Yorkie

Better sellers keep him in a squad down to its knees with injuries, and then sell him in the summer.

The more I see of the home kit the more I think it's an absolute stinker. The back is obviously a joke, the collar is stupid, the Adidas logo is too big and looks incomplete without the text, and fuck knows what's going on under the arms/with the outer stripe. I'm partial to us with white shorts but thought it looked shite today. Happy for those who've got it and like it but personally am crossing my fingers for better in the future.

It's clearly been a transfer signed in bullshit so I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of investigation was being undertaken at the lobbying of the usual suspects. If there's mechanisms available to scrutinise our business in particular, they'll be used. He wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for PSR.

We got £70m for Anderson and nothing. I think we've played our cards pretty well so far.

Sky have gained a whole new deadline day to broadcast and dramatise though, which probably helps.

This sort of thing stopped making real sense a long time ago because fees have gone absolutely mad with inflation. It felt relevant to us for ages because Owen remained our record signing for about 15 years and that perfectly summed-up Ashley's approach. But these lists lost any real meaning after the PL broadcast deal took around a 70% increase in the mid-teens.

On someone with a genuinely terrible injury record, too. 35 mill just seems like the new 6 or 7.

Listing is based on historic and/or architectural significance, as opposed to amounts of anti-social behaviour.

They're also moving out of ancient decrepit messes. Despite what you read that isn't the case for us.

Another game with Leeds scheduled too, apparently.

Suffice to say I would be very much up for us recruiting an exciting Argentinian winger called Gonzalez to the squad.

I remember bumping into Xisco in Aspers circa 2012 and him confirming that he was looking forward to being back in the team.

I'm comfortable with our progress so far and looking ahead with nothing but optimism, but there's definitely plenty around that would've made canny signings. Tosin, Kilman, Onana to name a few. Somehow even West Ham are dipping into the Brazilian market, which feels like has been on the cards for us for years but never happens. Zirkzee looks a talent but can admit that we'd never pip the likes of Man Utd to that sort of signature.

We have signed four new players n'all, excluding Hall. Obviously none of them are exciting (though Kelly might be a solid signing) but it's not strictly true to say there's been nowt.

I wish it would just get resolved at this point cos I hate drawn-out departures for players I really like. One of the reasons why I didn't connect with the England team this summer was the speculation around two of our players in the squad. Trippier and Gordon seemed like Schroedinger's Footballers at one point. Both belonging to Newcastle and not belonging to Newcastle simultaneously.

Recent quotes?

One of the most exciting players in the squad, this lad. Shouldn't over-expect but you can see him really kicking on.

Ah good spot. Don't really rate that; very plain and the collar is shite.

How do you pronounce his surname?

There's some irony in them not being among the elite brands and thus escaping that shite template.

Pretty sure some leaked financial document showed it was £12.8m.

Good and unsurprising news. Quite how necessary it was for Howe to go public with this - especially when they were all out there in Germany together - I don't know. All a bit strange but hopefully the lines are drawn and we can press on.

That's all fair enough. Most of my grumbles stem from a broader irritation about the state of kits across the board, really - having to align to a poxy template, nostalgia-baiting, prices, the dumbing down of iconography. None of these issues are unique to Adidas. But if there's one thing which is, it's that the gear looks horrendous on the players. State of the Belgium one: We should get away with it - at least visually - thanks to the stripes, but you can still see it clinging to them: