ponsaelius

Red numbers over boxes on the back for me every day. Like you say red is nearly as intrinsically Newcastle as black and white is considering its use on the crest.

Didn't think about it before but Raya will be a homegrown player. That was one of the reasons Spurs wanted Forster last year - they were a bit short on HG players.

Venues that regularly host concerts regularly host them for a reason. It is built into the design to allow for set up. Trucks are able to drive straight into the right location to unload the enormous amounts of equipment and set up easily. In somewhere like the O2 that regularly hosts concerts there will already be rigging locations etc for the audio equipment that matches the acoustics of the venue. Even a football stadium like Wembley was built to be able to host concerts semi-regularly from the outset. It doesn't take much perception if you were at either night to realise what a fuck on it is to set up that kind of show at SJP. Bringing all the equipment in without direct access to the only corner you can set up in, setting up the speaker equipment hanging from the Leazes Stand to deliver the sound to the whole stadium etc. And ultimately SJP can basically only do this once a year in a very narrow window before the pitch is relayed. Concert venues make money because of the economies of scale of being able to host them regularly. It's obviously possible at SJP (duh) but I wouldn't be surprised if you basically need to have two sold out nights in a row like this to reach the margins to justify it (or put ticket prices up). This Fender gig has been a great promotion both for him and the club, there's clearly been massive mutual benefits, but doing it regularly for ordinary concerts I'm not sure.

He played for Owen Coyle's Bolton!

Luton after Lascelles apparently.

Are you talking about Rodrigo at Leeds? He's hardly youthful, he's 32

I reckon about 120 and four players signed (not including youth signings or new backup keeper).

Aye. Be great if we could get another couple in the Pope type market. Keeper is a bit specialist in that sense tbh but that was a hell of a deal.

It gonna have embroidered logo on the fan one? Bought the Saudi third kit reduced the other week and was quite impressed by the quality - mainly because of the embroidery of the details

Yeah I love Maxi but don't think he's an impact sub at all. He needs to work his way into games to be effective.

Very decent player but not a world beater. Think he's possibly too slow for the PL personally.

Jesus, I thought I was a miserable twat. The transfer window literally doesn't even actually open until next week ffs.

Hopefully this means he is kicked out of SoccerAid. Rules are rules.

Cba to check but also shows the global appeal of the NBA. I presume they have much higher follower counts than those other leagues.

Was at Whitley last season. Came up from the Alliance. Didn't do anything at all in fleeting appearances and dropped down to NL2. Been surprised by how ridiculously well he's done this season. Fox in the box is probably a good description in that he seems to be a bit of a pure goalscorer.

The Fairs Cup wasn't weak at all really. The one club per city and qualification rules were a bit all over the place but it wasn't too similar to the later UEFA Cup and the line up was definitely far stronger than the current edition of the Conference League. For example in the year we were in there was: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th in England - Liverpool, Leeds, Chelsea, Newcastle 2-4th in Serie A - Napoli, Juve and Fiorentina 2nd, 4th and 6th in France - Nice, Marseille, Metz 4-7th in Spain - Valencia, Zaragoza, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao 2nd in Holland - Feyenoord 2nd in Portugal - Sporting 3rd in Yugoslavia - Dinamo Zagreb 2nd, 3rd and 5th in Scotland - Rangers, Hibs, and Aberdeen 3rd and 4th in Belgium - Liege and Waregem You can continue through the Eastern European leagues which were much stronger at the time where big sides were entered. If you were to go off current European format many of these clubs would have been playing in the European Cup instead. Indeed it is arguable that the Fairs Cup and subsequent UEFA cup often had more depth, on paper, than the European Cup.

Yeah he's played left side all season. He is right footed though, so not sure if he could play the other side.

Yeah it's a fair point. Just probably worth noting that Hungary, while not in their 50s heyday, were a big footballing country (twice WC quarter finalists in the 60s) with a stronger domestic game than they have now. And within that context Ujpest are the second biggest club after Ferencvaros - so it wasn't like we were playing a scrub side that it might appear today.

They did get to the European Cup semis in 1974 tbf.

A third European competition is hardly ridiculous though. We had the cup winners cup for decades.

Aye, McTominay

Great interview that. He comes across as an absolute credit to the club and the area. So vital to have people like that involved in the club as it changes beyond recognition.

I really don't like Onana. Physically dominant but doesn't appear able to pass water to me.

Budnocost were the best Montenegrin team in Yugoslavia but their highest ever finish was 6th and they bounced up and down between the top two divisions. Montenegro as a country is pretty small, similar in population to Luxembourg. While the quality of footballer which comes out of the Balkans is very high compared to population, this probably doesn't lead to a better quality of league in the modern game.

Arsenal paid £25 million for him straight from Scotland. He has since proven himself a very good PL performer. There's no way he's worth less than that fee now.