Yorkie

Man Utd turned him into a midfielder and he was signed as one, only for Allardyce and - mystifyingly - Keegan to deploy him as a target man. Absolutely God awful wherever he played, mind.

I think Pope coming back in is just about the right call, but I probably wouldn't have criticised either decision (on brand I know). There's not much between them really. It's good that we got to have a look at Ramsdale if only to confirm that serious investment in that position is still arguably priority number one in terms of finding an upgrade.

Just happy to see Barnes on the pitch tbh. And definitely Wissa. Looking forward to it. Optimistic we'll play well and win.

alright, man. This is fun but I'll be sticking to my guns on the matter of him being okay with signing players from outside the PL; evidence: he's signed players from outside the PL.

The post I initially quoted said Howe was 'averse to taking a risk on foreign players'. I said that's clearly not true because a significant amount of our budget went on foreign players just as recently as this summer. And I said more balanced/varied (than the myth). There's no denying we like to buy from the PL. So do lots of teams.

Would be nice to have a few early/pre-PL suggestions to even things out. Pretty sure Shelvey and Sissoko's decent but not particularly memorable strikes against Fulham and West Brom aren't among the greatest Newcastle goals of all time. I'll chuck in Supermac v Bolton in the 76 cup quarter-final and his second goal against Liverpool in his home debut hat-trick. Mathie v Sheffield Wednesday. Shearer volley v Villa and thunderbastard v Chelsea in 03/04. Still missing Schär v PSG I think.

It's definitely a big opportunity to jump-start the season but there'd still be 16 games left and other results will have an impact on our table position too. I don't think this sort of expectation does anyone's mental health any good. For instance we could draw one - probably two - winning the rest, and that would still have us well in the race, though with a few less favourable fixtures. Point is, anything can happen between now and full-time in the 38th game.

This is an abstraction that ignores the players we are buying - wherever they are from - have been increasingly bad value. We cannot afford misses like Elanga It's a whatnow? It's a direct response to someone peddling the myth that Howe only wants PL players. Nothing to do with value, which is another discussion altogether.

If we're talking within the realms of realism then Brighton and Bournemouth all day long. Stinking bogey teams for us, and that's just the start of it.

Dropped more than £100m on players from Serie A and the Bundesliga this summer. The approach is more balanced/varied than so many people bleat on about. Everyone who can buys from the PL.

No idea if he's the same player at this point but have always been well up for us signing Conor Gallagher. Always on the bench for Atletico this season so could be a possibility, but his wages are supposedly enormous. Maybe why we didn't look at him this summer.

Absolutely right. Minteh was incredible business and he seems very overrated to me. Elanga doesn't look like the answer so far but neither does a hypothetical still-at-NUFC Minteh. Anderson definitely sticks in the craw a bit more but even Howe has said himself that he wouldn't have developed into the player he is today had he continued in his bit-part role with us. He'd fit like a glove for us now of course but the ship has sailed and good luck to him I'd have been absolutely devastated if we'd sold Gordon to Liverpool after the season he'd had.

🤞

40,775 cumulative attendance across the 12 National League fixtures on Boxing Day, great to see. York a few dozen shy of 8000 - record attendance at the new ground I think.

Wish people wouldn't post horseshit from random NPCs on twitter. There's enough of it on here already without leakage from the cesspit.

Sunderland, Brentford and West Ham were appalling but the other night was alright and worlds away from the mackem game especially. But you're right, if the ingrained issues on the road don't change then we'll obviously just stay where we are.

That's encouraging tbf and proves the (groundbreaking) theory that we're just not scoring enough. Think of the missed chances against say Chelsea and Villa and that's all you need for the four points which would have us matching our position on that table. You can pick from a small handful of other fixtures too. I know we're PATHETIC and everything is terrible but it's all coming down to very fine margins so far. Feels like we don't need to improve that much to start climbing.

That is absolute nonsense, like. He was having a good season prior to his injury and we've missed him. Clearly not one for the future but he was extremely dependable backup. Literally only need to read back two or three pages in this thread to see folks singing his praises.

I totally get that and I was massively sympathetic to the logic of buying PL players, and it's disappointing that the reality hasn't matched the theory. But it's all the more reason to assume they'll come good in the end. If you add all Elanga's minutes together so far he's played just shy of 11 full matches; for Ramsey it's 8. It's not much of a sample size to confidently declare them shit and wastes of money, particularly when the whole team is off it. The 'obsession' with buying from the PL is totally over-egged as well. We're no different to literally every other team with hefty budgets where this is concerned. The mid-table and lower teams were absolutely ravaged by the higher/CL-hopeful teams this summer.

Find it really depressing that players are just being written off so flippantly. The whole team isn't really performing and there are systemic tactical and mental issues. Can we not afford the new lads a bit of grace on the basis that it's all just a bit dysfunctional atm?

We lost our golden ticket to guaranteeing that, if such a thing can be guaranteed (it can't).

They're having a brilliant season and fair play to them. The neutral in me is pleased to see them doing well despite the financial restrictions put upon them (or rather, the lack of financial restrictions put upon their competitors). But it's no stick to beat Howe with because despite us sharing that place in the hierarchy, each club's situations are different.

Villa's incredible season doesn't mean every mitigating factor which applies to us isn't true. Equally, all of those mitigating factors aren't the sole reason for why we're as low as 13th. Villa and Emery are third therefore Newcastle and Howe should be third is a bit of a stupid take really.

The lack of a DoF wasn't the principal reason for why we stumbled in the summer. You know my view on what is number one and all the executives in the world wouldn't remedy that.

... No? But if we win a trophy it would be magnificent. I'm here for trophies, like.