Tiresias

It's not worth blowing our wage structure for someone whom while a genius is not going to be capable of howes pressing regime and will definitely be out injured for a fair period of season.

Sounds a bit of a mess hesitant to call anyone a bad guy here. Get clubs concern but also get Winks putting family first in that situation. Really feels like surely a better solution can be found

I'd take the xG version with a pinch of salt it tends to slightly inflate the dominance of teams that have the ball and press high and make teams like Forest look worse. Yes their position is inflated by Chris Wood clealry overpoerforming and that will impact it a bunch but no I don't think they have played like a lower midtable team and got lucky which is kinda what the xg implies. I think it's a slight flaw in xg that illustrates. I am not against xG, but I think this more illustrates it's limitations than Forest fluking every game. To clarify they are overperforming, but it's i guess the 'wildly' bit ought to bring a bit of skepticism to the stats

I love a good stat as much as the next man, but i still fucking trust my eyes. Forgetting the getting us up from the championship first attempt (by no means guaranteed, plenty clubs have sunk), but once he worked out his team that 3-4-3 with lejeune, lascelles schar at the back we were playing good stuff. After a tough first half of the season second half things had begun to click. I'm not going to engage overly with the troll, but the Rafa years were so much better than what was to follow, pull as many stats as you want, I watched those games and i watched us under bruce, I can tell the fucking difference.

I imagine Forest will invest in summer, but could disrupt the squad a bit whom clearly have been feeding off being 'underdogs' a bit. They could i guess do a leicester and drop right off but I think harsh to write off now. I wonder if a bunch of players will jump ship for better wages elsewhere. Their style of play does protect a lot of the players from doing the intense running our players do but then it is all about Elanga and the rest of them willing to sprint length of the pitch regularly with pace. I also think Wood is clearly overperforming, again maybe harsh but doubt he'll be quite as lethal again...but maybe I'm wrong! The owner whom has been much mocked seems to be more canny than people gave him credit and he is ambitious, has said he wants the club to stay at that level and if he is able to keep signing players of the quality they have been why not?

We're definitely after a right winger, if we bring one in that is going to score a lot more goals from that side it makes the striker issue slightly less pressing, it kinda depends if Howe thinks Osula is the long term answer. I wouldn't be against us getting some veteran journeyman on a short term deal as cover

I was listening to a podcast on this, and one person was arguing that people would change how they play against them next season, the other person asked how and seemed to suggest it's impossible to play against a low block as if it's some impossible to beat strategy. The first person quite reasonably said that if it wasn't beatable how come everyone doesn't play low block? It's clearly that the modern game with very attacking full backs does leave a lot of space for counter attacking teams and then when you get a pure one every now and again they do very well, see Leicester when they won. I'm always a bit surprised it doesn't happen more, but I think you need the right group of players who accept they are going to be spending most games camped in their own half of most games. If you get on a winning run like Forest did you get confidence and believe that's fine, if you don't it's very dispiriting. I think a lot of clubs are at an institutional level (hell I wonder if there is some pressure from Sky in terms of it as a product) resistant to playing overly 'negatively' to protect the brand but I don't think what Forest do is that unappealing at all, their attacks are fast and good to watch. But still, you need to just have a degree of patience and attentiveness to their threat in transition. I don't think they can be totally 'found out', it's not like every manager could have beaten them, they are hard to break down, and very good at taking their few chances, always going to get you plenty of points. The surprise is how much it has worked out, but that has been aided I think by the 'top' teams being pretty weak this season. Even Liverpool haven't looked a 'classic' side. The irony is Arsenal were all expecting to win this year and they tried to move to a more negative style of play and it's just meant they don't score as much as they should. If they had Chris Wood this season they'd probably still be in title race...

Saw a lot of positive comments from liverpool fans which somehow wound me up, I mean who goes out of their way to keep posting 'fair play' everywhere, in the end came across well patronising. Don't get me wrong prefer it to the demented sections of the arsenal fan base but liverpool are a weird lot... Slot was a class act about it too in fairness, just think its some weird competitive sportsmanship going on. Meanwhile they are cursing out a player fulfilling his contract having won everything with them over a long period of time

Are we sure it's not down to some infrastructure related issues like concerns of another 10k people getting to the ground from the police or something. Sounds a bit daft maybe

Seems to be happening more. Remember Toney doing fuck all for Brentford for half of last season while banging on constantly about where he wanted to play next. Would make me run away were at a club looking to recruit, especially considering Brentford sticking by him through his betting suspension which he never truly seemed particularly sorry for

Bruno wont stop swearing lol

Bruno

did they not think to put even a little bit of mic on the audience would like to hear them a bit

they probably cant believe they're still up there, bet osula dropped the trophy back stage and they're frantically trying to hammer it back into shape

i dont mind this tbh lol, i prefer this to when we are churning out some super slick corporate trophy celebration with some slick pop star helicoptered in who has no clue who we are, and thats what it'll be like in 5 years.

He's powering the bus

Me and my partner considered taking his kids up but decided it would be just too much hassle unfortunately.

He is unfortunately a better novelist than football manager

I thought they probably ought to have sold at least one of them last year if not 2 to fund Arne Slot rebuild, however I also thought they wouldnt be competitive for the title in the period of transition anyway so my thought was good time to rebuild under new coach. Evidently I am wrong and was probably worth it if they all go. Liverpool fans have nothing to be angry at TAA for, he has given loads to the club. Spoiled cunts.

They just want their brand, and their associated brands everywhere, and they want people to think of investment, high tech, cool sports when people think of saudi arabia. Its part of just investing everywhere and having name about and anyone engaged enough to realise what it is isnt really the target market and it's not to make geordies specifically love them. I've made my thoughts clear before. I don't really have a problem with it being mentioned, I think the influx of super money into football is doing a lot of damage to it, competitively and morally. I think having human rights abuses part of the conversation somewhat slightly and inadequately does make the nation slightly less likely to commit them but very marginally. 1. I think super defensiveness and or pretending that Saudi Arabia are doing this purely out of the goodness of their hearts isn't tremendously helpful. Their ownership of us does not mean we have to become PR for them 2. It is not the sole responsibility of Newcastle Fans to be the moral police of their owners, many seem outraged that we havent risen up or boycotted as if that's realistic. The Saudis didn't buy a homeless shelter in a league of food banks. The league in in hoc to lots of immoral cunts and just because Newcastle's is maybe the worst doesnt mean we have to be only ones singled out. I think it's also given an excuse for a lot of fans to feel superior in some way as if they always take moral stands... 3. Newcastle fans will absorb every bit of media about the club and therefore become super sensitive to repetition when 'average' fans may only come accross it less often and may feel more proportional. Just to keep that in mind. 4. Newcastle fans did not choose their ownership. Goddamn the league for creating the situation where the only hope for a team is being owned by a meglomaniac of some sort 5. I expect and will never hold anything against Newcastle fans whom have been shit upon from a great height for years (and I know fans of league 2 clubs in danger of bankrupcy, i'm not saying we had it the worst or anything) from wanting to not engage at all with the ethical dilemmas of the ownership. Everyone has enough shit to deal with in their lives than have the bandwidth to not enjoy this club 6. The region gets neglected and treated like a distant cousin for decades and then everyone is shocked when people are happy with investment when it comes? 7. I am sure some can withdraw from all the immorality of this late stage capitalist hellscape and not ever do anything 'immoral' but they are a) boring and b) see above, who has the fucking energy? 8. It's ok to feel conflicted about things. The perfect fairy tale doesnt exist, but this squad is great and lets celebrate them. If that all sounds to some like a load of apologism for something wrong? Maybe. I think it is wrong for Saudi Arabia to own us, I just didn't have a vote on it. And nobody ever wins anything and makes everyone happy. I for one have cringed quite a lot at other fans in comment sections lining up to congratulate us, like goddamn it why are we expected to be over the moon for other clubs? Some I am fond of, and generally will root for underdogs if no skin in the game, but dont think it's worth getting upset when some journo takes a mild pop. Especially when journos are literally financially dependent on 'engagement' which normally means wind ups. This isnt an inditement of journos, they are literally incentivised to say something provocative, so everyone is shocked? I also don't think it's unreasonable to be like that dude celebrating with the trophy is in a senior position in a tyrannical regime! I remain uncomfortable with that tbh. Piece over.

If we want a new stadium why didn't Eddie just buy one himself?

Indeed though the season Anderson has had has to somewhat alleviate things

It's hard to summon up the ire i once had for him. Ridiculous narcissist and limited manager but certainly got better results than some of the clowns that followed until Rafa.