HaydnNUFC

What a mess that was.

Before Almirón signed, we averaged 1 point per game in 2018-19. After he signed, we averaged 1.61 points per game. His signing changed our form and way of playing that season, so the comment on Almirón is nonsense. I don't understand what Benitez needs to take blame for? Swear when it came to net spend we were in the green under him across his tenure. We'd plug player turnover with short termers like Ki or punts like Schär. Some worked (brilliantly in Schär's case, for £3m it's one of our best ever for value signings we've ever made), some didn't because the wriggle room for error on such a small budget is negligible.

Smith for Leicester feels incredibly underwhelming. His gig at Norwich went atrociously.

Completely forgot about that coefficient lark. Burnley and Wolves are higher than us. Fuck sake.

Have discussed this with those I go to games with in the pub funnily enough. CL groups because of the seeding tend to be 1 very good team, 2 decent teams and 1 whipping boy, ie Bayern, Newcastle, Marseille and Viktoria Plzen. We'd probably be aiming to finish 2nd in that. Maybe get 1 point from Bayern at home, 4 points from Marseille and 6 points from Plzen. If only it was that simple. But ideally you want 3 sides you've got a good chance of beating to get to the knockouts. SJP is going to be mental from matchday 1 of the group stages and even more mental for a 2 legged knockout CL tie. Teams won't relish drawing us imo.

Did a predictor thing of just the top 8, had us finishing 3rd on 75 points, ahead of Man Utd on goal difference, Man Utd 4th also on 75 and Spurs 5th on 69. No idea if too optimistic.

Looking back I absolutely loved Benitez when he was here. Complete antithesis of the 3 years prior to his appointment and the club we had become in that time. He woke up a lot of the fans and probably the wider footballing media that Newcastle United isn't just a basket case also ran that 'can't compete with Swansea and Southampton' that Ashley and Pardew had tried to tell the world, its a club with fantastic potential and he saw that. Hence the tussles with Ashley. (And it attracted Staveley and her husband to the club to the point of trying to buy it for 4 years) If he had been brought in 2 weeks before he was in March 2016 we'd have stayed up, I'm convinced of that, and the following years may well have been so different. I couldn't believe he came here in the first place when he did, we were 19th and certainly going down and his stock then was much higher then than it is now; his two clubs prior to us were Real Madrid and Napoli. Either way he stuck with us after relegation when he needn't have had to, got us up, then kept us up two seasons running. The first half of the Championship season was a godsend for me personally as I was going through a tough time then and looking forward to matches under him was the main thing that got me through it. In the PL results were at times grim and the football labourious but nowhere near the extent that the media made out. That game v Man City in December 2017 attached a stigma to Benitez and us for absolutely ages due to the grief he got from the media. Regardless, he kept us up both seasons and arguably his defensive coaching Bruce reeled the benefits from in his first season pre COVID. Worn off after lockdown though. However, I do feel his stock has fallen quite a way from where it was when we appointed him 7 years ago. That Everton job was a stinker, can't dress it up any other way from what I've read from the likes of Neil and 1878 on here, one of my good mates from uni who's a ST holder there and it'll affect perception of him but he has no one to blame but himself for it, should never have taken that job and should go abroad in Europe for his next job imo. On top of that, as much as I admire and respect the man, I wouldn't want him back here has manager or any other role in any capacity. I wanted a clean break from the Ashley era and that includes him. The calls for him to return post Watford on here were mental at the time and look even more mental now. Regardless, always will appreciate Benitez for what he did here and what he represented but do think his stock has fallen considerably. He's one that wants complete control at clubs and most don't operate like that anymore. He needs to choose his next job carefully and unfortunately I don't think the right one for him is going to turn up in the PL.

Same. This season we've done them 0-3 at their place which they've done at SJP a couple times, and we could potentially be in a scenario in our last home game to beat them to make top 4 which they've been challenging for last few years and relegate them. how the turn tables

Page 855 onwards in this thread will always be a fantastically hilarious read.

Christ. They're finished, like. Had a look at the article on Marsch turning them down: Watched one game and thought 'fuck that'. Their remaining fixtures are awful as well. Genuinely can't see them staying up now, watched like 7 or 8 games of theirs on the bounce before the international break due to Leicester mates of mine and wanting to be clued up and by God, they're absolutely awful.

Their caretaker isn't up to it and Jesse Marsch is turning down the job. Aye, they're going down like.

Mountain out of a molehill that will be sorted behind closed doors. See Lee Clark at Southampton, 1993.

Ugh.

When Saka was strolling over to take that corner which he got booked for, went "Arsenal were very critical of Newcastle in one of the games they dropped points, don't think they can be too overly critical now of the tactics Newcastle employed that night"

Get in Carragher loves the mags

Given the chances we still had with 10 men, and the way they capitulated v Real Madrid a couple days after, every chance we get back into that and draw level with 11 men.

Liverpool are lifting. So annoying we've lost to them twice.

"Get on with it ya fuqqin knob'ed."

Leeds are falling apart, again. ?

Exactly 50% in the league, 28 wins from 56 games. 50.8% in all competitions, 33 wins in 65 games.

"Newcastle have now won exactly 100 Premier League points under Eddie Howe (P56 W28 D16 L12). Only Kevin Keegan in October 1994 (51 games) has needed fewer games to reach 100 points with the Magpies in the competition."

I don't watch them a lot admittedly but they reminded me of Stoke of yesteryear yesterday. Long throws, set pieces, kick and run football and red and white stripes with a nonce in the dugout. Meh.

I've watched them a lot recently, they are absolutely dreadful. Almost as tragic as Forest and Southampton. Those are the 3 that'll go now imo.

There's a dislike of Everton that I don't really understand on here as well tbh. And another mutual one on Twitter. Decided ages ago that forums and Twitter aren't the best barometers to use to gauge what fans of different clubs are like. From my own experience anyway.

Man City fans going through the repertoire of songs of old players and managers. Love it when we do that.