McCormick

Almiron has incredible work rate too. Exciting signing if it comes off.

Good player from the little I've seen of him.

I've held back on commenting on this for a while now but, from friends and former clients of Ms. Staveley, I can say with 98% conviction that she's an absolute bullshit artist.

I don't fucking get penalty kick-takers, man, smack it hard as you like down the middle and 9 times out of 10 it's in.

Manquillo is a fucking problem, like.

Ref is shocking so far.

Keys, FS, Wise and Gray- predictably- talking absolute shite on Bein just now. ugh.

Meh.

Still basically no first choice upgrades. Would be a fucking pathetic window. Kenedy, Rondon, Schar, Ki, Muto, Dubravka would all be either definite starters or in first team-contention (3-4 of which are better than the people they would be replacing). Big if, but if we secured the signings of Maia, Bryan/Tagliafico, Hegazi/Fernandez (and possibly a number 10) you wouldn't be satisfied? Despite the bone-headed way we (I say we, I mean Ashley n co.) have approached this window, I'd with argue anyone that claims we haven't made good progress from last season.

Would be a very decent window should we get all of those and Maia. People can be as negative as they want about net spend etc. but on the face of it we'd be much stronger, squad-wise and personnel-wise, than the beginning of last season. When was the last time we addressed this many problem positions before the season started?

You down for a thousand quid bet?

For Maia? Closer to 20 million I'd imagine, he was bought for 12 million only recently.

Stirling man ffs.

Juve fans absolutely hate Sturaro, like. He seems to compensate for his lack of technical quality with aggression, work-rate and "heart". A poor man's Gattuso is probably a decent comparison from the little I've seen of him.

360 is some teenager making up anything nufc related. Any of us could do the same but we are a bit more mature and like not to believe every single nufc related rumour and go public and tweet on any old story. The Chronicle are not far behind, the sad thing is though they actually are adults. Its hard to believe. How many times does this have to be said . Nufc 360 is just a roundup of any and all Newcastle United news/rumours that appear in the media, they don't make anything up. Whether the news outlets they retweet are reputable is another story altogether...

Kenedy and Townsend on the wings would be ideal for a counter-attacking system. All for it.

Looking at the options in this current market for our reported 40-odd million budget, it’s would seem likely that Benitez sees selling Mitrovic, Mbemba and Merino as crucial to start our summer transfer plans; they are, for better or worse, not first team options that can be shifted reasonably quickly (very important) for moderate sums. Once you add the ~ 35+ million from them, you can then start planning accordingly. This next bit is all speculation but…

Wish I hadn't looked up this guy. By all accounts he is a massive talent (the link below calls him the next Ronaldinho ffs) and very highly thought of in Brazil, with Liverpool and Barca the clubs apparently registering an interest. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-gremio-brazilian-luan-klopp-10411399 https://www.dreamteamfc.com/c/news-gossip/354923/luan-gremio-release-clause-south-america/ Even ignoring our ineptitude in the market, this deal looks pretty farfetched in all honesty.

Fwiw my mate supports Ajax and is very hot on this guy. Says he's easily a mid-table striker: "Besides maybe insane pace, he's got everything you'd want in a modern striker; very strong, good hold-up play, work-rate and finishing. He's got a winners mentality too, really good signing- for where you are-if you land him". Based on that, I can see why Rafa would be in for him. Weak eyebrow game aside, I'd be quite happy should this go through.

No profile? He was top scorer in the Dutch League last season (3rd for assists too) as well as an established international.

While I can understand why people haven't warmed to him -it's hard to like a guy who looks like a parody Bond villain who sneers at children- I really don't understand why people don't rate Shelvey. He's an extremely effective passer of the ball with a wand for a foot and one of only 2 or 3 (and I'm being generous) Newcastle players who has the ability to create genuine goal scoring opportunities out of nothing. He also seems to have a certain intelligence to his passing, he can see things on the pitch that not many of our players can. He may not be massively suited to playing in 2 man midfield and yes he's had a couple of silly reds this season but the way people seem to rave about Merino while undervaluing Shelvey is quite an absurd phenomenon on this forum. 12m is pennies on the dollar for him, it really is.

Re: Supposed Saudi Interest in NUFC The Saudi economy isn't in the best condition right now to say the least; with many of the big contracts (the Haramain railway project, the Riyadh metro etc.) still not paid up to the respective Spanish construction/engineering companies that started the works. 80% of government 'vanity' projects have stalled due to lack of funds mainly due to the crash in oil prices, and honestly just general inefficiency (Did you mean: corruption) in the public sector. You could also argue that the crack-down in the cheap illegal workforce has meant that construction-based ventures are now drastically more costly and an ill-timed and expensive border war with Yemen certainly didn't help them either. Because of this, they're now actively trying to find money wherever they can through introducing taxes on foreign workers, privatizing some Aramco shares, and moving the onus of providing welfare/ health insurance to employers , ie. Private companies. I therefore find it difficult to believe that they want to enter into another big-ticket pissing competition with the other Khaliji states over football when they have other more serious issues to attend to. Just my 2 cents, anyway...

He's also a complete liability, you can't have in your team. As annoyed as I am at his stupidity today, I wouldn't go that far.

Sell him? As brainless as that was, he's still one of our most important players.