Away Toon

Newcastle have contacted Arsenal with a proposal to loan unsettled Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 32, for the rest of the season. (Sunday Mirror) The Magpies have been quoted more than £50m for Benfica and Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez, 22. (The I) Newcastle officials are hopeful that a deal for Atletico Madrid and England full-back Kieran Trippier, 31, will be completed in the next few days. (Luke Edwards on Twitter)

Don't think we'll be buying or loaning Ake.

Anybody who doesn't think we need to upgrade Dubravka knows fuck all about football and especially goalkeepers.

There is a certain inevitability about what is going to happen next.

We know we need 2 or 3 goals to win a game, miss your chances and we die. I'll take a draw.

There is a good player in Longstaff somewhere lets hope Howe can find the key to unlock it

Small margins, Wilson getting offside in the first half when we should have scored and ASM just now missing a fairly easy chance. We need another and ideally 3 goals to see this out, MU cant be this shit for the rest of the game surely.

Watching Wilson potentially injured every match shows how desperate we are to get the best back up or upgrade possible now.

Let the tonking begin.

Newcastle face competition from Manchester United and Tottenham in the race to sign England defender Kieran Trippier, 31, from Atletico Madrid. (90min) Tottenham, Newcastle, West Ham and Rangers are battling it out to sign West Brom and England goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, 28. (Teamtalk) Newcastle have joined Brighton in the race to sign Tottenham and Wales defender Joe Rodon, 24. (Times - subscription required)

It's a pretty low bar to say that Joe is our best midfielder, maybe he is, but the standard is so low it doesn't mean anything. Our current defense and midfield would have us in the shit in the Championship. Joe was bought for a lot of money as a striker or an auxiliary striker, his record is terrible. He's the worst value for money signing we have probably ever made with Almiron probably second.

How are we going to persuade someone like Trippier to sign? Lots of loot and a long contract for starters. But Trippier is too good and too old to spend a season and maybe longer in the Championship, so what then? If we are relegated let him walk on a free or a minimal fee? Any reasonably good still ambitious player is not going to join us now unless we give them a way out if we get relegated. Good Championship players like the Chilean from Blackburn and the boy from Forest we are linked with might be the only way for us to go. If they are good enough now they might keep us up, if not they help us build back up next season.

That would mean playing 3 CB's and we don't even have 3 fit ones never mind that they are all shit. Almiron is a shit none creating none scoring player like Joe, playing them in completely different positions because they are so shit in the actual ones they should be played in is not going to help.

team chemistry, what the fuck are you talking about?

Zero end product since he arrived here, but as he runs around a lot and is constantly played out of position (?) people seem to think he's not a problem.

He's definitely one of our more talented players although that bar is very low. But he's never really going to be a defensive player and as an attacker we've had plenty of time to see how little of a goal threat he is. Not sure where that leaves him. Hopefully sold and out of the team along with 99% of the rest of the squad.

Looked like he got caught in possession quite a lot and gave the ball away frequently. The stats will back it up I'm sure. Anyhow he's not mobile or aggressive enough to be a defensive midfielder in case people are thinking that's what we should do with him.

While Eddie fiddles NUFC burns.

Should be. He won't change the way he plays and it's not working.

Top managers need to be flexible and adaptable and find solutions. Howe wasn't when he was at Bournemouth and so far there is no sign that he will be here.

Apparently Digne thinks Rafa's football is too defensive. For Everton he's right, for us he's just what we needed.

Howe hasn't showed so far that he's learnt any lessons, why are you now convinced he will?

He has changed the team substantially. However we are no better than we were under Bruce and don't have anymore points than I expect Bruce would have got.

We are a terrible team with a manager who is not in any way suited to what we needed this season, unless we buy early and extremely intelligently in January we are down. All the people saying we were going to beat Leicester shouldn't be posting on a football forum because they know SFA.

So far MU are stinking