Colos Short and Curlies

He's a good player and those games suited him. Note the word consistency in my post

He'll be living off that down the pub until the new year

Likely a bit of both. I always feel form is switched on and off, it's rarely a gradual play into or out of form Something has been lit today, if it's the fact it's a big game then so what. Let's hope it's the start of a run of consistency that we know is in there

Welcome back AG

Don't be stupid. Barnes on the right, Gordon on the left. The gospel according to Eddie

9pts or Howe out (Joking of course, can't get 3 pts against City so its 6 points and a semi win or Howe out)

The positive in there is no travelling up to the first leg

We going to talk about that pass to Murphy for Wissa's goal?

He'll be around £20m book value at the end of the season, maybe a little less. If we can get £70m its a no brainer really. Annoyingly he may fulfil his potential elsewhere but I don't see a major gear shift to consistent high level performances again. If I was him I'd look to go abroad, he's tear up La Liga

Which were in no small part due to his sacking being after the season started and replacement options naturally being worse.

I'm dragging Botman back! Sure I read that it was rest or injection for his back, lets sharpen those needles! Wissa can't do more than a half I would have thought, but I've always been of the view that starting a game with a proper warm up is better than being thrown on after 60 mins and a quick jog down the touchline. This relies on us going for the jugular so that we can safely bring a good number of players off nice and early, and it is complete fantasy land!

Get Botman an injection Schar Botman Thiaw Murphy Hall (first half only then bring on Tino) Bruno, Miley, Ramsey Wolt Wissa Blast them away first half then bring on Barnes and Gordon to rest W and W (id prefer Neave but that's not going to happen. That should be the default formation for the rest of your season, using a switch to the 4-3-3 or 4+5-1 to see out games and save the miles on the front 2

Wrong Chelsea connection. It will be Tommy T who takes over after the summer

A turnaround in consistency likely requires someone to go on a real hot streak of form to paper over some cracks whilst they are worked on. Last year we had Tonali and Isak pretty much unplayable for a spell. Is there a double act capable of this in 25/26? Schar coming in for Burn whilst he recovers may provide a little more in setting up play. Loads are saying it but we need to get Wissa and Wolte in the team together which will require a change up somewhere

Nothing to do with today, just you cant put a statement out saying we wouldn't have won the LC if we had sold player x. If we had sold them with no replacement then fine but there is no way of knowing (a) who would have been brought it and (b) how they would have impacted the team. I love Big Joe and was happy when the contract was given. Doesn't make it the right call though

It was a bad call to start him today. Barnes has been in good form, Gordon only got in on rotation - not because of form. It sends out the complete wrong message when a player can be out of form, get suspended, come back in poor form, get injured then get straight back on when the alternative has been producing in his absence. Similar to Burn, the defence looked good when Thiaw and Schar player when Burn was suspended, he should not have come straight back in

Surely that depends on who was brought in to replace him

If Howe sees out the season but then leaves the board need to be decisive. World Cup summers are disruptive enough without needing to churn through a squad and built enough on the training ground to hit August running. In the scenario where Howe goes it likely means no Europe. Certainly no Champs League. That means Tino and Tonali are off. There will also be a churn of managers with a number of the managers at the WC looking to get back to club football. Stick or twist in Janz if we do buy then the players need to be picked by our DoF, which then isn't fair on Howe if he is being judged on the second half of the season. I think he's in trouble if we lose to Fulham then don't beat Chelsea.

He's got 18 months on his contract as well. Imo he either stays for the duration or there is another falling out and he agrees to terminate his contract with no/little loyalty payments knowing he will make it up in Saudi. The package he will demand at his age and the low contract length reduces his transfer fee value

Yeah Rice has justified the fee and probably would go for more now. Caceido is improving at Chelsea but is no where near a £100m player. The rest are pisstakes

That's bloody awesome. Fair play

He'll have a book value of around £6m come the summer so roughly £14m profit (including the loan fee). That's a £40m incoming transfer fee

This is soo noway and is going to get lost on here but it is the season for this type of thing... Can we put together a 12 days of Christmas using Newcastle players/managers? Don't need the number, difficult to get the names and a few words in. I'll start with 2 to get the party started On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... Captain Bruno G. On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.. Wolt a mad e (yes it's contrived but it works!)

Can see him rocking up for Blyth when he retires here - basically don't see him leaving for another top league club

To be fair he was, and he is