Lush Vlad

Yeah, I mentioned the Fulham game last season the ticket prices were a joke. They seem to have go A LOT worse since.

Do you think this will be exclusive to us and I also wonder how it compares to other seasons. Shit weather, which plays a part for people with a long way to travel. Also a midweek game with a ridiculous KO time and it's just after Christmas in the middle of a stretch of 4 home games in a row across a 10 days. EDIT - you and Ian beat me to it.

The most notable one in fairly recent times is Bruno's winner against Leicester. The whole crowd giving it the G'WAAAAN as Willock skins Tielemans. Always seems to be a slight hush before with the collective intake of breath. It's glorious and we need more of it.

The lower bowl in the away end still makes it feel miles away. The upper must be the equivalent of L7, but more like L10.

Unlucky Strasbourg fans. Bloke comes across as an absolute tit and was always happy to blame everyone else and throw his players under the bus.

Better than the mackem who is perma-impressed with himself. The most smug presenter in all of sports. Dave Cunt. Or whatever his name is.

Gets on BBC a fair bit, radio and I think MOTD (don’t watch it much). He’s decent.

I wonder what attendance they give tonight? Looks half empty!

I can’t say I’m shocked Humphrey used to come across as a nice enough bloke on BT Sports. But he really is Mr LinkedIn. Always dropping Accidental Partridges and all.

Bloody lovely. Estrella Galicia and a bowl of these. Made me want to book a holiday now.

BASINGSTOKE REDS GREEN & GOLD SCARF FROM THE CLUB SHOP

I often thought he was quite safe with his passing. Even though it was neat and tidy and mostly accurate. But from right back, he seems to have found a new confidence. Regulrly passing forward, I suppose you sort of have to from there , breaking lines, causing more problems with his passing. I've been more impressed with his footwork and ability to play out of trouble himself. He has a really nice sort of Fabregas move where he comes to the ball, feints and does a 90 or 180 to turn away and make some space. Sometimes without even touching the ball. Quick feet 2-3 times against Palace and in other games, too. No idea what the kids call it, but right to left/vice versa to make room to then dribble away with it once the defender has over-committed. The more I think about it. Being more calm and safe on the ball in our current midfield setup wouldn't be a bad thing. It's always 100MPH and we lose it far too often. I've always thought he looked best centrally. But then that might waste some of the attributes mentioned above and also his shooting ability. Bruno does alright getting goals, mind. He often seems to be a bit of a hybrid between the two roles.

You don't think, that might skew your opinion on the player afterwards? You've made your point, you've gone early and then even if they're showing you something different. You're sticking to your guns. Seems like previous biases would take over and influence how you feel. But that is just my opinion. I think your views on Isak sort of prove this in my eyes. I remember you saying Isak wasn't world class/elite or whatever it was. He was never a ruthless finisher when he joined and he massively improved his movement in the box during his time here. He became far more aggressive, as well. 3 good scoring seasons in a much tougher league than the ones he had been playing in. He was poor back to goal and holding it up and in the air for his height, which you've levelled at Woltemade. Obviously the pace in behind and his dribbling ability balance that out. There isn't a perfect 9 in all of world football at the minute, I wouldn't have said. They all have some flaws. Half interested in what you think his flaws still were when he left. But we've also gone round in circles a bit. So not sure I can be arsed to carry it on

He has to say he'll play there. Poor sod won't get a game otherwise. Gordon seems to be un-droppable in Howe's eyes. I think it's far more than just a few disappointing performances. It is easy to understand why people are frustrated. As plenty have said on here. He seems to be attempting to play a totally different game, one which he isn't very good at. Body language, effort, mentality or whatever it is all seem different and the worst part is. We leave our best finisher on the bench all the while or we totally NERF him by shoving him out to the right wing. At least we now know why they never switch during a game and why Barnes has to go to the right if Gordon comes on and Barnes stays on.

Or he played a blinder and just made Ashworth the bad guy. Either way, it was the correct decision.

Ah. Wish I'd checked now. Could have saved myself the hassle of trying to remember it and type it out

My theory of some players are just easier to drop, move position or sub rings true at all levels of football then. Some are just divas. If Gordon was in his form of 2 seasons ago, then fine. But he's been nowhere near and he's hardly been pulling up any trees playing on the left. Considering Gordon's attributes are far better suited to the right than Barnes', the fact Barnes has been more of a threat than him on the left for a good while. Oh and the fact Gordon has been mostly average to crap, with some top games thrown in for most of 2025. Then he should be having a go on the right or on the bench. Piss poor all round IMO. Unless there are a load of other comments that follow that means it's totally out of context. Or it is a bit of a game or even a challenge from Howe to the player? Howe is shrewd as fuck. He'll know that comment will play badly with most of the fans and the media, social media, podcasts etc will all pick up on it. I think/hope there is more to it than him genuinely just not telling Gordon to get on with it.

I can't find the clip now. But there was one of him from that same podcast, where he is talking about his move to Forest. Made it sound like he was desperate to stay, but Forest were offering 2.5 years on the same/more money. He would have happily stayed for just another season on a similar deal. Howe said he can't sign off on that and he needs to speak to Dan Ashworth. Who just said "no" Shelvey then called him something daft on the pod like a midget. He genuinely seems to love Newcastle and the area and wanted to stay. But he didn't warrant a new deal. Especially on £80k a week or whatever.

100%. I suppose they all do in some way. Apart from maybe true dinosaurs like Allardyce, Brewcie, Pulis etc. Even listening to it on the dog walk this morning. I had a wry smile, as some of it did sound a bit like Howe's terminology. But it all seemed very forced and unnatural with Rosenior. Like he was coached to speak like that or it was a conscious decision to start speaking this way.

Still not sure where all the nice, charismatic guy stuff comes from with Amorim. Find him anything but. Like I mentioned the other day, it seems like he has been daring them to sack him for a while. Hasn't he regularly thrown his players under the bus, too? The way he always made out like he needed players for his system, putting them in a position to fail and didn't he also say something like it was the worst Manchester United ever/in recent history? Or words to that effect. Mental appointment the more you look at it. Didn't Liverpool get put off him because he was so wedded to his system and his system only? Did Man U think they'd be able to get him to change or did they think it would be successful with what they had? It was basically a crock of shite for months on end, he gets backed but they don't fundamentally get loads better and then he goes full nuclear after the Leeds game. Shame he's gone. As I don't think he would have consistently found success with a system that was so easy to create chances against. I think with the squad they have and a better manager. They will do well.

Is this because Howe went on there or because he's already done one? He honestly sounded like I was reading a generic LinkedIn post. Usually written by ChatGPT, I'm sure. I'm going to listen to the Lewandowski High Performance pod, mind that will be only the second one I've properly bothered with after Howe.

Someone described Rosenior as being very Diary of a CEO or a guest of the show. Heard some clips of him this morning and he does sound very much like someone Jake Humphrey wants on the his High Performance show. All sounded very LinkedIn, full of buzz words, management speak and just cringe as fuck. All that said. The comments around what he had done from pundits, journos and players that he had coached all sounded really promising. I hope it fails, either way. Because it's Chelsea and the whole Blueco thing and multi-club setups in general are a disgrace.

Put on a plate seems a bit harsh. Spurs in the cup when it was a keeper error and Chelsea when it fell to him, (he was in the right place to put it in, surely you like that?!). The headers have been decent, as have the flicks. It's not like he's been scoring tap ins 4 yards out all the while. Although, based on some of your later comments. You might prefer it if they were Fair enough one was a penalty. But it was a ruthless finish. The Chelsea game and the City games showed glimpses of him showing some more natural instincts and looking to make those runs in behind or into the box. How many of Isak's goals would have been 'put on a plate' for him, using whatever your criteria is?! I also distinctly remember being plenty of chatter on here about Isak often pulling off to the penalty spot and not attacking the 6 yard box or the box in general enough. He improved on this loads and then got worse again in a lot of games. Barnes second v Man U and a couple of others he got pelters for not being the one on the end of it. So in that regard, I'm not sure it's fair to have a go at him for being a bit slow and not being able to outpace Willock, one of our quickest players. Or keep up with Barnes who arguably makes the best runs in our whole squad and timed it to perfection. I also referenced him needing to adapt his game. But you seem to have somehow conveniently ignored that bit. I'm not sure he is a natural finisher, he has already missed some easy chances, I think a couple have been offside or would have been offside, luckily for him and us. The same as his those instincts around what runs to make and almost sniffing out the chance the way that someone like Wissa does, is often lacking. I'm not sure how much you can coach these attributes. But I think he has already shown improvement in this regard, as mentioned above. I'm also not only on about goals or chances when I say we don't play to his strengths. CB's have started going really tight to him and following him. Meaning he is losing some contested balls, but also that we don't always look to pass it to him and trust him in that situation. Nor do we have anyone close to him for him to lay it off to. It creates a lot of space for the wide me to come off their wing (like Gordon and Barnes do at times already) and also for our 8's to get beyond him. He is often contesting for balls and doesn't usually lose it straight away or anything. So why have we not looked to get a midfielder closer to him for lay offs or to win the second ball? He regularly looks isolated and stood up there like his only role is to win headers and be the big man in a 4-5-1 for a defensive team. Which he isn't and we certainly aren't. On you saying you're possibly being too harsh. I certainly think you are. Describing him as a lumbering CF and making out like our entire team needs to change to suit him. When in fact some tweaks from certain players and passing patterns and some changes from Woltemade himself. Could see us being a very effective side. Especially when we were already getting found out in games last season and gripes around the 4-3-3 and lack of flexibility have been mentioned numerous times over Howe's tenure. Do most competitive to successful sides play the same way year after year after year? I very much doubt that. If you're that way inclined, I think he is slightly outperforming his xG in the league at +1.1 and that includes a penalty, which is 0.7 odd. 9 in 20 starts and 6 sub apps in all comps isn't too shabby. This is someone who wasn't expected to start straight out the gate, who is young and a very different style of player and not renowned for his goals. Coming from a league where they don't defend, too. All feels extremely premature and like you're being a bit of a contrarian to boot.

Not sure I agree there. I don’t think we’ve played to his strengths at all TBH. We have been very up and down in attack and often don’t even get him involved. I do also wonder long term about him fitting the system, mind. It is going to need some tweaks to get the best out of him. He will need to adapt his game and all. I can see both happening. Chelsea at home was very promising with some of his positioning and movement. As was Man City.

Just realised how good the build up was for the offside goal. I remember how well Tonali did as the last man v Mateta. But I didn’t realise 4-5 passes later was Wissa being played through. We’ve scored some cracking team goals this season. Barca, a couple against Benfica and the last one against USG. This would have been up there with the lot, I reckon. A lot of complaints this season. But I don’t remember loads of really well worked team goals over the seasons under Howe. So it‘s great to see and guessing it is to do with chemistry between certain players and our passing patterns.