Andy

Yup. It's crazy that we've only strengthened one position at this stage. Not replacing Isak until we knew what was happening with him is completely forgivable, but the failure to get any other deals done by now is astonishingly inept. We knew in May last year, never mind this year, that our defence and midfield would need reinforcements and that Wilson would need replacing, this should have been done before a single ball was kicked this summer. Hell, if we'd hit the ground running with convincing signings, we may have even been able to talk Isak into giving it one more season. It's wild that we're a week out from the new season and we've still got so much to do.

The lasting damage is definitely the concern if we don't turn this window around urgently. We've gone from exciting project to a bit of a laughing stock, it's going to be much more difficult for us to sell the vision that brought in Isak, Tonali, Bruno etc.

It's mad that in the three months we've gone from being known for shrewd, smart transfer business, to being arguably the biggest meme in football at the moment for how catastrophic and seemingly haphazard we've suddenly become in that department. The inability to correct that perception is becoming more embarrassing by the day, to be honest, and surely must be filtering through to our players and our transfer targets too. You can't switch on talksport, sky, or browse social media without being hit in the face with how much of a mess our window has been. The optics are terrible.

To be fair, you could make a similar compilation of Isak misses last season, especially the fluffed one on ones. Some of those in the clip are bad, granted, but some are finger tip saves etc, if it was another striker they would be "unlucky". I think there's a player in Jackson somewhere but it will take an Eddie masterclass to bring it out. It's definitely a risky signing at the prices being mentioned.

True, but Trippier and McGinn don't belong in the same breath IMO

I wasn't criticising Elanga, but he's part of the overall picture of the summer as things stand, and it's the overall picture that's grim. FWIW I don't actually think McGinn is a bad player, but again, circumstances taken into account it's difficult to feel anything towards him.

If you rewound to May and asked a Mackem to write our summer, I don't think even they would've come up with Elanga, Ramsdale and McGinn in by the start of the season, with Isak going on strike. It would be too far.

Tbf, Twitter and Facebook were rife with people saying Howe should go at one point. If you were looking at it externally and not speaking to normal newcastle fans on a daily basis, I could see how you could interpret that as large sections of the fanbase wanting him out. This forum wasn't exactly 100% in his favour either.

I think what's frustrating is, Howe has shown that those types of players are the ideal ones to give him too. He can polish them up around the edges and turn them into elite players. It almost feels like an ego thing, like we feel we have to be competing for the same players as the elite clubs to show we belong there, but we evidently still can't compete due to PSR, wages and general pull Elanga is the perfect example of the kind of player we should be targeting and was a great start to the window. The other names have always felt a step beyond where we currently are to me.

Unfortunately the "legendary club" element still holds a lot of weight though, probably more so to foreign players who have little investment in the PL. Sesko may see it that he has the chance to be the player that turns around their fortunes and becomes a legend there. Whether we like it or not, being a Manchester United legend is still a huge deal in modern football. We are in the unfortunate position of having to compete with clubs like them and Liverpool who have long-established "Elite" status, without being allowed to use our financial muscle to compensate. It's little wonder that it has been a borderline impossible task this summer.

No point keeping Isak if he's going to go through the motions all season though. It depends where his head is at, which only him and the club will know. If the club are entertaining the idea of selling him, which they appear to be, it would suggest that they believe he has mentally checked out.

Well, we're talking hypotheticals, I'd assume neither of those are the next on the list given that our aim is apparently to replace Isak.

I would've taken either as a replacement for Wilson, obviously they aren't the answer as a replacement for Isak.

Nothing, unless we don't have a Plan B that we've already been working on for the somewhat likely scenario that he chooses Man Utd. It really depends on how we react to the deal going to fuck.

£50m gives us a chance of signing him, £0 gives us next to no chance since we won't compete on wages. It's either this summer at a cost, or never.

Same, only issue is that it feels like more time wasted

According to various financial experts I've read talking about this, they absolutely can, especially with the impending sale of DN. Let's face it, we all know the red cartel can find the money if and when they really need to. The question is whether they're willing to go as high as our asking price, not whether they're able to IMO.

True, it's eating up valuable time that could be spent signing more goalkeepers

Was Gakpo that hit the post tbf, Ekitike fumbled the rebound.

It's just the old good-cop/bad-cop routine. One journalist says something with a negative spin to get fans rage clicking, another puts a different spin on it to pull in the positive engagement. It's boring as fuck tbh.

Sweepstake on what time this one goes to shit?

Most importantly he's on the shopping list that was left lying around from 2022, so we're definitely interested.

This is how I see it too. It 100% isn't over.

They either don't want him as much as everyone thought they did, or they're trying to get him to kick up even more of a fuss at a bid actually being rejected, so a follow up bid of £120m looks more lucrative than it would have before.

At this stage that seems unlikely, let's be honest. If he stays, he'll let his contract run down and likely go through the motions on the pitch until either Liverpool or the next club comes back in for him.