PRL

Particularly enjoy the ‘first caller we get and he wants academy investment and Eddie Howe’ and gets laughed off air. Shows we cannot fucking win with the trolls - we are either deluded geordies who expect to win it all or provincial know nowts. Absolutely fucking glorious the way it turned out and something I would want to show the grandkids when they follow us and we go through shitty times again. Not for a few decades yet mind!

Agree with this. If my memory isn’t failing, we signed Tonali, Hall, Tino and Barnes in the summer before Champions League. Come the back end of last season, I would not have said that was an amazing transfer window, but equally I was pretty comfortable that we had still signed 4 players all eased in to the team for a variety of different reasons (injuries, suspensions, form of others). This year, all four of those players has / is playing a massive part in our season. Now, ask me if I’d expect similar as a Manchester United fan of their players and I’d be a lot less comfortable. Most of them have been dropped in the deep end, seen changes across the club and are trying to adjust to completely different circumstances to when they arrived. This season Hoijland should have been stepping up, instead he’s going backwards. I wouldn’t bet against any of those on the list from last summer doing the same. The club just doesn’t seem in a good place right now. Things can change quickly though I guess.

Possibly. Never had it myself and can only go on reading around it and completely depends on severity and many other factors, but if he was watching the game on Sunday and sending texts after it would appear he’s lucid and aware at that point, so don’t think it’s completely crazy to think come Tuesday and Wednesday he’s on a laptop sending instructions having caught up on other action in bed.

And Eddie said he had no update on Harvey Barnes when he was in the building having a medical. I don’t think it’s stretching to suggest the club are being as limited as possible with info to avoid being dragged into an ethical debate about rehabilitation, when the man in charge is an obsessive workaholic and will likely become more agitated and less rested if he’s not allowed to get his point across.

There is absolutely no way on earth he isn’t sat there analysing each game and sending detailed instructions through for tonight and Villa. Completely get that he needs to rest up, but we all know the type of bloke he is and he will successfully argue that sitting in bed watching videos and writing out instructions is physically restful, if not mentally. it could hurt us not having him on touch line or changing room, but I would bet a lot of money they will be following his instructions on the training ground and sidelines, possibly even in real time if he’s watching the game and has a phone he can text from.

4 sold out home games, would be a minimum of £5m in revenue you’d hope on that, particularly as hospitality would have been popular for Chelsea and Arsenal games. Not sure if club charges higher for the ‘bigger’ clubs these days. Two home games in FA cup too. When compared to 1 home game across both competitions in 23/24. While we would no doubt have made big numbers from the 3 home CL games, the fact we played 50% more home cup games this year than last should at least offset some of the revenue lost from no Europe, although doesn’t compare to lots of the other components of being in the competition I realise.

Take Rashford off at HT to keep him fresh for Saturday

Nice for this to be an absolute hawking before the weekend

So many teams around us play each other or Bournemouth / Fulham. We will drop points but so will everyone else. Probably more than expected if recent weeks are anything to go by and with so many involved in other cup competitions.

Quotes on SSN directly from Howe, not entirely sure where from as cannot see on the official site

Bad and good. Clearly more than just the flu, but hopefully caught in good time and should make a full recovery. Better than some of the scarier speculation.

I’ve really enjoyed the link up play between Barnes and Tino. Would hope Gordon has seen this and will be a little less reluctant to use the overlap with Tino and Hall in future.

If you watch the video above, skip to the last minute, it tells you all the considerations supposedly used. Makes no sense and shows completely subjective and pretty much pointless beyond directional indicator.

Had a watch. Interesting. I guess the bit that gets me is the big old list of things that have to be considered when deciding xG, then you have a decision being made I’m assuming manually to assign a random percentage based on all those stats, often within a matter of seconds of it occurring if BBC site updates are industry standard. I completely agree it’s a useful directional indicator for a match, but beyond that I don’t think there’s much real science to it at all.

Completely disagree on this (and realise I’m in the minority). Every time I’ve watched him I’ve thought he looks a liability and cannot believe he was tipped for Real Madrid. I know he’s young, was injured, new to league etc so I could very well be completely wrong, but look at the lad from City who (I think) is younger, played less games before his move, also from the French league and cost a lot less, and I would pick him every time (not just because we wanted to sign him too!) edit - Khusanov actually 18 months older. But, born on 29th Feb, so on a technicality he’s younger as he’s only actually had 5 birthdays.

I mean, until recently (or currently) we still had / have Jamal Lewis, Isaac Hayden, Jeff Hendrick and others on the books, so it’s definitely a more recent phenomenon

Fair. I think it’s because they always show the dot and then apply the percentage so I’ve always assumed it’s based on the pure chance and whether it should be scored. I score this 9 times out of 10, let alone Barnes!

How does that work? Isn’t it based on where the shot is taken rather than any of the build up? How can a basically open goal from 3 yards be 0.54?

Two random, completely pointless and unrelated bugbears relating to yesterday. Firstly, I was on this thread whining about the atmosphere having been at our last few games against the Mancs and the atmosphere being great each time. Then hearing from those who attended and watching the highlights with the radio newcastle commentary, it’s clear there’s a concerted effort to mute the stadium noise by Sky. Why is this? Exactly the same with the cup final and I can only assume most other games. I need to stop judging the crowd based on the telly coverage as its bollocks. Ashamed it’s taken me this long to fully twig. Secondly, xG is such a load of nonsense. Never been a fan, but just looking at yesterday and seeing us having below 2 and just above 2 with those posted on here - how can that be? Surely Barnes first goal was as close to 1 as you can get? Bruno must have been 0.6/0.7 at least and while Barnes second was a great finish, it belies the fact that more often than not you expect the ball to go in from there when he’s clean through on goal. Add in the Isak chance saved from six yards, Tonali’s goal and a few long range close calls (Murphy, Tonali) and any that I’ve forgotten, the idea we should have expected 2 goals in that game is a nonsense.

Spurs, Wolves, West Ham

Hahahahahaha

Fucking get in. Brave to go alone there

Honestly, these short set pieces are fucking dire

Murphy continues to be the most effective ineffective player in our history

GET FUCKING IN