timeEd32

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.

Clubs in breach of PSR because of the league's rising legal costs would be the ultimate irony.

The Athletic article is so much better. This is a very useful exercise in seeing how the exact same interview is spun in different ways. Hope comes out looking the worst.

Quotes from The Athletic that the others largely failed to include: “I have a few more grey hairs because of the level of ambition that we actually have,” said Mitchell, having met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the club chairman, on Sunday following Newcastle’s victory over Tottenham Hotspur. “He’s super ambitious and he wants us to perform at No 1 level.” What the exact timeframe is for Newcastle to reach the top remains unclear. It is something that the hierarchy must determine internally, before they will try to communicate that reset to supporters. “That’s the phase of discussion we’re having now,” Mitchell said. “You’ve got to align internally to set the right expectations along the right timeline, then you’ve got to externally communicate that as well.” Critically, Mitchell believes PIF recognises the limiting effect PSR has had on Newcastle’s rapid plan for growth. Rather than be deterred by that, PIF is embracing the need to change approach, he claimed. “He (Al-Rumayyan) can see that the club is growing, but he’s smart enough to know it’s moved very quickly over a very short period of time,” Mitchell added. “He knows infrastructure is important. He knows people’s IPs are important. He knows a higher overarching framework and strategy is crucial to get to where we want to get to. Using terminology like that shows there’s a plan and patience.”