Chris_R

We're not getting Süle ffs.

I know you're not drawing an equivalence here, but there's a SLIGHT difference between player on player violence, which is sadly relatively common, and player on paying customer violence.

Forgive my ignorance, why would their fans specifically give a shit about this?

Exactly. Perish the thought that our players start underperforming....

This. If you're selling after 6 months, there has to be a really compelling reason. A few £m profit didn't seem to be it.

I know they love their mental gymnastics but it's incredibly hard to justify saying that a footballer who over the last 7 seasons has played 240 matches, mostly for Man Utd, and scored 44 goals from midfield won't improve us and be a good signing.

I think Newcastle when we're doing well is a great place to play football. If he comes and we stop up, and by definition he therefore does well, he'll most likely want to stay. We've got a great stadium, good fans, and ambitious owners. Maybe I'm biased, but it doesn't feel like that much of a risk to me?

That's 10 players at these prices - It's not even a full squad. We need to spend wisely, and if we can save a few million here and there we absolutely should. Obviously avoiding relegation is paramount though.

Well yes. This is entirely my point. The consortium doubtless DO know the issues with FFP and what, if anything, they can do to maximise (You'll never "get round" it) our spending power. But I'm not (at least to my knowledge!) talking to the consortium here. I'm talking to (or about) the small group of people on here who are saying "Just spend whatever it takes" and complaining - however loosely - that the consortium are NOT just spending whatever it takes and seem to be haggling more than these posters think they should over transfer fees. But presumably the consortium are not spending whatever it takes for the very reason that they know all about FFP, and know that a level of caution is required lest we paint ourselves into a corner in a few years time.

Well yes and no. I cannot "account" for it, because I don't know how much it is. I'm not attempting to balance the books here and give numbers. But whatever the number from sponsorship, unless it's something crazy which the league have already said they'll block, then what we spend now will have an impact on what we can spend long term. Too many on here are being too dismissive of the realities - We absolutely cannot "Man City" our way to the title in a few years. Those days are gone. We may have an almost unlimited amount of money but we do not have the ability to spend it. An element of caution is required or in 4 or 5 years we'll be sat here trying to work out how we can push on with no funds. You cannot dismiss FFP just by saying "Ah, we'll get a new sponsorship deal!" as if that solves the problem. It doesn't.

We desperately needed a striker, too. Playing without one whilst Wilson is injured, and then risking him not getting injured again, would IMO seal relegation. Doesn't matter how much the pot is, we should still be careful how we spend it. Haven't Everton spent some crazy amount like £500m but just hit a wall where they cannot feasibly spend any more? Yeah, spend. Spend big if we have to. But spend carefully and don't be held to ransom.

For those saying "Spend whatever, we're rich", it maybe needs restating that FFP will mean that if we overspend now we'll be hamstrung in the future. See also: Everton. £50m on a defender with likely no resale value could hit us quite hard down the line. Obviously staying up is vital and we might have to pay a bit more than we want, but we absolutely cannot just pay whatever is demanded for players and allow ourselves to be held to ransom.

I'm not surprised if his injury is serious, he had that part of his groin taped up already so it was clear something wasn't right. Big shame, as I'm gutted he's out now whereas a couple of months ago I'd be quite pleased to see him sidelined. For a big lad though, his shooting has so little power. It's hilariously bad, irrespective of if he stays in midfield or not (I hope he does), he really needs to spend some time working on putting his foot through the ball properly.

We need to register 4 academy trained players and 8 nationally-trained players (Which will include the 4 academy trained players) in the Champions League. Obviously we hope one day that's relevant, but it's some way off.

This for me is why we need Lingard or someone of his ilk. Right now when we attack, the opposition just stick 2 or 3 men on ASM and wait for him and bank on him not being able to get past everyone. We're so easy to thwart. We're desperate to be able to attack in multiple areas of the pitch and have more than one creative threat.

Kinda relies on us going "up the Premier League" If we stay up, it might get aired a bit more next year!

Douglas Adams provides the solution, apologies to all for adjusting the original text slightly.... 'You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.’ 'But the signs were on display…’ 'On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.’ `That’s the display department.’ `With a torch.’ `Ah, well the lights had probably gone.’ `So had the stairs.’ `But look you found the signs didn’t you?’ `Yes,’ said Arthur, `yes I did. They were on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of The Leopard“.’

To those championing Lingard as the solution to our central midfield being shit, you do know he's not a central midfielder, yes? He's a 10 or a winger. Stick him in the middle next to Joelinton and he'll look exactly as effective there as Willock does. Don't get me wrong, Lingard would improve us (Who wouldn't?! :lol:) but he'd be replacing Fraser more than he'd be replacing Longstaff.

He gave us some presence up front. He flicked on well and brought others into things without actually looking like he was going to score himself. Overall I thought he was decent. Far better than us putting Gayle up there or playing with nobody. We need to play to his strengths though if he's going to score - we need width and early crosses. Fraser might do that but ASM won't because he checks back inside too much and that's no use for a target man like Wood.

Haha me too. My stream died, when it came back in they were just looking the free kick up. I'm telling the missus that Trippier will smash it in then he walks off leaving me livid. Ball bobbles in and I'm holding my 1 month old daughter so can't even scream or run round like a lunatic.

We just don't look like we know how to attack. Which is annoying, because Howe came in to rectify that. In our first game under him we attached really well even though we only got a draw, but since then we've looked turgid and I just cannot ever see where a goal is coming from aside from getting lucky from a moment of magic or a set penis.

If Shelvey (I know) and Joelinton can sit deep and Willock push forward towards a 10 position, he might have a chance of paying ok but he's not a central midfielder.

I've not said it before. I've not thought it before. I really think though that no win today and we're down. Even a draw leaves us cut adrift to the point that it'll stop us recruiting many new players.

Looking at the table, this is a must win game. Absolute must. Don't win, and we're down. Not because the points gap is insurmountable because it's not worth new players, but because it'll massively affect who will come in during the last week of the window. We can have all the money in the world but without players through the door we're fucked and we've got to do something to indicate to those potential new players that we're not already down.

If he has 2 functional legs he'll be a huge improvement on what we have.