HaydnNUFC

"Are you looking forward to having your name repeated by the fans to the tune of Seven Nation Army?"

IMO it's strictly because of the 5th season and everything else is forgotten about. People on Twitter remember that season; I remember 2012-13 and 2013-14 where we regularly got battered and excuse after excuse was made. 'Europa League's fault', 'thank God we're not in Europe', 'we can't compete with Swansea and Southampton', 'science'. Losing 0-6 at home, losing 0-3 at home to Sunderland twice on the bounce, the sheer amount of pastings we took at SJP in the second half of 2013-14. I saw someone claim that Pardew has a 5th and a 10th placed finish. That 10th place finish forgets a huuuuge amount of context. That was 2013-14; we were 6 points off top on Boxing Day. We sold Cabaye at the end of January and fell to bits; we only won 4 of out the last 15 matches and that included a record breaking 6 consecutive defeats and a record breaking run of falling to score in 4 consecutive home matches. And the scorelines of the home defeats post Cabaye; 0-3, 0-4, 0-3, 0-4, 1-2. That second half of 2013-14 was the most miserable I've ever been as a Newcastle fan until the COVID era Bruceball. As you can tell, any of our fans trying to dress that season up as a positive for Pardew has me absolutely rattled.

In order of the *gritted teeth* job they did. Howe Benitez Pardew Bruce Carver McClaren In order of feeling towards them, top being like the most and bottom being hate the most. For me anyway. Howe Benitez McClaren Carver Pardew Bruce Feels harsh on Benitez that he isn't at least equal with Howe given I hung off every word of his when he was here tbf. But the game's the game. McClaren did an absolutely dreadful job. Benitez proved in the final 6 games that there was a decent side there that should never ever have been relegated. Hate to think how many internationals were in that 2015-16 team. But he was just an uninspiring wet flannel who conjured up no hatred, just a 'meh'. Good analogy for the Ashley NUFC at the time tbf. I certainly had nowhere near the hatred for McClaren as I do for Bruce and Pardew. Carver was just incompetent to the point where whenever he opened his mouth it was just embarrassing. Should never, ever have been given the job. We had 30 points from 23 matches in January when he was appointed interim manager. We just stayed up on the final day of the season with 39 points. That Carver was given the job, who almost ended up taking us down, to wait for McClaren to become available whose Derby team imploded in the Championship who ended up taking us down the following season anyway is just Thomas Tuchel said he would've been very interested in the job had we approached him when Pardew left. For fuck sake man. Didn't have the dislike of Pardew I have now when he was here but I really resent the revisionism of him 'because 5th you know'. Been over his impact on this club many times before. Still hasn't worn off of some of our fans imo. Despise Bruce with every fraction of my being. Without doubt the manager I've hated the most out of any. Heinous cunt.

Few 30 somethings putting their own skills and highlights compilations on at an afters with 1 lass. Unreal.

We signed Barreca on loan in January, made 1 appearance as a sub away at Spurs for 4 minutes in early February and made only 2 matchday squads between then and the end of the season afterwards. What the hell so odd

Antonio Barreca was the name. Legend.

Santon, Pistone and that LB we had who made 1 substitute appearance on loan under Benitez? Weird signing. Can't remember his name. Could include Giuseppe Rossi as well.

Tier 1 - Ornstein, Romano (ik he's a tap in merchant but he's a good aggregator regardless of whether its from other people's sources or not) Tier 2 - Keith Downie, Chris Waugh, George Caulkin, Jacob Whitehead, BILD Tier 3 - Mark Douglas, Luke Edwards, Simon Bird, Martin Hardy, Lee Ryder, Pete Graves, Ben Jacobs, John Percy, MARCA, L'Equipe Tier 4 - Tuttomercato, Ekrem Konur, Graeme Bailey, Nicolo Schira Tier 5 - All NUFC Twitter creeps pretending to be ITK

RW, LB and CB in terms of order of priority for me. RW is our weak link atm, a LB means Burn can go into being cover for Botman and medium-long term we need Schär's successor.

Katie Cutler doesn't I reckon.

"The club believe funds will be better assigned elsewhere, with another midfielder, a winger and left-back on the agenda." Good to hear.

?? Made me wish I was dead.

Would take Nelson as a squad option but we need better for that RW position. Our other (assuming we're only making 1 more) big money signing has to be on a RW upgrade.

Ah, maybe. Never thought about that. And agree. I don't want him sold and think he'll still be an asset to the squad with the extra games. But he does need upgrading.

Thought he's been mostly poor since Boxing Day tbh. In front of goal especially. Games/tactical scenarios like Brighton (H) last season he's incredibly useful for but they'll be few and far between this season especially domestically. Need that position upgraded with a younger age profile and better attacking output for me. Almirón will turn 30 during this coming season and once his pace goes he'll be next to useless you'd think.

I don't want to sound like I'm going in on him, but he's scored 2 goals in 2023 in a side that regularly creates a higher volume of chances than opponents. The Chelsea game last day of the season sums him up in front of goal for me. I don't want him sold, he's a very good option to have especially with the extra games and in games where we press a lot but see little of the ball like the Brighton home game was where he was MOTM. But against sides that sit deep against us and allow us the lion's share of the ball he's not useful imo. That's where I would anyway like to see us upgrade and spend big money on this window.

68, yet we underperformed our xG. We were above Arsenal and Man Utd in the league for xG and xGA.

RW is the team's weak link. Yeah ASM and Gordon could play there, but the options are Almiron and Murphy. We need an attacker for that side with a much better attacking output; there's nothing to suggest in Almirón's 4 and a half years here that that run in October-November wasn't a purple patch.

It's working in browser for me though. Bizarre.

Down for me as well. Constant "cannot retrieve tweets at this time" error.

Maybe, but Almirón isn't exactly a physical powerhouse either. Potential Bundesliga tax like but he's got Almirón's pace (if not more) and a much greater attacking output. Only issue that appears to me is the fee it would take for Leverkusen to sell.

Agree. Diaby fits that bill; affordable wages, right age, great attacking output and will be able to be part of our press. But the links to him seem to have gone cold and I heard from a couple mates of mine that were at the TF journalist thing night last month that Howe isn't that keen on Diaby apparently. Suppose we'll see. Expecting to be surprised tbh. The club keep things right under wraps these days.