ExiledGeordie

Looks the real deal

Great effort

Thauvin on for 30 mins surely

Coupled with a baffling ability to f*** up the most promising quick breaks Unbelievable stuff

I'd rather see a fit Tiote in there. McClaren can get him back to how he was under Hughton, doing the simple things well before Pardew talked him up as Michael Essien

He is and always has been shite

Midfield is weak as piss

It's ridiculous but you'd like to think Thauvin and Perez will see him off fairly soon.

We definitely need another CB and left back but I'd accept one before the window shuts

I agree BG. I'm excited to see this lad play. Defence still a major concern though

I'd probably agree with you to be honest

My thoughts exactly. For all Ashley's speech and McClaren taking up top 8 and aiming for a cup, the recruitment drive has fallen well short so far. Six with meaningful first team impact should be signed minimum this window.

How is this lad not playing ffs?

This is a great point. The level of coaching has been so utterly woeful for so long that it's going to take a long time to turn it round. The number of bad habits/attitude the players must have developed over the Pardew years and then into complete apathy under Carver.

Talk is cheap....as expected hardly the revolution this summer his Sky PR speech insinuated

Just watched the highlights on MOTD, looked absolute rubbish and so much if that squad just plainly isn't up to it. 3 summer signings as yet is a paltry haul. Things were obviously just made harder when Janmaat got himself sent off but for me there's just too many question marks in the side - Coloccini outmuscled on a cross for a goal, Cisse ineffective, the combination of Colback/Anita simply isn't good enough, very little in the way of decent squad backup. Major work still to do and major investment needed to avoid a season of struggle.

The board will never fully back him to help him succeed. As someone has already mentioned the board wants to do the bare minimum to get by, that's it.

Far to early to judge properly but starting the likes of Obertan is concerning and the squad is nowhere near up to his aim of the top 8. Im intrigued to see how things pan out but I'm not very optimistic.

A recruitment "drive" to bring in 3 players this summer would still leave us woefully short squad wise and is hardly the start of a revolution. Hoe to god some more players arrive before September 1st.

Obertan ahead of Perez, lol

For half a decade he was quite happy to take a wage and put up with the transfer policy he had to follow. That didn't stop him constantly praising, commending and brown nosing 'Mike' including dedicating fucking wins to him in interviews. The press who all seem to love him apart from Stuart Robson (who tells it like it is) don't mentioned that we had to deal with this under his tenure: Implicating fans in results Shocking tactics and style of football Defending 1-0 leads Back to back 3-0 home derby losses Regression in pretty much every player we signed

I know McClaren hasn't necessarily been able to translate good coaching into consistent results but I'm looking forward to see if he can actually bring on a few players. Given we had Carver and then that charlatan Pardew before that most of the players have stood still or gone backwards.

Both. But given how we operate in the TF market that doesn't mean he'll arrive does it

My mate knows one of the existing players very well and has been working with some of the new lads recently. One of the Dutch lads mentioned Willems to him.