ponsaelius

He's crap but I'd still rather play him than change system or play somebody out of position so we just need to get on with it until Manquillo is back.

Yeah he clearly just doesn't fit into this 4-3-3 in any way. Even off the bench tbh.

Inter matched Liverpool reasonably well for a large part of the game but the strength in depth of the English clubs is enormous at the moment. Being able to bring Firmino and Diaz off the bench the difference there - whereas Inter basically had nobody to bring on worthy of the fixture.

You'd obviously snap hands off for a point but would be incredible if we could scab a victory here.

At the moment there's a massive buzz and excitement around the way things are going and everybody wants to be a part of it because we've been starved for so long. But it's all relative. If we become successful, CL every year, even if we're literally winning the league - these things then become normal and expected. You slip down slightly from that (like Arsenal for example) and suddenly people aren't getting what they expected and the interest wains and apathy grows. 20k empty seats is ugly - especially if you sold your soul and history to get there. The thrill of football is so often in the chase for success and being part of that narrative, being part of momentum going the right way. That's what drives attendances, and particularly atmospheres, more than absolute on-pitch success IMO.

There's definitely a balancing act by making the capacity too big. You're banking on increased attendances linked to the team doing better on the pitch but I'm not sure it's as simple as that. I think fan attendance isn't anywhere nearly as linked to pure on pitch success as people think. Indeed if you become very successful a certain success apathy can set in - particularly if you're in a cavernous new ground that lacks atmosphere. I get that feeling at both Man City and particularly Arsenal at different levels of current success. Add in making it harder to get to on a matchday and that can put off a lot of transient fans who are more likely to go because it's very easy to do so. Don't get me wrong there's definitely room for expansion as currently people are essentially locked out every week - but you've got to be careful IMO.

Leazes Park is listed so you couldn't get away with changing/building on that much of it. Move it further north west, sink it, steeper stands to minimise the footprint - and you could build a ground which only slightly encroaches the footprint of the existing listed park. That could be favourable especially if it comes with the carrot of an extended green space towards Strawberry Place and an improved setting for Leazes Terrace.

As much as what happened under T Dan is regrettable today it must be remembered through the lense of the time it happened. Progress was the name of the game and many of the pretty older buildings were crumbling or not fit for use in a changing society. Today we'd encourage adaptive re-use and rightly be far, far more careful with what is demolished but back then the economic and social priorities were far more important than that of heritage conservation. Rightly so, you could argue. Flawed as he was I think he did overall want the best for the city. A key example being the housing. A lot of delapitated terraced housing which was cleared at the time for high rise often only happened the way it did because central government would fund slum clearance and rebuild but wouldn't fund renovation of the existing housing stock which was no longer fit for purpose. A case of taking what could be gained from the situation to the betterment of the immediate living outcomes - even if in hindsight it broke apart and atomised existing communities.

Out of the city centre is problematic not just because of the loss of character but because transport would be an absolute nightmare. SJP's central location works great because it's so easy for 52k people to filter into and out of the city throughout the day via various forms of transport which naturally route towards the centre anyway. An out of town stadium, even on a metro stop, with acres of parking (don't think such a site even exists) and with regular direct shuttle buses, would be a nightmare because of the bottleneck of everybody travelling there direct along the same route at 2pm and leaving at 4:50pm. Even much smaller stadiums with much better transport links have this issue. The city centre location is great for the businesses and economy of the city - and vice versa it has also propped up our attendances for years. The location is a major part of the club's character and I'm 100% sure it was one of the things that helped sell the club to Staveley et al. The ground could be expanded to around 60k in its current form which would be fine for now. Alternatively going back to the 90s plan and building on Castle Leazes while effectively extending Leazes Park down to Strawberry Place would be one of the few ways you could actually enhance the setting and the stadium all at the same time.

It's been done to death before but just for clarity there is exactly zero chance whatsoever of a Grade I listed terrace being levelled or moved.

No because you couldn't build on a listed park. Nor would there be anywhere to groundshare while doing so. Building anew on Castle Leazes is pretty much the only potential possibility for a new build that should be entertained. The setting and location of the ground is the best of any going for a multitude of reasons.

WBA are a club who for years I could probably name of their core 13-14 players very easily. They used to bounce up and down the divisions with the same players who were somewhere between Champ and Prem ability wise. Just looked at their squad now and most of it is a total mystery.

We're probably going to struggle to shift some of our deadwood this summer who are still contracted - the likes of Dummett who are actually out of contract (while also not good enough and always injured) should surely be first out the door.

Love the vidiprinter feature on the forum

Juve underselling Bentancur's value and inflating Kulusevski's so they pay less sell on to Boca is a wee bit dodgy.

Yeah I'd take Origi. Especially if Burnley are sniffing around.

Considering Watford spent 27 mill on him and he still has 2 years left to run I'd say probably a fair bit more than 15 mill. I think we're all just so used to Ashley that we're completely out of the loop in terms of the market. Daft fees and insane loan fees are the norm now.

Think they're probably just used to it now. Ultras and their empty threats aside.

Lmao. Clown car stuff this like.

Fucking Brazilian Portuguese

Dan Burn Is he good these days? I honestly don't know.

Exciting. Funny after all the chat a midfielder was a major target afterall.

To be honest after years of emotional detachment under Ashley I'm still finding it very hard to claw my way back in to giving a fuck about NUFC. Part of me is just so relieved to see him gone that I don't really care what happens - at least it's something different. Blaze of glory signings and easy survival, or car crash failure in the market and embarrassing relegation for PIF. At least the actors and the story has changed from the previous 14 years of utter pointlessness.

When does the window close? Feels like if we don't get significant movement in next 48 hours we aren't going to get what we need.