Wallsendmag

It was unforgivable mate. In a season of completely listless away performances, to save the very worst of them for yesterday shouldn't be forgotten or forgiven easily. I can accept losing any game, we've had enough practice over the years after all, what I can't accept is a massive lack of effort, and that applies far more when it's against them. Beaten by an equally poor team who wanted it more on the day. That's not acceptable. It would appear that this team is at a crossroads somewhat now. 4 massive weeks coming up. If things carry on how they have been and we also exit both domestic cups I think some tough decisions may well be made. This team is going backwards, and at an alarming rate as well. I do think for the first time in Howe's 4 and a bit years here he is under genuine pressure now. You can't rock up at their place and do what we did yesterday. No way. For the record I voted "No" in the should Howe be sacked poll as I do think he deserves some time to try to turn this around but he looks somewhat out of ideas at the moment and I think you'd have struggled to find a NUFC fan out there pre match who would have been happy starting Elanga and Gordon ahead of Murphy and Barnes. If he's going to go with the former 2 then there's not really any point in playing Woltemade. As for Gordon. As I've stated, and before yesterday, I'd flog him to the highest bidder at the earliest opportunity. I'm developing a deep dislike of the bloke and the player.

When I look at some of our derby shitshows under Pardew, McClaren and Carver, absolutely astonishing that we managed to eclipse all of those yesterday with something even more gutless. The crowd reaction will be interesting on Wednesday. They don't need much encouragement to have a good moan and I can see it just starting to turn now unless there's a massive improvement in performances and results, which unfortunately at present I just can't see happening.

Agree with this. We made our bed in the summer. Spent £250m and the only real improvement we got from all that was Thiaw at the back. Seems foolish to throw yet more money at the squad 5 months down the line trying to put it right. The owners should be saying, we've backed you to the hilt in the summer with the clubs biggest ever transfer window splurge yet the team is far worse. You need to work with what you've asked for and get a tune out of Ramsey, Ramsdale, Elanga and Wissa and then see how you can get more out of Woltemade as he's become a passenger in recent weeks. If he can then great, if he can't then they have to ask themselves if he's the man to take the club forward, if he can be trusted to spend a big pot of money wisely, or if they wouldn't be better advised speaking to Bournemouth or Crystal Palace about compensation to get either of their managers here.

I'd be looking at fucking him off in the summer. In fact I'd fuck him off next month if someone comes in with anywhere near what we paid for him. I really don't like the bloke.

He should be. We've been poor all season, as our league position shows, and going down there and not turning up is inexcusable. The £150m outlay on Elanga, Wissa, and Ramsey so far looks like money down the drain as well. If Fulham knock us out the League Cup on Wednesday night the knives will be getting sharpened, especially if it's yet another meek and pathetic showing. He spent £250m in the summer and the team looks much worse.

Can't knock the Leverkusen fans, or any of the German people and the police as every single one of them was spot on, but they seriously lacked any real passion for their team inside the stadium and I found the atmosphere from them to be very poor. They had that small standing section behind the other goal who chanted non stop but with no corelation with what was happening on the pitch, behind the other goal, such should have been a home section was probably 95% NUFC fans, and along the sides the only enthusiasm visible was from other NUFC fans who'd infiltrated their end. Tbf they are regarded in Germany as a "plastic" club. Had a bit crack with the locals in Cologne where we stayed and even though Leverkusen are the nearest team to them (play each other today) they regard Borussia Monchengladbach as a bigger rival because they are seen as a "proper" club.

On the train now from Schiphol to Eindhoven. PSV v Heracles tonight. Travel back to Schiphol tomorrow morning which could be interesting as Ajax play Feyenoord and they don't really like each other 😉

If it's the bit I'm thinking of it was in the 1st half and he hesitated twice. Looked absolutely horrendous at the match not sure if it looked just as bad on TV.

He's exactly what I expected him to be. And I don't mean that in a positive way.

It's definitely different to back then like. You nipped off for a piss on about 40 mins, you could get straight in and there was just a smattering of people on the concourse. Wouldn't be like that now.

Again it's what some of us have touched on before in this thread. A lot of the crowd aren't that invested in it all like our crowd once was. The result isn't of as much importance to a lot of people. You're seeing record amounts of people sloping off early for their HT pint, coming back late after HT, heading for the exits earlier when the game is still in the balance. At one time the thought of having to go for a piss and missing a goal was unthinkable. You'd see people racing down and then quickly back to their seat. People just aren't as bothered any more.

Hopefully similar in Cologne. That's where we're flying into and based.

Becoming a regular occurrence this season. Lots of empty seats at the so called unfashionable places. West Ham another team who've really struggled with empty seats this season. Sunderlands last home game had 1000s of empty seats, same with Wolves the other night. Even Everton have suffered with empty seats at their new ground and Villa can't get people to turn up for their European home games (ticket prices being blamed). Brighton fans complaining about ticket prices yesterday. Apparently the lower sections were £59 and they're saying that's too much for a club like Brighton. Clubs are covering it up by still declaring full stadiums but in reality they're nowhere near.

They get 36.5k now. When we played them in the Championship it was their 1st sell out in 9 years and they had to apply for a safety certificate so that they could reopen their upper tier They've NEVER averaged 40k+ in their entire history. Not even 1 season. We've done it 35 times. The 2 clubs aren't up for comparison when it comes to support.

36k. They were averaging 25k less than 10 years ago though and in fact they've never averaged over 40k in a season in their entire history which is pretty remarkable considering it's the 3rd biggest city in the UK and they are the only team in it.

6 shots hit at him so far 5 conceded I think it is.

It was about players who've arrived with hefty price tags.

Champions League games have been poor as well. Bilbao was dead. Even Barcelona was pretty average.

Think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head there mate. I've even noticed this season that the excited collective roar that the crowd have always made (which sort of starts off quieter and then builds) when we are on the attack is also starting to disappear as well. Just no real encouragement for the players. We used to be the best crowd at pressurising the referee, that's sadly not the case now either. Just no enthusiasm inside the place these days. It's a shame and there's a host of different reasons for it.

I honestly don't think there's any real appetite from any party, whether that's supporters or club, to do anything to improve things. I made the decision not to attend yesterday. First time since the takeover. Didn't apply in the ballot, didn't go for the members sale, didn't take advantage of the easy availability on resale either. Got to say SJP bores me these days. The football isn't particularly great on the eye (for the ticket cost) but worse still there's absolutely no life in the place whatsoever. It depresses me.

He would have set for life money wise if he'd stayed here. His next contract would likely have been 200k+ a week over 5 or 6 years. If that can't set you up for life when he'll already be a Millionaire you're doing something wrong. When you're as wealthy as the average top level PL footballer is I'd suspect, whilst it's still a big motivation, scoring goals and being genuinely happy and enjoying being at the top of your profession is surely your biggest ambition and watching his body language on the pitch, his lethargic performances, seeing how he's behaved in recent interviews suggests that's not him. It's going to get worse for him as he'll have to get used to playing 2nd fiddle to Ekitike who looks a far better player I honestly believe that if he could wind the clock back to last July that's exactly what he'd do.

Agree. If every player put in a level of performance the same as what he did today from now till the end of the season we'd lose a lot more than we'd win.

That's pretty much exactly what'll happen.

He hasn't shown anything like that for us though so shouldn't start in these next 2 massive games. As things stand right now Murphy is miles clear of Elanga.