Gallowgate Toon

Quality attacker, like. Could easily be a consistent difference maker against 3/4 of the league's defences.

Fantastic result after a tough week. Another sign we're still not 'old Newcastle', Howe has developed a resilient team.

Didn't everyone want him to be less tactically predictable last season? Seems like he's managing a few things that stop us from trying plan a, so we've gone for something else.

Absolute engine on this lad, man.

Was shocked he wasn't hooked.

Feels to me that he doesn't have confidence in our fitness/sharpness so we've reverted to countering. We looked so slow to me today reactions-wise. Lots of dallying, delayed play.

Not mad at Hall not starting this. Great option from the bench and also a handy midfield option should we need it. Shocked at no Sandro but 2 starts in 5 days might've been a bit much. Barnes and Gordon

What are the big deals to his name? Feels like he's become well regarded for finding lower cost gems which feels like it'd be easier to negotiate/see through.

I think Howe knows the biggest lift he can give the fans going into this is Tonali. Harsh on Longstaff after his penalty heroics and steady enough start to the season but this is a massive game for us.

It's too early to say with him really - I'm just happy for him that he's likely to get consistent game time. That video of him looking at our fans on Weds was pretty sad, tbh.

Weirdly confident we'll get another positive result. 3-1.

Kelly is a genuinely good pick up as long as he's fit - he's a good footballer, potentially very good. I expect Osula will have a quiet next few months but feel he'll also surprise us in the second half of the season onwards. Outside of that, it was bad. 2 positions outlined as key and neither filled, somehow ended up with a bizarre keeping situation. 3/10. Lascelles and Botman aside as we'll likely see neither until 2025, I still believe we have a first team that's extremely competitive. While a few clubs have been busy, I'm not they're much stronger in terms of actual quality. Maintaining good fitness will be key for us, as obvious as it sounds.

Is this the place where we can discuss if the DoF model is overrated, btw? Long-term strategy role but the vast majority all seem to hop about every couple of years while talking a load of management speak shite. Similar to managers, the good ones are really good and the rest aren't. Feels like everyone thinks they need to have one in some guise but I'm not sure that's the case.

I thought Howe's comments on players being unsettled was actually quite masterful - extremely out of character for him to say something like that so it felt purposeful. Well, it worked for me, as it immediately took my attention away from anger/frustration to thinking about support for Sunday. Maybe it wasn't by design but it tied in very well with his unity comments from earlier in the presser.

Obviously, it's always been part of the game, but that Longstaff quote is really, really sad when you read it in his voice What an abomination PSR is. The whole thing is fucking disgraceful.

Yes, you can famously only work to solutions with other grown adults through hypnotism. His role is meant to be the strategic figurehead of all football operations ffs. Surely, any DoF worth their salt would be working with the right people to set up the processes they believe in? Working with something he doesn't believe to be right/sustainable and instead succumbing to it while collecting big wages would be very poor indeed. If Howe was to go, Mitchell would be instrumental in that decision and the main lead sorting his replacement. He has plenty of power.

If Mitchell is 'dancing to Howe's tune' and going against his own beliefs then he simply isn't cut out to be a DoF and he's stealing a wage. Luckily, he isn't.

I really don't rate their business that highly squad feels imbalanced and I don't think their spine is strong. Big unknowns with the coach too. Obviously, I'd love to have been as busy as them in the window.

A proper Howe streak with some batterings will get everyone back in good spirits.

Pressing and intensity will still be a big part of what we do when at our best - I personally don't care for possession control as the main thing but it of course has a place in the toolkit. Howe said in today's presser a few are still working towards fitness - you can't do the pressing approach fully if you're carrying players not fit enough to execute it. Might explain our drop-offs after 20 mins in the last couple of matches.

I still feel excited about what we've got available when the majority are fit & firing. We have some fantastic footballers and, imo, genuine versatility in a number of positions that means we have some actual tactical flexibility, providing we stay largely fit. We could quite easily roll from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 in a game without making many subs. We've already seen Howe messing about with the shape a bit with 4-4-2 this campaign, and we ended the Forest game playing 4-2-3-1 with Bruno playing ahead of Joelinton & Longstaff etc. Our best side until the next window is genuinely tricky to pick in a few positions imo. The biggest thing for me is we find ways to consistently get B.I.G together in the attacking spots.

Tbf, he did, but he asked about 'working relationships' from the bit that I saw. Did a little stutter as well as he initially asked while ED was staring him down.

Dunno if it's been wrapped up in Tweets yet but he was asked if we only had 1 target and he said no and outlined reasons why it'd be bad for things like negotiating power if that was our approach. We missed out on multiple targets, apparently.

I just don't think what's happened this window reflects this small pool of elite players stuff. We've been linked to Guehi and Olise, yes, but also been linked to or signed: Kelly Osula Tosin Trafford There's obviously a level of comfort in improving the squad but we suddenly switched to just focusing on 1 player mid-way through the window and decided to stop all focus on a RW as well despite having good cash to play with?

It'll be interesting to see if Hope has the balls to ask Howe this outright tomorrow in the presser.