Barnes23

Don't think he's that good, like. Nowhere near CL quality.

5. Over to Howe, who will now be the determining factor.

It will be a great window if we have done enough to stay up, and only time will tell on that one.

Pleased with this signing, although would ideally like another CB in as well. Although I think another forward should probably be our next objective in order of priority. Would gain a lot of respect for Howe if he were to drop Lascelles instead of Schar.

Pretty sure I've read we're working by committee, with Howe and Tindall having a significant input. It's not much of a stretch to assume the domestic targets by and large are Howe's picks moreso than the others, especially as some of the foreign targets have been described as on our radar for some time.

Don't think Henderson is any better than Dubravka.

Goodison tonight:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10441377/Newcastle-hopeful-concluding-deal-cash-strapped-Lyon-midfielder-Bruno-Guimaraes.html

Marveaux was such a classy player, criminal how little we got to see of him like many players from that era. Some of his passing was on a different level, in terms of "football IQ" he was every bit the equal of Cabaye and Ben Arfa. Well deserving of a permanent place in my avatar imo

Embarrassing commentary tbh, would be happy to have him but a "*wow*" signing this is not

Definitely not a good thing imo, ASM should be played wide or not at all.

He's a number 10, in the right setup I think there is still a valuable player there. Far more useful in that role than ASM or any other player in our squad.

Schar definitely works better in a three, but I'd far rather see him than Lascelles regardless. The frequency of errors Lascelles is making is probably one of the easiest vital issues to fix in the team right now, assuming Carlos or someone of similar quality (or really, any quality) comes in.

Sorry, but this is totally baseless. People want it to be true, because he's the manager we happen to have. But on the evidence of the first 10 games, I'm not sure how anyone could reach that conclusion. It would be premature to talk of relieving him of his duties right now, perhaps, but the pressure should absolutely be on because we don't have time to waste. Talk of persisting with him even if we go down, not even factoring in what our performances could look like from now until the end of the season, is even crazier. We have no obligation to the man; this kind of undue loyalty totally clouds the possibility of any kind of critical thinking about the direction we need to take going forward.

Not sure how anyone could look at the circumstances of Howe's appointment and believe it was part of some long-term masterplan, and not just a new ownership (with negligible experience of the game) selecting what they believed to be the best managerial candidate they were able to attract in incredibly hurried and difficult circumstances. Also not sure how anyone could watch our games since Howe's arrival and feel he is automatically deserving of a place in our long-term plan irrespective of results in the coming weeks. Also, who gives a fuck what the media say? Stop caring about them, they don't care about you.

As had been said by others, it's the lack of improvement in our attacking play that is most concerning of all IMO. I wasn't expecting any miracles defensively with our personnel, but aside from retaining the ball better (some of the time), there has been very little in terms of patterns of play which make me believe any kind of tactical transformation is on the horizon. At what point do people think we should consider making a change? I'm not having this argument that we're duty-bound to stick with him to the end of the season or even after relegation simply because we chose him post-takeover and there are major issues with the squad. Can't pretend I wouldn't love to see Rafa back if things haven't improved significantly in the coming weeks.

Couldn't see that working at all. I'd have him back as manager though if Howe fails to keep us up.

80m apparently

Most of Rondon's time in the PL was labouring away as an extremely isolated frontman in Tony Pulis's West Brom, one of the worst sides for a striker to be in you could think of. False equivalence imo, Rondon at his peak is 3 times the player.

Don't know why anyone would assume he's here until the summer only. Expect he'll sign a 3 year deal and be around next season at least.

Ridiculous fee, grim signing. Will be interesting to find out how much of a hand Howe had in this one.

Enjoyed the juxtaposition of two Rafas talking smack to each other though

Cantwell has shown promise in the PL for sure but to me he just perfectly fits the profile of the kind of player who would come into our setup and underwhelm.

I agree, but what does that say about our own game plan? No coincidence our best game under Howe so far has been against Man.U, a team also lacking a coherent identity right now.