stozo

Ideally this is completely right but if you want us to have sustained spending power over the next few seasons you probably can't let a situation develop where Tonali stays and Tino and Barnes run into the final year of their contracts. Largely because once you take those three out, we don't have many saleable assets (that we'd want to sell - I'm assuming Hall, Miley etc. are players we never want to sell). I suspect the reason we're hearing noise on Barnes is that the club is rightly keeping its options open on how many and which of those three depart.

Sharing this as think the guy puts a huge amount of interesting work into these - https://www.editkev.football/p/newcastle-united-summer-transfer-8e9.

I’m not sure that’s right. Agents will always string clubs along - they are looking for the best deal for their clients, not to help clubs. I’m sure, for example, Bayern have had plenty of encouragement from Gordon’s agent in the past month or so.

Week 1 of his window so far has seen Miley new long-term contract and Gordon sold for our second largest ever fee. Not a bad start. Hopefully lots more to come.

A good start to a big summer.

Sadly not sure you'll get Neave into the Championship. Ideally, it's the level you want him at but fundamentally I don't think he's shown enough to get a bidder at that level (no massive knock on him - it's just the Championship team have their pick of Chelsea, Arsenal, City, United loanees) - I suspect he'll end up League One. Murphy will be an interesting one - he's probably a borderline L1/Championship loan candidate but equally I suspect in the box of 'if someone gives us a £1m we'd let him go' given his age (22 next month). Cordero is a very tough loan candidate. His pedigree in Spain suggests he should be ripe for a good level loan (possibly Championship) but his flop at Westerlo will definitely result in 'Can he hack it in northern Europe?' questions. That then leaves us with the call of do we loan him back to Spain or put him in somewhere slightly below his level in northern Europe (ideally England). Tough one.

I think the footballing argument is pretty straightforward. The squad talent and composition level was fundamentally broken after losing Isak and failing to recruit well, which has led to us underperforming this season. The hope is we recruit well, have a better squad, don't have European football and start winning again. You can argue to what extent Eddie is to blame for last summer's debacle, but fundamentally he was left in the position by the club where the CEO and Director of Football jobs ended up vacant and he had to step into the breach once more and do everything. Clearly we have a different situation this summer, and we'd hope for a better outcome.

I'd be very surprised if many of the Neave, Park, Cordero etc. age group stay next year. Think it'll be a big number of loans. They barely got any minutes this year and we'll be playing at least around 10 fewer games next season. And let's be honest, none of them have really shown in the U21s that they are ready to step straight up to the first time - a few of them have had good seasons, but none of them truly tearing it up at U21 level to the point where you'd think they'd make a contribution better than what's ahead of them (not least as you would hope((!) we'll improve the squad this summer).

Without any offense intended the Iraola's of this world come around every five minutes. He is the latest in a long list of promising managers who have very good seasons by the standards of the club they are at, and seem ready to take the step up. There is almost always someone who fits this profile. Indeed, you could argue it was once Eddie Howe. My point is really that all of the managerial options touted are punts of this nature (with the Fabregas, Mourinho etc. names touted never being realistic). I have no problem seeing where we are come October/November before the club making a decision on Howe, as fundamentally there is going to be someone of this profile around and willing to take the job at that point.

Because even their capital is limited and if you invest in a long-term stadium project that ties the capital down for a substantial period of time. I think people also forget that while there is certainly a geopolitical aspect to their investment is, fundamentally they are an investment fund and one of the reasons they were attracted to us was that we were an undervalued asset in a top global league. Long-term it's about doing things that increase the long-term value of the club while doing so with the lowest amount of capital required so they generate their best possible return on investment.

Pleased for him with how we are ending the season. Today was good and it's a shame we've had too few performances like that this season.

The bust-up with Bruno aside, I thought his performance today largely summed up his time here. Some great moments (did very well for the 3rd goal) but also fairly patchy. Such a frustrating player as there have been moments and games where he has shown he has the potential to be a top, top player but just never been able to produce it consistently.

Really good again today and a brilliant through ball assist for the second game running.

I see the thinking here but a few observations: 1. It's a system designed to fit Woltemade. For it to work, we probably need a minimum one more Number 10. 2. To really play this system, your recruitment has to go all in on this system. I'm not saying it doesn't work but the reason most teams don't play it is it is hugely demanding on the full backs. You need at a minimum four very capable full backs who are as comfortable attacking as they are defending, who are athletic enough to cover the ground and positionally smart enough to not get caught up the pitch. At best, we have two currently able to do that, so at a minimum you'd need two more - probably three because if you're committing to this system you need it to withstand injuries. 3. To the above point, if you strip the squad of wingers to make this all possible, your are totally screwed if you hit a patch of bad form and want to change the system. Or even if we sacked a manager, we'd have a bunch of players a new manager may have no need for. This is more or less the reason Amorim left Man United - they weren't willing to recruit only players who fitted his system because they knew if they did that, they were completely wedded to him and if it went wrong they'd be have an incredibly unbalanced squad.

Has to start against West Ham next week after today's cameo. Thought he was absolutely flawless in the 30 mins he was on, and a superb assist for the goal.

I think looking back on today the most frustrating thing is if we'd played like that consistently throughout the season, then we'd be right in the running for Europe. In some ways, I've got no issues with a point away from home when we're the better side, which we absolutely were today. It was a good performance, a decent point and we were a bit unlucky not to get more. That said it was also a reflection about why we absolutely need the summer. Not enough creativity overall left us in yet another game where we only scored one goal, which when we're defensively fragile is always asking for trouble.

He had a 20-minute cameo, and we scored with him on the pitch. Not completely sure what he did wrong to set every going mental yet again.

Yeah, although I think he was a bit unlucky on the chances. Overall he played well, he just badly let himself down at the end.

I love the guy but you after the season we've had with late goals and when you are the club captain, you cannot let Forest's best player (who you are marking) drift past you. So, so frustrating.

You've got nine new arrivals there. It goes to five if Schar stays, Murphy and the other forward stay, and then we don't recruit a backup left back. I think that's much more likely where we end up.

Makes sense - her drop off this year was massive. Hopefully a few more follow her and Pike out the door.

Of course - I'm more just amused by the Twitter meltdown from Villa fans when they are actually having a very decent season.

What I'd give to be losing at home to Tottenham while 6 points clear in the race for the Champions League and with a Europa League Semi Final Second Leg to come...

Great news. Puts an end to all speculation. Hopefully Howe rewards us with a cracking 26/27 season.

I doubt we will, in the sense that we haven’t really been able to play our style this season because our attack hasn’t functioned. But you look at our good seasons and regular features have been things like fast transitions and headers from crosses. Woltemade is neither fast nor particularly good in the air. I think our attack will be better next year but I can’t see it being one particularly well suited to Woltemade.