Smal

obviously I understand why but Lascelles not getting on the bench makes me a bit sad . Poor lad.

don't like playing Villa. They seem to know how to exploit the space between our midfield and defence better than anyone and Watkins made Schar look silly all game last time. 0-3 to us, Gordon twice and Elanga

Bournemouth keeper has been honking on all 3

£115m player hooked when you’re trying to win the game

CL squad registration GK: Pope (HG) Gillespie (HG) Ramsdale (HG) Ruddy (HG) Thompson (Club HG) DEF: Trippier (HG) Hall (HG) Botman Schar Lascelles (HG) Thiaw Targett (HG) Krafth Livramento (HG) Ashby (HG) Burn (HG) A. Murphy (Club HG - ? I think he must qualify this summer having been here 3 years now) MID: Joelinton Tonali Barnes (HG) Willock (HG) Guimaraes Ramsey (HG) FWD: Gordon (HG) Isak Osula (HG) Elanga (HG) J. Murphy (HG) Players who can play without needing to be registered: Miley Nation home grown: 20/8 required Club home grown: 2/4 required Which means from the above squad of 28 players we need to cut 5 of them because we can only register 23 rather than 25 thanks to being short of the club home grown requirement by two. However, none of the 5 cut can be Max Thompson or Alex Murphy. Gillespie, Ruddy, Ashby and two others? Targett and Krafth? Of course if we add someone like Wissa/another striker and register them, we'd have to cut another as well.

loaning him out would be dumb. Loaning him out to the championship would be unthinkable we're going to have such a small squad for the CL

The full context for that quote: The head coach was asked on Friday if the 25-year-old could return to the squad in August. ‘As I sit here now, I don’t know that. Alex will control that,’ said Howe. ‘Alex's situation has been unchanged for a while and that will continue to be the case, I think.’ Does Howe want him to play? ‘Of course, I've said many times I want him to train and play,’ said the Newcastle boss. ‘I’ve had those conversations with him, but the details of these conversations need to remain private.’ Howe added: ‘It (training alone) is not something you ever want to see. You want to see him with the squad, you want to see him happy and enjoying his football. He is contracted to us. He is here, so for me, that is an unfortunate situation.’ Howe is open to reintegrating Isak into the squad - before or after the transfer deadline - but he knows of the player’s desire to move to Anfield. ‘All options and potential scenarios are open and available to Alex, I don’t think any door is closed,’ he said. ‘Ultimately, it’s going to depend on him and what happens in his situation. He will dictate that to a degree and we will facilitate that - and obviously try to get the best result for us and Newcastle.’ Howe, though, still believes there is way back for Isak at Newcastle. ‘Yes, I believe there is,’ he said. ‘But of course, discussions and talks would need to take place for that to happen. But that’s for another day. Today is Aston Villa and making sure we perform as well as we can.’

the more I think about it the more I like this actually. I think he suits us way more than Villa. If he can be available he should get lots of chances to score in our system like Willock and Joelinton do. I would trust Ramsey to be a better finisher than both, typically. Again with the caveat that he needs to stay fit enough to contribute, like.

it’s not weird, they are similar players. Advanced midfielders who can score goals and carry the ball well, but aren’t generally involved build up much at all. If we go to the last season where both players played over 2000 minutes in the league for a decent representation, guess who was the most similar player to Joe Willock across eleventy hundred different metrics?

I don’t think £40m is much here tbh . It’s at the bottom end of the £40m-£50m bracket I was expecting the fee to be. He is a highly rated player from a divisional rival at a good age. I just hope he can stay fit enough over the course of a season to have an impact.

we need to get another film made don’t we

I reckon I could stamp on it until it was unrecognisable without remorse

schadenfreude is all I’ve got left this window

Guehi to be 3rd choice at Liverpool and miss out on getting in the team at the world cup because he doesn’t play enough would be pretty good

player with a history of hamstring issues in an Eddie Howe side that consistently finishes near the top of the sprints charts? What could possibly go wrong

he’ll be 29 the year his contract is due to expire here. No release clause. Time to be vindictive as fuck!

he is 24 this year and was bad for QPR last season from what I can gather. He’ll play Championship at most.

Jacobs sounds every bit the dweeb I had him down as

covering most of his wages and no option to buy. that Anderson sale just gets worse and worse

Akliouche does seem to perform in all the metrics we don’t necessarily have in the squad, like. Gets the ball in the middle third and either passes or carries it into the final third/opponent’s box. Doesn’t score as many goals as he should be finishing can be improved. linked with Spurs since the Maddison injury.

they already were at the end of last season. Salah hasn't been good since January.

really unlikeable side, and not just because of Greenwood. I just wish Mings would've smacked him.

always liked Mings

a very small part of me wants him to be playing against us in the first home game just to see what Bruno/Joelinton/Schar/Burn do to him