Happinesstan

Took it away from Billy as well. Not sure what Willock's even doing there. I assume he's just determined to make his mark. Which is a good sign. And a nice finish to get his goal.

I was checking the teamsheet for a MacSimmon.

We're just making it more entertaining. I don't even know who the bloke is and I doubt he cares.

Look at today's friendly. We've got a pretty Brucish team out there and we've created nowt. Almiron for Murphy and Bruno for Willock and we'll see a different game.

We've seen he can finish, so the question is really why doesn't he do it more often? We've seen many a world class forward struggle to finish at times and the reason is often that they're simply not 100%, mentally. Sometimes it's that they're not getting enough opportunities. Almiron has been unlucky that he never got the opportunities, which affected him mentally. Sure we can point to a number of missed opportunities over his time here but he's lucky if he got one chance per game.

So far he's mistaken both Shelvey and Burn for Lascelles.

Is Adam P filming this?

You saw the pressure release when he scored against Palace, right?

Like everybody else in our attack [including Maxi] he suffered from the lack of any tactic, or training, that involved attacking. We saw how he linked up with Bruno towards the latter part of the season, and I think he'll thrive when called upon. Like I keep saying, he'll surprise a few next season.

Almiron took a while [no longer than average] to settle into a new country. He strted to blossom then things went to shit once Bruce arrived. Poor kid's probably been suicidal for the two years before Howe arrived.

Thing is, teams like Man City and PSG can usually give young uns a fair amount of time from the bench. If they're winning 2-0/3-0 [which is often the case] it's the perfect situation to give them some experience.

Shelvey, Willock and Billy seem to be our three central midfielders and I'd assume Billy will be the #10, unless Maxi is going to play there. Or maybe Howe wants to develop Billy into a CM.

I think he's just waiting for the chance to link up with his BB, and unless somebody like Arsenal, up the stakes we'll be quite relaxed about that. In the meantime we play hardball over our other targets, setting the required precedent.

Looks like an old pools coupon.

He clearly gets on well with Willock.

French innit?

Worrying.

I don't think what you or I want comes into it. If we sign him I'm happy, because I trust the guys making those decisions.

Aye but that's through necessity brought about by a lack of left footed CBs. Though you could be right, we could move Botman over and bring in Burn on the left.

Ignoring the obvious. He's 1st choice back-up to Schar.

Looks like he suffers from terrible wind.

Aye, thought the same.

Canny start to pre-season with a brace. I know it's only gateshead but still a good sign.

Mark McGhee

Was HBA not good enough for you?