Heron

Fair. We will learnt hat through experience though, as everyone does.

Aye. Because they're all relative. Quarter finals aren't now big games to us on the whole but that's because we've managed said "big game" previously and now consider it a normality thanks to Eddie Howes ability to have won such fixtures...

It is until you make a final though, surely?

We are our own greatest enemy because we go into a tailspin whenever we lose and think we're the best team on then planet when we win. We seem to be flip-flapping from big to season defining to crunch games now in an attempt to categorise games and tbh I find it all a bit bizarre. Today wasn't a crunch game for sure if we're saying crunch games are the final games to make something specific happen or be achieved. Nor is it season defining - its 3 points in a league that is highly close and competitive - in which case it can only be argued as a big game (which it absolutely was). We were shite, we lost. However, we have beaten sides and not lost to sides who are above or around us this season in equally as big games and therefore, if that's the basis for this debate as moreso as @J7 alludes to then it's incorrect what yous chaps are saying. You are absolutely correct if we're talking cup finals as being those games though...

Big games aren't just the finals or the crunch scenarios though there are big games that lead you those 'end' games. It also doesn't matter if a team is shite, it can be a big game. The derby was a big game and always will be a big game irrespective of league. You weren't particularly clear in your 'dividing'. You're now divvying up your argument to make it relevant tbh. You have to win big games to even be in crunch games. So we discussed big games. So we're now basing Eddie Howes capability to take us to the next level on a 2-1 loss to Milan and a 2-0 final loss to Man United? Give owa.

Okay, I see your point more here to be fair. However, I don't really see why that would be under question at this stage. We're almost in essence saying we're 90mins from being "next level". He's only been here like 3 years or sumit... Gotta be reasonable, and with all the FFP constraints etc. I think it's unfair to suggest he is incapable of being the person to take us to silverware. That's opinion though.

If it means we win the final when those 'first teamers' come back in then so be it

Yeah, this is bang on for me. Howe has to take some blame for today as dk the players, it seems.

It is and we were. The issue for me with NUFC on the whole is mentality and whilst we have a paper thing squad that will remain. There isn't enough competition to make players fight for their place in the side and so, when semis or finals come along players want to be available for them instead of simply playing so well they have to be played in them. Confidence, fearlessness and attitude are huge to us and when we don't have one of those components we collapse like a house of cards. We gain in these when we have a squad capable of pressuring players and knowing that when someone is having an off day they can be easily replaced.

Outliers like PSG? Arsenal in two Cup semi finals? The cup semi finals we played against Southampton? The Big games we played for Premier League survival like every other week for the second half of Howes first season? The derby game? Man United away in the cup? Chelsea & Forest this year in the cup? Smashing Spurs within 22mins or something to be 5 up? PSG away where we we cheated? Milan away where we battled hard, and scraped a draw. A lot of this is subjective I guess. Define a big game. Define playing well. Etc. I just don't agree that we don't turn up in big games and there is plenty of evidence to suggest we do, just not all them.

Agreed. Was more in reference to @Stifler comments tbh. I don't like saying folks opinions are simply rubbish tbh, but I just feel it is in this instance (sorry @Stiflerbud). On the subject of consistency; the whole league excluding maybe half a dozen sides is inconsistent and actually we're one of the more consistent ones ironically. 12 wins in the last 15 is it?

How many times have we gone into a week saying "we need 6 or 7 from the next 3" etc. Though and done it. How many time shave we gone into cup games and won. Two cup finals in 3 years and quarter finals etc. Won our only local derby. Have beaten fairly big sides on a few occasions. Every game is big because we aspire to be a CL side and CL sides need to win almost every game. That is what has changed and that is what's testament to Howe and the club. You cannot win all these 'big' games with a squad like ours.

It's rubbish that we don't do it in big games. There's plenty evidence to suggest we do turn up in big games, the difference is more games are big games these days that's all. Every game is a big game pretty much.

My God yous need to wind your necks in about Longstaff like. Kid is just coming on the pitch in a game where every other bugger has been slated for being shite and you give him shit. Bore off.

Yeah, so I'm starting to discover match threads have many knee-jerk statements

I will be happy to be surprised but my suspicion is we will lose 2 or 3 of our upcoming games. Just feels very 'Newcastle' to me We aren't allowed too much of owt too good. Although under regular circumstances I'd feel we have a very good chance of beating these and Forest at home, this season. Just hope we have a genuine focus on each, next game.

This is absolutely right too

Have to think that financially it may benefit clubs to have an ESL, if higher level competition is removed, and therefore they can consolidate their positions in England's top league (and potentially higher up) too. Plays into the hands of those so called "Big 6" who wanted to break away in that regard. The alternative is that said "non-big-6" as you say will not want the league wasting their money on court cases and compensation to aspiring clubs such as Newcastle. If this leads to the former situation then fans of all Premier League clubs cannot really complain. Their adherence to being lickspittles for the status quo will have ruined English football. The reality here, from a neutral point of view is that money is absolutely killing the game and the existing rules were perhaps an attempt to balance the playing field but were ill thought out and rushed through to stop NUFC primarily not MCFC. We shouldn't be allowed to buy anyone we want for £300m, but that horse has bolted in years gone by. They should have been transparent from the start if that was their intention, which makes me think they have either a) failed or b) that wasn't their intention. With the whole trying to prevent our sale I cannot help but feel it's the latter as clubs lobbied to try and stop it (iirc). As a neutral, I think we'd be contributing to ruining competitivity spending like we could and ruining the game some more. However, my feeling now (as an NUFC fan) is fuck all of them, let's have our day in the limelight before they eventually fix it. You won't ever hear folk saying City didn't win what they won just because of some retrospective charges...

Premier League is essentially fucked now in its current guise is my understanding. Masters will be shipped out for them to save face and it will go bust after compensation claims and then your big 6 wankers will want the ESL again in the PLs demise as this essentially opens a hole for that discussion to take place. You'd think the FA would need to step in and govern whilst some sort of alternative PL is set up for pure commercial gain. Mind...I am thick too.

This. The freaks.

Yep.

Nar na. Pulse cider. What do you think I am, a scruff?

Behind the goal, area 543

Last year was on the Saturday and this year will be the same I reckon