nortoon

More important than any signing we could make. He seemed fantastic towards the end of last season.

I would also like to keep Tiote. It's not like he is going to go for a massive fee, and he was the most solid of a shit bunch this past season.

Desperate to keep Townsend and Lascelles, hopefully the rumored 8m Townsend clause is bullshit. Would like to see Anita, Tiote, Mbemba, Aarons stay. I also think Sissoko would be a beast but I doubt he will stay even if Rafa does. I think there is a chance Thauvin might do good from a year in the championship under an actual manager. Might actually become something and pay back some of that transfer fee eventually, he was very highly rated a couple of years ago. Only other thing we can do is offload him for a pittance of what we paid. I like Janmaat and he seems to care, but I just don't think he is a very good player. Defensively suspect and makes stupid decisions on the field, not very quick either. Getting game time for Holland can do wonders for your reputation. Sell him and play Anita RB. Wijnaldum can rot in hell. 11 Prem goals will hopefully give us back what we paid. He will be a great player for a team providing they don't get in the shit. Would try to offload Shelvey, Colback, Colo, Riviere, and Gouffran (dream on). Hopefully Rafa will get someone to play next to Tiote in midfield who can actually pass the ball and not be a bystander in other areas. A quick striker would be welcome as well. I'd keep Dummett/Haidara and get a new LB after promotion.

Wijnaldum every day of the week. Possibly the most talented player to come through the door since Ben Arfa, if he had given a shit we could have avoided relegation.

I base this on absolutely nothing. But I assume most clubs in the top leagues have a massive scouting system spanning most of the globe, certainly Europe and South America, with a plethora of scouts. We have Graham Carr watching Ligue 1 and Eredivisie, with 2 or 3 goons assisting him in other parts of the world.

Nani's bastard son coming on.

Manu look crap. I'm not relaxing.

He is clearly a very talented footballer. I'm still very 50/50 on how good he will become though. If he can manage to become quicker or stronger he could become almost Suarezesque and be a star as a striker or CAM. What worries is how small and weak he is. Those sorts of players usually make up for it with pace, and he isn't lightning quick. He accelerates with the ball at his feet but he never seems to sprint past anyone over any noticeable distance. Like when he won the ball against palace after having been on the pitch for 10 minutes the other day. He still got caught up relatively easily. If he can either get some muscle or improve his top speed, he could be really special.

There is no doubt he's a good player. But even only having to play 15 minutes I didn't see him put in the intense effort that the rest of them did. It's just small things like Anita sprinting past him to intercept, not jumping for balls he probably won't get to. He sort of jogs over to his man and then he's happy.

"city would argue that a challenge from Mbemba should have been a penalty". He should just lose his job.

Tiote has been fantastic

Can you do that to Aguero instead Perez. Don't get Navas subbed!

This is not a Papiss Cisse game. We desperately need Mitro on now!

I'm sure they will be more focused on not letting the crowd affect them and such nonsense like every time Sunderland comes.

Cisse is never very good when he has to play that far away from his goal. I assume Rafa wants Mitrovic to be fresher than the defenders when he comes on. As long as we are still in the game before he's thrown on it can work. Hopefully we can have a Wijnaldum who bothers coming on and actually making runs once Perez tires as well. I know it might be wishful thinking but a Wijnaldum who gives a crap can finish this game for us together with mitro. Colback has been absolutely terrible. It's like when he has the ball he avoids space and runs into players, he also does that thing Smith used to do that when someone is in trouble and passes to him he one-touch passes it back. That last ball Sissoko was about to run away with wasn't out either was it? This linesman is the only thing worse than Colback.

You Beautiful beatiful man!

Colback is having his worst 15 minutes I have ever seen from him as well. Just blindly running into trouble every time he gets the ball.

I mean its from a free kick, he can just stand there and open his eyes. Both of them.

I hate city and referees so much. Tiote goal. Ben Arfa murdered. I can't remember one game when we have had the rub of the green against these twats.

I like this. A wijnaldum/sissoko benching is called for.

There are few things that can make me angrier than watching Newcastle, that 3 minute clip is one of those things.

The thing I hate most about watching football these days is all the obvious "professional" cheating. And referees constantly letting it go is the main reason why it's getting worse and worse. Kicking the ball away for example would be so easy to fix. Touch a ball after the ref has blown and get a yellow card, it would be finished in a week. Borini just lumped it away yesterday after it was out of play and noone so much as blinked. The time-wasting Mannone did yesterday was another example of piss-weak refereeing. Give him the safe yellow because he's a goalie and the match is about to finish anyway. But then when he keeps fucking around you just help him time-waste for another minute instead of sending him to the showers. It gets even worse in the derbies, and then the ref usually gets praise after its over for "standing up to the tough home crowd", or some such nonsense. I did enjoy Mitrovic at the end there yesterday. He was 100% going to murder Atkinson before he remembered he was inside a stadium full of witnesses

Apparently when the manager knows what he's doing he can identify which team selections have been most effective in the past and just do that. This is nice, I like it.

Is it just hopeful to think that they might expect us to get absolutely raped by Leicester no matter what. Which is why they are not pulling the trigger until after that match and are already working on a new manager?

At the end of the day I think Charnley is just waiting for him to walk, like he did with Pardew. And its fucking ridiculous, how much does it cost to pay him off, 2million? Just chuck him out already.