kingxlnc

It would probably be something like this Given Solano Woodgate Bramble Speed Jenas Viana Dyer Bellamy Robert Shearer 4-2-3-1 The midfield would get destroyed, needs a DM, unless Speed goes CM and Bernard comes in

Now that we are out of the cups and only have the PL to focus on, post Dubai I can see a renewed focus and with a soft run in, the kind of success we got in 2007 under Roeder which got him the job full time. Of the ten games, I wouldn't be surprised to see 8 wins and 2 draws, ending on 66 points or thereabouts.

Hopefully Kuol starts for us to even out the narrative

Not a bad shout tbh, obviously it'll never happen Low block FTW

Connected to this is the fact that wasn’t Ferguson linked to the Newcastle job after Keegan? Fergie used it to get a new contract for himself but can you imagine if replaced KK?

Staples of Man City’s success aguero - Isak kompany - botman yaya - Joelinton? Or Tonali? David silva - need to get Ederson - need to get (Pope is the equivalent to Hart) De Bruyne - Bruno other pieces - Zabaleta - tripper/ Livra Sterling - Gordon the spine is taking shape but the rest of the team is very weak. A lot of squad building to do.

It’s surreal to think in 1996 we were legitimately one of the top 5 clubs in the world, sporting ambition wise and appeal to players. The players being linked, superstars like Baggio, Weah etc. So near and yet so far.

One thing about Shepherds appointments, they made no coherent sense from a continuity perspective, they were so reactive. Keegan too attacking let’s get defensive Dalglish. Too boring, let’s get sexy football Gullit. Too foreign let’s get SBR. Lost discipline let’s get hard man Souness. Constantly chopping and and changing styles which meant huge turnover of players that didn’t fit. We probably needed a Dan Ashworth back then ?

Wouldn’t mind Hall replacing Longstaff in the middle at this point. Hall Bruno Willock

A big one - Mourinho coming in as SBR number two and replacing him as manager in 2004

Investing more when we qualified for CL instead of just buying Lee Bowyer on a free ditto after we finished 5th and only bought Anita Not being tight for some of Graham Carr’s choices, eg Salah, Aubemeyang etc buying Ronaldo instead of Viana

Ben Arfa not getting his leg broken on his debut it wouldn’t have led to any success given the team we had but we would have had a full season of peak Ben Arfa highlights

Luis Boa Morte and Anelka over Luque and Owen?

Not sure if there's been a thread on this before, but other than the obvious ones - e.g. Robson leaving Barcelona to replace Keegan in Jan 1997 - what are some of the biggest sliding doors moments that you can recall for Newcastle? One's where you look back and think... only if? One for me - Newcastle said no to Zidane for £1.2m in 1995/96 as our scout didn't rate him. I think we win the PL in 1996, and we dominate for a few years after. What are yours?

Barnes was poor. Still not been a good swap him for ASM.

Klopp most would consider elite and hasn’t played anything other than 4-3-3 in his time at Liverpool

NUFC were actually way ahead of the game, we had a Director of football in the SBR days, Gordon Milne. That was probably more for SBR and to get the most out of him at his age rather than part of an overall strategy. But still.

He is always complimentary about Newcastle and his time here, compared to Souness who is a right miserable sod.

Apparently he’s the centre of a wheel with the spokes being different departments. I could be wrong, not heard that analogy spoken about much

Seriously. Too much knee-jerk. While Howe can certainly learn a thing or two and being more adaptable and flexible, no-one can deny that when the team was not injured, they were up there in terms of dominating games etc. In fact, I think NUFC would be a dark horse for the title next year providing the recruitment is right, as we can see with the team available, Howe is capable of getting them to perform at an excellent level. Even some of the losses earlier in the season were highly unlucky (e.g Liverpool). With the amount of bad luck this season, that will even out next season I'm sure. They'll get 60+points this season, and I think 80+ next year.

Football often happens in strange cycles or patterns. I’m getting 1994/95 vibes about this season, where we made a strong start, back in Europe after a long time, but then disappointment when Cole left in January meaning that the season tailed off and we finished 6th. Last year was very much a 1993/94 in that it was surprising how well we did first season ‘back’. What that surely means is that a Ferdinand (Wilson replacement) and a Ginola (RW) should come in and we should challenge for the title next season…

In order of them selling, this is what I can see them doing (decent money, not including cast-offs): Almiron Wilson Longstaff Targett Murphy (although perhaps not as a good cheap sub, good for morale etc) With Ritchie, Dummett, Lascelles also probably on the way out, it's quite a few players that need to be replaced to rebuild the squad.

I can defo see Longstaff being peddled for that sweet sweet FFP He is the most dispensable and replaceable as we have both Anderson and Miley to come in. That 20m we could get for Longstaff would unlock two big 50m purchases.

That's actually a great list and would be transformational. Would add Kone, Thuram to the midfield list, and Chiesa and Williams to the RW list. Probably 200m or more of spend for all that, if not more - so very unlikely Could be possible if a big departure like Joelinton. I think Hall stays but goes out on loan. I also can't see the system changing now so whoever is bought will primarily slot into 4-3-3

I can see Liverpool going for him.