stozo

You are more or less right, but there is also the potential the ‘equity’ bit could involve bringing on a minority shareholder.

Bloomberg saying we are in talks over a £1bn financing plan for a new stadium - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-24/newcastle-fc-looks-at-options-for-1-billion-stadium-financing.

+1 v Villa, -2 against Leeds and everything else the same, no?

We are a point worse off vs. the same fixtures last season (substituting Leeds, the best promoted team, for Leicester, the best relegated team). So nothing disastrous going on so far.

I think the problem we have is the level we've reached. If you are a Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth you buy smart, develop the player and in 2-3 years you might have an absolute gem on your hands. The problem is that in years one (and sometimes) two) of that cycle there can be a bit of pain. They have games where they make mistakes and/or are ineffective. And that's part of the reason why a club like Brighton (who are basically the model for this) are not playing European football this season. Indeed, they've never made it to the Champions League, which we've done twice in three seasons. I am very sure our scouts are aware of these players - the question is are we/Howe/the club happy to accept that signing some of these players might lead to some short term regression. I expect the answer will continue to be 'No'.

I'm sure everyone is out for Barnes after the last few games, but I would love to see the list of players who would come here probably as the second choice left winger and be within our budget. I imagine it's not a list that will excite most people here. Leao and Savinho were mentioned on the page before - both would likely command £70m+ transfer fees and potentially double the wages of Barnes. So unless you are prioritising LW as our marquee signing next summer (which we obviously should not given other needs) then they are non starters. Not saying selling Barnes next summer for PSR reasons is not the right move - it's just I think the upgrade we'll get on him is way less than people would like.

Weird one as he’splayed out of position, nobody really thinks he’s played that well but in 2.5 games he’s scored one and drawn a red card against Villa. Will be interested to see how he does after a period in his natural position.

I find this perspective a bit odd. We’ve sent him to a mid-table club in Belgium. If you are any good as a footballer (and going to have a chance of making it at Newcastle) you need to be be able to show a number of things. First is that you can adapt to a new environment and team. Second is that you have the ability that merits minutes. Belgium isn’t a Big Five league, so if you can’t do that at a mid-table club there then the likelihood you are going to make it at Newcastle is fairly low. It’s a test for him. You aren’t getting gifted minutes, you are showing you deserve them. We’ll see if he does that as the season progresses, but I think writing off a loan move in September is the wrong take.

Starting to agree with this take. I desperately want Langley to succeed but with the squad we have we absolutely should be turning over Sheffield United at home. I suspect it won’t happen just yet but can’t see her lasting the season the way we’ve played in the opening two - and obviously Forest and Sheffield United are two of the poorer teams in the league, so it could well get worse from here.

Very poor first 30 mins. All the ball and no idea what to do with it.

Thought he looked class today. A very promising debut.

I think at this point you have to fear he has a fairly serious injury. I might be putting 2+2 together and getting 5 but given they don’t know how serious it is yet and the fact he wasn’t here today would suggest that he has gone to see a specialist. And if he’s seeing a specialist you would assume the original scan doesn’t look great and they are taking advice on whether it’s a surgery issue or not.

With Wissa injured it is T-minus approx. 27 hours until the forum has a meltdown when it is announced that starting for Newcastle up front is William Osula.

The thing with the training ground land story is we have no idea actually what's gone on. It could be the landowner has hiked the price 10% and we're being funny about it or it could be they've hiked the price 50% and PIF have thought we're not going to let somebody rinse us for millions for no reason. It could also be that we are in tough negotiations for the land, and the club are tactically briefing that they are having to seek alternative locations. Will be loads that's gone on behind the scenes.

Howe won't do it but I'd play: Pope, Livramento, Schar, Botman, Hall, Tonali, Bruno, Ramsey, Elanga, Barnes, Wissa Which, in my humble view, is our most attacking line up. Burn is superb but we know Botman is better on the ball, and I think tomorrow is going to be all about us being able to break them down.

It does feel like total madness. The only thing I wondered is has something happened to Hannah Hawkins? Despite four keepers, we actually didn't have a keeper on the bench on Sunday - so you would assume Hawkins must be injured and then Tamminen and Liefting potentially deemed too new (for registration reasons?) to be involved. If that's the case then it could just about make sense, given that Liefting is only 20 so presumably may play for the U21s rather than the first time?

Easy to get wound up by this but the way the ranking is calculated it largely reflects what the academy looked like in the very earliest days post-takeover - i.e. the reason we have comparably fewer players breaking through in any level of football last season is because the academy had very limited talent 3/4 years ago. Looking at what we have now youth levels now I'd be pretty confident we'll be moving up in the rankings in the next few seasons - in the next year or so we'll probably see the likes of Neave, Shahar et al. begin moving out on loan (plus Hernes, Sanusi, Cordero, White all out loan currently).

Probably a touch harsh to say after winning our first game of the season but that reinforced my fears that we haven't done enough this summer. First half we were strong but didn't take our chances and then we lost control of the game in the second half. It felt very, very similar to last season in that we played well in spells but ultimately weren't dominant. And obviously Forest are one of the newly promoted teams, not a Birmingham/Charlton/Palace/Durham who I suspect will be the real contenders this season.

No Boddy either. Guessing injured too, which is a shame as I always think we look miles better with her playing.

Weird. I mean I hope she turns out to be a real success but it did not feel like Claudia Moan was the problem last season, so why are we stocking up on goalkeepers?

Also been briefed separately that he's been on medical leave since June undergoing treatment for his cancer. All the best to him and I think it's a real credit that he's tried to do the best for the club by staying on while we found a successor and now doing a proper handover, despite having what is clearly a very serious condition.

We'll have an idea if he's any good by the end of the season, but in the meantime I wouldn't get too focused on individual games in August. Yankuba Minteh started 1 of his first five games at Feyenoord - two seasons later he's probably an £80m winger. Time will tell if there is a player in Cordero!

It feels like we’re making some progress on the academy (i.e. overall standards seems to have improved in past couple of years) but it’s probably a decade-long job to build a genuine top level academy. if you’re looking at who is going to make it, you are probably better looking at players like Cordero and Sanusi who are out on loan in senior football than watching tonight (especially given, as others have said, it’s also the international break so we are missing the likes of Shahar too).

Fuck me, what a deal that is.

He'll only miss 3-5 games due to AFCON. I think he'll struggle to hit 20 in the PL given he'll probably only play 30 Prem games max (and probably won't start every game due to Woltemade) but 20 across PL, CL and Cups is definitely achievable and would represent a good return.