Colos Short and Curlies

Agreed. He’d be in his element. Rafa loves all that infrastructure stuff. A chance to build a football club in his image with unlimited resources. Love the idea of having someone at the club who has always believed in us. Staveley likes him too doesn’t she? If they were both 100% on board with it.... Let Rafa build the club infrastructure and playing side Let Keegan promote and sell the club I wouldn't want KK back in a coaching capacity (well OK I would but it aint going to happen) but he really should still be part of the club in some way

The stupid thing is that if we had cash in the bank and a takeover is being discussed then buying players wouldn't be a bad move. Nobody is going to pay cash for cash and Ashley wants as much of the sale proceeds to pay off his loans to manage tax so you buy an asset to get rid of the cash and leave the loans alone. Take Joelinton - whoever buys the club won't know who he is, they just see a £40m Brazilian striker on the books. Must be good. But anyway, we aren't buying players in Jan. Loans with an option is as good as it gets

Trying not to entertain a single thought of this happening, but then at the same time my brain is taking me to directions of trying to work out what moves he has made recently that would help to reduce any potential capital gains tax coming his way. Can't think of any slightly dubious moves the club had made recently though.......

Be crazy to play ASM IMO. Stick him on the bench perhaps. We should be able to beat Oxford without him. I'd personally start him and take him of at half time. Can only see bad things if he comes off the bench without a proper warm up, and if that is a risk then as you say we should beat Oxford without him so give his spot to one of the U23s

Expect Ritchie to get a 3 match ban from the FA for that

I get that, its more what or who managed to persuade him that the Wise appointment and that summers activity was a good idea. Everything that followed is a direct result of that

Makes you wonder how it all went so wrong. Actual elements you can pick - Wise being appointed and the dodgy deals that summer then Lambias etc etc etc but from Keegan coming in until the end of the season everything looked set to (a) reestablish our position in the league and (b) make MA some cash. Then it just all went to shit

Keegan, Robson, Benitez Dalglish, Souness, Bruce??? Spot the link

13 seems generous, tbf. Like, a month here and there adding up to a year in addition to the inexplicable Pardew fifth place season, where iirc we were shitter than hell, but Ba was literally God. Makes you wonder why we bother? We're fucking mugs. Or you're a fucking jinx tbf Newcastle were amazing 16 years ago. Somewhere in the world a baby born the last time Newcastle were good is making house payments. I think you are a year out - we were decent 16 years ago but peaked the season before. Its scarier that the birth of Keegan's 2nd place side was 25 years ago

agree to an extent but it doesnt excuse some of the chances he's missed. the first couple against rochdale were ridiculous. he was up against a league 1 team team. what a prefect opportunity to get yerself pulled round. I think it does give some level of excuse. He's obviously not a natural instinctive finisher so everything will be playing on his mind and each chance that doesn't go in just piles more and more pressure on him to score which makes it less likely that all the cogs will turn int he right way = another glorious miss. OK, Mitro is never going to be the world's top goal scorer but you can see the difference in him when the pressure is off and he is comfortable with his game compared to when he was here, the same applies to Joelinton and whilst he would not be a 15-20 goal a season striker now under a coach like Rafa or even Rogers I'd wager he'd have 4 or 5 by now just with a mental shift

For Rochdale

I assume he still has family in the area? You'd like to think that they'd be left alone but you know some mong will be having a go at them. Wonder if Bruce will simply walk away if that happens

That long league Cup run is going to hurt us

Don't see a way out, Bruce has to play him with ASM out and Miggy picking up a knock - and of course the price tag plus pressure from the boss - but its only going to get worse for him if he's not taken out of the team. His career is basically done for now, can't see us selling him for a loss so loans to Turkey and Russia await.

Another cheap move by the club in removing the Kleenex balm and replacing them with the toilet paper you used at school

I know, Bruce should really have been 'Bruce'.

Did Ben Arfa sign for anyone in the end this season? It would be hilarious if Bruce went in for him to save the season

Whatever happened to the idea that football should be the same game whether it is a premier league game, non-league game or even an organised Sunday league game? We're rapidly going down the route of trying to put perfection into a situation where it is impossible to have, and its ruining the whole idea of the game as well as making it a different game in the Premier League vs League 1 etc.

You hear often that players stop playing for a manager. Very likely that the players have stopped playing for the club here now that the reality of Bruce vs Rafa is blatantly clear

Just like Bruce I was caught out by the schedule. I had no idea back in August, September, October or even November that we might need to mange a squad through this time. Full sympathy with him tbh

Shut it you slag. You shlag

I don't know, we've only won one game by more than one goal and that was Shelveys VAR walk in. Add in the mix that we played teams at good times first half of the season and that seems to have reversed recently - new manager for Everton etc - the margins are so fine that we could conceivably win anything from 0-10 games in the final 18. Bar Villa and Norwich I also don't see many games where we have lost away and that we should be confident in winning at home and with our away form being pretty shit I can see a lot of our home wins turning into away losses

Jude Bellingham sounds like a soap actress

I was 14 and remember my Dad telling me. I can't see something being as dramatic in football transfers again, simply as social media and 24 hour rumours etc take the surprise element away. The first people will have heard of this would have been a Metro Radio news bulletin or maybe even walking past a Chronical seller

Not sure what thread to start this in, but there will be a load of 20 years since... bullshit going on over the next few days. For me though it's 25 years since: Sale of Andy Cole The summer of Ferdinand, Ginola, Barton, Hislop Quarter of a fucking century since it seemed like we were going to be the real deal. Does not feel that long ago. It's also 25 years since the Blur vs Oasis battle