oldtype

Can't imagine how gut-wrenching this game must be to play as a player. Just watching it makes me ill.

Genuinely hard to decide if I hate caring about NUFC or not caring about NUFC more.

Can we bring some combination of Bruce and Pardew back just to ensure that we play 10 behind the ball with absolutely no ambition to go forward for the next half hour?

This is one of the weirdest games I've ever had the displeasure of watching, but assuming we hold on, I'll take it.

Fucking of course welcome to Newcastle Eddie.

For what it's worth, if Howe turns out to be underwhelming I'd imagine the problem would be the ceiling, not the floor. He might not have what it takes to get us to the Champions League or win a trophy, but I think the chances that he ends up being Bruce-levels of incompetent are very low.

Based on his CV, this strikes me as the right appointment for the here and now. Younger manager who can stabilize in the short term and grow with the club. If it turns out he's brilliant, great. If he hits a ceiling, he can do good work here for 2-3 years and then we can move on to someone better when the club is ready. I think it's also important that this is probably someone whose profile is low enough that he wouldn't mind staying with us even if we end up relegated to the Championship. That's a very real possibility and we want a manager who will stick with the project regardless like Rafa did.

It’s pretty concerning, possibly even more than the lack of manager, that we don’t have a sporting director in place or even know if there’s somebody who’s generally knowledgeable about football who’s advising the business people on stuff like the managerial decision.

For what it’s worth I imagine the new owners have gone through a process very similar to what we’ve been through mentally, i.e. initially thinking we could be in play for the absolute cream of the crop and wasting time ruminating on candidates of that ilk, then eventually realizing that Howe or someone similar is probably the best we can get on short notice.

Nice of the new regime to ease us into this “not having to be miserable all the time because you support a well-run football club” thing as opposed to springing it on us all at once. I don’t think my rapidly aging heart would have survived that abrupt of a change.

I’ve never watched cricket before but from the description it sounds like baseball, except all the terrible parts that make baseball semi-unwatchable are even worse.

Shit this looks bad

Stavely looks like she’s just now realized that the club she bought is Newcastle.

Good to know the matchday experience is mostly unchanged since I was last watching. I’ve missed this feeling of pure, distilled misery.

It’s amazing how I’ve never actually watched a match with him in charge but I can still hate him like I’ve been here the whole time because he slots seamlessly into the spot Pardew used to occupy in my brain.

Hold on, 52,000 is considered small now?

I don’t even know who Grealish is. This is how far out of touch I am.

I like how nobody here is used to us being able to buy good players so we're all just throwing out different sets of random names. We haven't got a clue.

I am assuming, by the way, that this person who I've never heard about is our best player.

If I was Steve Bruce I certainly would not have the balls to show my face in the dugout for this game.

If we've got the infinity stones, why not get really ambitious and have prime Pele, prime Messi, and Jisung Park as a front three.

I will ponder the moral quandry of the club being owned by a despotic regime starting tomorrow. Today, however, is devoted to toasting the burning carcass of the Ashley era.

Hope he’s taking about Steve

Would be a nice gesture to go one season without a uniform sponsor as a thank you to the fans. Or donate the space to the SBR foundation or something.

Wasn’t clear how to celebrate this during the middle of the day in Los Angeles so I started slow cooking a six pound pork shoulder. No idea how long it’s going to take for the wife and I to eat all of this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.