sixx

Unlucky. Not many are going to win penalties against Donnarumma. Southgate made a judgement call with the last 3 kick takers, it backfired, shit happens. He just took you to within an inches of a cup with a midfield engineroom consisting of inexperienced Leeds and West Ham players and in general a wildly young and inexperienced squad. Also only conceded 2 with a back 5 that doesn’t really look good on paper. Been a great tournament all over.

Pretty much a perfect performance from England. What’s more impressive is that they’ve managed to reserve quite a lot of energy going in to the semi finals. Playing a lot at home helps obviously but still very savvy. No goals conceded. By far the best in the air and from set pieces. Not quite as well drilled as the Italians but still impressive. Southgate deserves praise, faultless so far.

It's never a red for me. Purely on the basis that it's not a 50/50 challenge. Danielson got there ages before the Ukrainian. What was he meant to do? If it's a 50/50 challenge yes it's a stonewall red card. He's just kicking the ball, it's not even a tackle and no malicious intent. Shit luck the Ukrainian went for it and had to eat his studs.

This might just be the most pathetic state I have ever witnessed our club in. What hurts the most is not the fact that we got rid of a world class manager for Steve fucking Bruce. It's not the notion that Rafa was assembling a noticeable spine for a team for the first time in ages which Bruce and Ashley collectively threw out the window managing to spend vast amounts of money in the process. What leaves me most bitter is this crony carousel of ex-managers, players and press telling us repeatedly what a wonderful job Bruce is doing, how fortunate we are having him and what spoilt brats us fans are for wanting something more. Anyone with half a brain can gather that all these dickheads riding the carousel have the same vested interests and would never dare to criticize one another too harshly. It's just jobs for the boys and it could as well have been me. Yet this isn't confronted. So amazingly English. It's the same reason that England has barely had a world class manager for 40 odd years (SBR probably the only one) and it's not changing any time soon. When was the last time an English manager won the league? How many times has an English manager finished in the top 4 for the last 30 years? When was the last time an English manger won the CL? Or reached a CL semi final? And don't you dare use Scotland as a crutch. Not being English I don't mind this carousel existing but making NUFC taking repeated rides on it is just moronic. Please just curl up and fucking die Mike Ashley.

Trust the process. Lagerback is king.

Absolutely no plan on what to do with the ball once we have it. A hallmark of a manager out of his depth.

Hate Man City as much as the next guy but if Messi chooses to go to England that's massively brave, I'd love that. Staying at Barca, going to Italy, let alone going to USA or UAE would be so much safer for him. In terms of the football, culture, weather and not least his legacy as a footballer, taking on the PL at this stage in his career takes cojones.

Went for Cisse. Looking back, that half season Carroll produced was a magical time to be a NUFC supporter. A local no. 9 pretty much being the best striker in the league - unplayable in the air, decent acceleration, strength, scoring from distance and poking them in, brilliant in the hold up. I really thought it was the start of something. It should have been the start of something. The day he was sold was probably the bitterest I've felt as a NUFC supporter, relegations included. Shame Ba never got the 9.

I've seen nothing to suggest he can be a useful winger. At least he has the physical attributes to be a powerful striker - other than that I have no clue what 40m was buying us. Dodgy.

Stopped reading here because in that game Sunday in saw enough to think he's good enough if being managed correctly. He's just not going to be. Yeah sorry didn't mean it to read as though I don't have faith in him as a player. I do. But not as 22-year old first choice striker, in his first season in England under the tutelage of Steve Bruce. That's just not going to work out.

Convinced that Bruce's tenure here will be a smoldering train wreck and we won't be able to score goals - I have absolutely zero faith in Joelinton and I don't see goals coming steadily from any one else. That makes me convinced that things will turn sour very quickly with both a lack of points and goals. If that deja vu of McClaren's era doesn't agitate the fanbase towards emptying St. James's nothing will. Of course I don't want to see the club go down or lose games but amazingly enough we've never tried hitting Ashley where it hurts. It's about time we as a fanbase start trying and I actually can see it lining up this time. I can very well understand why people go to the match, the past three seasons have after all been quite enjoyable, but that is about to radically change. And for some reason I'm positive that can inject some life into proper full-scale protests and boycoutts when people realize what we've lost in Benítez, what we've lost in the Perez/Rondón partnership and how shit it's going to be relying on Joelinton for goals. I'm going to stay positive and predict that protests and boycoutts will be in full swing by Christmastime.

Thought he was more of a full back?

Dortmund been keeping busy this summer. Already signed Julian Brandt (25m€), Thorgan Hazard (25m€), Nico Schulz (25m€) and Paco Alcacer (20m€). Add to that Mats Hummels for 30m€ and they've spent 125m€! Btw does anyone know why Bayern were prepared to let Hummels go, and to their nearest rivals no less? Bayern don't seem very stacked at centre back and their squad just seems very thin in general. Will Pavard be used as a CB?

This is it for me while Ashley is at the helm. With each step forward there usually are two steps back but this feels like purposefully throwing the club into the abyss. I look forward to be interested in NUFC again but I think I'll stick with the Bundesliga next season. See you later!

Not worried about him leaving. What I am worried about though is the fact that Solskjær and the Man United hierarchy have shown so much interest in him because I have no faith in the ability of Solskjær nor the ManU hierarchy god forbid to recognize a potentially good player.

VAR is wank

This is absolute wank.

I dunno. A big part of his appeal for me is his enfant terrible attitude. He's probably horrible to work with at times but I don't really care.

Out: 1) Isaac Hayden (20 mil) 2) Dwight Gayle (10 mil) 3) Joselu (2 mil) 4) Ciaran Clark (2 mil) 5) Mohamed Diamé (5 mil) +39 mil I actually have no idea with the contract situations with this lot which of course factors massively into their selling price. I'll obviously be gutted to see Hayden leave but I'm pretty confident we can get up to 20 mil for him. Gayle, Diamé and Clark can leave. All good servants to the club. It's obviously blinding optimism wanting a couple packets of crips for Joselu let alone 2 million but here's to hoping. In: 1) Salomon Rondón 2) Right back - Clyne? 3) Centre midfielder - Philip Billing? 4) Left back - Barbet? 5) Back up striker - Che Adams? Have no idea whether these are within budget and/or good enough Starting XI next season could look something like this. Dubravka Schar Lascelles Lejeune Clyne? Ritchie Longstaff Billing? Perez Almiron Rondon? Bench: Darlow Barbet? Fernandez Shelvey Ki Atsu Adams? Back up players: Elliot Muto Yedlin Manquillo Very reasonable to assume only two starting XI players will be replaced even though five would be brought in. We don't need goalkeepers nor centre backs (what even is life). Yedlin is not good enough for the PL and we desperately need an upgrade. Haven't seen Clyne for Bournemouth, is he still any good? Looked great at times for Southampton and Liverpool and still only 28. Yedlin can stay on as a back up option along with Manquillo. We very much need someone to provide competion for Ritchie at left back, have heard the lad at Brentford is good and apparently out of contract. Wouldn't mind if Ritchie started next season as first choice but someone should be providing him with competition. Even if he's reduced to being a back up player we need his kind around the team and in the dressing room. Really excited to see Longstaff come back from injury. Diame and Hayden leaving leaves us with at least one new centre midfielder to bring in. Billing from Huddersfield has looked great, only 22 years old as well, we really should be looking into that. Should hang on to Shelvey as an option, we're never going to get good money for him but he's a good option to have if we're lacking creativity in midfield. Ki is a very dependable back up player, bags of experience. Most important thing is getting Rondon. Speaks for itself. Next most important thing is retaining Perez. Along with Almiron we have quite an exciting front three. Muto has not looked very convincing so we need someone who can play across the front three and provide some back up firing power. Have no idea what Che Adams would cost or frankly whether he would be into coming here without having a guaranteed spot in the first team. Maybe he's an option. Muto can stay on but I'm not very optimistic. Expecting something in this vein to happen during the summer is in my opinion very modest, to say the least. But it just goes to show how little we need to push on and challenge the top 8.

Excited to see more of him. He's a lot more physically capable than I anticipated. Lightning quick and can really take a strong challenge without folding. Going to be a quality player for us for years to come of Rafa stays.

Just a quick reminder that Alan Smith, Nicky Butt and Jack Colback have played a combined 369 matches for Newcastle

No wonder Rafa really resisted taking him off even if he was practically begging for a substitution. We're awful without him. So pleased to see the understanding he has with Rondón. Just hope he isn't out for long.

Not good enough to be a PL player. Bye.

Whichever team snaps up Hayden is a really lucky club. Becoming a really capable all-round midfielder. Should be looking at a very hefty figure for him.

Should’ve been a yellow for Rondon.