STM

Really comfortable win. Once we went 2-0 we naturally eased off. Some of the one touch passing we played in the first half was as good as weve played all season. Of course West Ham were god awful while defending but weve often allowed sides off the hook this season, so it was nice for us to punish them. Its clear as day that weve improved as soon as weve gone back to playing 1 game a week. There were clear passing patterns and sharpness, like they've been training properly. Ramsey has real quality, id love to see him playing in the 10, when Nick isnt there. 2 proper wingers today and we would have scored more. Osula is good, but is he good? A big money offer for him is going to be some decision to make because there are signs that hes now a proper PL forward but... is he ever going to be that next level? Tough call. Its been great watching him grow. Superb to see Trippiers send off and the fans getting behind our best gaffer in 20 years. Lets hope the next time we play at home, weve got some real excitement about the future.

Id rather we concentrate on actually being good ourselves, than wanting our opposition to be so shite that they allow us a free run. Its a false economy anyway. Spurs will piss the championship. Id rather be better than Spurs for the next 10 years than just one. Smash west ham please. But yes id laugh my arse off too.

Good people make good football clubs. Good people make good football teams. Our recent success on the pitch was partially down to a culture and character created by good professionals. Alot of those characters are now slowly leaving us (which is totally natural) and we are seeing a natural drop in standards throughout the group. A decent right back, a great bloke and someone who actually cares about our football club. Its 2026, footballers who actually care about their clubs arent so common place. Always a legend for that reason.

Its a tale as old as time in football. Weve seen some great defenders like Terry and VVD look terrible for spells when whats happening around them has collapsed. Likewise, you can make Tarkowski and Keane look like granite if you structure the side around protecting them. As you say, its always more complicated.

Thiaw and Botman should both be better than Burn but arent because personality counts for something in football. Ive said this before but if you have defenders that are easy on the eye, great but can they actually defend? A back 4 of Trippier, Thiaw, Botman and Hall is likely the best quality 4 footballers I've ever seen at Newcastle but it also doesn't make them a good defence? No, because the reality is that somebody is going to have to put their body on the line or show character and leadership, its almost intangible. The good news is two fold: One, any defensive problems are also exasperated by the balance of the team crumbling in front of them, therefore if we become a better attacking force, the defenders will likely reap the rewards. Secondly, both Botman and Thiaw are infinitely better than what Burn was at their age and probably Schar too. Sometime, leadership and nouce and experiance comes over time and we have to help them grown into it. Also, a signing can be judged on one season if you like but it doesnt take a genius to see how flawed that can be. Hall, Tonali, Joelinton... and on and on.

Was wonderful seeing the overwhelming support for Eddie by the fans and players on Saturday.

I completely agree with anyone who says it's just one win and doesnt change anything.... However I've been saying that since the 1st of February, because I knew we weren't going to see a massive upturn with this current group, for a whole variety of reasons. We need the summer.

The ones who think they know better than people who run football clubs and persistently talk about "knowing ball" etc. Those are the ones i dont respect the opinion of. Thankfully I dont surround myself with those people in the real world.

Hasn't been a while, some have been doing it all season.

Most of the fans whos opinion i respect either think Eddie should stay and be given the chance to rebuild or are open to him going provided there is a coherent alternative. The ones who i dont respect have been trashing him long before this season, and dont seem to give a toss about his achievements. In fact most of the same people consistently have takes on transfers, the club ownership and the manager that reeks of entitlement, its people who I can only assume have never set foot on a football pitch or understand anything about anything, never mind football.

Managers dont sign players. Clubs, sporting directors, managers, scouts and even players play a collective part in trying to work out if a player is the right fit. Anyone can portion blame on one individual but by the same token that same individual deserves the credit in the bank for the vast amount of transfer success that went previous.... unless of course what is being suggested is that bad signings = managers fault, good signing = praise elsewhere, if that's the case I can only assume some doesnt understand nuance or worse are arguing from a place of bad faith. Again nuance has to be applied but 250m of our money, with all the absurd restrictions we have in front of us, is not the same as 250m of man united/Chelseas money, who can cherry pick the top players by offering them much higher wages and more immediate success off the back of it. The club has been undoubtedly been plagued by a series of events, DoF's coming and going, star players going on strike and yes, the manager making a couple of bad judgement calls on players. Its a complex set of circumstances and anyone solely blaming Howe is, IMO, being an ignorant tosspot. Bare in mind how unequivocal our fans were on Dominic Calvert Lewin and the potential revulsion that he might replace Callum Wilson for peanuts last summer. We sign DCL, who I dont think is a great player, and we are in European footy places right now. We can all agree that regardless of which manager is in the dugout, all ducks need to be in a row this summer because no matter how much I want Eddie Howe to stay, he cant survive a bad window and a poor start next season.

Not prepared to get into the semantics, but I will say this... If Eddie Howe leaves or is sacked, he should have nothing but massive respect from our fans. Hes been an absolute professional, nothing but class to our club, hes also had some great successes. The idea that someone couldnt at least doff their cap to that, fills me with rage. I adore the man, regardless of the here and now, no amount of defeats will change that.

Massive credit no doubt goes to Amanda Staveley, who im sure was the driving force behind our early signings and someone who sold the club to Trippier. He was sold a dream, and whilst that dream is still in its infancy, winning the cup for Newcastle was the most special moment in my life, we never win that trophy without Trippier.

Ive not posted in 3 months but you deserve massive credit for posting that. Dont stay out of any threads and dont stop posting... Just show people this side of you more often.

Preferred battling relegation.

Changes needed now.

I'm pleased you are happy. You get to whinge more now.

They are playing a mid block. If any player in our midfield does that, the whole plan will fall down. If you disagree with the plan, then I'm tempted to agree but the players are sticking to the plan.

You understand the difference between not being at our best and being "pish" though right? Have we been brilliant, no. Have we been solid, yes.

Hold on, you are saying our players aren't trying?

Yep. You'd be forgiven for thinking that they'd never played a game of football in their life. We were much more solid than I expected in that first half. This is their "PSG" at home game and we've dealt with it well.

Our wingers have been shite and Woltemade isn't getting in the game. Also, keeping the ball is an important part of the game but so is defending, our defending and game management has been quality. We need to come out in this second half. They will.

Weve defended really well, it's a derby. There's loads of things that aren't quite right at the moment but we've quashed any rhythm they were trying to have. We've also got players on the bench who can win this for us.

You've included pre season in that too then? I don't think anyone claims we are in great form. However aren't we unbeaten in 5 in the league?