KaKa

This summer is going to be terrifying man. I think it will be clear what needs to happen going forward once it's all said and done. The whole approach and decision making regarding incomings and outgoings will provide so much clarity.

It was off the back of the whole Minteh and Anderson drama and Amanda and Mehrdad leaving. I think there was and it was driven by Eales who had previous with Mitchell.

Likely going to be the new CEO. Eales was the one that brought in Mitchell to try and wrestle more control off Howe previously, and so I imagine Hopkinson will be the one to oversee things.

Then maybe discussions have to be had about what Howe wants to do this summer and how that all looks, and someone is going to have to make a call on whether they should stick with him and back him or not. Me personally, I'd let him have the summer regardless and see what he can manage with Wilson, and if it goes tits up then major changes are likely need across the board anyway, and the season is likely to be a wash with or without him staying till the end.

There's been so much palaver with getting in a DOF that Howe is happy with that we might as well give them a chance to work together to see what they can come up with next summer. If the summer is another mess and the ensuing season doesn't look like it's going to go well then make a change at the turn of the year or something.

This really has nothing to do with how easy or hard it is. It's just something that has to be done to improve the squad. We don't really have any other choice. Only looking at Prem proven players is going to cost too much and the money is not going to stretch far enough. This is what the issue has been with improving the squad on the whole IMO. It's either we go down that route of looking at promising players elsewhere that are easier to get fee wise, doing the best the club can manage and try to constantly improve in that area, or they just keep complaining about PSR and bouncing in and out of Europe and relying on the likes of Willock, Murphy and Trippier for longer. It's not about the approach being guaranteed to be perfect every time, but surely it's worth a try at least. Otherwise the team is stuck right now and there isn't going to be much more room for a chance at improving it.

We've been a European team. There's more than enough games to play. We keep falling out of Europe the following season because the depth is so poor. I'm just not convinced it is that hard finding better options than Willock, Murphy and a 35 year old Trippier, that won't cost a bunch of money because they have to be starring in the Prem already. Out of interest what kind of players do you then think Newcastle at their current level should be signing as squad players?

If the team ends up going into a bit of a downward spiral the rest of the way, and the home crowd continue to vent their frustration in a similar way they did yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up getting sacked. I'd actually like to see what happens next summer with him regarding transfers, after a lot of harsh lessons would have been learnt this past season, but I'm not sure he'll get the chance if things get ugly the rest of the way.

The way this guy is spoken about man Surely, you have to sack everyone that was involved in bringing him to the club if he's thought of this poorly?

Igor Thiago was starting every week at Brugge and scored 18 league goals. Strand Larsen was starting every week and was top scorer for Ceta Vigo in la Liga with 13 goals I think it was. Thiago was 22 Strand Larsen was 23. They are not turning down a move to Newcastle because they won't be starting every game. They are also nothing like Osula who has never started upfront for a full season anywhere. He has zero experience of consistent first team football. Even when Prem experienced players are available for decent value we still don't seem to be ready to move. Sarr was available from Marseille and had previously showed flashes at Watford in the Prem. He went to Palace for £12.5 million in 2024 and was just 26 years old. He's done well at Palace, helped them win the FA cup. Meanwhile our options on the right at the time he signed for Palace were Almiron and Murphy, and we've since spent £55 million on Elanga.

Eddie or Andy Howe is that you?!

There's nothing high and mighty or cocky about it. With PSR restrictions there's literally no other option. No idea why this conversation is triggering you, but whatever. I give up.

Really? So in that case why bother at all. Then no one really has any right to complain or have any concerns with how things are going. Keep wheelling out the likes of Willock, Trippier and Murphy, and having no viable backup for Hall at left back. What kind of players do you think we should be signing to improve the squad depth then?!!!

It honestly feels like people don't bother reading posts properly. The point was that when we already had Isak, we should have been looking at a younger player that was over performing in another league, and showing a lot of promise, to bring in as his backup instead of relying on Wilson, who was already always getting injured. Thiago fell into that category at Brugge as did Strand Larsen at Celta Vigo. They both cost around £25 million I believe. Instead they went to Brentford and Wolves respectively while we were fast asleep. These are the sorts we should have been targeting to improve squad depth and if they didn't work out they can be moved on fairly easily without much of a loss if any at all, and you go and look at other options again. Up until now we still don't do this well at all, and are still using the likes of Trippier who will probably get a new contract. Same with Murphy still being here.

That ship has sailed. This is not the time to now be going after Thiago!

That's the problem they're always waiting ... So the likes of Wilson, Trippier and Murphy stay around too long as important squad players when they really should have been gone sooner. Waiting means paying double when it no longer makes sense. The squad/rotation players haven't been good enough for ages now because they don't want to go for players that can be had for cheaper from outside the league that fee wise makes more sense for a squad /rotation player due to the PSR constraints. This overly cautious approach is holding the team back.

It's not really about Brobey per se. It's about the profile of signing. If Brobbey offends you then you can look at Thiago before he joined Brentford or Strand Larsen before he goes to Wolves. I'm sure they'd love to sign those two now and shell out over £50 million. When they were both moving for around £25 million and could be brought in initially as younger squad players to backup Isak, when Wilson was falling apart, what were we doing?

The thing with this kind of transfer is if it turns out he doesn't develop further enough to be more of a goal scorer for them he will be easy to move on and make a profit on. In a couple of seasons his book value will be down to around £12 million, and so anything over that will count as profit.

There was a clamour for him to start on the left. Now he has been given the position over the last number of weeks and isn't performing, it's because he's tired. When Gordon was being torn to shreds for his performances there, no one was taking into account his tiredness. The guy just hasn't been good enough. These excuses are painful to read.

We were linked with him a fair bit in season's past, and there was a fair bit of talk of him being 'shit' on here. Has looked a handful for them and has just turned 24 this year so is around the same age as Osula who will be 23 later this year. Will be interesting to see if he can continue to improve and score more goals for them, which he'll need to do, but he absolutely dominated the Newcastle backline yesterday. Played with an energy and tenacity that put the Newcastle players to shame.

Um ... think Eales tried this already and it didn't work. Indeed, Mitchell believes there needs to be better balance between recruiting domestically and internationally. Asked if the club had been too Premier League focussed in the market, Newcastle’s sporting director replied: “I wouldn’t say too much because we’ve signed players from other leagues at great cost but I think it’s normal for domestic clubs to look first domestically. “I just think there probably needs to be more of a balance at looking externally and globally and looking that way and stretch our radius. It’s normal to look domestically. There just needs to be a better balance. But we have signed players from abroad. We have done that, it’s clear. “Should we stretch our radius, look at where there’s under-valued pockets of talent, like the way I managed to do quite successfully at Monaco should we balance our strategy.” Mitchell has a track record of signing excellent players for a low cost, including Son Heung-min at Tottenham Hotspur, Sadio Mane at Southampton and Christopher Nkunku at RB Leipzig - all signed for a reported £46million combined. While Howe is expected to still get the final say on transfer, Mitchell has also hinted at putting his own processes in place for windows to come. “I think that Eddie [Howe] has shown an ability to evolve over time,” Mitchell said. “Coming to Newcastle posed different challenges to Bournemouth and I think he’s very smart and knows that there needs to be evolution. “I think that he’s smart enough to recognise there needs to be an evolution and every coach that I’ve worked with, in the end, just want good players. That’s simplistic but I think that Eddie just wants good players and it’s a collective responsibility between me and him to understand if there are other areas to look at to bring those good players to his team and be coached by him.”

Just have to hope Wilson can be more persuasive in convincing him to expand his horizons. There's been a good number of hints towards looking more at markets outside the Prem. The way things have ended up going with Wissa and Elanga should also convince him that Prem proven is not always a guaranteed slam dunk without any issues.

Scarily enough Sunderland seem to have a pretty strong recruitment setup that is heavily data driven. Their owners seem to be pretty clued up in that area. They've only just come up and have been able to transform the team with a respectable level of unheralded talent that is going to have them stay up easily and maybe finish above Newcastle. Next season they will be able to approach players as an established Prem club and not one that has just been promoted, and they will likely do even better business. I thought that Geertruida was very good today for them. I remember when he was being spoken about amongst the top clubs a few years back, but he never really got the big move. Somehow Sunderland managed to sign him on loan this past summer. Meanwhile we still have an injury prone right back in Tino and a back up that is 35 and can't run in Trippier. If Newcastle don't get their shit together no one should be surprised if more of what took place today comes about in the future too.

At various points we got linked loads with Kephrem Thuram, Manu Kone and Youssouf Fofana. Versatile CMs that can play either the 6 or 8. All of these three moved for around 25 million Euros and are plenty good enough players. We are just really not that great in the market often enough tbh. I will never really accept the idea that there's no players to sign out there.