Unbelievable

Semenyo pisses all over Tino here so far

Happy birthday mate

Crowd appear to have finally waken up

Again Tino was nowhere. Bad start from him

Kluivert scores

Clumsy touch from Tino. Come on!

Phew

That long ball by Huijsen was pure class

Howay the lads!

Apologies. Didn't know wormy was known to be

What? I love Fabian Schar, but the guy took a very silly yellow on the halfway line vs Man U when the game was pretty much over for a one match ban (which together with his league cup suspension meant a two game layoff). Botman came into the team and after about 10 minutes of shaking off some rustiness looked like he'd never been away. Schar then got ill for Wolves and again Botman played, and played very well. If anything Botman getting the nod here again is Eddie showing loyalty to Botman who for the last three games against serious opposition did pretty damn well in a pairing with Burn. It's Schar's place to re-win now, and Botman's and Burn's to lose, and rightfully so in my opinion. No player should just expected to walk straight back in after a suspension or injury layoff, especially when the guy stepping in hasn't put a foot wrong.

Absolutely, and I do believe this attitude is an important thing we look for when recruiting players. The likes of Botman who will be in a foul mood if we concede even when we win, Tonali, Bruno, Gordon… All unassuming hard workers who won’t stand for merely participating, but seem obsessed with battling, hard graft and winning.

My opinion on Calvert-Lewin is I don't rate him very highly, but I can see why Howe would want him (PL experience, hard worker, physical presence), and with him being available "on a free" and seemingly the worst of his injuries behind him I wouldn't be adverse to bringing him in provided the signing on fee and wages reflect that he would come in as a squad option. I would expect Howe to get the best out of someone like him, like he has numerous others and in a way I do think it makes sense to bring in someone with experience to play second fiddle to Isak as opposed to some costly prospect who will want loads of game time. A lot will depend also on how Howe and the coaching staff see Osula developing. If they think he can become the real deal it wouldn't make sense to bring in competition for him that will even further restrict the minutes he can get. The main thing is that whatever we do needs to make sense financially. As ever, the club have earned the trust to make the decision and whatever they decide will more likely than not end up being the correct decision. Many of us, me included, thought getting Gordon for 45-ish million was madness at the time. Scroll forward a year and a bit later and he's one of the best wingers in the league easily worth double what we paid for him.

If Man U are not getting televised on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, but rather their players are at home watching Newcastle play Barcelona on the telly, you can safely assume that will make their existing sponsors ask questions at renewal time, and potential sponsors consider the value of associating with them. Reversely the same would be true for Newcastle. As for patterns, qualifying for CL 2 years out of 3 would be a pretty strong signal. If nothing else how would the PL stop say Saudi Airlines from offering similar to Emirates for our shirt sponsorship if we are performing ar a similar level and getting as much exposure as say Arsenal. You seem to think these things are cast in stone. They’re not, far from it. We manage to get CL qualification we become a more appealing proposition for players, sponsors and fans abroad. It’s not rocket science.

How is that not a booking?

Sign him now

What have they done to our goalkeeper?

Ajax has done this since before the birth of Christ

Absolutely no chance. For starters that would require Willock to be fit for more than a few weeks at a time.

As per the post above yours, talk of a purple patch is misguided. He’s been quite consistently decent for a while now. Obviously we need to upgrade on him eventually, but Murphy is a perfect example of a system player right now, and would cost a fortune (that we probably won’t be able to spend) to upgrade.

I’m not saying Mbuemo is not a much better player than Murphy. My point is that in a world where our spending is artificially limited we may need to consider the possibility of Murphy staying on as the first XI option instead of outright replacing him.

Great news if true. I love Miggy, but his form has fallen of a cliff and it’s time to move on.

If they have he’s probably not even a realistic option for us.

Agreed. My point was I thought we needed someone like Mbuemo to help us progress to become a better side, but now I’m not so sure anymore. Murphy may not be as good of a player, but in our system he works really well. Plus he’s a Newcastle fan and would bust a gut for us, and is on relatively low wages. If money for squad reinforcements is scarse, which it likely is, Murphy playing like he is atm may just have changed our thinking about the priorities for this and the summer transfer window.

His resurgence, and it’s been going for a long time now so can’t really call it a purple patch anymore, for me means that we may need to be looking for a young understudy with massive potential for our right wing, who is ready to learn and take over in a year or so, as opposed to a purple who pushes Murphy straight into a reserve role. Similar to the other positions of need, which are GK and RCB. Probably a lot more achievable from a PSR perspective to try to get 3 players in the 20-30m bracket than to be looking at the 50+ market for those positions, especially the RW one where suitable players are thin on the ground and likely to cost a fortune.