Stottie

I'm in the mood for pizza!

Only two teams outside the Sky Six have finished in the Top 4 in about twenty years, Leicester who won it all and us last year. Neither had European football at the time. Villa have a great team and I rate Emery, but it's a massive task, a twice in twenty years' task. I expect them to go deep in Europe though and quite possibly win it. In games from Jan 1 2023, we scored something like 10 goals below xG. Pope was unbeatable first half of the season, but reverted to just above average for the season as a whole. This means our defensive record was no fluke, and our goals scored has been limited by poor finishing, especially from set pieces. Some posters mention the Leicester game as a sign of our impotency, but we hit the post three times, one with Bruno less than one yard out.

The way things stand, I don't mind RW (miggy gordon murph) or particularly LB, esp. if Livramento is coming. If I could handpick a position, I'd like a specialist DM. Earlier in the summer I wanted a striker, but Gordon looked good enough for the U21s. Schar is always going down but is very good at getting back up again. If he wasn't then yes, we are light at CB.

We're good at SJP so I think we'll get a result in a tight game. Villa won their last seven games at home but were 2-3-2 in their last seven away. Our last seven at home were 5-1-1 and 4-2-1 away. I think we'll go conservative in midfield, so no Tonali or Anderson. Longstaff Bruno JL7. Longstaff didn't play at Villa Park and was seen as a factor in us being over-run. Tonali struggled physically with Villa in the USA friendly, so I see him as unlikely to start. Up front, I think we'll see Miggy right, Isak central and Gordon. Barnes is a decent shout though, especially if we have a conservative midfield. If it's Gordon, I'd expect more of him than at Villa Park. He already looks a different player.

fwiw, I would buy a young prospect with the idea of him being a future Wilson replacement, but would not sell Wilson. His strike rate is too high.

Based on what we paid for Chris Wood, Callum Wilson would theoretically be worth a lot to a team facing relegation and needing goals, cough, cough Everton. It looks like Wood might have been a British record at the time for an over 30 player, but has since been eclipsed by Casemiro and probably now some Saudi ones, if anyone wants to look them up. https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ranked-the-10-most-expensive-transfers-for-players-over-30-ever

Stevie G and Brendan Rodgers, not exactly adverts for transferable managerial expertise in SPL. Makes you wonder what Tottenham are doing....

I wonder what Bayern are paying him. It sounded like he wanted megawedge from Man U. There is little risk of Kane not performing, but I suppose the SA situation changes things with high wage players. Rather than being simply stuck with them if they don't perform or cause trouble like Mane, there's Saudi you can offload them to now.

I strongly believe this should be changed to a Top Five, and am also fairly confident we can finish in the Top Five. I would be far less confident of us getting to a cup final this season, because we'll field weaker teams and are unlikely to be as fortunate as 22-23 with the draw we are given. It may upset some older fans, I'm mid fifties myself, but CL qualification is what raises commercial revenue, allows more signings, and in turn makes domestic cup success more likely. If anything, I think crowd impatience for cup success was a factor in general nervousness in the semi that fed into the players and contributed to Bruno being sent off in a tie we were clearly winning. Not winning a trophy for decades is not Eddie or PIF's fault and should not cloud their priorities. We finished last season strongly, have signed someone who can provide creativity and set tempo in midfield like Bruno, and upgraded Maxi with someone more likely to go direct toward goal and whack the ball into it. Liverpool, Villa, Spurs etc, have made eyecatching signings who may glitter more than ours, but we're the ones with the settled defence, and settled system. We're not relying on any new purchases hitting the ground running or any new system to work from day one. Expecting Liverpool's new midfield to instantly work, especially with a pivot DM who lacks the concentration to play right back, strikes me as far from a given.

Drawitis of 22-23 continues into 23-24 preseason. Worrying.

Looked like a blow to the face and simultaneous knee to the groin.

If Miggy continues scoring, a lot of people are going have to admit that he is actually a really good footballer. Neek Pope! coming on.

Our goal came after Murphy's header, which would be 0.4-0.5 xG for the nerds. It was not "against the run of play". Gordon looks quick thinking and very composed on the ball. When you remember that he also happens to be about the third or fourth fastest player in the league, something we've hardly exploited in his time here, he has potential galore. By contrast, Mudryk is looking a bit like ASM, extremely skilful and unpredictable, but not really effective.

I love Wor Flags, but Miggy's head on a stick is pretty cool.

Brilliant goal! Who cut the sound to Eddie?!

Modern BBC, shout down anyone for pointing out Stanley Johnson beat his wife and put her in hospital, i.e., free pass over minority rights for UK vested interests, but hassle a sportswoman from another country, them not surprisingly picking on a Muslim one, over that country's perceived minority rights.

We should play in hoops not stripes because it will make our players look bigger and install fear in opponents.

Since we're in the USA Philogene is not my lover She's just the girl who claims that I am the one But the kid is not my son

Impressive power with his weaker left foot at 2:03 in the video.

Yey, over the line! Speaks well in that vid and sounds a good lad. Quick bit of maths, but league winner in past seven seasons (i.e., not Leicester) has averaged 92 goals. Second place has averaged 85. This is the new normal for the Pep-Klopp era. We scored 68 last season, which was great and the same as Leicester when they won it, but the new normal now applies and for the next step up, we need more goals. Goals to help us win games and not draw them. I see Tonali for Longstaff and Barnes for Maxi as a solid step toward getting those goals.

I wonder how much strapping Maxi had on during the medical he's just passed. His legs were looking like Boris Karloff in The Mummy last season. As for any controversy over the fee, buying two from darlings Liverpool first was a genius move. Top drawer sportswashing. With the Chelsea lads and Neves too, it's now a plague on everyone's houses. Time to shut up and find another stick to beat us with. "You know, them Geordies would rather lose 4-3 than win 1-0" or some other old condescension.

Nice one to Villa for Diaby. Ambitious move. Personally, I welcome more teams scrapping it out at the top. Aside from our own results, every point Villa, Brighton, Brentford etc. take off Liverpool, Man United, Tottenham etc. is a good one. I fully look forward to Diaby smashing it past Allison and Mitoma knocking one past Onana. The more any Sky six club embraced the European Super League, the more I want them to lose. I don't want to see Villa beat say Burnley, but that's because you have to cheer the underdog. I'd happily see us finish behind Villa or Brighton on merit and would prefer that to us finishing behind Chelsea due to FFP, i.e., our owners not being allowed to put in money to a level that would be easily sustainable for them. For all Villa, Brighton and even us buy good players and develop good playing styles, when push comes to shove, when its "orange card" time or a team is one goal down in a game featuring delays, it'll be the Sky Six who get the extra minutes added on or the yellow not red card. Just rewatch Brighton-Tottenham to see how bad it can be.

Murphy is going to get minutes this season. Howe clearly likes him and I think fans underrate him. probably due to two or three high profile misses with memorable Ando screams and groans. If I were a promoted club with only 20 million to spend on a wide player, I'd be tempted to bid for Murphy if I thought Newcastle would sell. Played exclusively as a winger, I'd trust him to get 5-6 goals and 5-6 assists. He did a fine job deputizing for Miggy a few months ago. For context, Brennan Johnson got 8 goals and 3 assists and he's worth an arm and a leg.

A longer than I expected flick back through fbref suggests it's Laurent Robert with 11 in 2001-2002. https://fbref.com/en/squads/b2b47a98/2001-2002/Newcastle-United-Stats Danny Guthrie had 12 in one season in the Champo. Matt Ritchie got 8 in one season and Joey Barton got 9.