Segun Oluwaniyi

Qatar 2-0 up against Japan in the Asian Cup final just before halftime.

The shift from the club failing to complete simple loan deals and purchases from relagated clubs to breaking the transfer record is far too immediate and drastic for me to believe. I expect to be disappointed. The only logical reason I can think for this transfer to actually occur is Rafa stating that he will leave Thursday rather than at the end of the season, and the deal being used to placate him. Attempting to avoid a 2008, Keegan leaving and Guthrie breaking Fagan's leg type of scenario at the next home match would seem to make sense, but I am not sure Ashley and hierarchy of the club even care about this.

I have the same injury (other foot) from October last year, and if his is anything like mine (lower in the bone, Jones fracture), I would be surprised if plays again this season. It is a rubbish injury. No real pain outside of the ankle/foot twist when it happens, but a very slow recovery process with or without surgery, usually several months and easy to reinjure. Exactly. Almost like clockwork every year Huge talent, but awful to watch. No sympathy for him. When? Last year he barely made it back for the world cup after his injury and that's the only time an injury has put him out of a big CL game iirc Didn't he get injured in the 14 world cup also? Meh, I'm keeping my fake narrative regardless. Really dislike the guy. Tbf, he was injured because Zuniga decided to purposefully knee him in the spine. My secondary memory of this is Luiz holding his shirt aloft during the anthem, as though Neymar had died, and then proceeding to directly cost his team five goals when they played Germany.

I understand the romantic sentiments regarding the "spirit" of the offsides rule, but what exactly are people suggesting the rule should be? It is fine to play by the rule of " Don't hang near the goal or we will smack you/no longer play with you" in a casual game, but this is not realistic for serious football. By definition, the offside rule will refer to a certain absolute point (based on the position of defenders) that your body or certain parts of your body will not be allowed to cross. It will inevitably be a matter of a heel or a nose being 1 cm in a certain direction unless you are asking the linesman and referees to make even more difficult judgement decisions than those they are already tasked with. The rule is perfect as it is, and if VAR is going to become the standard, the issue is how we apply VAR. We have seen this issue seriously hurt NFL, a sport that brought video review in decades ago. The standard has to be that there is a decision made by the linesman/referee (or an egregious incident missed) that VAR can demonstrably prove to be an error. If we are just looking to VAR to actually be the arbiter for any difficult decision where the differences are microscopic and difficult for the bare eye to see, the sport will be seriously damaged and the officiating badly compromised, as in the NFL. edit: Essentially I agree with DJ_NUFC

Newcastle this season are the most boring side I have ever seen in any professional athletic event. It is almost universally a serious chore to watch this rubbish.

It annoys me when people use this sort of exaggeration, so that they can take confrontational stances against positions that do not actually exist.

Thoughts and prayers for anyone that has taken money out of their cheque to sit in the cold and watch this rubbish.

What exactly did Moyes do wrong? He took over in the middle of the season with the club in freefall and in the relegation places, saw them to safety over the rest of the season, and then promptly left.

McBride was good. As was Landon Donovan for the brief time he was here. Claudio Reyna’s time was cut short by injuries but he clearly had what it took to play in the PL. Same with Stu Holden. Geoff Cameron was a competent defender for Stoke for a few years. I’ll go to the grave defending Yedlin as a PL-quality fullback. There really haven’t been a ton of players to make the jump from MLS tbh Thing is they were ok the names being mentioned but not a massive success which when your paying the reported 24 - 30 million for is what would be required Only for Newcastle, if we are being honest, though. This club's competitors are spending 20+ million on reserves and young players. Leicester spent 75% of Newcastle's transfer record for a 25 year old that would exclusively be their reserve keeper.

Maybe but I still say the money being quoted for him is just stupid for a player playing at that level. I do think you’re slightly undervaluing MLS. What standard would you say it is - maybe championship at best possibly lower? It is of course lower than the Championship, which is a powerful league flush with funds at this point, but there is talent that can be acquired there. Outside of the top four or five leagues in Europe, you will not find players that are consistently playing against a high level, at least not compared to the standard in England. Everywhere else is generally very stratified with a fairly shallow pool of talent. With the DP rules (2 or 3 players on each club with wages comparable to the upper echelons of Europe) and the crisp American dollars (along with accompanying American lifestyle), it is not difficult to attract very good players to MLS, especially young players from Latin America, such as Almiron. I believe there are a good number of players currently in MLS that could make the jump to a stronger league, but as mentioned above, the league is funny about selling its players and the ones from smaller nations will struggle for work permits if we are talking about England.

For a massive side with many tall and robust players Man U are really poor at defending balls into the box. Both goals were really poor to concede. Chelsea did not create much of anything else.

This is annoying, because I am sure I have missed several obvious players off the list: Oblak, Ozil, Owen, Okocha, Odegbami

Playing him upfront can be a serious handicap sometimes. He plays like he is scared of scoring goals, no confidence whatsoever. The chance when Ayoze played him in was a pivotal moment in the match. Any forward player of decent quality (Vardy, Iheanacho, Maddison, or Ricardo for example) either has a shot at goal (that may beat the keeper or cause havoc from a rebound) or tries to square to the player in the centre. Joselu just hesitates until a defender can take the responsibility of shooting away from him. A team that struggles to create chances cannot afford this. The two strikers the club dumped in the close season had serious deficiencies, but neither of them were scared to attempt the primary role of their position.

I don't believe he left.

Leicester are better player for player, of course, but they finished three points and one place above Newcastle last season and sold their best player away. This is not some insurmountable challenge, especially at home. Bournemouth tore them apart a couple of weeks ago. The decline in performance from the end of last season is incredible, and for that much the manager needs to take a large share of blame.

Yedlin got called Kenedy and Lascelles there, pretty impressive given one of those isn’t even playing. Yedlin has been three players and Ndidi has been Morgan on several occasions. These people do not even look similar to one another. Rafa is often absolved from criticism, and I do not mean to condemn him, but this team has no idea how to attack. There is no pattern or cohesion to their play going forward whatsoever. They just sit back and hope something will happen for them at some point.

This is miserable rubbish. The performance is rubbish, and the one chance they have had, the striker is scared to shoot. The commentator I'm watching continually confuses the black players on both teams. Just an unpleasant experience.

I think Gray is out which would be the only positive if Dummet also misses the match. Hopefully, they play Ghezzal, the Poundland Mahrez who was rubbish in France and is still rubbish. I would hope Rafa would put Clark on the left, rather than Manquillo.

I think they are a better side in general, tbh. NUFC have a far better manager and Lascelles is better than any of their defenders, but that is it. I watched the match yesterday, and the combination of Vardy, Maddison, Iheanacho, and Gray were all very quick, and sharp and difficult to deal with, the opposite of NUFC's attack this season. Gray and Vardy were great value, but are both England internationals and Kelechi and Maddison are 21 years olds that cost fifty million pounds between them. There is a difference in quality going forward, at least. The key will be to take the chances presented, so Rondon, Joselu, Perez, etc. will need to step up. Their defence is very leaky and slow, and they are their to be countered, especially if you can bypass the two midfielders with balls down the side of the centrebacks, who cannot run. None of their fullbacks can defend at all. There will goals in this game, imo. 2-2. Sorry but nobody thinks that Lascelles is better than Maguire, apart from you and the most biased NUFC supporter. I watch a good amount of Leicester for Ndidi and Iheanacho, and one can see why Maguire is rated highly, he has great physical presence and is very good with the ball at his feet, but I believe Lascelles is definitely better as a pure defender. Maguire is really quite slow, prone to make bad errors and out of position fairly often, imo. Maybe they have just not found a good partner for him, because Evans and Morgan accentuate his faults instead of covering them.

I think they are a better side in general, tbh. NUFC have a far better manager and Lascelles is better than any of their defenders, but that is it. I watched the match yesterday, and the combination of Vardy, Maddison, Iheanacho, and Gray were all very quick, and sharp and difficult to deal with, the opposite of NUFC's attack this season. Gray and Vardy were great value, but are both England internationals and Kelechi and Maddison are 21 years olds that cost fifty million pounds between them. There is a difference in quality going forward, at least. The key will be to take the chances presented, so Rondon, Joselu, Perez, etc. will need to step up. Their defence is very leaky and slow, and they are their to be countered, especially if you can bypass the two midfielders with balls down the side of the centrebacks, who cannot run. None of their fullbacks can defend at all. There will goals in this game, imo. 2-2.

Just came on against PSG.

I saw him at the Nigeria-Argentina match in Russia. He didn't have a great match, and we shut him out pretty well, but he still managed to dispatch his one chance from openly play with ludicrous ease, and should have scored a brilliant freekick, if not for the fingertips of our young keeper. It is incredible the way that he can influence a match so sharply, just with the gravity pull he has on the defence even when not playing well, and how his quality effortlessly shines through when he is given the opportunity. I am definitely the opposite of this, probably because of the footballer I was growing up. All power, no skill. That goal when Yeboah just chests it and takes two touches at pace before smashing it in from distance is one of my favourite goals of all time.

It is incredible that the opinion around the international performances of Messi and Ronaldo has changed so drastically because the likes Higuain and Palacio missed golden chances on the biggest stage, while a rubbish player like Eder struck his team to glory as Ronaldo watched from the side.

its always the excuse new league new country new language its bullshit if youre a decent player you can play whether its England, China or Timbuktu its football its not applied brain surgery Tino Asprilla turned in a man of the match performance against Boro after stepping off a flight from Colombia only a couple of hours earlier Everyone seems to make excuses these days for our players ineptness If Muto is "inept" after four second half substitute appearances in the league, I do not know what we will call you for posting rubbish day after day for interminable amounts of time. I agree that it does seem like he is in contention with Perez and the wingers for playing time, rather than Rondon and Joselu. I am not sure, if Rafa is trying to get him to adjust to the league before putting him upfront alone, or if this is how he intended to use him when the purchase was made.

Away matches in Africa remain a difficult proposition regardless of who you are playing. In the qualifiers this weekend Clarence Seedorf began his tenure with Cameroon drawing 1-1 in The Comoros, Ghana lost 1-0 in Kenya, and Senegal were held to a 2-2 draw draw in Madagascar. Nigeria played on an abominable turf pitch, but were able to knock it past the fat pastry chef keeping for The Seychelles three times, so a productive weekend in that sense. I think the Nations League will be brilliant for Europe, btw. It will be a great benefit to replace pointless money friendlies with somewhat competitive high-level football