be honest, I'd take a point now. Our 5th place finish was built on an unbeaten start, beginning with a 0-0 draw at home to Arsenal. Typical opening day stalemate would suit me so as not to knock confidence and get a point on the board against a much better (on paper) side. I'm just hoping I can get my new Digiturk installation done in time - rung them yesterday when I realised the Premier League channel (S Sport) is in their basic package at under £5 a month. Would be rude not to really. Was stuck with SkyGo via a vpn on my iPad last year, so that's another benefit of promotion.

Personally I don't think he's a good one at that, especially for his size. He should be bullying centre-halves but loses more than he should in the air. If we're not going to get anyone then we need to keep him for cover, but ideally we should sell him and get someone more mobile in who is suited to Rafa's system.

Probably starting to look normal by today's standards, although Sissoko's stock is still falling.

Just seen this. Osmalispor literally translates as Ottomansport - the design is obviously a reference to Ottoman art/design and script. Horrific mind...

Yep - in those days it was really shit hitting F5 for the best part of five years, waiting for the new leak to come out.

They got slated for announcing kits too close together because 'parents couldn't afford to buy them all at the same time for their children'. Now they release them further apart, one at the end of the season, one in the middle of the summer, one towards the start of the season. Shops abroad, particularly in Asia won't care, as soon as it's made they'll see it as needing to be on sale. For the third kit it seems they were tied in to the global Puma release schedule of all the black kits simultaneously. Doubt we had much option on that one. Must kill the marketing team though when they see photos of the new kit abroad and they've still got to put a campaign together pretending everyone is seeing it for the first time.

I was thinking that with Brighton, Huddersfield and WBA to play that the away wouldn't be blue, what with the third being black. On the flip side, maybe that's why it is blue, so we've got the excuse to wear the 3rd kit a few times as it will clash the least in those games. It's basically just the Leicester kit in different colours. Meh... Definitely prefer last year's kits to this, although the home and third are OK.

Having seen that, the thing that sticks out (and annoys me) is that as they have gold sponsor lettering on the third kit and the fact Burnley had the sponsor in white a few years back, then why couldn't they have had black or white sponsor lettering on the home kit? Just drags a decent home kit down a notch for me.

Probably be enough to resolve any clash with Spurs, Swansea, Brighton, Huddersfield, Stoke, Soton perhaps even WBA. Only really Bournemouth might require a third kit. In saying that, I agree that having a markedly different kit is better. Yellow always a favourite of mine.

Mr Real Geordie forgetting that lesbians absolutely love football. There are also many male gay teams around the country and a gay football supporters network with NUFC fans as members.

Noticed that. Rafa always said April would be decisive for us. Their six in April (and maybe even the last game against Wolves if they finally get their shit together) look tough. Not sure I can see them winning close on 30 games, although a lot can change between now and the start of the season. Will be watching their first game with increased interest considering we've just been down there and know the teams/standard a little better now.