Paullow

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.

I think Forest do still have a bit more pull than the likes WBA despite not being in the top flight for ages, and even spending a few seasons in the 3rd tier (I guess similar to Leeds...). Those European Cups, and the fact they're from one of the 8 'core cities' in England does add something in my opinion. I also do get what people are saying, a Newcastle vs Leeds match (or the away fixture) do generally have a bigger feel than say Newcastle vs Bournemouth/Watford, and certainly Leeds vs Man Utd is a more appealing match to the neutral than Man Utd vs some of the other aforementioned clubs, but again, while we are just surviving and existing, I'd probably rather just be playing small teams, as I'd be more jealous if a Villa/Leeds etc. became a Wolves type and easily passed us, as I'd be thinking it should be us. Leicester and Wolves being a million miles away doesn't feel quite as bad for some reason.

I'd probably be more in that mindset if we were where we traditionally should be, comfortably in that 7-9 range, with hope of getting in the top 6, but as we're always one of the 5 or 6 favourites to go down (at the start of the season), I don't really want these similarish sized clubs like Villa, West Ham, Leeds (although it's inevitable they'll be in now) etc. in the league, probably doing better than us, having more resources, generally making a better fist of things, and cue all the 'big club' debates and stuff. If we got taken over and we were soaring then I'd probably want these more traditional clubs from big cities in there for a more 'ideal' league as you say, but while we're far from being ideal ourselves, I would rather still be doing better than our contemporaries.

Bournemouth's last 6 games after this is: Man Utd (A) Tottenham (H) Leicester (H) Man City (A) Southampton (H) Everton (A) I can't see them getting much joy from the first four, so they really could all ready be down by the Southampton match if we beat them, so they really need to win on Wednesday to have any real hope.

To be honest, I actually hope we lose this one. We're on 39 points - Norwich would have to win 6 of their final 7 games to pass us, and maybe even draw the other. Villa need at least 4 wins from their last 6 games, Watford would need at least 11 point from their last 6, and West Ham have to play both Villa and Watford, so points are clearly getting dropped there between the 3 of them, leaving even less margin for error in their other matches, so we're basically like 99.9999% safe (even if we lost every other match 0-10). Like many others, I'd far rather BOTH West Ham and Villa went down, and the way Bournemouth are playing that isn't looking too likely, so they'd really need to win this one if there's any hope of that, and I'll be in the same midset for the Watford match as well. I'd be happy if he rested a lot of players, take some out of the squad completely to save the long trip, and then get them all back in for the 'home' match against West Ham on Sunday. Looking at our remaining matches, I would like to beat West Ham, but not really too fussed about any of the others, and I can certainly see the appeal of finishing on 42 points around 15th, for obvious reasons, should the takeover actually happen. Bit of a shit situation to be in, but that's where I personally stand.

Now we're effectively safe, I'm now in the mindset of not really being too bothered how we get on going forward. It's obviously nice winning matches, but I wouldn't be gutted if we faired poorly and ended up 16th or so (assuming the takeover goes through), however, I really hope we beat Villa and West Ham - I'd love both to go down, but I think it'll just be one of them as Norwich look gone, and Bournemouth look clueless. I'd quite happily lose to Bournemouth next week to put the pressure on both of these.

To be fair, they have been planting the seeds for a year or two now, long before the George Floyd incident. The likes of Reo-Coker, Ameobi etc. can certainly thank the colour of the skin, but yes, it does seem now that there must be 1 on a 2 or 3 person panel. They must absolutely love Aluko.

They wouldn't have gone up. They would have had a chance of going up via the Play Offs. It's all if's and but's and maybe's, but in Boo Boys above scenario, they would have gone up automatically. They ended on 59 points from their 36 games, which is a PPG of 1.638. Had they not conceded that 90+6 goal against Gillingham, they'd have an extra 2 points on the board, and Bristol Rovers were in awful form, they lost 3-1 to Southend on 7th March and actually lost 3-0 to Sunderland on Feb 22nd, and their record since boxing day was P14 W1 D4 L9, so 7 points from 14 games going into their match. Had Sunderland won then they would have had 64 points from their 36 games, not 59, which is 1.777 points per game, and Rotherham went up on 1.771. Of course, other clubs would be saying if we did this, and that...but it does just show the fine margins, and they (Sunderland) were on a right roll in February, winning 4 games in a row with 4 clean sheets, but then only earned 2 points from their 'final' 4 matches.

Looking at this guy's timeline and I can't decide if it'd be better if he was taking the p*ss or not. dedication either way. I know who he is. Lived in the same street in Birtley as my mate when I was a kid. He's got a fair few screws loose. He and his family were known as the "smelly Ellys" by neighbours. Fun fact for you there. Is his brother Craig, because there's someone else posting pretty much the same all the time?

The same issue was brought up in late January when the news first broke: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tv-piracy-row-could-hit-newcastle-united-takeover-bid-7lh9mqh9r

Speaking of Warren Barton, there's a half hour interview with him about the takeover that's jut been recorded. I've not listened to it yet, but here it is: Big fan of Warren. Doesn't get the same recognition as some players of that era, but a long serving player who always put a shift in, and always has good words to say. Sometimes when you're watching a stream and we win you can tell he's buzzing. Also crazy to think he cost £4m in 1995 (as a right back), whereas a bulk of our first team now cost around the same price like Hayden, Yedlin, and most of the CBs.

There's a huge difference though, we were bottom 6 for much of the season, relegation zone at Christmas, won a few games in the second half to sneak into 10th, including Chelsea 3-0 on the final day, who were well and truly on the beach and not playing for Conte, and without that we'd have been about 14th. There's still a top or 'big' 6, and after that you have a group of Everton, Leicester, Wolves (not doing too well currently) and West Ham, who generally have better players and a bigger budget than the rest, and if any of those didn't finish top 10, it would be a poor season - I'd love to be in that group. No fears of relegation, in a much better position to target the cups, will likely finish with a positive goal difference and should be beating the promoted sides comfortably at home, and most teams in the league will think it's a tough place to go, rather than be disappointed if they don't win, which applies to us currently. I'd obviously love the Keegan and Robson days to return with constant top 6 finishes and European football, but being more realistic, establishing ourselves as a top 10 team is very appealing. This all said, it's more than likely absolute b0ll0cks, and we'll be stuck with '17th is a success' for the foreseeable, with a 3rd relegation in 11 years reasonably likely.

I think there is a difference. Yes, players will often move on if a top club comes and turns heads, or a club simply can't turn down the offer, like Coutinho at Liverpool, and more recently Maguire at Leicester, but I genuinely don't believe Leicester bought Harry a couple of years ago, simply to sell at a profit a year or two later, whereas it really is the case for us. If Joelinton and ASM are still with us in 2 years, certainly no more than 3, then they won't have been as successful as both they or the club had hoped. I think it's quite feasable to think that Maguire could have stayed at Leicester longer than he did.

I'll be going down the other sports route and just keeping an eye on the results. The main problem is I'll generally watch all sorts of football, so it'll be weird to cut all that out, but if I don't then I'll likely follow NUFC a bit more closely than I intended. But what a mess, the literal only good thing about the running of the club has been replaced with an absolute bang average journeyman, and just rubber stamps that 17th will always be a success under this regime. It really is grim.

Well it's absolutely a step up for him. Mid-top half team, no fear of relegation, chance of a cup run and Europe, playing with much better players. Decent manager. Sad how far away we are to the likes of Everton, Leicester and Wolves.

Is there a link to this? https://talksport.com/radio/listen-again/1551110400/1551115800/ 3 mins in