thenige

He has a few agents then?

Absolutely insane. Technically he's not the strongest and often plays a safe pass rather than a penetrative one, but you can't fault his work rate.

Is Atsu a fan's favourite now? I must have missed that. Still think he's largely bobbins. They're all my favourites now.

Is Atsu a fan's favourite now? I must have missed that. Still think he's largely bobbins.

Manquillo has been picked so Burnley can’t sit Barnes or Wood on Yedlin and go direct. Manquillo (in theory) should be better in the air and a bit stronger. Here’s hoping anyway.

Am tempted to look at our points/goals conceded per game with and without him since he signed. Imagine they would suggest with him in the side we concede a lot less and pick up far more points. Really a lot of time for him. If he had pace he’d be at a very top Champions League level club.

Scored tonight, do you want some hankies? Happy for the lad. There's a good player in there and a loan move to an easier level it's just what he needed. Just summed up his season at that point to come on in a winning position and end up on the losing side. Keeper probably should have saved his shot mind...

The concern was that he was lightweight. Same issue when the U23s got beat at Sunderland in the cup, just didn't look physical enough to cope with first team football. Even if he's training with their first team and getting the odd bit of time hopefully it'll aid his development.

Streaming price is almost the same as the cost of a ticket

Part of what makes him such a solid keeper is how commanding he is from crosses. Really takes the pressure off when he makes catches. That's why he tried to catch it rather than punch it. If the player didn't impede him, weak or not he'd have taken the catch. Don't really have a problem with this. What I do have a problem with is the lack of perspective by the pundits (never seems to be a goalkeeping pundit) and the host of god-awful Newcastle pundits they seem to be using these days on Sky. Kluivert, Ameobi, Bellamy, Souness. Christ.

Great point away. Frustrating but still onwards and upwards.

I have, that's why the TV is currently on 'mute'.

Yeah, don’t get that one. I really don’t rate Hayden. I don't especially but he did well against City to would be a bit harsh to drop him now, especially if Diame's not quite match fit.

Spitting feathers at Joselu on the bench.

As long as he doesn't Luque his hamstring get him in as soon as possible.

Has to be Rondon's backup over Joselu. Even if he's more suited to Perez's/Atsu's role.

Realised yesterday I share a birthday with him. Disappointing. Thankfully I also share a birthday with the vastly superior Clarence Acuna so not all bad.

Yeah he's more an inside-forward. Considering he's still only 21 reckon Blackburn would get a vast amount more than £1.5m if he was to move on. Especially considering players in the Championship like Che Adams are having £12m bids rejected for them.

WBA were 2-1 up with about fifteen minutes left when they put Murphy on. Lost 3-2.

We rode our luck a bit, bit gutting to concede the goal in the manner we did but all things considered we weren't far off a result. Frustrating our lack of depth at the end hurt us. Neither Atsu or Kenedy exactly had them quaking in their boots.

Good luck to him. Seems such a cliche but needs a bit of time playing first team football to build up the physicality required to cope at our level. At the very least hope it’s gives him a good grounding so he has a career as a pro. In other news my wife glanced over as I typed this and thought the subject title was ‘Cat Robots’, so there’s that.

Haven't been this excited about a transfer since Luque. And look how that turned out.

One assist from 16 games this season. Definitely Murphy's replacement.

Longstaff and Ki for me on form this season.

Played 90 minutes last night for Benfica against Boavista. They won 5-1. Doesn't seem the kind of thing that'd happen for a player about to leave the club...