kingxlnc

On 23/03/2024 at 10:57, huss9 said:

https://www.themag.co.uk/2024/03/gareth-southgate-asked-about-newcastle-united-brings-up-financial-fair-play-as-key-factor-tottenham/

 

"Why? Financial fair play means clubs need to generate their own money, so we’re in a bizarre world where there’s more money in the game than ever before, and yet everyone is scrambling across federations and clubs to generate more."

 

 

 

Good point. First intelligent thing you’ve said today. 

20 minutes ago, BrianSwan said:

Bring the best of the Saudi players over now to play with him and push for top 4 next year.

Saudi Pro League is a failed project, sell them on the cheap to Newcastle now.

The 4D chess move

What if PIF decided to take on FFP in a way that was so ludicrous it broke the system? They’ve done big things before like bought out the entire PGA 

So instead of pussyfooting around with 2-3 signings, they didn’t put in any limits, and bought 6-7 major signings, costing 400m.

Obviously it shows blatant disregard for the rules, but what’s the worst that will happen? It could start a chain of events where others think oh well if these guys aren’t following it, we’re not and it becomes something that breaks the entire system? 

When you have two goalkeepers out you're allowed to get one in on an emergency loan.

In the same way we need an emergency FFP relaxation or exclusion in such cases as this year where our top GK, top CB, two top midfielders, top winger and top scorer are out for long periods. It's completely unsustainable. if you can't field a full bench, you have to be able to sign someone on loan, even outside the window. 

If it wasn't for FFP they definitely would have strengthened in Jan, hence the Trippier and Almiron rumours to make some space. 

This has been the kind of season where under a different manager and this unprecedented crisis you could quite easily see us flirt with relegation and be in 16th. 

Howe has done a great job tbh and he hasn't even moaned about it, just got on with an extremely bad hand dealt to him, with these injuries, the ban and the cup draws.

37 minutes ago, TRC said:

Interesting to see how that team would line up in today's game. Noone plays 442. 

 

Would Solano play the Trippier role?Robert dropped or would he now invert?

 

Having a front 3 of Dyer, Shearer and Bellamy would be immense.

 

It's crazy everyone played with 2 strikers until Jose brought Drogba in.

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. 

4 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Think it's the opposition which is the issue. We're trying to grow our global following so picking a game against a team where the majority of the spectators are going to be cheering on Ange's team seems a bit daft? Marketing team going to have to play a blinder.

Hopefully Kuol starts for us to even out the narrative 

17 minutes ago, NSG said:

Karius 

Krafth

Lascelles

Schar

Botman

Burn

 

Livramento 

Bruno

Willock

Hall

 

Isak

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

Low block FTW

1 hour ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

Possibly the biggest of all for English football is what if Fergie hadn’t won that first trophy 

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?

1 minute ago, Pixelphish said:

Just build the entire squad around Isak please. We need our own version of KDB to Halaand. 

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

3 hours ago, sushimonster85 said:

Managers having complete control of transfers was more the norm when it was considered hasty if you sacked a manager after a couple of years. When the likes of Clough and Ferguson had total control over everything that happened at the club. 

 

I totally get Sporting Directors/DoFs etc now. There does need to be someone with an overarching strategy. A club should be deciding on it's principles/recruitement strategy/even general style of play and building appropriately. This should include being able to change managers with minimal desruption. We're a little different in that Howe and his core team were in place long before the sporting director and, as countless articles have pointed out, established a power base far beyond what most other head coaches have at other sides. Not dissing Howe at all, feel there have been countless positives (just look at his first 18 months) to this.

 

But it has now put us in this odd position where we will be looking for a Sporting Director who suits what is here now, which has largely been put in place by the head coach who, in theory, a SD could decide to sack. I love Howe, and I think he deserves a crack at going again next season. But I do worry for him with a new sporting director coming in, especially with the likes of Tuchel available in the Summer.

 

 

 

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.

18 minutes ago, mush said:

Am I right in thinking Ashworth's role was as kind of a facilitator or go-between linking various departments within the club, rather than being in charge of one thing in particular?

 

Seems like he's talented but I doubt it'll be a huge loss in the long term.

 

I just really want us to play hardball about the gardening leave, purely to fuck Man U as much as possible. Either insist on the full leave to hamper their revival or ask for an exorbitant fee

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…