John P

How do you know that for a fact? I’m not having a go just curious A very close friend of mine is friends with a first team player and told me about a new contract that was signed months before it was announced. Very close friend? Not close enough to introduce you to his other mates though? Yes, a very good friend I used to work with who still lives in Newcastle. I don't live in Newcastle any more so only see my mate a few times a year at weekends when, funnily enough, the first team player is a bit busy.

How do you know that for a fact? I’m not having a go just curious A very close friend of mine is friends with a first team player and told me about a new contract that was signed months before it was announced.

I know for a fact that some players at the club agree and sign new contracts months before they are actually announced. I'm guessing the club do this so they can announce them at an opportune time. However, I don't think that's the case with Longstaff, I reckon they're probably just offering him fuck all and he understandably doesn't want to sign a shit contract.

There was an Athletic article on him last week and I think it mentioned that some of his social media stuff is done by one of his best mates from back home who is now part of his team, so I'd imagine he has some input into it.

What an annoying prick this guy is. Aside from making absolutely ludicrous comparisons and writing utter rubbish, the way he speaks and responds to people on Twitter is incredibly condescending and patronising.

Another fantastic article from the away end by Caulkin in The Athletic this week. He really seems to be enjoying the licence to write what he wants, complete with lots of swearing, it's brilliant.

Yep He's really calm when he gets a chance, you don't often see that with midfielders.

"Here lads, do you fancy loaning us your best player?"

You seen that JDT had ability and was an international striker, he just had wretched luck here with Shearer's injury. Whereas Joelinton is not even fucking league 1 standard as was pretty evident Saturday I remember going down to watch training after we'd signed JDT and he was pinging balls in from all angles, he looked fucking brilliant.

Genuine question - do you think that his prospects are better at Sunderland than at Newcastle? Thinking about coaching, facilities etc. I have no real knowledge of Sunderland's youth programme, but I know yours has been a bit sketchy over the last few years. Dunno, last experienced NUFC’s system personally over a decade ago, know lots of young coaches there, parents with kids and know they are also interested in my son. Wor lass’ friends/cousins has a few kids in there too and one who I won’t name will be a top player and we have very good coaches at under 11 down. I’ve heard very bad things about them though sadly. For now, I’m just treating it as another form of training for him like his Futsal, but if he likes it and they like him I’m gonna push him because this is all his own doing seriously, since watching the WC in 2018, I don’t push him at all, I’m just his taxi and cash machine for strips etc. And thanks man Think I’m more excited tbh! There's just no way you can tell at a young age whether someone will be a top player or not. So many incredibly talented young lads don't even make it as professionals in League One / Two for a whole host of reasons. Pleased for you and your son though, hope he enjoys himself

See also Sunderland last season. When they were in the automatic promotion places this time last year the guy who owns Statsbomb said they were massively overperforming their xG and that they would almost inevitably tail off in the second half of the season. Look at them now.

I replied to someone on Twitter talking about Bruce. I mentioned xG and xPoints to highlight the fact that we're in a bit of a false position and was met by several replies along the lines of "Actual goals and points matter, give Bruce a break!!!", "That is the most ridiculous stat anyone could come up with - a pointless statistic", "Stop looking at stats and start looking at results". Twitter is full of fucking morons. I won't be commenting on anything again as I can't be arsed explaining how xG is actually a really good indicator and predictor of a side's true performance to some fucking imbecile.

There is an angle that makes it look like he’s offside. Disappointed MOTD didn’t take another look at it to clarify it. He literally overtook Fernandez after the ball was played, not even close. When the ball is played he's offside relative to Fernandez (which is why I thought he was off when I saw the first replay), but Schar on the far side looks like he's just playing him on, which I didn't see at the time. It is close though. Nah. Ja https://imgur.com/mJDZgoS

There is an angle that makes it look like he’s offside. Disappointed MOTD didn’t take another look at it to clarify it. He literally overtook Fernandez after the ball was played, not even close. When the ball is played he's offside relative to Fernandez (which is why I thought he was off when I saw the first replay), but Schar on the far side looks like he's just playing him on, which I didn't see at the time. It is close though.

No, not even close. Christ knows what I saw then

Did anyone else think the Southampton goal was offside? Only saw the one replay at the time but it looked like Ings was off when the ball was launched forward and no-one touched it before he latched onto it?

Looks like his body has given up the ghost and he's lost all his physicality. As soon as someone makes contact with him he's off balance and tumbles to the floor.

Apparently back in training but way too early to return to the team.

Surely got to play Fernandez? Clark and Dummett are so one-footed that it would seriously fuck up the balance of the side playing them both either side of Lascelles.

Parkinson has a decent record at that level doesn't he? Few promotions on the CV, got Bolton up under a transfer embargo, got Bradford to the League Cup final beating premier league opposition along the way. Not sure why the fans are seemingly so disappointed, they're a League One playoff side FFS.

Ian Holloway has confirmed his interest in taking the Sunderland job...

Agree with this. After signing him and looking at his youtube videos I thought he would be overdoing things and running into blind alleys a lot, but he's actually shown so far that he is very good at releasing the ball at the right time.

Love this guy, he's a mad bastard. After he made that run at the start of the game and slipped it to Almiron he was properly trying to get the crowd psyched up.

He's doing a live Q&A on the Athletic now with Chris Waugh and is saying some interesting things about Owen - "when Owen signed; he didn’t want to be there, the club bought him anyway and then he made it abundantly clear he didn’t want to be there every time he ‘played’. Paul Ferris’s book is really good on this. Shearer the manager and the whole club needed players with commitment. Owen had none. He was an awful, awful signing - pound for pound (at the time), the worst in their history, as far as I’m concerned." "Owen hasn’t told us anything we didn’t already know, although it’s pretty startling to see it in black and white. I wish we’d never seen him in black and white .." Love him even more now.

https://www.nufc.co.uk/news/galleries/toon-in-training-magpies-seeking-successive-premier-league-victories/ Willems, Joelinton and Almiron all took part in training. Also, check out the physical condition of Rob Elliott in picture 24. I genuinely think I'm more athletic.