Tiresias

How are we 2 points behind Leicester I know theyh have games in hand but still what is rodgers doing

2 I think now

think burnley will be fine

Delighted for him

Very nervous for this, a win would be absolutely huge

Expansion would be great, and a lot of renovation to make it more modern would be fantastic. I guess they could change their mind if expanding much proves impossible but moving it is a terrible terrible idea. St James is the best placed stadium in the country, symbolicly on the hill usually reserved for a cathedral. Newcastle would never be the same without it.

Got to be the end of the road for Bielsa unfortunately. The critics of him do have a point it's ludicrous how poor Leeds defense is and there can be no excuse. It shouldnt be forgotten how he built the team up with a comparatively tiny budget. As a lot of first time promoted teams that are coached well they overperformed last season. They have had a lot of bad luck with injuries but Bielsa hasn't helped that by neglecting to buy new players when as I understand it transfer funds were there. Last season was a very good achievement this is more reversion to the norm. He should go and he has left them probably back in teh championship but with some players they can sell for very large amounts to refresh the squad, parachute payments etc should leave them in very good stead to rebuild and return to the premier league after a year out.

Leeds are terrible, doubt they will stay up now

Torn, on the one hand great need Leeds to lose, on the other don't want to see that Spurs kit be rewarded

I hate hate hate that Spurs strip

I didn't mean it all that negatively to be honest it just seems that everything we do appears in press. I am enjoying having an open communicative team in charge and mostly its not done any harm but the Emery thing was embarassing as was how much of our transfer negotiations seemed to leak, that could of course be agents more than anything. It was definitely the manager hunt when this was clearest. It's not a big problem at all, didn't mean Yammer on that badly

It wouldnt surprise me if ferguson coached players were worse off than other ex player managers as a) they will feel a sense of entitlement and assumption they will have been passed on the 'fergie' magic b) they will naturally try and emulate him but without the position of absolute authority fergie had at man u, fergie could do the 'hairdriers' and kick a boot into beckhams face because the players had huge respect for him based on achievement and also knew they'd be out the door sooner than him. You try that in your first year as manager with diffident results you lose the dressing room you lose your job. Player power has only increased since fergie left. c) they think they have seen teh secret of being a great manager from him in dressing room and on training ground, they did not see any of the other stuff and suspect don't put much stock by it. Being a manager is difficult, many ex players are suited to it, many not. Need a degree of humility I think and geniune studiousness which isn't well bred in the laddish british dressing rooms of the 90s and 00s. Rooney seems to have been doing a fine job in horrendous circumstances much to my susprise. Thats the kind of difficult lesson lampard might have had had he not been promoted too soon and clearly thinks he's already the second coming as a manager with no evidence. Jurys still out on both, Lampard could improve, and Rooney has benefit that he cant really be blamed for bad results only praised for noble effort. (speaking more broadly of that generation of players obvs lampard never played under fergie)

I think it is clear they yammer on too much to anyone who will listen which is endearing but has got us in trouble already (Emery fiasco for one). I suspect it will die down once there is a proper structure in the club CEO and more and they wont be needed to do any hands on (and indeed would undermine the CEO etc if they were publically talking about stuff he is meant to have some authority over).

Sigh. Yet again I feel the need to wade in to explain my, and i think plenty of fans but that is presumptious fair enough if it is just me, have this position. Saudi Arabia is a horrendous regime i would not wish on anyone to live under. They have bought the club to make them look good and get positive publicity. This absolutely should not be happening, football clubs should be owned by the fans not be political footballs used to make regimes look good. No i do not think all the other sins of all the other club owners, countries etc are great either. The premier league is not a temple, not some land of morally upstanding clubs. This does not negate the problems with saudi arabia. It is OK to love Newcastle to enjoy our success while this is going on. If someone is able to live like a monk and not involve themselves in anything bad good for them but most people can't. Nobody apart from premier league were given teh choice over who owns our club. We/you/they have no control. and should not be expected to take moral stands of their own. Everyone has their own compromises, most do not have room to deal with thsi shit. That is understandable. I admire the people who can cut it out totally but I do feel guilty I can't. But I will nto apologise for the regime. I dont care how anyone justifies the saudi arabian regime. That is embarassing, noone asked you to, any of us in uk are allowed to call KSA knobs. I am excited to not be struggling with relegation, to have some good players and good football. I do have reservations about becoming a super corporate bland club like PSG all just vehicle for superstar players to expand their brand but that is almost a seperate thing. What is objectionable is anyone going out their way to try and make out how absolute wonderful people our owners are. You don't have to. Noone had to do so under Ashley just cos he was our owner. They want to look good, I just think if people use the extra microscope on them there is no reason for the sportwashing to work. That can fail and the club can still be a boost to the local morale. I also feel i can't be totally negative, tghe investment comng into the region will be great. So much investment is dodgy it feels ridiculius to turn down. But you don't have to become the KSA's PR officer unpaid because of this. I have, as a gay fan, found the lgbt NUFC group embracing the ownership saying they hoped somehow woudl make them more gay friendly slightly embarassing. They should be critical. We live in a free country, you can be critical of someone/something you love. It doesn't mean you are a 'troll' or are doing teh club down. I love NUFC. I always will. I respect those boycotting. I am just going to remind myself, and frankly others that are owners are ultimately autocratic twats so the sportwashing doesnt work. Other clubs are owned by shits too. Indeed, clubs should be owned and safeguarded by the fans, not by sovereign states. I believe we'd all be better off if all this money didnt come into the league and all clubs were looked after as community assets not as cash cows of reputation dry cleaners. That is not the world we live in but it is one we should be fighting towards. There. Please dont feel guilty for being a NUFC fan but dont think anyone who has issues with it, or is a bit conflicted, is 'ill informed' etc etc. We dont need purity checks. Everyone should be excited about the club, about the investment in teh area. Everyone should also not let club fandom blind them to the rest of the issues.

Anyone else pondering a bit of shoehorning the formation into a Dubs Manq Schar Burn Targett Shelvey Bruno Big Joe Willock Wood ASM Know width issue hah

I dunno wasnt actually that much in the contact tbh

I'm at 4, I am reassured that we are playing well without a host of our players but things could still go wrong. Beat Brentford may be down to 3

Does seem mad they let him go, I guess they have a policy that they attract players saying they won't stand in their way too hard when it comes time to sell them on meaning they get quite a few young exciting players with a pathway into premier league

Doubt Villa will be in serious trouble. I think Everton are in trouble as are Leeds, both not sure if have mentality for it. Leeds maybe mentality but just seem exhausted and out of quality this season

phew

ffs liverpool

Bizarre he seems to good at it. There was a moment where he just blocked off a counter attack by a bit of phsyical pressure preventing the layoff and they had to pass back at the end, the subtle stuff you would think would come from playing defensive mid long term

They have been really good though. Really solid and direct. But they have a fairly thin squad their form has dipped. Not like beautiful to watch like man city but better than Man United whom are mostly a shambles

Good point.

I just find it funny reminds me of players i used to see when went with mate to watch Burton Albion when they were in league 2 quite a lot, wasnt anything serious