AyeDubbleYoo

Would have fancied Stephen Ireland. I would honestly be tempted to just play Vuckic from now on... he must offer more than Nolan.

Also, Hughton knew the situation before he took the job, so there's no reason for him to walk out or to try to force Ashley's hand.

Possibly, but I doubt Perch is a very good left winger.

Have to agree, he's one of our most dangerous players and one of the only one that actually occupies the opposition when we attack. He also puts a lot of work in tracking back etc (barring the hair arranging incident).

Barton and Smith do get far too harshly treated for relatively minor fouls. There were a couple against Man Utd for sure.

Journalism is dead Dave, it's a fact. Nowadays seven or eight papers reporting a story is as much value as one, because they're just reprinting what they read on someone else's blog... or quoting another journo saying he 'understands' something to be happening. it's madness that these people are professionals.

Aye, I am surprised by the LB thing, although signing a player who is prepared to be back-up to a player as young as Enrique is obviously a challenge. But then again we were equally threadbare in other positions before we made some decent signings. With Taylor's fitness we were in need of at least 1 CB, and before the signing of Routledge we had zero right wingers. I'm not saying we've been amazing in the transfer market, but with the low budget we've set ourselves we have managed to make some decent additions. Fingers crossed for the rest of the window.

A child gathering sweets? What does that even mean?

He might be a Cantona-type temperament... it's sometimes better just to turn a blind eye to indiscipline as long as things are going OK on the pitch. I don't think it's always a good idea to confront these players and try to change them.

Sounds like a transfer policy to me! Seriously though, I think one thing the club has done fairly well is identify positions we need to strengthen. They've failed a bit on midfield (except Gosling) but that's equally because we have a number of big-name players on the books who just happen to be bad. The other problem is that we have so many weaknesses it's impossible to address them all, unless we were willing to spend money, which we obviously aren't.

Now you're talking.

FFS, we're not suddenly certain to get relegated because we missed out on a player who was always unlikely to end up here.

'By the end of the week'? Heard that one before!

That's not irrelevant at all, it amaze me how 1900 Newcastle fans can sound louder then 72.000+ of the Manu ones. Of course not all of them Manu fans are shouting at the same time but it was awesome to listen to it on the telly. It was class in the pub in London. A load of people in Man Utd gear sitting around, only me and my mate in black and white, but the noise coming out of the TV was brilliant.

So if it goes through it's nothing to do with Ashley, and if it doesn't then Ashley's cocked it up?

I thought that Nolan was at fault for the first goal, he absolutely bottled it and passed the ball to somebody in a worse position than his own. That's bollocks mate, sorry. Gutierrez got mugged. Think they've got to share the blame about 70/30, most of it going to Jonas for dwelling on the ball too long.

Don't think Perch was really that bad. Yes Routledge was tracking back a lot, but Man Utd are very dangerous down the left, and we were set up defensively in general.

I'm more confident of our chances this season after seeing the game tonight, if anything.

He's versatile as he can play on either wing, CM or as a second striker. His best position imo is as a playmaking second striker, he's accomplished on the wing too though. Wouldn't be able to do a job in CM though, he just won't do the defensive side. Same as Nolan then, except he can't do the attacking side either.

Left wing or in the hole. It's been strongly implied that Hughton has promised him the latter.

Suppose, but if you have a player in the middle capable of getting, retaining and then passing the ball, you have more chance to get players forward.

I honestly thought Man U were shit, they missed a hat full of chances from our mistakes and against better op like Chelsea we would be looking at a minimum of 6-0 Equally, we should definitely have prevented the second goal and we could have scored at least one.

If he wants first team football, he's come to the right place.

Athleticism and energy are basically half the game now, probably more than half. We don't have a load of brilliant youngsters seemingly, would like to see Vuckic get some minutes this season at least.

He didn't have any world-class right backs on the bench, to be fair to him.