Wallsendmag

We've only signed 1 player from the Championship and paid around £6m for him. The 2 players we signed in the £10- £12m bracket dropped down from the PL so I can't see your argument in saying "as shown with our signings already". Because we signed Gayle and Ritchie based on their championship performances. Lord knows they have done nothing in the PL to be worthy of the prices we paid. 10m is f*** all in this day and age anyway. Richie played well last year in the PL and proved he would be a good player for us should we get promoted. Gayle scored goals at that level when given the chance. Knockaert has done neither.

We've only signed 1 player from the Championship and paid around £6m for him. The 2 players we signed in the £10- £12m bracket dropped down from the PL so I can't see your argument in saying "as shown with our signings already". Anything more than £10m for Knockaert is over the odds imo. I think our original valuation of £8m is more than fair although I'd understand them wanting to squeeze us for a bit extra considering they know we have the money in the back and we are a promotion rival. What goes in our favour is that we always pay up front for our transfers.

We just got 25m from Wijnaldum and will probably get something similar for Sissoko, no way can Brighton resist if we go high enough. Which in all honesty there is no reason we shouldn't do if the club is serious about Rafa being in complete control. No point in paying daft money just because we've got it and anything more than £10m is daft money for Knockaert.

I know it's said not to take much notice of pre season results but going unbeaten for 5 games on the back of a 6 games unbeaten run at the back end of last season will be massive for confidence.

I said on here that we'd sold 33,700 season tickets a couple of days before the club announced season ticket sales of over 33,000 and using the same method I reckon approx 41,500 sold so far (assuming 3,200 away fans turn up).

Aye a few too many nights down the Veronicas strip whilst he was back in Tenerife. Rafa will soon whip him into shape.

Man Utd aren't that good. The Barcelona of the Championship is surely more apt.

Despite them giving 1000s of free tickets away and their season tickets being far cheaper than ours.

You're not seriously not trying to compare people defending Pardew to Johnson are you? Thankfully NUFC have never knowingly fielded a nonce before but I remember about 12 years ago when Kieron Dyer was accused of raping a 17 year old lass in a hotel down in London and he got a fair bit of abuse from the fans around me in the Leazes End

Thing is talk to them one to one and don't mention football and, hideous accent apart, they aren't too bad. Get them on about football, or if there's a pack of them and the change in personality is astounding.

You don't genuinely think in this way do you? Yep. My wifes family are from down that way and are predominantly sunderland fans. Decent enough people until they get on to the subject of football. Anyway her cousin got married last month and I went on his stag do amongst a load of mackems and the bile that come out of their mouths about Newcastle had to be heard to be believed. More disturbing was their staunch support of Johnson and how they'd always see him as a legend because of his goals against us and how ridiculous his sentence was. Took one for the team etc. That was bad enough but a couple of weeks later I was out in the company of her family and her sister (safc season ticket holder) started on a drunken rant about the poor bairn he was grooming and pinned the blame 100% on her. Always found her sister to be spot on (I've known her nigh on 20 years) but couldn't belive what I heard that night. Spoke to wor lass about it the next day and even she was lost for words. Not normal people in my experience.

My rule of thumb; never trust, and always suspect anyone who belongs to a fanbase who backed, even cheered, a nonce. Twisted people as RTG proves.

Season before last Ritchie got 15 goals and 17 assists in the Championship. Hopefully similar figures from him this time round added to us having a better strike force than 09/10 and we'll surely have too much for the rest of the teams in this league.

I'm going to be absolutely hyper this time next week

That video highlights how important Kevin Nolans goals were that season. Hopefully one of our current midfielders can chip in with a similar amount.

Apt that the whole argument was started by strange Mackem then.

Aye, shame it's not in Newcastle eh? Not really. We don't have to pay for it's upkeep but the myriad of bars and restaurants in Newcastle reap the rewards... just across the Tyne via the award-winning bridge (also Gateshead's, also free to NCC tax-payers) Chuck the Sage in and there's a pretty happy bunch of beneficiaries North of the water. A bit like sunderland and it's....erm. Glass thing? Is that still open? And their flatpack stadium. Kitted out with pink seats.

Aye, shame it's not in Newcastle eh? Can't say it's something I've ever lost any sleep over in all honesty. No doubt your one of those mackems who call it Ponteland airport as well you little tinker.

What on God's great Earth is that? Baltic flour mill. Don't suppose it's as grand as your gaff in deepest Pennywell but it's an impressive structure all same.

Just received this email; Following confirmation that we’ve reduced all 2016/17 season ticket prices at St. James’ Park by 10%, we can now confirm details of when supporters will receive this benefit. We’d like to apologise for the time it has taken to process payments. It has taken a little longer than we anticipated to update our payment system with our ticketing partners, and we thank you for your patience while we’ve been working towards a swift resolution. From early September, all supporters who pay for their season ticket with a lump sum up front will receive a refund to the value of 10% of their season ticket. We’ll be in touch again shortly to confirm precise details of how this payment will be made. For season ticket holders who use our Direct Debit scheme, you will start to see lower monthly payments from September for the remainder of your 2016/17 payments to achieve an overall discount of 10%. Thanks once again for your patience and continued support. We look forward to welcoming you back to St. James’ Park!

Get yourself down the bookies then. Some of them are offering better than 3/1 for a Fulham win.

The Leazes End in general is awful. Atmosphere is abysmal, loads of moaners, and with the added bonus of the away fans being directly above you making you a sitting target when certain clubs visit. I had a season ticket there for 15 years and it gradually got worse and worse every season. Shame because from 1993-2000 it was the best stand in the ground but over the years people either moved out or got older and more miserable. I can see why it's not very popular these days.

Yeah I would have said 47-48k would be about right. For some reason I just expected this match to be a certain sell out (it might be yet) but I suppose looking back at when we were last in the Championship we started with a 37k crowd v Reading and even by mid March when we were cruising at the top of the league we only pulled in 39k against Scunthorpe. In fact our only sell out that season was the final game against Ipswich when we were presented with the Championship trophy.

Don't think we'll get a full house. Usually for sell out games there's a mad rush for tickets when they first go on sale and then the last few thousand sell in the couple of weeks leading up to it. Hasn't been a rush for tickets at all which is a bit disappointing. After not realising it had gone on sale whilst I was on holiday I was surprised to arrive home yesterday and find I could purchase 4 extra tickets all seated together in the East Stand despite them being on sale for a week.

The Leazes End looks very sparse for Huddersfield, still plenty of availability at the back of the Gallowgate and in the Platinum club. Even the East Stand has decent availability. Looks around 40k sold so far including the 3,200 away fans.