Paully

Both teams to score and a team to win! 3-1, 2-1, 2-1 and 4-0!

£10 Result Rush last night for 2.6K - Sporting Lisbon, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and twatting Wolves!

Complete publicity stunt which worked as thousands lapped (and still lap) it up

Ha correct! Glad GC put him right!

Unbelievable https://twitter.com/gordonkelly/status/1230455916379746304?s=21

Would he like to come back to England? “I hope so, one day,” he says. “If Newcastle made me the offer, I’d definitely come back!” He smiles again.

Letting this man walkaway and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point. He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’ “I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal. ‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’ “So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

Brilliant depressing read https://theathletic.co.uk/1619457/2020/02/20/salomon-rondon-newcastle-interview/ The logic or otherwise of that policy stirs anguished debate — Joelinton, Rondon’s permanent replacement, is 23, cost £40 million, and has contributed one Premier League goal — although Rondon cannot do very much about that. He lifts his shoulders. “It’s about decisions and it wasn’t my decision,” he says. “If Newcastle had offered me a deal, if they’d said ‘Do you want to stay here?’, then of course I would have stayed.” He sounds wistful now. “To be honest, last season was the best I’ve ever had,” he says. “Not just because I scored goals, but because everything around me was so right, from the school of my children, to the city, the people, my family being happy. I was working really hard in every training session to be in the team and I did everything properly for that. I was playing. Everything was perfect.”

They actually spent £44M to replace them both. FFS I forgot about that

It's so annoying that we didn’t build on the last half of last season when we were the 4th top scorers and the 7th best team in the league. To think these wankers decided to pay £40m (HA HA) for Joelinton rather than keep Rafa and Rondon. With the league this year, I think if those had of stayed – Perez more than likely would have too – and a few more decent additions then we’d be where Sheff Utd are at least. Utter bellends they are and the same applies to any NUFC fans who are slating Rafa whilst praising the utter foreskin that we currently have in our dug-out.

Dortmund’s front three that finished were born in London, Leeds and Sunderland!

Cracking watch that Jimmy Greaves documentary on BT Sport - I didn’t realise how unbelievable he was!

Dortmund’s forwards were born in Leeds, Sunderland and Camberwell!

Mcmananan shouldn’t be allowed to commentate on these lot - ridiculously biased!

On Steve Bruce getting the Newcastle United job Simon Jordan: "We had our challenges but Steve is a brilliant manager, and I'm a major advocate of his because I know what he is. 0:00 0:44 Bruce bemused by 'strange' Joelinton stat "When you get this [negative] narrative about 'he's this or that' I know what he was - even when we fell out, I knew what he was, that was why I was disappointed to lose him. "He's got an opportunity at Newcastle United which has earnt. "Clubs like Hull have been peripheral clubs - he's now at a moderately big club, I'm pleased for him, and he's a really good manager." Alex Bruce: "I was delighted. "Everyone knows he's a Newcastle fan, a Newcastle lad, and he's fulfilling his dream. "He's enjoying it. He has good and bad times - obviously, it depends on results. "He's not very happy after the result on Sunday (vs Arsenal) but he's got two big games coming up - Palace on Saturday, and fingers crossed he can get a result." RELATED ARTICLES Newcastle United's Allan Saint-Maximin reacts after the final whistle during the FA Cup fourth round replay match at the Kassam Stadium, Oxford. TV pundit reckons he's got the perfect solution to sorting out Joelinton's goal-drought Steve Bruce urges the scrapping of international friendlies or one of the cups to ease schedule On Steve Bruce showing he's not a puppet SJ: "When you meet Steve, you know why he was the captain of Manchester United - because he's exudes leadership, and quality that they needed as they were emerging and went onto dominate. "Going into Newcastle, I know he wanted this job for a long time and I know back in the day there was an opportunity for him to take it but because of the situation at Palace, and Birmingham - the opportunity came around too early for him. "It was because of the accusations of him bouncing around too many clubs. He got the job on merit. "What his job inside Newcastle is, given the backdrop of toxicity towards the owner, was to manage his relationship with Mike Ashley, and deliver a team that doesn't portray Steve as a puppet. "He came in after Benitez, who as far a Newcastle fans are considered can walk on water and can do no wrong - so it was a challenge, but it never came across my thoughts that he wasn't going to take that challenge and make it work." On why the Arsenal isn't a game to judge Steve Bruce on SJ: "There is still some work to do but if you look at that team, and the way it plays for him, if you look at the commitment on the pitch - this 4-0 result, it wasn't a 4-0 game. "It was really poor defending for the first two goals, which Steve will probably take great umbrage to. "It's the next game which you will judge Newcastle on, not the 4-0 defeat to Arsenal."

WTF is this?! https://thesetpieces.com/latest-posts/sweeper-steve-bruce-review/

Luke Edwards on Twitter FFS - glad to see he's getting destroyed!

Look at the B and Q tweet

The tweet about Tim Krul ha ha!

Absolutely superb article by Rafa in the Athletic analysing Liverpool’s tactics and style of play – to think we let this man walkaway when he wanted to stay and replaced him with the current imbecile. Cheers Mike – fat wanker.

Cliche after cliche! "They’re a good set who roll up their sleeves and make sure they have a go. When you’ve got a team like that, you’ve always got a chance.”

https://twitter.com/michaelgallon/status/1228628027682250754?s=21

“Front-foot, expansive attacking football” https://theathletic.com/1599277/2020/02/14/newcastle-why-no-penalties-premier-league/?source=shared-article Not only have Newcastle made the fewest passes in the top flight this season, they have also made the fewest in the opposition half (4,332) and delivered the fewest balls into the box with just 540. According to WhoScored.com, Newcastle also average the least “action” in the final third, with just 22 per cent of their possession coming at the opposite end of the pitch. Most sides average between 26 and 31 per cent. Considering Newcastle also have the lowest average possession in general, at just 34.3 per cent, and little more than a fifth of that is enjoyed in the final third, it highlights just how infrequently they are in offensive positions.