Geordie_once_removed

I'm not so sure. For someone who grew up with the poverty he did, the thought of personal financial security a move to Saudi could bring as well as what he could do with some of that money in Peru would be hard to say no to. He could easily do 2 years in Saudi still close out his career in the US.

I think that, due to a general abatement of some initial caution and a growing sense from both the club and other clubs around them that the current financial rules really are just the big 6 pulling up the drawbridge after them, well see the club using the Saudi "cheat code" more this summer. I still don't think the club will overtly take the piss but just a few more of the ASM type situation but this time while he probably went for a fair to cheap price they players will go for a bit over their market price. I'm not sure how the League could even stop it, all the club needs is two of the 4 teams it owns to enter into a mini bidding war and then how could you say it wasn't market price? Not saying I approve of this, despite my frustrations with PSR et all I'm personally not disposed to a "if you can't beat them, join them" mindset, I just can see it happening.

His most effective games are much further forward and less central. I was thinking about someone who is comfortable in the middle and further back. Anyway not a hill I'll die on, mainly just a thought.

You're probably right, I was thinking more as squad depth as opposed to a starter. Miley aside do we have any other promising CMs coming through the ranks? As in an ideal world they fill this role but my impression was that we're still a couple of years off being able to do a City and having this conveyor belt of talent from the academy, so I wondered if he could be a stop gap solution.

Barkley on the relative cheap if Luton go down anyone? Or is he too similar to Bruno and Tonali in that he's more of a playmaker who can defend since he went to Luton.

I hadn't realised that until you pointed it out. Don't MOTD normally do a short none game related segment per episode? That was perfect for it. Also the hearing impaired kids the camera cut to living their best life after the first goal was the highlight of the whole game for me. I watched that several times today to avoid the BBC newsfeed about the Iran missile strike.

That he can play as a right back and left wing means I would keep him over Almiron. As much as I like them both, if we are to kick on next year they need to only be squad players and we don't need them both for that role.

That was a performance for all the knee jerkers. Pretty much every time he has been called upon by Howe, except against West Ham, he has been solid. A really valuable squad member for next season at least.

What a player. Here is my prediction, he's going to be a great manager as well. You just need to hear him speak about the game to realise how intelligent he is. It's a big reason why he is so good.

Didn't someone say that if Bruno gets 2 yellow cards it's only a one match suspension? If so and he gets one yellow card during the game I have this great mental image of us winning in the 90+ minute and Bruno really calmly and deliberately getting another yellow card, perhaps by making a small foul then just as Spurs are about to take the free kick running up and booting the ball away. He then goes to shake the hand of the Spurs captain and the ref and walks off smiling and waving to the crowd as the ref shows the second yellow and the red to his back. Howe suppress a smile and Tindle just beams at him like a proud father. Next level shithousery.

I can see 3 or 4 out of Targett, Murphy, Almiron, Longstaff and Wilson being sold to make funds available and as much as I like all of them I can't see many footballing based objections to this. Targett just doesn't seem to be rated by Howe and Hall should take his role as rotation LB. He'll probably be an attractive 5-10 million option for a bottom half premier league team. Almiron or Murphy should play the same role the team next year as high energy backup to either stretch tiring defenses or help close out games. We don't need two players who do essentially the same thing. Longstaff is solid but his limitations have been shown up and with Tonali and Miley I think we can cover him. Wilson is too injury prone to be a backup option to an injury prone striker in Isak and he's probably on too much money for a team in our position to have him as third choice. Like others I feel we need a RW or a RWF and a quality CB, after that I'm not sure another CM option or a more conventional striker?

Pretty sure he's quoting Dune there. If you're going to twok your inspirational quotes perhaps don't do it from the book/movie that has so completely captured the zeitgeist.

At the top level for sure. But for a yoyo club it's fun.

I live in Germany and my German team, Fortuna Düsseldorf, give me a pleasant relief from FFP. They are a bit of a YoYo club. A bit too big for the 2nd League a bit too small/shit for the first. So generally every season has some drama. But crucially I think the 50+1 rule here keeps spending more conservative generally, so even when they go down or miss out on going up it's not a big deal.

Well that was both very predictable and very disappointing. It might have been too deflections but we offered precious little in attack.

He was a rare positive. I liked the way he pinged his passes.

I can't even bring myself to have a cup of tea in my "lucky" NUFC cup. I don't want it tainted.

Can the thread be changed to "Europeometer" as top 4 is just delusional after the repeated sh#t sandwiches fate has made us eat this season.

100%. Until he slotted it home I thought he was the left back!

True, but it also highlighted his biggest weakness. That pass was perfect for hitting first time with his right foot. The touch no matter how good gave the keeper time to close him down.

Great to see options off the bench. We were losing control a bit then good players came on and we wrestled it back. Schar was my MOTM, he was solid at the back and his interception and ball out set up the crucial first goal.

I can't work out his dribbling. He looks rubbish at it yet on numerous occasions he's waltzed past players. Anyway I love him and can't wait for his to be a regular.

Wilson is like a group of other players in our squad (Longstaff, Burn, Almiron, Murphy). If after the summer he is ok being downgraded to a squad player then he can still offer a lot. Wilson is complicated by his injury record, so he would have to accept being 3rd choice and the fact that his wages are likely too high for this role in a team with our revenue.

My position on Barnes is this. He's not a bad player, but given 1. our financial limitations and 2. the relative strength players who could play in that position in our team before he signed he means may turn out to be a mildly bad signing. Nothing happens in a vacuum and I feel the predictable knock on effects of his signing (i.e. not counting the unpredictable injuries) on other aspects of our overall team mean the money should have been spent elsewhere. I guess he'll be a 6/10 signing, but the way the deck is stacked against us due to FFP et all, means we can't really afford to have 6/10 signings.