Interpolic

I'm 100% behind Howe and it would have to get very very bad for me not to be. We're extremely fortunate to have him and he should be allowed to stay for as long as he wants to. He has "quirks" which I accept because every manager does. But this favouritism towards Gordon over Barnes is probably the most difficult one for me to accept tbh, given what we're all seeing.

People always say this but where is the evidence for it? Gordon has barely played right wing for ages. The last time I remember him playing there he put a pinpoint cross on Isak's head against Arsenal. Why are we playing him on the left so he can turn inside and shoot, when he is really really bad at shooting? And the alternative is excellent at shooting.

I'd generally be pretty confident based on past experience, especially if I was OK sitting in L7.

Watkins will be 31 this season, Ruben Neves 29. They'd both have been good signings but there aren't many big clubs spending on that age profile anymore. Wissa is a bit of an outlier.

Ahh OK, cheers Edit - I'm just trying to get my head around if someone was a STH on their own but wanted to go to a match with their kid or whatever, there would be no way for them to do so?

Ticketing question: If I am a STH and I transfer my season ticket seat to a friend for a match, can I then attempt to get another ticket for the same match in my name as if I was a member essentially?

Depends if Osula does stay, if not we'll need to replace him and I'd argue a more first team ready profile is needed. Neither Wissa or Big Nick look a good bet to play 90 every 3 days which means we're fucked if one's injured and it overly limits any opportunity to play them both.

I'm getting a bit more chilled about FB cover the more games Miley stars there. If the opportunity is there then get someone in but maybe it can wait til the summer. A CF who can fill in on the wing would probably be my first choice position now, although I still have a nagging feeling about lack of technical creativity in the squad.

This was a classic n'all

one of my all-time favourite emos Fave quote was "my job is so, so hard"

Fully reverted back to the old routine re Local Hero seemingly

Yeah the demand has levelled off a bit but it's not hard to see why. Six home games in January is nuts, felt like they were quite regular before Christmas as well. Regularly throwing £55+ at a ticket in this financial climate and in the NE is clearly gonna be a challenge for many.

I'd say the ego is more prevalent in fans worried we'll build a stadium a bit too big and occasionally not fill it. You egotistical fuck.

Totally different context but the Wissa transfer reminds me a bit of Les Ferdinand - same age, similar fee in relative terms (high but not sky high, for the time), had only played for smaller clubs etc. Different times though and it's not often these days we'll spend big money on a player on their late-20s. Think with Ross Wilson in and our investment in analytics we'll see more of a return to data-led acquisitions going forward, the summer was us making the best of a mess of a situation but it can't be the approach every transfer window.

4 players on that list man, that has to tell us something about why performances and results have been so mixed? That the ball is being passed accurately to our front 3 but it never sticks?

I'd add to this as well by saying there is vital context that we're wilfully ignoring if we're just looking at consecutive seasons of challenging for the CL as a means to compare the clubs, mainly the adversity that each club has faced. We had an unprecedented injury crisis in 23/24, I've personally never seen our players drop like flies like that in 30-odd years of supporting the club. We were 8 points off a CL place in the end, do I think we'd have managed another 6-10 points without the ridiculous run of injuries? Probably yeah and that would have meant 3 consecutive seasons of challenging. We lost our best player in the summer due to him being tapped up and being in a radge, again I think we'd be better off this season if he was here and happy. I can't recall Villa overcoming any such adversity re injuries or having to sell their best players.

Fair enough, we're splitting hairs though imo even if they qualify this year and we don't come close. Cos I'd throw our cup success in and say we're about even. It's very close and both clubs are over-achieving versus their budget.

I didn't say otherwise? It's CL qualification, doesn't matter. I've said where teams were versus 4th for years where that was CL (I think).

In that 3 years they've qualified once, nearly qualified once. 22/23 they were 10 points behind us in 4th. Same 3 years we've qualified twice and the other year we were 8 points behind them in 4th. How is their record of challenging for the CL the last 3 years better than ours? It's clearly worse. Edit - unless you're including this season, which we're only halfway through.

I'm out, you're a miserable prat and you're extremely patronising with it.

I keep seeing this about next step, next level, whatever. The next level is challenging for the title every season. Or let's say qualifying for the CL every single season, if you're breaking it down more finely. To do this we would need comparable revenue to the obvious six clubs. It's going to take an absolute age unless the rules change. Until then this (regular CL qualification, some good cup runs) is likely as good as it gets. I'm alright with that. It's not reasonable to demand the 7th or 8th top revenue club qualifies for the CL every season. And our "talent ID" may have regressed of late seemingly but you're taking all nuance out of that for whatever reasons. The nuance being we couldn't sign a proper player for 2 seasons, last summer was a mess with Isak and no DOF, and numerous players turned us down for these clubs we're expected by some to outperform. Your posts about anything and everything regarding NUFC are completely miserable tbh, and I'm baffled that there are so many of you like this atm when in relative terms this is one of the best and most promising times to support the club.

it's really been an absolutely disastrous period for the club

Clown club. Works for me.