timeEd32

You're ignoring reports that Eddie was very supportive of moving in this direction: Howe has pushed the club to modernise and become more scientific in their recruitment processes, which is part of the reason a sporting director with Mitchell’s profile was sought. One of the criticisms levelled at Howe by some supporters — and rejected by the head coach — is that he prefers Premier League additions. Howe would contest that Newcastle’s recruitment team hold far greater data and analysis of domestic and European targets than of those from further afield and that he would acquire more players from elsewhere if similar levels of information were available to him. I really think the main driver of Howe's Germany interview was Bunce. He may have been unhappy about how Staveley left or the manner in which Mitchell was appointed, but there's no reason to think he's anti-DoF. He knew this was happening even if it didn't play out exactly as he would have wanted. But he has said many times, including again today, that training sessions are the highlight of coaching for him. Having a performance director - someone who would have input on how training is run - brought in without his say would have been a major red flag to Eddie. The fact this appears to be going well is huge. That's not to say he hasn't had or continues to have some issues with Mitchell, but it definitely seems likely that it's being blown out of proportion.

This is one of our all-time worst transfers. Seriously bothers me more than selling Minteh.

Hugely promising. I think his relationship with Bunce going south could have more quickly led to him leaving than whatever is happening with Mitchell. And anything that helps on the injury front would obviously be welcome.

Our whole season will come down to our away form. It's a huge month ahead.

Not sure what's funnier in that video - Murphy's absolute bewilderment at his own finish or Longstaff's attempt to kick a ball.

Release clause or not, if someone comes to the table with more than £100m we're going to be talking and he's probably going to leave. That combined with the very small number of clubs who can actually afford that is why I really don't care if he has one (this is all assuming the release clause would be at least that much; I can't imagine we'd agree to anything lower).

The way I read is that he was inferring what's been happening previous has not been at elite standards.

This makes sense:

Zhegrova will be 26 next summer. Quite certain that's an age we will be avoiding moving forward unless there is an absolute bargain to be had.

There's nothing wrong with release clauses if they are sufficiently high. You can basically count on one hand the number of clubs with the ability to pay a nine digit transfer fee.

Gives me MLS vibes. Like a bigger Red Bull Arena.

A few random things I noticed now that the European fixtures are set: City's fixtures before / after we play them over a 13 day span are Inter (h), Arsenal (h), Watford (h), Newcastle (a), Slovan Bratislava (a). The Arsenal game is 24h after our match that weekend, plus the midweek game, and Bratislava is just three days after we play them. Chelsea's fixtures over a 13 day span are Liverpool (a), Panathinaikos (a), Newcastle (h), and Man United (a). R4 of the League Cup would be after the Chelsea game, so we definitely will not be playing midweek while they are in Greece. We play Arsenal immediately following Chelsea. Arsenal's fixtures in a 13 day span include Liverpool (h), Newcastle (a), Inter (a), Chelsea (a). Both of us could have League Cup games mid-week before we play. Liverpool's fixtures following the October international break are: Chelsea (h), Leipzig (a), Arsenal (a), Brighton (h), Leverkusen (h), Villa (h), {international break}, Southampton (a), Real Madrid (h), Man City (h), Newcastle (a), Everton (a). Unfortunately we play all of Villa, Man United, and Spurs during the Christmas period, but these four have all lined up quite nicely and three of the four are home games for us.

We have to find ways to rotate given the number of games he's played. Annoyingly for us he has to go back to South America two more times in the next two months. It's unfortunate we already had to play him for 75 minutes in our first attempt to rest him. But I agree, I'd be surprised if it happens this weekend.

If anything it'd make some sense to play Tonali and Longstaff (rest Bruno) given the various travel schedules. Doubt that happens though. I think Tonali will start.

I'll be quite disappointed if we don't have some kind of update on either the stadium or training ground. I'm trying to be patient as this is clearly a complicated problem and the two are likely related (at least in some scenarios), but we need to either have our matchday + commercial revenue in the same stratosphere as the top 6 or we need a world class academy producing first team talent and sales revenue to achieve any long term ambitions. Also I'm dying for renderings.

That is a player I had completely forgotten about. Pretty sure I really wanted us to sign him when he was at Wigan.

$82.50 or $660 for eight home games, plus depending on location an additional $80 to $850 for the annual seat license. That's actually quite reasonable -- ticket prices in the US have become absurd.

Who the hell is tracking that? I can now move on with my day.

This will be the most frustrating part to me if it doesn't work for whatever reason. A Brighton type model, but with a larger budget (which means attracting a higher level and keeping who we want) and a consistent manager with the ability to get the most out of just about any player would take us a very, very long way.

Most bookings for non-football actions (I just made up this term). Dissent, shirts off, time wasting, etc.

Most yellow cards without getting a red?

That list is making me think it's something like fouls drawn per game, but Joelinton is throwing me off. And I think Bruno would be higher.

Especially optimistic when you factor in the Eddie ramp up period.

You can quite clearly read his words in multiple ways. You can give him credit for not stamping on the existing plans, which genuinely could have made Eddie head to the FA, and you can also question why he feels the need to say so many times that he was only a passenger. Part of the problem is within single trains of thought he says things that sound good (like his praise of Eddie), but also has little things thrown in that make you raise an eyebrow ("head coach," "on the grass"). He may or may not mean anything by some of the words and phrases he's throwing out there -- we're clearly not debating the words of Shakespeare or some great elocutionist -- and as @STM pointed out we don't know what he was being asked, which definitely influences the answers. Only time will tell honestly on how the Howe/Mitchell/Eales triumvirate plays out. If Mitchell is anywhere as good as his reputation and his own mind suggest then we're going to be a force. If he's not then he probably won't be here any longer than Ashworth. If Eales is just a beer swigging, stage singing wet blanket then we'll get ourselves a new CEO. The only bad outcome IMO is one in which we lose our manager over some unnecessary power play, but it should not be a surprise to Howe or anyone on Team Eddie that the need for some concessions was coming. He needs to adapt also and that likely means having a bit less power than he's ever had as manager. Hopefully all will concede enough ground for this to work. But if you just look at the highlights, there's a lot of good things that respond directly to a lot of angst on here (they are just words, but they are a start): PIF is all in with an admission that this may be more difficult than first thought We need better and more data-driven scouting We need to be shopping in foreign markets and at different price points We need to be better sellers An awareness that we can never be in a position like June again Oh, and we got further confirmation that Craig Hope is a shit-stirring little prick

I don't disagree with you that it's a lot of money - an amount where we'd have to be certain we're right - but putting this list together which includes 2 of the 7 most expensive defenders ever, one who cost almost £50m eight years ago, and at least a couple that are quite obviously not as good is not really helping your argument.