Memphis

Perfect win. Disgusting match save for the last 15 minutes of the first half. Nullified Everton completely. Looked bereft of energy but still had much more than Everton did. These are wins of character and mental strength. We are a tremendously tough team. Don't know how much longer we can work this hard with a squad this thin but long may it continue.

Don't see how anyone could fault him for what he's said. I appreciate his honesty. Obviously if Real Madrid are talking to you, you're going to listen. But he has made it very clear, and it seems very genuine to me, how much he's invested in the club and the entire project, and how meaningful being here and being beloved is to him and his family. I can't see him leaving too soon but eventually, if he continues at this level, there will be a massive offer for him from Real Madrid or some such. That's just the reality of it. But I'm going to enjoy him for every second I can. He is a majestic player.

This has been coming. 5-1 and 4-1 scorelines don't flatter us one bit. The fitness levels are so incredible compared to any previous manager. Everyone is so, so energetic. Players like Almirón, Murphy, Longstaff who at times were written off now all look like they can play a part.in a good side. Brilliant coaching. Our mentality is special.

Absolutely insane that we signed this man in the position we were in 10 months ago. And that he chose to come without an escape clause. What a man. What a beautiful man.

3 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

I know Yorkie singles out that NUFCTV interviewer for his shit questions and they are shit, but let's be honest, loads of them are like that.

 

The questions are often either the most basic 'do you think X will help you?' question that will be answered yes, or they're asking Howe to predict the future with hardly anything in between.

 

I can't get away with that other NUFCTV interviewer either like, feel a bit shan for saying it, but there's something proper off and false about him imo. 

I worked in media for a long time here in the US and had to do loads of press conferences, and you're right - the questions are generally stupid. Most managers understand that their job is to communicate with the fans and the outside population and so they'll grab on to whatever sliver of an actual querstion exists, expand upon it for the purposes of a quote, and that's that. That's why you have so many "how important is it for you to ________________" or "how big is it for PLAYER X to get on the scoresheet" or some other obvious question. In a normal setting, the answer would be, "Are you stupid? What kind of dumbass question is that?" But because the journalists don't want to (or have been asked not to) ask seriously probing questions, and they know that the manager or player are very unlikely to give a legitimate answer, they ask something that fits within the framework of a piece they've already pre-written, in many cases. Might as well say "just talk about MIguel Almiron for a bit, I'm writing something about him and I need something from the manager, thanks"

I would always try to save my actual questions for situations in which I could speak individually to the coach or player, if at all possible, because I didn't want anyone else to know what I was working on, nor did I want them to get the quote I deserved. Many times that's impossible, so you do the best you can.

I love Howe in these press conferences, he's an expert at saying actual things while not saying anything that would be problematic for his team. That is very difficult to consistently achieve. He knows the aims of the press, he tries to give them interesting quotes, but he's not going to do their jobs for them by creating a headline. 

19 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

I like the idea of adopting the American 'pants' system.

If only for the double entendre of it. I think its equally as amusing a word as 'trousers' in itself

 

I've mud on my trousers pants, a hole in my trousers pants, my trousers pants are a bit wet. Getting a new pair of trousers pants fitted.

So much funnier

 

'Ashley pantsed the money from that transfer' also works perfectly for Ashley anyway if we remember that picture....

 

 

 

I can tell you over here 'pantsed' is definitely a term...it literally means to pull someone's trousers (and pants possibly) down forcibly to embarrass them but it also means to demolish/embarrass an opponent as well.

Anyway yes let's sign Tielemans please thank you

It's fun to speculate but at the end of the day it's most likely that any deal or deals will emerge, mostly fully formed, out of nowhere. Just like the Isak deal did. Had been in the works for a while and then was rekindled in 48 hours without any media reporting. Pretty exciting, honestly.

Hardly seems real. We signed Alexander Isak. He's Newcastle's number 14. He wanted to come because of the way we play football and our ambition to win things and grow as a club.

Doesn't make sense. What a beautiful moment. 

Seems to me that Edwards tries to overstep his actual information. He may well be reliably told that we're not going to bid for Joao Pedro any more, fine, but then to extend that to assume that our spending is done is pure speculation. Especially after seeing the last 48 hours.

Just as he did with the budget info and with the takeover info. A grain of truth he's trying to then stretch into a full meal, using couched language like "it appears" or "should be" or "seems like" so there's an out in case he's wrong.

Similar to Bruno in the sense that this was probably a next season move in the minds of the owners/Howe, but they have had the plan changed by Wilson's injury. It was a bit risky to go into the season with Wilson as the main man, but perhaps the owners wanted to be sure there was nothing left in the Chris Wood investment. They can have no doubts that we need to get much better there now, and I suspect they pushed the plans forward quickly as a result. 

This Twitter thread on our pressing vs Manchester City is hugely impressive and shows just how brave and well-drilled we were in the press and how it unnerved City to unusual levels.

Howe is doing a truly excellent job.

There's a lot of semantics to all of this nonsense.

Remember the motivations of everyone involved as you look through transfer stories. Romano is a international transfer specialist, that's what he does, he has developed connections for years with agents and players who want to get their story out. Clubs certainly don't always want that information out quickly - or at all.

Local/regional journalists get most of their information from club sources, who have their own motivations not to reveal certain bits of information. 

Often those two things clash and you end up with this type of situation, where both Romano and Edwards could technically be right. That's the risk of reporting on things in progress. 

The likeliest thing to me is that there is a framework of a roughly 30m deal agreed with Watford but they're pushing us to include more of it guaranteed rather than as add-ons. It seems likely the deal is going to be done soon but this pissing contest amongst journalists makes the whole thing tiresome.

Also - City had won 30 and drawn 1 of their last 31 Premier League matches when scoring first. No mean feat for us to hold them.

That was a magnificent performance. We played with such belief, such confidence, such effort. Obviously some of the players could have done a few things better and all but my God they gave every ounce of effort and played with no shortage of quality. 

I cannot believe how well we responded. We carried such a threat and truly had belief. We play with enormous character and enormous teamwork. Whatever happens from here this is a proof of concept that we are moving in the right direction. 

This is incredible. Incredible. 

This ASM is a £80m player.

This is inspiring stuff from us. Whatever happens from here we are proving we can boss the game against the best in the world. What a response. Team has unbelievable character.

Seems to me like, as hard as it is, patience is really important. As urgent as it seems for us on the outside, it appears that the club is pretty satisfied with the current direction and is unwilling to spend more than their valuation to change that. And I can't really see any reason to doubt their judgment at this stage; they've gotten us back on solid footing and are building a long-term project. We've got 4 points out of 6 to start the season, unlikely to pick up any in 2 of the next 3 PL matches, I can see how the ownership group would be more than willing to wait until the very end of the window to try to get the deals they want. We're unaccustomed to having professionals doing their jobs around here so I think all of us assume the very worst when things don't progress as expected. In this case, I dunno, I'm not concerned; I think we'll continue to progress as a club and as a squad and I expect us to do more business as we approach the end of the window and teams become more desperate to sell.

Subs were a massive difference especially given the conditions. All we can expect from our subs is to help hang on to a lead or to possibly stifle the opponents. We have zero ability to change the match from the bench. 

Brighton, meanwhile, brought on impactful subs with fresh legs and it gave them a huge lift. 

We can finish 8-10 with the squad we have but nothing more. We could threaten 6-7 with a couple of big signings. Let's see what the owners want to do.

Expected a tough match and got one. Brighton are a very good side and are very well-coached. We had a number of understandable things contributing to a below par performance but we managed to get a point from the match. Very clearly we need better attacking options but we are a tough-minded team and we are mentally strong. I give Howe a lot of credit for turning us into a side with character. We would have lost that match under almost any other manager. 
 

And Nick Pope deserves huge plaudits, too. He earned us that point.

This is where the semantics come in - like is the “best” player the one who scored or assisted the most, the one who has he highest skill level, or the one who embodied the spirit of the club most notably? People have different definitions of the same word, so you’re going to struggle to find total agreement on that. In terms of impact, Shearer, Beardsley, Lee, all were “better” than Bruno, of course. At least so far.
 

But in terms of overall talent? I don’t think we have ever had a more talented overall player in our club’s esteemed history than Bruno. I don’t say that lightly. There is nothing on the pitch he cannot do at an elite level. We have never had a player who was this good at this many things. We have had flawed geniuses and we have had dogged performers but never a player with the lot. If he stays with us for long enough and leads us back into the top reaches of the table, he will be forever remembered among the icons of the club. 
 

It all depends on what the owners/Ashworth think and what they want the timeline to be - and what players like Bruno and Botman have been told to expect.

Howe is clearly committed to squad unity and team culture. He won't want to sign just anyone - even Bruno/Botman have had to work their way into the starting XI - and so if Ashworth et al think that we can achieve 7th/8th with the existing group, Howe's not going to push too hard for upgrades at this point. 

It seems to me they have a plan in place consisting of step by step growth and they don't seem too keen on skipping steps, even if those of us on the outside think it would be a good idea. I appreciate their patience though I admit it is frustrating at times to seemingly be missing out on realistic targets. 

It is no coincidence that we are getting fantastic performances from the likes of Burn, Shelvey (pre injury), Joelinton, Almiron, players who have been doubted or underwhelming. Even ASM seems to be more committed to putting the work in to go along with his incredible skill. Getting the overall squad performance to the levels we are seeing now has involved a culture of buy-in and commitment. The wrong buy might jeopardize that - and for what? Is 5th/6th realistic right now? Probably not unless everything falls into place. 

Meanwhile we found a Bruno, who is absolutely perfect for the profile and seems committed to the long-term growth of the club. He is the perfect example of the kind of player we need to target, but someone of his talent and cultural fit is exceptionally rare. I have to accept that we're going to be patient in the build but so far, I have little to complain about. 

It's a process. Hopefully we'll find one or two to add to the process before the window shuts. But even if not, the club trajectory is indicative of a wonderful future. 

Those weighted through balls to Almiron were a dream. Bruno is such a glorious player to watch. Does everything and does it incredibly well. Would walk into any almost any side in the world.

When was the last time we cruised to a win like that? Dominated every facet of the match and deserved to win by 4 or 5. 

I love the way we dominated possession and were still able to create a bunch of chances. We've not been asked to play that way much and in the past we struggled when we weren't allowed to play on the counter. This was a real show of force. We've been on the other side of these against Manchester City or Liverpool, it's nice to hand them out.

Almiron was full of running as usual but his lack of end product continues to be a problem. Upgrade him and we are a legitimate European threat.