Yorkie

York City joint top until Gateshead play their game in hand. Come the fuck on. Great to see green shoots of progress after nearly ten years of regression and treading water (unless you count barely dragging themselves out of the sixth tier as progress). Mark Douglas done a write-up, for anyone interested (headline a bit premature): https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/york-city-fairytale-revival-3264586?srsltid=AfmBOor5hEoL0JEYwxe8NgWy0la9aISOAHQyV15jwvptfAmBxkpBGaxV

Merged @Terrymac1966

All that effort not to even play? Ridiculous. You'll be in the draw alone with everyone else.

You'd think I'd know better by now but I'm constantly amazed by how disingenuous and 'gaslighty' he is. Referencing Joelinton for crying out loud. Truly one of the biggest gobshites in football. Total fucking knobhead.

I don't fully get it either. We have the facility to release precisely whatever message we want, delivered in exactly the intended tone, yet we hold these behind-closed-doors press conferences with next to no control over how it's covered. Ashworth did one too. Does it all come down to press relations and trying to avoid damaging, irritated stories that might emerge if we didn't collaborate? Waugh neatly summarising why all of the coverage of that interview needs taking with a pinch of salt. A 90-minute conversation distilled into soundbites for engagement at a time where consumers are searching for someone to blame. Truly not worth more than a few moments of anyone's consideration.

50 in 55 for Sporting. Brighton will be kicking themselves.

Good craic. Fwiw I think incredibly highly of Gordon and want him to become a legend here; the rumours about him leaving in the summer were hideous and I didn't expect them. Just saying he's gonna look a bit daft if his performances don't match his words. One thing is for sure is that Southgate was a bloody fool for not using him in Germany. Absolutely ludicrous. We need the England manager to be pro-Gordon, tbh.

He does talk a lot does Gordon, mind. I respect the confidence and it's clearly an asset because he's fiercely determined to turn it into performances, but he's got a fair bit to prove still after one brilliant season. Dearly hope his head hasn't been too turned because he's got everything he needs at this club to improve as a player.

It has. But at a wider, cultural scale, rather than the game itself. In terms of the game itself, I do think there's less room for wild card players; at the very top level anyway. You'll always have individual brilliance and players who are obviously exceptional in their position, but sides have to be so rigorously drilled and athletic now. Individuality contradicts that. There are probably managers and systems out there which are more accommodating to mavericks. Maybe at international level, where there's less time to imprint a team philosophy on a group of players?

And still you just know they'll never actually fuck off. I've made this point several times so forgive the repetition, but if you scaled-down Chelsea's basketcasery to anyone not shielded by institutional bias earned since 2003, it would be the end of them. Chelsea, meanwhile, will always be fine, always competitive. Would love so much to just eradicate that club.

Some exciting clips there. We need to make sure everyone is the on the same wavelength in terms of his speed of distribution. Lots of first time passes and nibbly tackles resulting in a free ball. That goal was saucy as fuck.

If Ben Arfa was too much of a maverick for 2012* then there's no way he'd last in today's game where tactical discipline, team ethic and raw athleticism trump individuality. *debatable, I know Still, I think the most creative and adaptable manager finds a way...

... on VAR?

Hang on...

To play?

Phew.

@RS is that an indication that you'd like to play?

Fucking hell. Imagine if Howe just didn't feel like playing Bruno or Isak. That's what we were dealing with back then.

Apologies, you were the sole name on the other side of my notepad. 🙃

you really beat yourself up re these things but always do absolutely fine. Feel free to reconsider but we'll look forward to seeing your post-NUFC if not.

Hi folks. It's ten years since we lost mate and N-O legend Jon 'Cajun' Lockwood and as most of you will know, we have a forum kickabout in his name every Autumn. Please register your interest if you'd like to be involved this time. New faces always more than welcome. We don't bite! Venue is Dunston Powerleague, KO 10am. NUFC vs Brighton in the afternoon. SQUADS 🔴 🔵 ⚪️ 🔲 (NUFC Homes) Itinerary:

Lots of appointments there, really good news.

I don't think anything you're saying is reaching - it's all plausible. However, I really do think we should exercise some caution when it comes to making conclusions about any of this, due to the nature of the communication. One of the journos is literally already back-peddling on Twitter re the vibes of the meeting. It's not an obscene thought that there isn't total parity behind the scenes. Mitchell could have aspirations of replacing Howe with someone more aligned to the role of coach-only. But the joker in the pack is results; if Howe continues to have us fighting in the right part of the table (which, despite the transfer window, we are equipped to do) then that should trump everything.

If you're worried about inconsistency between each of their respective takes, you have to remember that Howe conceals stuff in the pressers. So Howe saying "I don't know" vs Mitchell's "We talked every day" is probably just Howe deliberately not giving anything away to the hacks, as opposed to it being evidence of some sort of rift. That said, I would agree that it's not totally convincing that everyone is truly on the same page, and the evidence of that is the lack of signings. We need to have a strong first half of the season if wor Eddie is going to go far beyond his third anniversary, but then that was probably always the case regardless.