Shadow Puppets

Because everyone's fucking miserable and no matter how much rationality you try to use, it doesn't fit their outlook on life/NUFC/the world?

I'm not saying I think he's worth that... I'm saying that's how much we have been quoted as wanting for him. It's well reported.

I mean i have no opinions on Joelinton but the other strikers there are awful. The standards have really dropped if that's what's considered "not bad". Awful? Jesus Christ man. We are yet to know whether Gayle can do it in the PL... Rafa barely played him. And same with Muto... every time I've seen him play he's been a livewire, and most posters on here were complaining about his lack of game time last season. And Carroll, if fit, is a great option from the bench. You know he is. You just have no interest whatsoever in saying anything remotely positive. On Gayle, yes we do. He's not good enough, he's proved that multiple times over multiple different seasons for different clubs that he's not good enough. Muto i'm willing to accept he may have a chance but i still doubt it, as for Carroll he's been crap for years whether he's been fit or not. Also don't assume i have no interest in saying anything positive because i have a negative opinion on this subject. ( with good reason) To start. But a lot of clubs in our league standing would like to have a Dwight Gayle on the bench. Why aren't they queuing up to sign him then? instead he spent the entire last season at West Brom. Because they don't want to spend £15m (which is what we have been quoted as wanting for him) for him to sit on the bench.

He's not like.

I mean i have no opinions on Joelinton but the other strikers there are awful. The standards have really dropped if that's what's considered "not bad". Awful? Jesus Christ man. We are yet to know whether Gayle can do it in the PL... Rafa barely played him. And same with Muto... every time I've seen him play he's been a livewire, and most posters on here were complaining about his lack of game time last season. And Carroll, if fit, is a great option from the bench. You know he is. You just have no interest whatsoever in saying anything remotely positive. On Gayle, yes we do. He's not good enough, he's proved that multiple times over multiple different seasons for different clubs that he's not good enough. Muto i'm willing to accept he may have a chance but i still doubt it, as for Carroll he's been crap for years whether he's been fit or not. Also don't assume i have no interest in saying anything positive because i have a negative opinion on this subject. ( with good reason) To start. But a lot of clubs in our league standing would like to have a Dwight Gayle on the bench.

Joelinton... in his appearances so far looks a good player. Scored two and won a penalty. Works well with Almiron. Muto... livewire but perhaps hasn't had many opportunities due to not fitting into Rafa's system and Rondon being so good. Gayle... yet to prove whether he can cut it in the PL. I suspect not (if you expect him to be main striker) but certainly a good option from the bench and a very good finisher on his day. Carroll... offers something completely different (with the caveat of "if he's fit"). Almiron... played off Joelinton in a number 10 role in the last two friendlies and they combined really well. Needs to score, but more than makes up for it in the amount of chances he creates or makes space for. Saint-Maximin... again, based off only seeing him live for 30 mins, he looks a livewire and certainly an upgrade on the Atsu's and Ritchie's of this world. All of those will be fighting it out for 2 positions in Bruce's likely system. That isn't a bad choice at all. Or do you just have no desire to say anything positive as usual?

I mean i have no opinions on Joelinton but the other strikers there are awful. The standards have really dropped if that's what's considered "not bad". Awful? Jesus Christ man. We are yet to know whether Gayle can do it in the PL... Rafa barely played him. And same with Muto... every time I've seen him play he's been a livewire, and most posters on here were complaining about his lack of game time last season. And Carroll, if fit, is a great option from the bench. You know he is. You just have no interest whatsoever in saying anything remotely positive.

So everyone complaining about this. Providing we don't sell anyone this afternoon, our crop of strikers will be: Joelinton Muto Gayle Carroll Plus players who can play off the striker: Almiron Saint-Maximin That's not a bad selection at all. I appreciate there's some unknown quantities in there, but anyone that we bought would be an unknown quantity really.

Assuming full (enough) stadiums keep Ashley here, it's everybody's loss, not just those selfish and short-sighted enough to 'stay loyal'. Sick to the back teeth of reading shit like that Yorkie. I'm with you in principle, but people are entitled to do whatever they want to do. Doesn't make them selfish in the slightest. Just that they have a different opinion to you... it doesn't make them wrong. So fucking holier that thou. I'd say the same thing of a lot of people on the other side of the fence. You're right though, it probably is pretty condescending but I've got virtually no respect for anyone going to the game. And the situation is so deplorable that I feel fairly unconcerned about coming across as a complete dickhead. There's two categories really, I should have said selfish and/or short-sighted: / If you're going to the game purely because you refuse to make a sacrifice cos its MY club and it's MY day out and it's MY right to watch the game and Mike Ashley isn't gonna stop ME watching MY club... I think you're selfish. / If you're going to the game because you genuinely don't believe that a cumulative season attendance of roughly zero would accelerate Ashley's departure... I think you're short-sighted. I personally can't fathom how something as dramatic as 19 Premier League matches in a row, with a sheer vista of grey seats every single time (save for the away fans at the top, which, if nothing else, would be pretty comical) wouldn't force some kind of change. If Ashley himself wouldn't intervene by fucking off then at least it would alert the Premier League - and the world - to the wider issue of bad ownership. It would raise awareness of the fact that it is unethical to own a football club and then not treat it as a footballing enterprise, at the very least in addition to whatever other goals or reasons you might have for ownership. I realise that, by holding and publishing these views, I'm just perpetuating the supporter in-fighting which Ashley feeds off, but fuck it. Everything about the situation stinks and it all feels a bit hopeless so whatever. Dickhead unleashed. I appreciate all of that but you're living in cuckoo land if you think a boycott will ever truly take off. Sure, maybe 10,000 people won't show up to Arsenal... but 7,000 of them will return the following week. People who feel strongly about it and read every bit of news and dissect everything Ashley does... some of them will stay away. But the sheer truth of the whole thing is that 80-90% of the stadium leave the match on a Saturday and don't give much more thought about it until the next game. My wife is one of them, for example. She loves going to the games (even when we're doing shit) but couldn't care less about following all the ins and outs of it all outside of that. I would say the majority of the stadium are like that. I really do think the people behind AO, The Magpie Group, etc, fail to really understand that. The one and only time in the last 12 years when I've noticed Ashley lashing out in frustration was last August/September when his brands were getting attacked by 1000s of fans on social media, to the point where Sports Direct didn't tweet for weeks, and the PR machine will thrown into full force. That's where the focus should lie. It's hugely misguided and pie-in-the-sky to ever believe that a boycott will happen in significant enough numbers, and regularly enough, to make any significant difference. Idealistic, sure. Realistic, nope. Make owning NUFC an inconvenience for him and his shareholders... that's when he'll sell (IMO).

It'd have been amazing. Rafa with money, support and the beginning of a long term strategy. Oh, what could have been . We actually have zero idea what BZG's plans were for us though do we? They certainly seemed to operate in a very worrying way. (Of course I agree with the sentiment had a takeover by an ambitious owner actually happened)

Assuming full (enough) stadiums keep Ashley here, it's everybody's loss, not just those selfish and short-sighted enough to 'stay loyal'. Sick to the back teeth of reading shit like that Yorkie. I'm with you in principle, but people are entitled to do whatever they want to do. Doesn't make them selfish in the slightest. Just that they have a different opinion to you... it doesn't make them wrong. So fucking holier that thou.

A chunk of those were from the bench though (same applies to his West Ham stats). He's a 1 in 3 goalscorer in the PL, for free. As I say, IF he can stay relatively fit, he'll be a good option alongside Joelinton, Gayle, and Muto. Offers something completely different.

Carroll's a no brainer for me like. Providing we're not paying him a fortune, when he's fit he's a guaranteed goalscorer, great option off the bench. Would like to keep Gayle too though.

Almiron will almost certainly be playing centrally in behind Joelinton, so ASM would be wide left or right.

I’m sorry... you know this how? He works for the Swedish paper that broke the Krafth deal. He’d not shill for the club either. ?

I’m sorry... you know this how?

I haven’t seen any of this appetite apart from on here. It’s a very mixed bag elsewhere.

Official gate will be tickets sold which i think will be approx 42/43K. A proportion of season tick holders won't actually go and the actual gate will be something like 38/39K I'll be there and don't care whether anyone else goes or doesn't go. Not to be an arsehole, but why exactly will you be there on Sunday? I’m guessing it’s because he wants to watch a game of football played by the team that he loves. I’m not going myself, but to be honest I wish I was. This. I can't understand how you can still "love" the team in its current incarnation. It exists to merely exist to allow Ashley to plaster his tatty adverts all over the ground. The club is sold as a stepping stone to prospective players. That is not what NUFC was about and it never should be. If you're happy to fund that then fair enough. It's immensely disappointing that some people are wearing their continued support of the team as a badge of honour while others are trying to make a stand for the greater good of the club's future. You can still love the team and the players and Newcastle United as a whole...of course you can. Just because it’s being run badly doesn’t mean you can’t still have an emotional attachment to it. Like it or not, boycotting is never ever going to work. There’s just nowhere near enough appetite for it. Even if there’s 40k there on Sunday, I’d wager there’d still be close to 50k the next home game. I don’t really fully understand why Mike Ashley will care to be honest. He cares about Sports Direct...that’s all. I have given up my season ticket, but i’ll Still go from time to time. Because I want to. And I want to take my lad.

Official gate will be tickets sold which i think will be approx 42/43K. A proportion of season tick holders won't actually go and the actual gate will be something like 38/39K I'll be there and don't care whether anyone else goes or doesn't go. Not to be an arsehole, but why exactly will you be there on Sunday? I’m guessing it’s because he wants to watch a game of football played by the team that he loves. I’m not going myself, but to be honest I wish I was.

Give over man. The attendance in SJP is calculated by how many barcodes have been scanned on the way into the stadium. It’s an accurate representation of how many people are in the stadium (it actually has to be accurate for health and safety purposes). Not a chance it’s any less than 45k in my opinion.

Not saying this is true, but did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps Rafa wasn’t as popular with the players as he was the fans? I don’t know...just putting it out there.

To most people, the reality is, there isn't that much wrong. We're in the Premier League. That's enough for most people to show up.

I would say our window has already been OK... we don't need another striker in my opinion... Joelinton, Gayle, Muto, Almiron... they can all play on the forward line... certainly in the system that Bruce looks like he wants to play. Wingers... we have Almiron, Saint Maximin, Atsu, Ritchie, Aarons. Centre Mid... Shelvey, Longstaff(s), Ki, Hayden Left (Wing) Back... Willems, Dummett, Manquillo, Ritchie Right (Wing) Back... Yedlin, Manquillo As things stand, in my opinion we don't necessarily NEED any more players, but would be nice to improve upon our RB and CM options (essential if Hayden leaves).

Did you see the match yesterday? Second half we played some really good stuff Do you think that was Bruce or the past three years of coaching drilled by Rafa? Both. It was drastically different in style/tactics in the second half. Very attacking.