ponsaelius

The most important thing for me is definitely making it so fans can be together with like-minded fans as much as possible. Just got back from a weekend of going to Parma, Modena, Bologna, Fiorentina - 3 of which I stud in the curva. Noisiest ultras gather in the middle near the front, those who like to stand and sing a bit float towards the edge of this core, and then out again to the older fans and kids on the periphery who are able to sit and watch without their view blocked. It's conducive to a good atmosphere as people are naturally gathered with like-minded folk. Unfortunately the uncovered stands, crumbling stadia etc almost certainly discourages a lot of middle/upper class and tourists fans from coming so attendances in other stands suffers (we would never have that problem) - but the self policing nature of the curva underlined just how ridiculously shit randomly allocated seating through a ballot actually is. A decent sized standing and singing section in the Gallowgate would be great. And let ballot winners pick their seat if there has to be a ballot.

That's all from that one season at Nice as well

Yeah I'll say it again but you're not going to be obliterating Leazes Park to build a stadium. It's a Grade II listed Victorian Park, the first on Tyneside. You'd also be felling hundreds of mature trees. It's one of few green recreation spaces in the city centre. That's not going to happen. Building primarily on Castle Leazes to the north, with some encroachment to the north end of the park, may be a goer considering what you could offset that with. The benefits are you can extend the park down to Strawberry Place with recreation and green space, improve the setting of listed buildings, and also secure investment towards improving and maintaining the park. You have it so the club effectively enters into a stewardship arrangement over the park. It could be a huge win-win enhancing that part of the city for the future without destroying the past.

I'd put it at about 50/50 that he is a success next season or back on a favourable loan-to-buy option at one of the Italian big 3 within 18 months.

Well exactly. This is the thing - there are plenty of other culprits in the squad in terms of output. Many don't even get themselves into goalscoring positions in the first place to actually miss, despite playing in more advanced positions. Longstaff doesn't get himself injured or banned for a year for being a daft cunt, so ends up playing every game until he's been ran into the ground and gets exposed. Takes flak despite costing us nowt. Yet our £55 million signing that was supposed to replace him has two different chants that get aired at every away game, despite contributing the square root of fuck all to the club (and a reasonable chance he never will). All irks me a bit tbh, even though I'd still be shopping Longstaff around in the summer.

Yet he's also our 4th highest goalscorer in the squad this season with 6 goals, only being outscored by the three regular centre forwards.

Nope. If that's the case you can say it for the whole team last night, bar Bruno, as their players matched us to a man. We're not playing well and that goes for everybody at the moment. The lad played more than anybody last year in a team that got CL football and to a major cup final. He's not good enough for where we want to be, but he's not Danny Guthrie either.

He's an OK PL player. His attributes shine more when the team is well-oiled and playing well, where his running and and off the ball play can be an asset. On the contrary when we're not playing well his lesser technical ability and composure in possession stick out badly. He's never going to be a top player and Howe worked wonders getting high level performances out of him last season. I've seen suggestions that he has lacked effort and commitment, which is just a nonsense. But it's hardly unusual for fans to incorrectly try and percept a lack of effort from the stands. Knowing when/how to run/pass/tackle is ultimately a skill issue as a top level midfielder.

Nah, it shouldn't to be honest. The National League is a broad church. While there are big clubs at the top end there's also some tiny clubs like Oxford City who are not fit to be Football League sides. You also are putting NLN and NLS sides one step away from Football League. There should probably be more movement between L2 and National League these days though. 3 promotion places has made sense for a while.

Higher up you finish does give you more favourable chance in the play offs tbf. Finishing 3rd a lot better than 4th. I think top 3 is a massive reach anyway, they're too inconsistent and rely on away form to prop up the home form. Getting in the play offs in any way would be an amazing effort given the turnover of manager and players midseason.

Said it at the time but I honestly feel we'll look back on last season (+ PSG at home as a kind of epilogue) as the apogee of this entire ownership era. Such amazing momentum and positive feeling around the club, a manager squeezing everything out of his resources, squad full of likeable hardworking players and local lads punching well above their weight. Home and away atmospheres were both consistently fun. Basically a perfect storm before everything changes forever. It's already gone very sour with the raised expectations this year and changing fan dynamics. Fans actively turning on the manager who led success, the same players who punched well above their weight last year being absolutely slaughtered now. The ticketing situation has also been a clear sign of what's to come. I don't even completely disagree with a lot of what's been said, I'm liable to it myself, but it's just more than a bit sad tbh. The club is going to get there eventually and be the successful club people want it to be, but with FFP its going to be a really long slog and by the end of it things will be unrecognisable. There's going to be raised ticket prices, fundamental changes to the matchday experience, sacrificial sales of key players, years more of imperfect players in the lineup and also many more painful transitional results like today. I do think all need to take a step back at times and come to terms with this reality. I've found the entire atmosphere surrounding this season a bit miserable tbh and found myself pulling away because of it

I think you'd get him for about what they paid considering his injuries.

Bloke seems to have appeared out of thin air. Hotel company founded 14th Feb, owner of a football club a week later? Companies house record doesn't look too promising. Grifter alert.

The other non-uni buildings host science and research organisations. It's the residential phases that haven't come forward which doesn't help the ghost town vibe. Legal and General are proposing two rental towers in the middle which would be higher than Hadrian's Tower. Personally think the whole development should have been more high rise tbh rather than the cubic look. It's not Grainger Town, why the need to flatten everything. Although people seem afraid of tall buildings. Would have been an amazing site for stadium if we'd been taken over a decade earlier.

Too expensive and too old at 28 this summer to fit into our budget. He's a 'last piece of puzzle' type player for somebody like Arsenal.

Really? He's literally the most un-Brentford signing possible. They're data led and sign players on the up within a very restricted wage bracket. Like Brighton the only aging players they go for are unspectacular free transfers - e.g. Ben Mee. The case in point here being they just spent £32 million on a 22 year old Brazilian striker from Brugge in anticipation of replacing Toney. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/14/brentford-announce-30m-signing-of-club-brugge-striker-igor-thiago

Wilson used to be quick at Bournemouth. Even though he scored loads last season due to his footballing nous you could see his body was basically giving up on him. It's come to a head badly this season.

Going back again this is another example as to why we have to get clever/ruthless with shopping players around. After a 17 goal season last year it would have seemed mental from the outside to flog him, but in hindsight we could have got our money back and funded a new striker 10 years younger. Now he's going to be 32 this summer and off the back of an injury hit season so we'll be lucky to get owt for him.

Should have cashed in January if there was any interest. We'll probably struggle to shift him at all now.

I'm definitely of the view that there is a happy medium to strike. I say that as somebody who once had a ST with 50ish points, and has since been to many aways relying on others for tickets. The points system last year had effectively become an arms race, as if you didn't get one for every game you fell behind others who did. So people with high points totals would buy them even if they had no intention of going, safe in the knowledge you'd always be able to pass it on with such huge demand. In addition to this while above face value touting has never really happened in my experience, bus+ticket deals that are commonplace are effectively a backdoor form of touting and hoovered up a huge amount of tickets. Again those supplying their STs to buses were always happy to do so to keep getting loyalty points rolling in and maintain status quo and permanent access when they did want to go. The club probably were right to crack this situation as it was becoming a closed shop and had effectively taken sales control away from the club. The measures have drastically lowered the points threshold which is a good thing for those seeking to build points on their own tickets. The flip side of this is there are a lot of fans who have gone to away games for years on other people's tickets who are marginalised and unless have very trusting friends are now completely unable to go. Some of these people have done more miles than most and now miss out on the good times. The compromise is clearly there to be struck where deterrent remains, but there is increased flexibility for ticket transfers to known individuals over the course of the season. I would support awarding no points in these cases, so there is no incentive for people to do it just for the point but also no way to queue jump points accumulation for the individuals receiving them. IMO this is likely to result in a pretty fair equilibrium while also preventing the unsightly situation of empty seats in the away end when there's something like a last minute rail strike.

What transport infrastructure would it have needed? It's not quite as good a location as SJP but it benefits in the same way any city core location in that the transport infrastructure already exists. It would make a great location for a new stadium for all the same reasons it makes sense as a sustainable residential development. On a football fan level I dislike it because I don't really like new stadia built in urban extensions, they 'feel' soulless to me. But as a means of finally developing a long vacant brownfield site with hugely restrictive sunk costs it would make a lot of sense.

Hardly a mistake. If we hadn't extended his contract he could have left on a free this summer. This would have been a worse outcome given our need to trade players for money (and we have the same issue with Joelinton approaching). You have to extend contracts to protect the value of your assets. It is a balancing act to protect the club but also not price a player out of a move or leave them too comfortable heading towards decline. We don't know the terms of Miggy's latest deal (except that it lasts up to 2026) but you'd imagine it's been pitched at a wage that doesn't price him out of a move to Saudi, another PL club or as a DP in the MLS. The club won't be daft with contracts these days.

Saw this stat and it didn't surprise me. Feels like we've had loads of different goalscorers this season, in part due to the sheet rotation of injuries we've had throughout.

We absolutely should be trying to shift either one of Almiron or Murphy if we get a solid offer. We won't be signing a right sided player if have both of them still on the books. We have to sell and both of those players are right at the right point where they need to be sold or there will be no market for them going forward.

It's not just with Dubs tbf, Howe has been loath to change the midfield balance or system despite the fact it doesn't and hasn't really worked for months. Other than in game where we've now switched to a back 5 a couple of times to see out games. I think as a manager he clearly prioritises plan A and imposing on the opposition, rather than reacting tactically to circumstances or the opposition. And probably thinks in the long run it will benefit us more.