STM

This disproves your point .... since Newcastle is, you know, in England.

I think what is meant is that he probably didn't want to leave until the season is over. Even to a DoF it might feel like leaving before the job is done. Also Palace have had an upsurge, so you can understand if he'd like to see the season out. He's interested in the job because he's interviewed for it numerous times. Of course he's also well within his rights to change his mind

We are well capable of rocking up in the sunshine and smashing these out the park. Don't do it for Europe though. Do it because its a game of football and we want to win anyway.

I watched that overlap pod. I found the whole footballing discussion really engaging but yes Andy Cole comes across as someone who gets huffy quickly. Even his son didn't seem to like him. He's just comes across, cold, impersonal and hard to talk to. The bloke was an absolute goal machine like.

Classic one for the future. The problem with summer spending is that everyone, myself included, focuses on how it will effect the upcoming season and not the next 4/5.

I think we might get hung up on the "used to get played in CM" stuff. Ultimately at some point you need to concentrate on one position and own it. I can absolutely see him slotting into that midfield role later in his career though, he needs more experience on the pitch though. Midfield is a different animal.

Would be really interested to see how that looked. Did he find he couldn't do the drills? Was he not fit enough? Did he not look interested or concentrate enough?

At one point last night it felt like Bruno and Hall were the only ones on the same wavelength footballing wise. For a 19 year old he doesn't look like he knows how to give the ball away, or at least he's heading in the direction which suggests he's going to be that "press proof" type. His passing, shooting, crossing technique is outstanding. He's nowhere near polished defensively, positionally etc but I'm already at the stage where I can take that.. to an extent, because of what his all around game gives to the rest of the team... and of course he can improve on the job. I hope Howe and his team do everything on their power to convince Hall of the sacrifices he needs to make, that's my only worry. He seems quite a relaxed character, who perhaps doesn't like the hard side of training. Not a critique, just different. If he can go into this summer with the same attitude Gordon had last season, he could be in the England team by next season.

I can't remember the last game where we controlled the game. We've battered teams but I've not seen us control a game for a while. The two are different. Sometime our quality has seen us score for fun without actually looking fully in control like last season.

How much you want to bet that he starts vs Brentford? And if he does, my point stands.

Liquid I'm with you mate, I genuinely am, but sometimes there is the odd justified frustration that deserves a whinge. Don't try and fix the ones who hated Howe before and after.

I can't be having this mind... Pope will start vs Brentford and that means 3 days was the difference. On the other hand, I hate seeing this thread bumped, because I love Howe and I'm fully behind him.

5 times we've allowed that. Bad coaching.

Right? And then the added time to go with the wait.

I've never seen refs that are of a high standard. When I do, I will change my mind.

Aye but I'd rather have one wrong decision than two. There's too many downsides to wait for competent officials.

This is a fair take. If he can't see Trippiers performance tonight, he may end up with problems next season. No matter how much experience he might have, pace is pace.

Let's be honest, VAR didn't even see the rake on Gordon for the pen. It's not corruption, its downright incompetence. Get rid of VAR, we will never have the officials with the brain capacity to make cognisant decisions. Bin it.

Don't make rustiness excuses from Trippier when he did exactly the same thing during our poor spell in December. I know its a cliche but I think his legs have gone. People slated Burn when Burn never made a chronic mistake like that. Fair is fair. Also, like above, why is Trippier getting corners when Gordon is better.

Genuinely the worst take I've ever seen. Longstaff is invisible, Anderson not much better, Trippier has his zimmer frame out and this guy is calling out our best player.

We will score here.

Excuses for who?

Any idea what contract Hall will get, bound to be 6 years? His fee was reported as 28m + add ons, I would assume those add ons are appearance/performance based and unlikely to kick in until next summer... If his 28m is amortised over 5 years, that's around 5.6 we have to account for this season. I'm not saying it's nothing but it's also not alot.

Perhaps not, it was a rough guide. I should have known better.

Well I'd suggest our scouting department disagrees. From all accounts we have a serious interest in Sesko, before and after Isak joining.