robbo_11

We're going to have to rely on individual skill or brilliance to get anything from any game.

They couldn't get a work permit for him. I'll assume Villa can get one then! I think he will be a good signing for you, was a cut above in the Brazilian league although the better players usually standout due to the standard, but by all means has positive reviews from Brazil and also Spain with Girona.

Good signing for Villa bringing Luiz in for £15m. He was doing well for Vasco before the Man City move, but it must not have worked out for him.

I know a few who were hanging on thinking the takeover might be on, the three year contract today ended that and they've both cancelled. Sad to see the reaction once they had sent the email and cancelled the DD. I think (hope) that realisation that it's actually over with the appointment of Bruce might see a few more cancel their renewals.

His local knowledge will surely help? It might just be the way the media usually report using a persons demographic information to make things relevant, but unless he is directing fans to the local pubs or how to get to the Castle Keep then it's irrelevant. If he had local knowledge he wouldn't have taken the job and his friends/family would surely have advised him against coming in to this toxic situation. They've made a play about being a local lad, used links to Wallsend Boys on local news and explained how he will know how to deal with the public. I don't know if the club think this will blow over, maybe it will as previous attempts have rarely materialised into a concerted effort to oust Mike Ashley, but hopefully this time it is different.

I think the announcement this morning has totally desensitized me to the situation. There is a sense of just being gutted this is what the club has came to, but realistically I don't think I can hate Bruce despite the way it has been handled by the club. He is just a pawn in the depressing situation that is Newcastle United. It's actually textbook for the club and a throw back to 2015. I'd not be surprised to see them announce a new revolutionary football board that has Bruce, Moncur, Charnley and Moncur on it, maybe even Kinnear and Wise for that football 'knowledge'. Money will be spent, but I doubt the manager will be able influence too much who is brought in with the red, purple and blue player model sure to be put into place. The next Wayne Rooney will be signed before Shola looks to get some great loan contacts so they can spend a season at Blackpool or Crewe without getting game time again as they're simply not good enough for League 1. It's a frustrating situation, fair play to anyone that can stomach it as today leaves me a bit despondent with the whole club.

Mebbes in the 80s when you would have got kicked out and that would be the end of it. Thesedays you would be getting your door hammered down at 7am with 20 riot polis steaming in shitting the bairn up whilst they eat their coco pops A trip to court. A criminal record. Banned for life and if your work is that way inclined a trip to the dole. Yeah asking people to commit a criminal offence isn't going to work as encroaching the playing area is construed as that Encroach pitch from fans. NUST use funds to cover legal fees, reducing financial options of progress to galvanise the fans via other means. Guess who wins again...

This is no way to run a football club, it makes no sense and even if he hated us the value of the club is plummeting. If terms had been agreed for a takeover then surely the sale of key players, the loss of the manager and the majority of the backroom staff could impact the sale? The Benitez situation had been going on for 18 months when the club had approached him with the initial contract offer, the news about a takeover came out in May with the statement informing them the agreement was made in April. There is no proof of this agreement aside from statements made by the group, but very much a no comment from the club. I'm not surprised Perez is leaving given the reports since the end of the season, but the agreement of a transfer would suggest Charnley/Ashley operating as normal. I'd expect Hayden to leave as reported at the end of the season and the rumours of Longstaff going have been around the last few weeks so would think a sale is likely if the offer is between £25-30m. Wages for Rondon, Diame, Kenedy and Barrecca will all go into the new structure so any manager coming in should have a healthy budget to operate within, however wholesale changes are required in what is likely going to be two weeks. History under this ownership has proven we can't get deals completed with a manager in place within certain time frames and is money likely to be taken out of the club?

My interest in football and Newcastle has dropped massively since about 2014 with being away. I've attended the odd couple of games over the last few seasons, but mainly last minute. The reason I like football is the moments like when we beat Man City at home last season or the 3-2 comeback against Everton...that united euphoria and celebration. I can't be totally unbiased with such a strong connection to the club, but on the face of it this is likely to be the start of the disaster. We've lost the main component that kept the fan base and the club together. He influenced so many players in such a positive way that they have played beyond their expected level. We I say lost, they've had numerous opportunities to look at this contract and it seems like it is the stubborn manor which has previously had the club relegated which has won. Heading into a season with no manager, no backroom staff, an upheaval within the academy, loan players returning to their clubs (Rondon, Barreca, Kenedy) and likely a number of players looking to leave such as Perez and Ritchie. Even as a businessman this is no way in which to run an organisation or rather something that would be successful. You're going to have a head coach or manager come in mid July (potentially) and give them a month to identify, negotiate and sign their own targets...that fit into this model the club won't deviate from and we already know that the club opt to play the long game with negotiations. Throw in a trip to China to lose against Wolves and either Man City/West Ham which is likely to impact on the training schedule for whichever professional is going to come in. I suppose whoever comes in will have to deal with a potentially toxic fan base and increased pressure to get results due to the popular manager leaving due to his contract expiring. Takeover talk has taken over the narrative in the last month and sadly that has probably diminished the impact this is going to have on the club. Thanks Rafa!

Just so painful to watch. Such a glaring example tonight when we had a chance to break from the counter. Atsu, in acres of space plays an absolutely honking pass into the heels of Ritchie out wide, who - of course channels the touch of a rapist, resulting in us immediately losing the momentum and urgency. Concludes with Ritchie delivering a total abortion of a cross. That was one of a few embarrassing episodes. It's worse because you can see they are trying to be better....they just aren't. That was frustrating! They talk about the players giving their all and these mistakes that are costing us results, but it's always going to come back to the quality. The game plan is seems to be to draw the opposition on to us by playing the ball around our defence/midfield before working the ball out wide to enable us to get a cross in (60% of our goals this season have been from a cross). Unfortunately for us we struggle to get quality balls into the box and the main outlet is Rondon as our midfield hasn't contributed anything. If this doesn't work its a case of stopping the other team scoring and relying on a mistake to happen resulting in us scoring. I'm not blaming Rafa as I think its sensible given our limited abilities, but with no investment or a change of ownership we're only going to get worse and if I was him I'd see my contract out and leave.

There is no enjoyment to watching this team play. Yes we are organised and disciplined around each players position, but there is no quality in anything that we do attacking wise. No investment this window will see us relegated. Dubravka did well aside from the error. Atsu touched the ball the most which probably makes him our MOTM, but has no ability to get a shot on target with power.

Felt like he did okay, but some of his saves are in reaction to an error i.e. came to clear ball, nothing on it then has to make a second save. His distribution is iffy and not confident when he has the ball at his feet. As the game went on his nerves increased, unlucky on the penalty mind!

Darlow - capable of pulling off great saves, but equally as likely to make an error. Can see why Benitez wanted a keeper with mistakes resulting in goals conceded. Yedlin - poor defensively when the ball comes over the top/diagonally, during this run has committed a number of times without success creating either goals against or chances created against us. Good runs going forward, but likely to expose our centre back if he loses the ball. Lejeune - position can be poor, at times unable to make an interception, but is decent with the ball at his feet. Consistently looking for a long ball in recent games. Atsu - can be decent when running direct, at times overplays the ball or loses possession easily. Poor at reading the game. Team has a lack of options going forward when the ball is between our 18 yard box and the half way line. Some nice play today when the ball came from the wings to Gayle who laid the ball off quickly to either Diame or the opposite winger. We actually can commit bodies into the box, but its unlikely that the ball will reach them as we don't have a lot of quality getting the ball into the final third. Crying out for a 10 that can link play and create chances. Lascelles needs to play - with serious investment in January if we are to beat the drop.

What does Justin Barnes actually do? A quick google search suggests he was company secretary of St James Holdings in 2007 for two weeks and that he failed to act on drafting a consultation letter back in 2015 resulting in 200 people getting 15 minutes notice they were losing their job. As far as I'm aware he came in January and since then we've had two absolutely shocking windows. It seems like Rafa worked fine with Charnley.

He signed two of those players That is true. He signed them for the Championship and we achieved the aim of promotion. Would they start in the Premier League? It's debatable. On the limited evidence tonight against a weakened Forest side it sounds awful. I would be surprised if Lazaar was even involved in training this week given he was in Italy with his agents.

"They've offered zip. Diame is the one hope they've got..." Charlie Nicholas. Well that is us done for!

The fact the likes of Saivet, Hanley, Lazaar and Darlow are in the squad could be a bit of a ploy by Rafa to kick start some transfer activity. I'm only following updates through this, but if the players for sale aren't having a good game they won't attract many buyers. The feel good factor from last year is slowly evaporating and it seems to be the same mistakes that the club makes year on year.

There are a couple of gems that kick around in the league, but generally the quality wasn't that high. The player (Douglas Luiz) that Man City signed then loaned out has some talent about him. It could be due to work permits for some of the players coming over from South America. Another factor could be the agent fee's that come up due to sometimes people owning the rights to players (kind of like the Tammy Abraham situation).

I have to admit that I didn't know who the referee prior to the performance last night. The standard of officials in this division has been disappointing and considering the Championship clubs invested into officiating ahead of this season to create a select group 2 batch it doesn't bode well for the future. Firstly I'd have to consider if this was a worthwhile investment or whether there is a consequence for poor officiating?! This guy was not in his first season as an official, he seems rather card happy looking at his stats over the last 8 years and he has managed to progress to a Championship standard.

0-1

I've never really noticed him playing, so have no idea if he would be an upgrade on any of our players or if he is a squad filler. Grant Hanley seemed to be more highly thought of and the fee would be similar.

Jonathan Calleri (although it is through an investor group as was expected to go to Inter) in talks to go to West Ham from Sao Paulo. A 22 year old Argentinean striker so not likely to be instead of Townsend or Wijanldum if there is interest there.

He started brightly, scored a screamer in his first training session and made a mark in the first half of the season (mainly at home). I don't hate him, but I don't really like him now as a fit for our team. On his day he can be a top class player (his control, ability to run with the ball and finish has been noted), but sadly he has been missing on too many occasions. It was interesting to see when we got the penalty today that he refused to allow Townsend or Sissoko to take it. Obviously he could receive a bonus on goals scored, it might be the penalty order for the team or other external factors but after that interview I think its quite clear that he has no interest in remaining with us in the Championship and is very much an individual 'talent'. Hopefully we can get between £12 - 16m for him and strengthen other areas of the squad.

If we take a look back at 2009-10 the core group of players involved included Harper, Collocini, Enrique, Simpson, Nolan, Guthrie, Smith, Gutierrez and Carroll (30 apps +). Four players contributed to our goal tally with double figures (Nolan, Carroll, Lovenkrands and Ameobi). Its fair to say that we dominated the league, only losing 4 games across the season, but we had a a squad with a bit of character and experience. What we have lacked this season has been character, ultimately collapsing earlier on in the season when going a goal behind and also goal scorers. With Rafa at least we have brought some team cohesion and attempting to do the basics right. Sadly if he was to leave (which I would assume is very likely) then no doubt we would replace him with someone massively inferior. Of the current squad I can see the majority leaving if they haven't already instructed their agent to find them a new club. Luckily I think we have some competition at GK with Krul, Darlow and Elliot. At the back I'd love to think Lascelles and Mbemba would stay, with Mbabu and Dummett capable of doing a job. I'm sure Mitrovic would be a similar age to Carroll when he was taking part in the Championship which could be a good thing if he was to stay as it was certainly a bit more physical with the likes of Chris Morgan, Wes Morgan and Darren Purse at the back. Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Janmaat, Perez, Taylor, Townsend and Thauvin will very likely move on. Although realistically at the lower level these types of characters are not what we need in a push for promotion.

That Gaston injury, worse than the Kevin Doyle gash. Definite red.