Froggy

I don't see it that way. We have other executives in place and this isn't a sprint. Why would we overpay for someone who desperately wants to join us and can do so for free in 12 months time? I'd have been incredibly unhappy at us wasting a fortune to bring him in early.

I'd personally be delighted if we were tightening the purse strings a bit, but it's definitely not true. While I don't think we'll be firing out £350k pw contracts for a while, we're still going to pay players and managers a hefty chunk more than 99% of clubs. Our budget isn't £35m either, it's at least double that. I think that £35m figure originally came from Morgan as well, the lying little prick.

He's a little fucking dweeb. It's killing me seeing his work shared on here.

You keep quoting Daily Mail articles by Piers Morgan's son. What are you doing gdm?

And finally you, Sir Pata. Martinez was a bargain for starters. He's incredible, and integral to the way Ten Hag wants to play. The only way you can suggest he's not worth every penny and more is because he's spent significant time on the injury table. Regardless, he was signed to be a partner for Varane. Varane is now gone, so a new CB is required. Casemiro. Ten Hag didn't want him. Everyone knows this. He was a panic buy because we couldn't sign anyone else. He was quality in his first season, but either his legs have gone or he's checked out or both. Either way, we need a defensive midfielder now, as Amrabat will likely leave in the summer also. We literally do not have one. Hojlund was signed to share time with Martial and grow as a player. He ended up being the only striker all year. He's great, and will have a class future, but it's far too much pressure for a 21 year old to play 50-60 games a year as the lone striker. We needed a striker all season to support him, we just didn't have any money to be able to sign one in January. Not even a Weghorst. Yes, ETH wanted Antony, and he's shit. His price was €40m when Ten Hag asked for him. We tried to negotiate, left it too late, Ajax dug their heels in and we ended up making one of the worst signings in Premier League history. Also, the injuries. I've addressed this another thread. I'm trying to be kind. Our injuries were much worse than yours. We had more individual injuries, more individual players out injured, more players injured in a specific role. I've looked further into it to counteract the "days lost" stat, which is the only metric where you were above us injury wise. It doesn't include any injuries that were in place before the start of the season. That means Malacia, Mainoo, Diallo, Hojlund etc. all not included in that stat, which is around 16 months worth of injuries as well. Also, we all know wor Eddie did a great job this season. The same way Ten Hag did a great job last year given the mess he came into. Ignore the fact Ten Hag has won two trophies for a second. If Howe has a bad season next year and finishes say 12th or 13th, would you be calling for his head or would you back him? What if rival fans started laughing at you saying it's great that you're keeping Howe as you were so bad. Would you think they were complete morons who didn't have the slightest clue what they were talking about? Hopefully you see what I'm getting at here.

It's not that at all though. It's a negative. It's effective when you're a high possession side. When you're conceding 55/60% of the ball and still pressing that much and that high you're going to fade and leave huge gaps which is what we saw all year. It's just a response to short sighted comments about no style of play. We absolutely have a style of play under Ten Hag. Aside from the last few games of the season where he went more defensive, we had the same style of player all year which was to press high, turnover high and counter. We were poor though, and instead wasted opportunities and then got ran through on the counter.

Of course, because you don't really watch us and when you do, like others, you do it with a bit between your teeth and want to see faults everywhere you look. Fact remains, we've had the highest counter press success rate in the league the last two years running. We've had the most possession won in the final third and middle of the pitch. We had the second most pressing sequences in the league this year. It would be quite incredible to have those stats being a defensive side. We are absolutely anything but boring. your comment just proves you either don't watch us at all or you simply don't know what you're talking about. I don't watch many Newcastle games. But what I read on here suggests you're a high intensity team. You had the intensity of a wet fart in the cup final last year. You had the intensity of a wet shart at Old Trafford in a must win game against a defence of Casemiro and Jonny Evans. You're not in Europe because of that game. Should I base my opinion on those? It seems like that's what you're doing with us.

I mean, I said he'd stay and was laughed off of the forum. Froggy always knows big chief.

You're deluded if you think those four didn't want the job.

They absolutely would have been looking at replacements though this is the thing. In those days you would have never known. No twitter journalists leaking everything.

If that's not proof Ten Hag is the new Fergie then I don't know what is.

Not really. Sometimes it can come down to a single game. Fergie's future came down to one game as well. Ten Hag has shown he's a winner. He's delivered two trophies in two seasons. Back him in the summer, get the three main positions sorted, and see how he goes. If we're still conceding 20 shots a game he's gone by November provided we're not playing Jonny Evans and Disco at centre back again due to an injury crisis.

That's not what happened though. his job depended on the cup. He knew it. We all knew it. No managers were approached after that final. Any club in that position would be sending feelers out to make sure a plan is in place, it's just seemingly impossible for us to keep a lid on things. As I said earlier, we'd be called amateurish if we sacked him without a ready replacement.

Make no mistake, there were a lot of absolutely awful performances, and ones where it was entirely the managers fault. The team always did what was asked though. For 80% of the season that was playing kamikaze Ten Hag ball where they were being asked to press high and do full pitch sprints every two minutes. I'm usually all for a manager implementing their style and refusing to change, but with the injuries we had that wasn't viable. I'm glad he went more defensive in the final moments of the season or we would have been torn to shreds and finished 9th rather than finishing 8th with a trophy. He'll get his centre back, defensive midfielder and striker in the summer and with the important players fit, he'll need to deliver top four at a minimum or he'll likely be sacked unless he wins the Europa League. Just because we wanted him to stay doesn't mean we were entirely happy with how that season went.

Give that we've just won the FA Cup, I'd say it could be a lot more of a shambles.

It's printed about us every time there's a downturn of form and has been since Moyes came in. There's a ludicrous amount of absolute shit posted about us.

He's the complete opposite.

Plenty of posts today. Just nothing to say on Sir Dan. We either get him for cheap or wait a year and get him for nothing while you pay him millions. Probably working for us now anyway.

Rashford and his mates at the club have always leaked things through multiple managers. Just a rotten group. Sancho is part of it as well. I do think if Ten Hag had his way Rashford would be gone, but he's the golden boy PR dream, born in Manchester. He's not going anywhere.

Sancho isn't part of the squad and likely will never be again. There's nothing to suggest Rashford doesn't like Ten Hag, he's just a lazy, useless fucker.

The squad loves Ten Hag.

Why would they know before that?

I genuinely just think Casemiro has gone to shit. Although from decent sources he wasn't injured for the final and instead threw the head up because he wouldn't be playing so if he wasn't checked out before he will be now. He's almost certainly played his last game from the club if PIF can help us shift him. If you say a bad word about Mainoo again though I will find you and I will hurt you.

Worth noting, I'm well aware how good Sancho can be. His issues aren't his ability. He has a well documented and proven record of poor discipline both at Dortmund and us. I'm happy for players like that to leave, and if we can recoup £40m for him I would get rid of him without a second thought. I'd sell Rashford for the same if I could. Sancho + £20m (from Greenwood money) would get us a player like Olise, which I'd be delighted with.