Yorkie

Would've been disallowed today.

Think it was £4-5m but still, as you say. No strong feelings about him really; the sort of signing that was a microcosm of last few years of the Ashley era. A cheap, lower-midtable player who did okay for us, but would never have been here had we any ambition. File alongside most of the signings made in the Championship, Ki, Joselu, Atsu, Krafth, Fraser. He did deliver the assist for the first goal I celebrated in over two years in that Spurs game. So kudos to him for that. Hope he does well for Rafa.

Agree, can't see PSG being that appealing to him.

I feel so liberated having binned off that subscription. Hilarious that folks in here have suddenly stopped pasting the occasional worthwhile article, mind. LOL.

Davies and Moore maybe?

Appreciate your summaries, @timeEd32

https://www.vinted.co.uk/items/3987172561-newcastle-united-goalkeeper-shirt I swear you never see this knocking around for anything less than three figures. A bargain for someone.

Not brave enough to argue with you on that one. This is basically perfection, made by the sponsor which is very much a part of the kit, as opposed to something slapped onto one.

That was good but all the aways were unremarkable save for the gold European one imo, the last of which had a perfect arrangement of colours across its constituent parts. Just another kit associated with absolute agony. Olympiacos was good I suppose.

You up for sharing a pic when it arrives?

Honestly the kits from 1995-2003 were just sensational. The peak. Some good ones before that too but that spell was banger after banger.

Heavens above, Gromit.

Can't believe I'm saying this but I would be up for it. Short term deal until the end of the season, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Very odd. Was just looking yesterday and he was a regular there.

Previously I would've agreed to some extent but I think the toll we've seen on Gordon - plus the intention to use him as third choice CF - has demonstrated the thinking on Barnes.

If we sign no one I think it's because they don't see the point in investing now in order to chase 7th, thereby reducing our summer budget and affecting next season's chase for 4th. It suggests to me that they trust Howe and can live with a mid-table finish this time. So should we tbh; I'm desperate to be in Europe and would love a Europa campaign, but I can respect the long-term sense in not recruiting now.

Banter when Bruno gets his suspension.

Yeah, post the Watford game I was on here questioning whether or not Eddie Howe was cut out for it. Then, over the following 22-and-a-half months, we won 48, drew 19 and lost 18.

Pardew effect notwithstanding, I think he'd have gone on to have a far better career had he stayed. He fit like a glove at NUFC whereas the Liverpool move never really made any sense; a true case of a transfer fee weighing down on a player.

Truly vile. Only a few weeks after that piledriver he smacked in against them, n'all. Doubt there's anything that tops it really for me as I wasn't old enough for Cole. Bellamy, Given and HBA were all painful but each seemed grimly inevitable. I don't think I believed Carroll would go until he was literally holding the shirt. It did help that he was rubbish there.

'Failure' is just unnecessarily loaded and pejorative language for me (which is my main issue with the discourse during the last six weeks). Who or what has failed, and how? Are we even in a position to make any definitive conclusion either way? If Tonali tears it up next season then suddenly it's very different, as you say. For me, a failure would've been signing objective rubbish, or no one. For example, most of the transfer windows between 2012-15. I'm not arguing that's it's been a roaring success but that's because it's a situation with more nuance than to just assign either extreme. Again my issue is principally with the (imo) overly negative language used.

We spent all (not 'the bulk') of our budget on reinforcing centre-midfield and full-back with CL quality, and replacing Saint-Maximin. Because that's what we could afford to do. How is it 'one hell of a failure'? What should we have done differently? Choose differently because we should've expected a ten-month gambling ban, and an apparently rare long-term foot injury suffered by a player with an exemplary injury record? The transfer window wrought some excellent signings, by your own argument, we've just been stupidly unlucky.