Smal

It's not just hosting any international fixture though is it. It's the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A state whose dictatorship regime commits war crimes and murders Yemeni schoolchildren, chops up journalists, executes LGBTQ people and imprisons any dissenting voices. They would be playing at SJP as a display and celebration of our club's links with that regime.

Really don't like it at all. Hope protests are arranged (not necessarily just by NUFC fans) if it does happen. Also really hate to think that there'll be NUFC fans going along to support the Kindgom of Saudi Arabia, ffs.

Please can we go get this guy

Ashby might've been brought in to loan out and then sell for FFP purposes. I think we need to get used to that kind of thing. If Ashby is amazing on loan and becomes first team quality then there's even more upside for us.

yeah, given how little pace he does have it was remarkable that it was very rarely actually exposed, which is a testament to how good a defender he is really. The main thing he struggles with is his passing. It's fine for a centre back but not left back where you have significantly fewer passing options and need to be better.

He’s helped shut down some of the best wingers in the PL last season tbf.

certainly seems like someone who could play BDB's role:

Adam Armstrong? Mike Ashley really did some long term damage to some of you 5 goals in 67 appearances the last couple of seasons. We have at least 5 players who I’d rather start up front ahead of him already.

One of Longstaff’s better individual performances came when Bruno was out in February (might’ve been against West Ham where weren’t great collectively, but Longstaff was the best of the bunch iirc) and he had to play at the base of midfield. He had a couple of stinkers early in the season playing there but that was before he’d gained any confidence back really. I think he’ll be able to back that position up as well as rotating for the right-sided 8 slot. He’ll get plenty of game time.

Scored edit: disallowed

Can we buy Nixon a suit or something for when he does these meetings in Milan. I feel like going in a polo shirt, jeans and trainers is probably offensive there

surely a 3 year deal would make no sense from an amortisation pov?

for some reason I have it in my head that Italian midfielders don’t turn out great in the PL and I think it’s entirely down to Alberto Aquilani.

Not a player who seems capable of the level we're at or aiming to be at.

Think Arteta wants both 8s to play very high and in the forward 5 for his 4-3-3/3-2-5. Havertz is much more suited to that role than Xhaka ever was. I think it might work out.

very impressive and clinical performance. We've got some team here.

nice movement and finish

in the last year of his contract it kind of is.

Burn provides the balance. Against decent sides a good rest defence has 5 outfield players in it to defend on transitions and ours regularly does with Burn, Botman, Schar and two midfielders generally behind the ball when it’s turned over high up the field. If you start sending two full backs flying forward you’d need to pull someone else back to keep the defensive structure/solidity. We don’t really want all 3 midfielders having to defend transitions. Yes we can upgrade on Burn’s athleticism and ability on the ball for build-up, but getting some more ability and flexibility in forward areas is way more important imo. Our defensive record was mega last season.

The wages seem like a stumbling block, aye. To me it would seem sensible to offer him a salary just above what he's on with guaranteed increases year on year.

I hate to defend Edwards, truly I do, but he won’t have been the one to write the headline and his tweet simply says nufc are working hard to get it done.

The run in looks pretty good for us

don’t really believe this. Seems about £30m too little.

Didn't know where to put this so just putting it here. We are the 12th best across the big 5 leagues at creating from set-pieces when adjusted for volume (ie, per attempt). We really need to get better at attacking the ball at these set-pieces next year. We could also defend them a lot more efficiently than we do. We have massive players so we really should be doing better than we managed last season.