Gottlob

Is there any chance the club are leaking these transfer rumours just to up the price for Dan Ashworth?

I still don't understand why we didn't trade him to Milan in order to offset some of the cost of the Tonali signing?

I never really rated him since even at his best he was tough to watch on the ball and tucked in too much in a moderately successful bid to provide defensive stability. But he was a below-par Premier League player for what was for the most part a pretty below-par Premier League side, and it's hard to begrudge someone who was born in the area, came up through the youth ranks and wound up making a serious contribution to our first team while spending effectively the whole of his career with the club. Well done!

I'll always remember Matt Ritchie as a pugnacious fellow. One of several players to be dubbed 'the Scottish Messi' after Barry Bannon, Ryan Gauld and little Jimmy Griffin, in truth he never quite reached those heights but he plied his trade with aplomb even if that was more in the sandpapering vein than fine carpentry. I can still picture him with bloodshot eyes racing towards the corner flag as if the whole world along with it best stay out of his way, only for him to be mobbed by his adoring teammates. He was signed for what wasn't a paltry fee ahead of our Championship season, and proved useful.

So I'm guessing we bring in Ramsdale for £15 million, sell Pope for about the same amount, and then use the amortisation to bring in a genuine top class first choice goalkeeper?

Some player Adam Armstrong! Only one year left on his contract too . . .

If Southampton stay down we may be able to secure a cut-price deal for Adam Armstrong, who has only one year left on his contract, has the second most goals and the fourth most assists in this season's Championship, and would be ideal as a homegrown player to provide backup for the three attacking positions.

We have a bunch of midfielders with fairly discrete skills and with Bruno the lynchpin who holds all of it together. Without his ability to play out and beat the press our midfield is a bit of an unknown quantity. Of the rest I feel as though Anderson is the only one with the footwork to keep the ball and potentially link the play higher up the pitch: Willock makes quick movements on and off the ball and can score a few goals, Joelinton makes the odd surging run and Longstaff can arrive into space in the area. Of course his productivity hasn't been great, but overall I think Anderson has looked pretty good since he returned from injury, and I'd expect him to get plenty of playing time next season.

Isak is a top class striker, but Cole was quicker, more agile and showed better movement off the ball, albeit at a time when there was more space to be found between opposition defences. I also reckon he was a more creative finisher, and while he never had the same explosiveness at Manchester United he became more technically proficient, more adroit in the buildup play and better at heading the ball. He was a key player for them during their treble-winning season, and therefore part of two of the great Premier League partnerships, first alongside Beardsley and then alongside Yorke. For me he's one of the best strikers in the history of the league, just behind a class of Shearer, Henry and Aguero.

It was the lack of fatigue you dickheads.

Interesting comparison, and like a bolt from the gods, it's just struck me that while he lacks the running power and pace with the ball which Barkley had when he broke through as a youngster, still in build and gait Anderson is markedly similar.

If Eddie Howe needs a lesson in ruthlessness he should look no further than our own venerable leader his majesty Yessir Bin-Rumayyan, who would sell his own mother for a locker at one of the world's premier links golf courses and has done so in the past. What's more I have no doubt that if our poor form continues on to the end of the season, Howe will be the recipient of such a tongue lashing that in the philosophers' parlance he'll be a tabula rasa, meaning a blank slate, or in the everyday parlance quite literally licked clean as a whistle. There'll be no room for favourites or sympathy then, and I for one cannot wait to begin the summer's culling.

I've only been to one American stadium and the experience compared to St James' Park was night and day. Open interiors and walkable concourses rather than cramped corridors littered with betting slips and spilled beers, snaked by queuing punters who wait desperately for a slot at the steel urinals as the stench of hot piss fills the air. A plethora of food and drink options, retail opportunities and enough time and space to enjoy it all in a casual, even carnivalesque sort of atmosphere where the sport was the focus but not the be-all and end-all. Newcastle absolutely needs a new stadium with more eating options. I'd personally opt for a taco bar as well as some of the more traditional 'Geordie' options like Craster Kippers and pease pudding, and I'd also like the stadium to include one of those shoot-to-win basketball arcades.

I'll let other people do the fancy signings, because I do think we'll be after a right-sided forward, an accomplished or aspiring young centre-back, and though I dread to say it, I can see Bruno going and us paying a hefty wedge for his replacement while still leaving a little bit of cash spare in the piggy bank. Instead what I'll do is focus on some of those lesser lights who might still brighten a damp winter morning, not merely filling in come another injury crisis or adding a bit of something different off the bench but providing real competition each and every week. These are signings who won't get anybody's pulses going but should prove crucial for squad balance without costing the earth. The first name I'm liking is Fagioli from Juventus, a talented young all-around midfielder who can do the dirty work but also shows good ball control and balance. He'd be able to fill in pretty much anywhere you'd like. The second is Adam Armstrong, a home-grown, one of the top scorers in the Championship this season, a versatile frontman who unlike so many other options provides genuine striking ability, and possibly available come the end of the season if Southampton's promotion challenge continues to falter. I'm making no bones about it, for me Adam Armstrong is a must-have. And the third name is the out-of-sorts Palace left back Jeffrey Schlupp.

Our bad run of form started with a couple of whoopings against Everton and Tottenham in which Joelinton played the full ninety minutes. He also featured against Nottingham Forest and played for most of the defeat against Liverpool. Discounting the Forest game, we let in 11 goals over those 3 matches. Going back 12 games to the Everton match, we sit 17th in the form table with 11 points from 12 matches and a league-leading 31 goals against. That isn't down to any one player or any one player's absence. It's a collective failure born of an unprecedented injury crisis, fatigue, a loss of form and the ensuing loss of confidence, and our inability so far to mitigate any of those things, change things up or find real room for improvement. Howe ultimately bears responsibility for how easy we've been to play against and for our inability to keep the football.