Memphis

Apropos of nothing, Barcelona have started 16-year-old Lamine Yamal ahead of players like Raphinha - and they've won (he played incredibly in his first match and meh in his second). 

Miley isn't Yamal-level or anything but it's not unheard of for a player of his age to be playing regularly in the top flight. Given our midfield continuity and meshing issues, it wouldn't be crazy to see how and if Miley could fit in.

All about mentality. Howe's mentality and his players'. We tried to play it as if we were a confident, veteran-filled European power and just ease to a 1-0 win while not overexerting our players, and we are not capable of that. 

That decision is on Eddie. And it isn't the first time we've tried to manage a game rather than dominate it. Our players - bar Tonali and Bruno - are energy warriors, pressing, running, hounding. Their strengths are not in elegant passing and game control. We played away from our strengths when facing 10. And the subs were all wrong. Again, also on Eddie. 

The players, though, don't escape blame. Really poor decision making in the final third, a real lack of drive, and a lack of composure -except for Gordon - at the end. Bruno is such a good player but he does seem to struggle to pick the right moments for his tricks. He put us under real pressure a few times and was at fault for their winner. Miggy, again, running for days but lacking the ability to anything other than his two tricks in the final third. Barnes, what was that? And defensively, we remain susceptible to elite speed. 

We are obviously a good team and will win plenty. But it's comparatively easier to go from 17th to 4th than it is to stay in that elite zone year on year. We are learning the mental lessons now, and it's a painful lesson.

3 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

That's not quite how it works. 

 

If we sell him for £10m and replace him for £30m (on a 5-year-deal for arguments sake), yes that £10m would cover the first chunk of the amortisation (£6m per year + the difference in wages) but not the full amount. We'd still have to find the difference down the line by either selling someone else or finding additional revenue. 

I clarified things a bit later on in the thread, but it's also worth considering that Krafth, Manquillo, Ritchie, Dummett, Hendrick, and a few others will all be out of contract. Were we not to renew any of those five, that would be around 14 million off the wage bill. Now, we wouldn't have access to all of that, but certainly some - and we would have signifcantly improved commercial revenue for next year to help balance it out, so I don't think it's outlandish at all to make that suggestion.

Back of the envelope math tells me that if, as has been reported, Lascelles and Fraser are each on about 40,000 weekly, that's a total of 4.2 million this year. Reducing that number and adding on a fee (let's say 8 million just as an example) balances your books to the tune of 12.2 million. If the incoming player were to cost 40 million and sign a 5 year contract, that would be 8 million this year on transfer fee, and would allow us to sign him to a deal worth 80,000/week, which is what Barnes supposedly came in on. 

So we may choose not to do it that way, but those deals alone theoretically could open up another big signing for us.

1 minute ago, TRon said:

He's not really let us down when he's had to step in though. It would be nice to upgrade him for a newer model, but the prices we have been talking about are around £40m, I just don't think we will be spending that on another defender this window.

He's not let us down, but he's also quite limited. We're trying to play with more speed and more technique from the back and he hasn't shown the ability to do that. He's a very solid traditional centre back but I suspect we want, and will need, more as we try to maintain elite status. Nothing against him personally.

I agree completely that Lascelles has been superb for the club off the pitch and a great example of character and leadership. That would be missed. On the pitch, not so much. But a fee in the range of 8-10 million would allow us to spend 2x or 3x that in FFP terms, so if his transfer were to happen, bringing in a player like Tapsoba could potentially be back on this window. Would be a big win for us.

Honestly, this is why I prefer when players don't get heavily involved in social media. There's nothing good that can come of it. It's human nature but he's ignoring the 99% of posts that are positive to highlight the 1% dumbass. I think we all do it. Look at the posts on here that get the most response, more often than not it's some shit post from some complete dimwit.

Not to excuse the rank stupidity of NUFC360 here, by the way, just desperate for interaction.

I hope Bruno can get the validation he clearly needs somewhere other than social media, because it's not going to do him any good to doomscroll Twitter.

That was a perfectly fine performance from us. We had a couple of good chances that we squandered. You don't get more than that. We held them reasonably under control. Nothing much to be concerned about here.

And I'll say this - Trippier has been immense tonight. He takes some stick from time to time but he's been brilliant tonight.

Anderson has been good so far. Looks like we've played a little rope-a-dope here. Certainly a promising last 15 minutes. 

We're being treated with respect, they're up for it and have us well-scouted. Player for player, they're better than us at virtually every position so we have to hope for them to make mistakes. They haven't. And I might consider taking Almirón off, moving Gordon right, bringing Wilson on and playing Isak left. Might give us a bit more threat. 

We really need Joe's size and combativeness, so he needs to step things up a bit. Barnes in for Gordon at 60 minutes, let's see what that can do. 

Ultimately it's all likely to be for naught.

I will say this is where Almirón is exposed. He has two moves on the ball, the pass back to Bruno looking for the one-two, or the incessant dribble across the top of the box. Very predictable against the very best in the world. We could use a lot more guile and craft on that right side.

It's funny how quickly people forget - this City team did this exact thing, maybe worse, to fucking Real Madrid last year. They're switched on for us, they're treating us like the big team we are, and it's tough to deal with. This is less about us than them.

We're a little timid but honestly they're just much better. Not much else to say. If we sell out and press insanely hard, we're going to run out of energy. They're just ruthless and are quicker in thought than we are. I don't think we've been all that bad, just not at their level. 

Great preparation for the Champions League. Has the feel of going up against a giant in the away leg of a knockout tie. They're just on a different level at the moment.

INTERVIEWER: "Well, Lewis, you must be buzzing to be in Newcastle, and I know you're a supporter of Newcastle United, so it must be nice to be back in Newcastle and playing for Newcastle United, the club that, as I mentioned, you support."

HALL: "Uh, yeah."

INTERVIEWER: "But how do you feel about coming back to Newcastle to play for your beloved Newcastle United?"

HALL: "As you'd probably guess, it feels great."

INTERVIEWER: "Are you excited about coming back to Newcastle to play for Newcastle United?"

HALL (to cameraperson): "Is my mic working?"

INTERVIEWER: "Your excitement must be truly exciting, Lewis. It's such an exciting time. Are you buzzing?"

HALL: "Did you have a stroke, mate?" 

1 minute ago, TRon said:

He ticks all those boxes but you did miss quite an important one: He's a Newcastle fan which probably played a big part in this move going through.

You're right, but I purposefully ignored it b/c ultimately I don't think it played a huge role for us in targeting him - don't get me wrong, it's nice to have, though.

This is another example of our club being well-aligned. We had clearly identified Hall as a possibility one way or the other and have seemingly played it very well to get this opportunity. From the boardroom perspective, a young English player who can grow with the club and who helps us with UEFA roster requirements is hugely important. And on the pitch, he seems to fit the mold of our type of player perfectly - we value versatility (virtually all of our players can play in multiple positions), we value energy, and we value technical ability. Youth and nationality are bonuses. There aren't many players who can tick all those boxes so we are jumping when we can sign someone who does. 

I love to see signings that are well thought-out. All of ours seem to be. It's jarring compared with the old days.

If we plan on being a European mainstay, and I'm quite sure we do, then having young players who will qualify as "club-trained" for the purposes of European squads is worth a lot. You have to have 8 locally-trained players in your 25-man squad. 4 can be "association-trained", meaning 3 years with an English club between 15-21. The others have to be from your own club for those 3 years. We have Anderson and Miley potentially and Hall would be, too. That's enormously helpful and worth a fair bit of cash in and of itself.

I just wanted to add that it is such a pleasure to watch this man at the center of what has become an exceptionally well-run club. His tactics are typically excellent, his ability to motivate and get the best out of players - Gordon admitting last season that he was not fit enough to play the way we wanted to play, now he's looking like a new player - his commitment to the basics of hard work and intensity, he's just a spectacular manager.

And I love the fact that he and the scouting staff are aligned not only in the on-field type of player we sign, but the off-field attitude and commitment. The mentality of our signings has been sensational. 

It may not work perfectly all the time, but there is a very evident plan in place that is being carried out, and as a supporter, that's so reassuring.

Oh my goodness he was something else, what a debut that was. With the greatest respect to our young Geordie lads who impressed in preseason, that was a performance on a completely different level than they're capable of. His composure, his thought, I just don't remember us having a player like this before. 

Absolutely erotic that was

As if the dreadful questions and bone-dry demeanor weren't bad enough, I'd also like to point out that this interview has been up for 9 hours now and still has our newest signing's name misspelled in the title.

He's here

I guess

He doesn't sound impressed

Tino

"You mentioned interacting with the fans there, you were in attendance at St James' Park for the Sela Cup. How was that and did you have any good memories of that?"

Journalism at its very best.