Andy

Could say the same for ours tbf.

Nah, I know her family, she definitely supports us and was Newcastle mad even when she was a bairn

Obviously his finishing is class, but his most impressive attribute is his movement in transition, which suits us perfectly. He had a chance saved earlier in the game which came from a smart run off the ball, scored his goals with good movement, and was in position to be put through for the 3rd goal if Joelinton had looked up instead of selfishly scoring a worldy. Can see him scoring 15-20 this season.

Mourinho is a really lazy link IMO, can't see it ever happening.

Mad that he was talking about wanting to win the ballon d'or not so long ago, now he's going to waste the peak years of his career playing in Saudi

I think the issue is how shit the deal is for Southampton due to Chelsea's cut. They really won't have all that much to reinvest from £30m, assuming a chunk of that is based on clauses being hit too.

Not sure about this one like. Frustrating as he can be, an on-it ASM is still one of the best players in our squad and I could see him being up for it and effective in the CL. £30m, if true, doesn't seem a great deal for us considering the fee paid for Neves, as an example.

Imagine how mint he'd be if he wanted to be here

Obviously it would kick up a stink and won't happen, but hypothetically, is there any rule actually stopping PIF signing him for £500m to completely obliterate FFP, if they wanted to?

Wouldn't happen anyway. No chance PIF would make a statement signing for Saudi Football then loan him back to the PL.

Wish someone would boil it all down to just "he's good" or "he's shite", have absolutely no idea what opinion to express at work on Monday morning atm.

Aye. He might get rinsed off the very best, but if you can cut it in the PL across a full season you can cut it in the CL for the most part. A good chunk of the teams in CL wouldn't even finish top 7 in our league. we need an upgrade from an attacking perspective but I wouldn't be that worried about him defensively.

Read somewhere that he created more chances in CL this year than De Bruyne. (Was probably on twitter so is likely bollocks)

Developing their own league will be their priority, and probably the ultimate end goal. I don't believe they'll neglect Newcastle but I'd imagine our interests will be secondary when it comes to this sort of thing.

Got to be more to that surely? Can't believe it's football-related decision.

In the league Lewis appeared against: Fulham (A) Chelsea (A) In the league Manquillo appeared against: Southampton (A) West Ham (A) Spurs (H) Brighton (H) Anderson featured in all of those games apart from Spurs at home.

More than 3.5x the league appearances of both of them combined last season

Has always felt that way to me, despite people questioning me saying it earlier in the thread. Never seemed realistic to me that he'd be available for £50m and wouldn't be attracting the absolute elite clubs; there are very few midfields in Europe he doesn't start in. Would love to be wrong though.

Because we've already briefed journalists that the budget is limited this summer. The pressure is then applied to Leicester on both sides if we are Maddison's preferred destination.

Applying pressure to Leicester I reckon.

Had to double check this wasn't a Chippa wind up when I saw it on twitter. Would be a great signing, if he's available at this price every club who needs a midfielder should be in for him.

Right up there as being one of the players I've never seen

Can't stand the likes of City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea in Europe and actively want them to lose, but it's hard not to get behind a club like West Ham; they're similar in stature to us, similar fanbases... Pleased for them tbh.

Because I suspect it will be the case with the majority of links this summer, and he's already been linked with Man Utd, Madrid and various other top clubs over the past few weeks. Will get excited when we have something more concrete personally, can't remember Marca being that reliable a source in recent years.

Almost certainly his agent throwing our name around, as will be the case with 99% of links this summer, but we'll see.