Paullow

I'm not sure Craig is much better either to be fair, he's not done much since leaving Cardiff a few years ago.

That was a shot by Wood

Obviously still very early days, but I do kind of see where AP is coming from. Forget the top 6 clubs signings, ours thus far are no different, maybe even lower than that 7-10 range. I don't think Pope is much of an improvement on Dubs, probably a midtable player at best, same with Targett who we had for our upturn last season, so kind of just maintaining rather than strengthening, so it's basically just Botman in as an improvement, which is probably comparable to Carlos at Villa, who have also signed Kamara, as well as Coutinho, and also West Ham with that expensive Moroccan defender who we were very briefly linked with. I am expecting a couple more, but when City were taken over you knew they were taking over, and would be spending a lot more than that upper midtable pack, whereas if you were back from a gap year or something and just wiki'd Newcastle 2022/23 and saw 'transfers in', you wouldn't think there had been such a significant recent takeover. Times have obviously changed since the City days, FFP, other ambitious clubs, a lot more competitive, but I do think there is serious work still needed to hope for even a 7th or 8th type finish, and hopefully we do bring in a couple of proper noteworthy signings that clubs like Villa, Leicester, West Ham etc. might say 'wow'. Edit - but of course it clearly is a lot better than 10 months ago, as even 'just' being a comfortable 10th placed team, with no real relegation fears, seemed a million miles away

I guess this is quite similar to women's boxing for me. If you're watching it more than you normally would, and not that familiar with it, plus fairly neutral, you'd much prefer a close, competitive match over one way traffic. I didn't see the pre match odds, but assume it probably wasn't meant to be this easy and a combo of England being very good on the day, and Norway being not so good, but while many will obviously be loving it, I think it probably will put a few of the less committed / enthused off. I'm not sure if teams winning by this amount, like France yesterday, against seemingly the 2nd teams in the group, is actually all that positive. It probably does ask more questions about the general state of the game if Norway are supposed to be a top 8 team.

Yeah, I watched the first 20 odd minutes before switching to the hockey on BT, but should have been far more than 2-0 at the time, so not too surprised to see it 5-0 at H/T and 3 more goals in the space of 5 mins. Women's football presumably hasn't taken off in Italy as you'd naturally have expected that to have been much closer just hearing the two teams.

I gave it to the first goal. I saw that PP had it England 1/8, draw 6/1, Austria 19/1 and that kind of put me off initially. Obviously those odds are fairly normal for a Man City home PL match, and there will be some big outsiders in the men's World Cup later this year, but when you're watching a fairly new product, I'd rather see competitive looking matches. In terms of outright winner there do look some fairly well matched sides so I might just follow the results for now, maybe watch the last group game if some fairly exciting permutations and then watch more of the KO stage.

Back to Plan A?

It'll surely be a mix of both, but yeah, not ideal paying that price to see the likes of Fernandez, Dummett, Matty etc. They'll probably split the signings between them as well. If we land another big signing before and both he and Botman are playing in the same match, you're not going to be happy if you just got tickets for the other one, ha.

I was just thinking the opposition doesn't really help either. I mean it's obviously better than Doncaster and what not, but I honestly couldn't name a Bilbao player without googling, and even if I did wiki, then I probably wouldn't have heard of many either. There obviously is a few links with that UEFA Cup match (my first season of being old enough to understand) and the Rob Lee match, but it's not Barca, Real, or Atletico, likewise Atalanta, a few good seasons, but traditionally a smaller club than us, and it's not AC Milan, Juve or Inter. It's a step up on recent years, traditional clubs, certainly in AB's case (both are AB I guess, but Bilbao), probably well matched, but they are not names that are instantly going to guarantee an extra 10,000 on the gate for name value alone. I'd far rather pay £20 for a cup match against a Cambridge or Oxford personally.

Normally wouldn't mind, as 99% of the time I wouldn't even be thinking of going, and I'd probably have the mindset of well if the demand is there, fair enough, more money for the club, but just this time I was planning on going, and it did shock me . I mean if they lose to Bilbao 0-1 or 0-2, it might be a little disappointing, but it certainly won't affect your weekend at all in what is effectively a meaningless match where you know the team is going to be relatively weak anyway and with them playing like 18 hours earlier, and a mix of better / fringe players in both. I guess time will tell with the numbers. It probably will do better than I was first expecting and if a grandad took 2 or 3 grandchildren then it's just like £30/40 (what it should have been for the majority), so they probably will do well, but yeah, not for me this time.

The Rob Lee Bilbao friendly in 2001 were £20 and £11, but only attracted 18,000: https://www.nufc.com/html/2001-08-11bilbaohf.html I believe that was Robert's and possibly Bellamy's debut.

Yeah, the 3 of us (not the nephew) went to the Oxford cup match a couple of years ago, ironically the very day the Saudi link first emerged, and that's the last match I have been to, and will obviously struggle to get tickets during the regular season. The match was absolutely dire, but we made a good day of it, and was just £30 for the 3 of us. I know the whole mood of the club has obviously changed since then and some will be desperate to see the team, but I really didn't think a friendly would be twice the price of a competitive match. Even £15 wouldn't have been so bad - surely better to have got 52,000 in at £10/15 than 25-30,000 at £20 - unless they think there's still a good chance they do actually sell out, or come close to it?

Aye, they can forget that. I was going to go with my dad, brother (who's a Man Utd fan), and his 8 y/o son, but £70 is pretty ridiculous for a friendly. I was sure it would have been £10. My brother will certainly not want to pay £20 to watch a friendly of a team he doesn't even support, and I'm not paying towards his, ha. Bit of a shame that, although like others, suspect they'll still do OK. I doubt the Friday match will sell out.

Speaking of Chelsea links, I can't believe Sterling is only 27. I thought he was 31 and this would potentially be one final move before calling it a career. Seems to have been on the go forever.

I think that thread title needs amending to announced 'in due course'. Thought it would have been this morning before I woke up like when Trippier signed.

Yeah, it was debatable, but VAR certainly hasn't done them any favours tonight. They'll do well to get back into it now. Neither are adding much to the WC from a neutral perspective, although it would have been nice to have another Newcastle player there to follow.

VAR

WOOD!!!

Yeah, it's not exactly a boom period for them. Kelleher occasionally plays cup games for Liverpool. I recognise Molumby because WBA were on Sky non stop since Bruce took over, and he sounds like that Mulumbu player they used to have. McClean obviously because of the Sunderland links and his controversial nature, and I took more notice of Nathan Collins during Burnley's run in when I was wanting them to pip Everton, but it's largely bottom half Championship level, and a long way from around 10-15 years when they had the Given's Keane's, Duff's etc.

CR took the lead after 3 mins, but NZ are getting back into it and have had a couple of good chances. Wood starting, 3 players playing in Italy, the unattached Winston Reid, and someone from St Mirren, oh and Sligo. Hopefully they can join Australia in Qatar.

I was caught out too to be fair. The screen text said 'Chelsea sign defender Kadeisha Buchanan from Lyon on a three-year deal', and just assumed it was a man with that name, but totally missed the 'FA WSL Breaking News' part.

Chelsea sign Kadeisha Buchanan from Lyon - SSN breaking news.

Just having a look back, and looks like it. Bramble was later, but then he was 20, but we used to sign so many young players like Jenas, Dyer, Bellamy etc. but something we haven't really done for 20 years. Murphy was not necessarily signed straight for the first team, but he's also a lot older than I thought - thought he was just 24/25 now, but he's 27.

It's quite interesting that today is a battle of the third wheels in our previous two 2nd tier campaigns. Forest pushed us and WBA closest in 2009/10 before ultimately falling away and losing out in the playoffs: https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/20-february-2010/ And then Huddersfield 5 years ago - they were definitely the main threat to us and Brighton, and they obviously went up via the playoffs later on: https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/11-march-2017/

Solihull 3-1 up after 60 mins against Chesterfield, winner plays Grimsby in the final. It would be a bit unusual seeing Solihull in the league, but would quite like it. Scott Loach in goal for Chesterfield. I remember him at Watford when he was England U21 keeper, and he's in goal for Chesterfield today. He made over 150 league games for Watford in the Championship, but then must have dropped off and has had most of his usually prime years in the National League, including a couple of seasons at Hartlepool - it's strange how careers can just go downhill.