Ashley17

My reservation with Ake is that towards the end of the season City had no Dias or Stones, Laporte was on one leg and Pep still opted for him and Fernandinho over Ake.

I loved him as a commentator for this reason and was genuinely quite said when he announced his retirement. As it is Raisbeck has stepped in and done really well so that's less of an issue. Since the "Twitter era" it seemed nobody had a good word to say about him on a personal level but I got to interview him for the SG during Lockdown and he couldn't have been more generous with his time. We spoke for nearly 2 hours about the Keegan era along with a bit of the more recent stuff including his retirement. He's opinionated and took his job very seriously, isn't from the North East but totally bought into it and as you say, will always be synonymous with that era for me. On a side note when he left Metro they destroyed all of his archive so none of it will ever see the light of day again unless anybody happened to record it. No idea what got into him last night, kept going on about football charlatans and using vomit emojis, don't think social media is really suited for him if he doesn't like people promoting things.

Be amazed if this is anything other than 0-0

I tried that, they said it was a trading decision and couldn’t be changed

Has anybody ever had their SkyBet account restricted? Got an email today saying I was no longer eligible for any of the promotions (free bets) and it was a trading decision. I bet £25 a week to get the fiver free bet and I've done it for about 15 years, no idea why they've done this but basically an easy way to lose a customer.

I like him but I don’t think he’s had the same pace since that first hammy he got with us and he’s obviously not got the reliable quality we are going to need in the final third. I’d like to keep him as a squad player but he will actually have a value worth selling for unlike a lot of his counterparts which probably means he will be moved on.

Lack of replacement for Wood. This 3 starting were the foundation of our unbeaten run

I think I’d rather stick with Dubravka. Probably Henderson if I was forced to choose one.

Willock and Shelvey are ill.

You wouldn’t have someone ill hanging around with the squad

Of course he can play, WBA and West Ham got into bother a few years ago for agreeing Snodgrass couldn’t play when he moved

I see a lot of similarities in the relationship between Bielsa and Leeds as with Rafa and us. He just got it and was loads better than his predecessors. The Leeds fans I know are gutted, at least Marsch is quite a respectable choice as opposed to where we went next

He’s not vaccinated so that put a lot of clubs off. Burnley obviously don’t care and he looks decent so far. Wood has been fine in terms of general play but doesn’t get loads of chances as he doesn’t seem to anticipate anything. The team is playing well, there’s not really an alternative either, so here we are

Yes, he got it caught climbing a fence wheb he was younger

Think there'll be goals in this. Villa like pushing the full backs on which will cause us problems especially down the right as I doubt ASM will stay with Cash. By contrast though if possession can get turned over there should be good counter attacking opportunities.

They did this with Pardew as well. Oh those deluded ungrateful Geordie’s don’t know what they’re talking about. They’ll soon realise his many, many faults

BFG Big Fucking Geordie

I think there’s a fair chance Man Utd will keep hold of Lingard now there’s the high chance of Greenwood being otherwise engaged. Not to trivialise that situation but presumably they will have one less option shortly.

I think @JHdid the Rise & Fall one, might be wrong like it was obviously a while ago

That was him! Sound lad as well think it was just a 50/50

Nice to see some old names back on here. Been around since it was howaythetoon in 2004 so hopefully a few more old names come back. We used to meet up in the Trent before/after a match in the first relegation season - Midds (and Mrs Midds), Dave, Mowen, PM, Shak, Tooj, Wullie, probably many others too. Good times. Also it turned out I lived opposite Jimburst when we were students which was quite random. Then were was NOFC organised by Stu/Yorkie/Pilko, getting stuffed by Preston and Stu’s mates were particular highlights. There was a lad called French-Geordie or something on here who played in the first match then stopped posting and was never heard from again. Had an accent like Lovenkrands. Can’t remember the name of the poster but he took a horrific tackle to the knee in that Preston game, never seen anything flare up that quickly. Also seem to remember playing PES online with @Alberto2005 @Wullie and Wullie’s flat mate. Must have been about 2006ish. Anyway, pointless trip down memory lane there. Welcome to all the new and returning

Why is Guehi 13/2 to be booked on Sky? I thought he liked a card

The win away at WBA in the green & blue away kit when Perez scored a flick and a Colo header, Dummett was one of the two CBs that day. I think he's generally been pretty useful at centre back but he's not going to drop the captain to play Dummett there.

I think so, it would also explain why there's been no particularly strong links with defensive midfielders (appreciate there have been rumours of Haidara & Bissouma but not to the extent of various centre halves and strikers)

That’s alright then