Altamullan

That’s Frank Skinner and Roy Hodgson with Geordie/North East fathers. I’ll add them to my internal ‘all things Geordie’ list.

New respect for Charners. Apparently his dad used to manage NUFC in the 70s...

FFS. How many times do statements like this come back to bite players on the arse? Just do your talking on the pitch, don't give the opposition fuel for their fire/additional motivation.

Can't help liking Mitro, not that I' m trying to stop (now he can't miss any sitters for us!) .

Maurice: "In my office, now!!" Dele, sheepishly:"Ok, boss." Door slams behind them. Maurice: "So, do you 'ave 'er number?"

ouch! No punches pulled there. How do we get them to do a piece on Ashley? ?

Right on brother!

Confused, does that make someone an idiot or f***ing drama queen for promoting the risible idea that SMc's squad was exponentially better than our current squad? Therefore Rafa's performance can't be compared? Or is it just people who don't see much difference between those two squads (and the 13 players they share) who fall into those categories. It's a puzzler ?

The Shola thread has some stuff about having a go at local lads etc. Made me think, I wonder what our best side would like if only local players were selected. A kind of Yorkshire cricket flashback. If we said living memory/for me about 35 years! then you'd probably have to have the following slotted into some kind of formation: Beardsley, Waddle, Gascoigne, Shearer, Watson, Clark (L), Elliot, Howey, Venison, Thomson, Amoebi (Sh), Wharton, Taylor (S), Dummett, Carroll, Carr (K). Others which spring to mind: Colback, Bridges, Amoebi (Sa). Must be missing some.

That's probably more realistic than pessimistic, tbf. However, they lost at Huddersfield and at Bristol City (League? Cup) and we're due a bit of luck. 2-1 HTL!

Gameweek 27 Spurs 1-3 Arsenal Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace Stoke 1-1 Brighton Swansea 1-0 Burnley West Ham 1-1 Watford Man City 2-0 Leicester Huddersfield 0-1 Bournemouth Newcastle 2-1 Man Utd Southampton 1-2 Liverpool Chelsea 1-1 West Brom

Yes, I do. That squad was shit though.

He had 24 points and remained on 24 points until his sacking on March 11th. With a much better squad. Well that’s why he was sacked, obviously. Not before time, the writing was on the wall relegation wise. I’m interested in this much better squad. I’d only slot two if the pre January window squad into our current starting 11. How many would you play? Thinking Sissoko wouldn't get into our side is completely mental Who would you drop for him, given how he played that season? Scored once I think? Looked like he was going through the motions most of the time. I’d rather play Ritchie, Murphy, Atsu, admittedly I am not a Sissoko fan, but I would rather have Aarons playing (then or now).

The whole conversation is about context. Though perhaps the world beaters below (chosen purely on appearances) are really ‘much better’ than what we have. Don’t see it, myself. 2015-16 (most appearances) Elliot 22 Janmaat 35 Mbemba 35 Coloccini 27 Dummett 24 Sissoko 37 Anita 29 Colback 29 Wijnaldum 40 Perez 37 Mitrovic 36 Subs: Darlow 10 Lascelles 21 Taylor 10 Tiote 22 Shelvey 13 Thauvin 16 De Jong 22 Cisse 21

He had 24 points and remained on 24 points until his sacking on March 11th. With a much better squad. Well that’s why he was sacked, obviously. Not before time, the writing was on the wall relegation wise. I’m interested in this much better squad. I’d only slot two if the pre January window squad into our current starting 11. How many would you play?

Yep, better. SMc had 24 points by 7th Feb 2016, from 25 games. The same ‘not good enough’ 6 wins we’ve currently got today, from 26 games.

I was absolutely certain that Rafa would have got more out of the 2015-16 group, over the course of a season. Still think he would have done. But again, tbf, he didn’t manage to get much of a tune out of them over the last ten games. (10 points from 9 critical pre-relegation games, 13 from 10 games; on average would have been enough to stay up)

Have you forgotten how bad Thauvin looked? There’s no way no would be starting, on that season’s form. Cisse looked shite as well. I’d rather have Gayle. I’d rather have Joselu than Rivière. I would take Wijnaldum and Janmaat, but wouldn’t be rushing to drop anyone for Sissoko.

I think you’re right, expectation comes into it. Also how close we have been to better results. Draws I feel were winnable, poor teams who have taken points off us at home. At the start of the season I didn’t see that many PL teams to be frightened about, to some extent the three points between 19th and 12th offer some support to that view. 6 wins out of 26 is just not ok, full stop. Especially given we have probably the second hardest run-in.

Well what’s your valid comparison point then? Those players(at some point in the past: Cisse, Coloccini, Tiote); or at some point in the future: Thauvin) are better quality than our current crop now?

:lol: Take a look. We have 13 of the same players in the books. Who, on that season’s form, would you bring? It is mainly our midfield and defence which is different. Keepers are the same.

Reasoned debate? Not that complicated really we’re, so he’s, not doing very well. LLWWWLDDWLLLLDLLLLWLDWDLDD = this season. Or P 36 W9 D11 L16 if you want to tag on the previous 10 PL games. So, yes. Results are poor. Maybe not ‘relatively’ speaking depending upon your view, but poor none the less. A couple of pages back I’ve compared the current squad to McLaren’s squad. I think I’d rather have what we have now, bar a couple of them (Thauvin was useless for us, Sissoko always flattered to deceive/no end product, Cisse, Coloccini and some others well past their best). So we’ve been hung out to dry transfer wise, ok not much debate about that, but there were six home games this season I feel we could/should have done better in. I remain personally disappointed that we haven’t turned a consistently coached and mainly selected Benetiz squad into something better than it is by now. Take a look at the squads of the other 11 ‘lesser’ PL teams. It really isn’t like a Champions League rollcall.

Let me know when there is a healthy challenge and not some bizarre ramblings. It's like having doctors talking about medicine then bringing in a homeopathy expert for the sake of "balance". Someone questioning whether the players have improved this season are not bizarre ramblings, Jesus if you want to close down anyone that asks a legitimate question, even if you don't agree with it is ridiculous It's absolutely bizarre to suggest the Rafa should "improve" what are essentially championship players into mid-table premiership players. ‘64 is right and you’re sounding like you’re just ranting. Some people seem to struggle to do anything that approaches balanaced reasoning and debate. Especially when that involves criticism of someone they admire. Personally I feel huge affection for Rafa. He has great values and I am proud to have home at our club. His results are pretty poor. Fact. It’s because all our players are ‘Championship’, ‘the worse squad in the PL’, and other statements = opinion. We’re not doing much better than last season in the Prem. Fact. ‘We had a much better squad then.’ = opinion. Which I personally don’t share. Are we short of some quality players? Yes. Have we/Rafa known this? Yes. Have we, as a club, risked relegation again due to limited investment? Yes. Just don’t get the thou shall not criticise the messiah vibe. If you imagine Rafa isn’t critical of himself: his decision making and other choices, suspect (really hope) you’re wrong. Some people spend their whole time looking out the window rather than in the mirror. Blaming others (fans, science, players) for errors and taking responsibility for success that is despite rather than because of them. Rafa is not like that. Some of his (unrequired) defenders on here come over just like that.

Hunk surely.

Banana skin, you say???