Paullow

Pretty much every team do. It's absolutely staggering we've managed 19 points and 18 goals thus far.

It's strange, obviously you do want to stay up and therefore hope to see teams below us lose, but there's part of me (not believing the takeover will happen) and kind of half hopes these Fulham's and co start picking up points to force Ashley's hand, or even we end up relegated and it'll serve him right. We obviously badly need the takeover, and while there is a chance, needs must, and we must stay up, but if it's just going to be Ashley and Bruce for 3 or 4 more years, and constantly hoping for 3 worse teams and nothing else, and an absolute shell of a 'football club' then I wouldn't be too arsed if they went down. The club is pretty much dead as it is at the moment anyway.

At least there's a choice of Watford vs Norwich, or Sheff Utd vs Everton on at the same time. Not worth watching.

Bruce is bloody lucky that there are no fans in the grounds.

Newly promoted Fulham, 2 wins all season, currently in the relegation zone, away from home, yet the pre match 6/4 betting favourites (Newcastle 15/8, so basically 12/8 vs 15/8) - odds are obviously just a number, but it kind of says it all about the general landscape and current optimism levels - not even expected to beat Fulham at home. Worst part is they don't even look inaccurate.

Course we will, we'll do as we usually do. A result like this happens, someone says dig out the relegationometer, we 'react' with some a run of passable results and maybe a good win, and it's like "lol better than Rafa haha kill iz", then we get twatted again. Rinse and repeat. We're certainly not getting into the top half and we're certainly not getting relegated. On and on and on and on we go under this regime. Meaningless week after meaningless month after meaningless year. Baffles me how many folk still feel a thing. I know chances are we'll Bruce a few points from nowhere, but I wouldn't be so sure about the bit in bold. Just 9/2 to go down, and IF we do lose to Fulham on Saturday then we'll be right in the mix IMO, especially with the following 3 fixtures to come. I can see us getting sucked in to it soon.

Newcastle in their 4th year back in the Premier League, Leeds first season back after 16 years. Leeds have spent a bit in the summer, but then Bruce has had his fair share over the past 18 months as well. Both on 17 points, but we have a game in hand, so technically in a better position. https://m.skybet.com/football/premier-league/event/26133365 Newcastle 9/2 to go down, Leeds a massive 22/1. Their squad can't be that much better than ours, and if it is, there should be serious question asked as to why, so I think we kind of know the main reasons why there is such a contrast in those odds, and what is causing money, or expected money, to be placed on the respective markets.

Does anyone know a site where you can view past Premier League TV matches? I'm trying to find out how many times Newcastle vs Man Utd has been selected for TV, and how many times it hasn't. I can remember a Boxing Day match when Perch scored not being on, plus a 0/1-4 home defeat where Mata scored, but other than that, most have been on.

Not sure if it's been said, but we could be screwed over by this. We're a unique club in that we're like a bottom 6 club and offer very little appeal to the neutral - we'll be branded in the Burnley, Stoke, type comments, but we're nearer a top 6 club in terms of fanbase, hence we have been had the 7th most televised matches the past 2 seasons behind the obvious (and above Everton). So Sky/BT can kind of kill two birds with one stone - keep more of our games off normal subs, and put more of them on PPV as more Newcastle fans will probably be likely to purchase than other relegation fighters. Newcastle vs Man Utd will have been televised about 90% of the time in the PL era, but sure enough, it's suddenly not one of the 5 picks next weekend, but we can still watch it...

The thing with Newcastle Blue Star, while a lovely shirt, and Lee Clark being there etc. it really is low level stuff. If they were somewhere like Spennymoor/Gateshead/Darlo, or a little bit lower like Marske/Morpeth, like the level they were at when they went bust about 12 or so years ago, then they might have had a lot more interest, but it is basically the bottom level, and would take about 3 or 4 years just to get up to where a Morpeth is. I do hope they get a few more though the gates though (Covid permitting), as well as most of the other sides I've mentioned here. I guess I'll just be following a lot of other sports even more closely, which I have for the past few years to be fair, tennis, boxing, MMA, even darts, so that'll continue. It's weird because I kind of was hoping we'd lose most of our end of season matches, which is pretty weird in itself, but I thought it would be more likely that we'd see the back of Bruce in a potential new era, but it just seems all totally pointless and desperate now. I dislike the owner, dislike the management team, wouldn't say there were many players I'd be gutted if they left, only really like 3 or 4. I'll still watch a bit general football, as it's been in my life for as long as I can remember, but I've rarely been this detached from the club. Grim times.

It's basically another year wasted, an absolute nothing season. I appreciate that we were punching above our tradtional weight at the time, but as a 1986 lad getting into football around 93/94, that was all I knew, and Newcastle seemed a genuine power. Crazy to think my first 13 years of football (1993/4-2007) consisted of: - 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th finishes - 2 FA Cup finals, and a further 2 semi finals - Europe most seasons, beating Juve and Barca, first team to lose 3 CL group games and still qualify, UEFA semi final - Smashed world transfer record to sign one of the best strikers in the world, plus other (less successful) statement signings like Kluivert and Owen - the latter when we were generally more midtable - although there was a sense that we underacheived then, now 13th is 'absolutely tremendous' - Signed other very promising, highly touted, young players like Viana, Dyer, Bellamy, Jenas - those type of players wouldn't look twice now - Regularly beat teams by 3+ goals, including that 5-0, and a 7-1 over (an admittedly not as good) Spurs - Many other things you could easily add like rich lists etc. 2007-2020: One top 6 finish, one season in Europe Multiple relegations, and further near misses Bottom 4 or 5 budget, and a largely shite squad Moves to Wolves, Leicester etc. an obvious step up for the few better players we have I do feel sorry for those 20 and under because this is all they'll know, but I actually do think it's worse for us 30-35 year olds, who although have better memories, also have first hand experience of a club pretty much at it's peak, to one literally making up the numbers, doing absolutely nothing. We desperately need this takeover.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen Newcastle Blue Stars kit? Very nostalgic. Even their new badge is very similar to the 1976-83 badge with the magpie and castle.

This. He'll be desperate for 3 points from somewhere, and that's probably the most likely fixture. I reckon he'd gladly accept 0-5 defeats to both Spurs and Liverpool in exchange for a 1-0 win over Brighton to get to that 'all important' 46 points.

I'm not too fussed about them sending us down. However, bar the time we went down in 2009, and a few times under Pards, and Steve, I've personally never been more disillusioned with the club, just the fact that we are always one of the 4th or 5th favourites to go down, and 13th/14th is seen as 'tremendous success', and we have a fodder manager who fits that exact description, and there's generally more realisation that we are shite, and always will be unless something significantly changes, so the way I see it, in a perverse sort of it, if I'm unhappy with my club, I'd rather a similar sized club, those often involved in the 'big club' debates and thus, more of a rival, were worse off.

Welcome mate.

Villa Villa Villa... Villa Villa Villa...

Bruce is still fighting for this 'finish above Rafa' title, and he's got to go to Brighton and get something!

Villas down regardless. If Watford don't win, which the majority on here will still (just about) hope, and Villa beat Palace (on a 4 match losing streak) then they'll be within 1 or 2 points of Watford, so within 1 match, and game on. I wouldn't be bothered at all if Watford win to be honest. Plus the worse we finish, the less chance Bruce would be kept on, should the T/O go through. 2 valid reasons there, F it. Come on Watford.

I think Humphries, who does seem to have a soft spot for us fans, was saying that mainly to counter McManamans drivel from earlier about 'the goals they scored', in his waxing lyrical of Bruce. It's bloody annoying.

Rusev?

Cheers. The worst part is, although City will obviously want to bounce back from the other day, and ensure they finish 2nd, it's not as if they'll be losing too much sleep if they did lose this. It's not exactly must win for them, and the odds are still like that. Crazy.

We're 28/1 at some bookies to win this. Has there ever been longer odds pre kick off in a PL match, like ever?

We're clearly not, but we're in a strong enough position to potentially sacrifice a game, keep some of our players in the North East, give them a game off after 3 in quick succession, and prepare the best we can for the West Ham match - if we end up with 0 points from the two, it'll hardly be devastating, but resting players today would give us a better chance of beating West Ham (the game many fans would rather we won, going off here anyway), instead of playing the same players for 5 games in 14 days, with no rest.

I'd do the same. 10 changes and keep everyone fit for West Ham. 3 points from these next two games would be decent (as long as it was in the right match...). If the takeover does fall through then from Bruce's perspective Bournemouth are probably more likely to be down there next season than West Ham - West Ham were around 14/1 at the start of the season, Bournemouth 9/2, so would be better for his survival hopes next season with a weaker team still around.

I'm also enjoying all the football being back, and have watched just about all the televised matches these past 3 weeks, however, tonight's PL offering is probably the least interesting/significant since it's return. It might turn out to be a decent watch, but Palace and Burnley will finish anywhere between 9th and 13th, and their respective seasons are effectively over, so I'll be watching the League 2 play off final instead - big match for Sunderland, ha.