Odear

Me nerves.

Using up all sorts of luck. Need to steady things. Taking off Murphy was a bad call as he was our outlet all game.

Kane is a very good player but Shearer was a better all rounder. Kane would never pull off something like what Shearer did against Everton. Kane has more pace.. but let’s see him have a cruciate injury and come back and hit a similar tally over a season.

How much would a 25 year old Alan Shearer be worth in today’s market?

It’s hard to argue with who he’s dropped. Merino has a bad game v Brighton, still probably our best player but we’re expecting too much of a young lad at this point. Hopefully Shelvey has a good game today and puts himself in the shop window.

Rafa has been quite sensible with the rotation over the festive period. Looks like it’s set up to get another point at best.

Maybe teams had figured out our 4-2-3-1 system and our current squad simply aren’t sharp enough to adapt to a new one. Benitez’ performance this season as a manager has been fairly average up to this point but I’ll judge him only after he’s been backed. This January is the biggest month this club will likely have for a very long time and as ever with this club, it’s on a knife edge.

I think it will be announced somewhere between tonight and the next 2/3 days. They have people lined up. No doubt about that. The Shelvey stories are coming from us I reckon, we want rid.

Yep this ones on Rafa. Total negativity. Players afraid to take a chance. I’m giving him a pass because of the promise that January brings. But that was dogshit. As bad as anything under Carver even. CARVER.

Disagree. Titus had all the raw ingredients of a top player. Strength, good pace, good in the air, good natural tackler and pretty comfortable on the ball with both feet. Jonjo Shelvey is really good at mid-to-long range passing. That's it. There's nowt else of value to his game. You get a CM to get on his toes, he's completely done. No, you’re just reinforcing my point. Shelvey has a lack of intelligence yes but his biggest failing is his lack of character. He has the size to boss a midfield, but no character to be tough. He has the skills to make a difference in a game but not the character to impose them. There’s nothing about him. Titus wanted to do well for us and boy could he have been something if he had the intelligence to read the game better and the concentration to not make massive mistakes every second game. He had all the tools, pace, power, size (must have been at least 17 stone?!?) I could list a bunch of other players who were “almosts” as well. We’ve had a load of them. Im not reinforcing your point. Shelvey is not athletic.... at all. He has slow feet. He's not seeing a 34 year old Tugay for example. He's not a goal threat. He's likely to be sent off. He can't tackle well. Off the ball he's awful. He's not missing 1 or 2 ingredients... he's missing 5 or 6. While offering 1 great ability. Titus Bramble had it all except for 1 thing. Titus could read the game fine. It was only concentration. He could play 2 or 3 games in a row, absolutely perfect, everything you want from a CB. Then he would airkick it or drop another type of clanger leading to a goal. He would spread panic with his mistakes. 1 mistake would lead to another. I’ve seen Shelvey go on runs a few times to suggest he does have “some pace”, he doesn’t tackle well because he doesn’t have the character to man up, anyone can tackle if they really want to do it. He tackles like a petulant forward, this is why he constantly gets booked (along with his reputation for being petulant) He’s a coward.. his sending off against Spurs was something a 4 year old would do when they pinch someone not wanting to be caught. Shelvey not taking on people is not down to not physically having it in his locker.. it’s all down to attitude/character

Disagree. Titus had all the raw ingredients of a top player. Strength, good pace, good in the air, good natural tackler and pretty comfortable on the ball with both feet. Jonjo Shelvey is really good at mid-to-long range passing. That's it. There's nowt else of value to his game. You get a CM to get on his toes, he's completely done. No, you’re just reinforcing my point. Shelvey has a lack of intelligence yes but his biggest failing is his lack of character. He has the size to boss a midfield, but no character to be tough. He has the skills to make a difference in a game but not the character to impose them. There’s nothing about him. Titus wanted to do well for us and boy could he have been something if he had the intelligence to read the game better and the concentration to not make massive mistakes every second game. He had all the tools, pace, power, size (must have been at least 17 stone?!?) I could list a bunch of other players who were “almosts” as well. We’ve had a load of them.

Up to mischief because nout else to write about plus they know nobody will come out and deny it. I can’t wait for this to be done and us turn into a club with ambition. The rags won’t know what to write about. They’ll have to find another club to write their crisis bullshit about.

We’ve had so many players over the years who were almost very good but for some fatal flaws Titus Bramble for example could have been a force of nature at the back but was thick as pigshit and had no concentration. Shelvey is another with a distinct lack of intelligence, he has all the tools to be a dominant midfielder but hasn’t the character to really put it on the line for the team. It’s frustrating because he really could be a top player. But going back to the original point, because he’s thick as pigshit he'll never realise this. He’ll drift from club to club earning lots of money but ultimately never realising his potential.

Linked with Spurs.. probably 20m+ Would snap their hands off. He’s added so little to the team since joining. Yes he can pass a ball but never takes a game by the scruff of the neck, goes missing when things aren’t going our way and generally can’t make a tackle because refs are itching to send him off because he’s a thick c***.

We’re set up to have a go now.

Would have been a soft pen, by there was contact so he didn’t dive..

Happy Christmas everyone! It will be announced on New Years Eve! Enjoy the pudding today ?

We’re on a hiding to nothing either way. We’re playing one of the best ever teams in this league but every team can be beaten on a given day. The realist says we'll go down 1-4 but if the place gets an early lift it could be one of those days. They are not as good at the back as they are going forward.

Reckon this is the most plausible theory so far. It's probably in the club's interests for things to be uncertain at the moment, so we don't get rinsed on fees. Even if it's causing us all blood pressure problems. I'm firmly of the belief that the next major update will be something official. I want to believe but I can't quite manage it. Just noticed your profile pic Ian W. If you look at the full picture for that you can see my head popping up above the bloke in the brown leather jacket ;D Its when we had that little hut as the club shop. Great memories. Indeed. Tino Asprilla turning up on a snowy February day at SJP. Then playing a blinder on his debut at Boro a few days later. Still fresh in my mind that. I remember it clearly, the 20 past sports report on sky news had some guy on saying he didn't know why we'd signed him, because "the guy was a nutcase" Which turned out to be correct. Probably the most talented player we've ever had but a nightmare to manage with his off the pitch behaviour.

You're so bipolar. What happened to refusing to believe anything about it at all? The curry house. I wanted to believe it was happening but there was no evidence other than some vague news reports. Now it’s about common sense.. there’s no way she’d want it announced and have to go through a few weeks with her hands tied. She’ll start 2018 as she means to go on.

It’s happening. Don’t see what the fuss is about. Even if it was announced last week.. we’d still have had a bunch of matches where we’d have lost to take the gloss off it. It’ll be announced on New Year’s Eve.. we'll have deals lined up for the first days in January and the second half of the season will start with a bang. Why would Staveley want the takeover to go through fully when she can’t do anything about results on the pitch??

Certainly not worth the transfer fees he's built up, but it's sort of irrelevant now with the way the whole market is. He wouldn't instill confidence in the team which is what we really need, but for ability and as a natural athlete, he's top class. Marek Hamsik is another we've been linked with in last few days. If he's a defensive midfielder then yes please.

Funds will be in place for January. That’s all we need to worry about.

With advanced analytics you can be sure that Mike Ashley is very well informed of just how valuable all that free advertising is. A win for him will be a deal where he can keep the existing advertising arrangement for at least another few years. We tend to be televised a lot so our hoarding would be worth a huge amount to any prospective new owners. If they cut a deal where Ashley gets to keep all his perks for another few years, I’d have huge doubts about the level of funding coming in.

Easily could have been a draw today. We played better. The effort is there, we just lack quality in at least 60% of the squad.