Shadow Puppets

Yeah, I felt strongly enough to come in here and share my opinion on what I’ve watched and how little I’m interested in the outcome 👍

This tournament has taught me one thing. I genuinely don’t give a shit about England winning anything. I feel absolutely nothing for them 😬

Just to add a little tidbit of info I have... nothing concrete (more opinion I guess)... but I'd still be surprised if he leaves this summer. His family are VERY settled into life in the north east... the house is for sale, true... but from what I've been told that is simply because they're moving / have moved to a different house. Some of his extended family moved up in January. His friends groups (and his wife's) seem to be (outwardly at least) speaking very much like they're here for the long term. Just to clarify, that's not concrete info, just my sense from chats I've had.

I know this is nothing new, but I've been told AGAIN today that Gordon has no desire at all to leave NUFC (usual sources). Reading between the lines, I do think a number of clubs have enquired which is to be expected, and I guess if we accepted an offer things could change, but he is absolutely committed to NUFC and loves it here. I see the speculation has reared its head again in the last few days, and it's just simply not true.

He's doing well, yes, but October would be highly optimistic.

This is factually complete bullshit.

😎

No I’m not Will but 100% sure he reads this forum. He posted something I said about Pope a while back too.

Haha, aye I’ve just seen that. 😂

See Craig Hope’s disgusting coverage of the Trippier Bayern link for a solid example of journalistic twisting of words / angle building. He tweeted that Tripps “jetted back from NYC to seal the move”, when in 100% reality he was in NYC with his family and was flying back anyway. I don’t necessarily think they just make shit up 100%… they get told info by certain sources… doesn’t make that info true. They then choose to report it however they see fit… some choose to be conservative with their info, some choose to create an angle out of everything. Anyway, from my usual sources AG is fine. Happy as usual. I think most players will probably be flattered by interest from teams like Bayern / Liverpool, but it’s journalistic stretching to say “head turned”.

Reading between the lines I think we have quite clearly, both publicly and privately made it common knowledge that we’d have to sell 1-2 players (without specific names), and that has led certain journalists to go with an angle of us offering him around, when in reality it’s just the natural result of us needing to sell SOMEONE.

I love Miggy like, but it is time for an upgrade for sure.

I can chime in on this one (don’t have any info on Anderson or Minteh, but do on this). We didn’t offer him to Liverpool. Liverpool did enquire a couple of weeks ago, and again at some point last week, but we said no. No intentions of selling him at all. AG is absolutely fine and perfectly happy here. No issues. No “heads turned”. Just clickbait guesswork journalism. Some of his family have just moved up here too.

Downie and Craig Hope

£35m is an extraordinary fee for him like. Theres clearly a decent player in there somewhere… good technique… but nothing at all to suggest he’ll ever be any more than a mid table PL player. £68m (if true) for two players who’ve made zero or next to no impact for us is pretty incredible to be honest 😂

No, that’s not how it works.

It’s not financially irresponsible… it’s pushing things to the limits of the rules to allow yourself to compete, knowing full well (as Eales and co have told us), that to stay within rules you have to sell at some point.

Above his station, billy big bollocks, let’s just say. I’ve witnessed it once myself too, during a shirt signing with a young lad. I’m not saying that’s why we are selling him (I’m sure as a player Eddie won’t want to be losing him)… just that I could potentially see that pushing him higher in the pile of potentially expendable considering we have a pretty strict policy on attitude these days.

Can’t say I’m too bothered about Anderson leaving. He’s a decent young player but hasn’t shown anywhere near enough for me to think he’s going to be any better than a Longstaff long term. I think I mentioned this a couple of months ago, but there have been one or two question marks over his attitude from people within the club, so I’m not overly surprised he’s seen as potentially expendable. Wish him well though. Sucks that we even have to entertain all this to be honest.

Without wanting to speculate, his body was spasming as if a very bad spine / neck injury. Hope to god he’s ok, poor lad.

I know for a fact that earlier in the season, when he was getting a lot of stick, he decided that his time here was up. The criticism is/was really getting to him. So I’d say it’s pretty likely he’ll leave if a semi decent offer comes in.

Went into town earlier to see the kit in the flesh. Meh... the top half is absolutely lovely... I just can't see past those little wing things on either side that make the outer stripes look crooked. Love all the training gear and extra stuff though.

Haha, class. Spotted a few very familiar faces in the crew 😁

Just realised (late to the game) that the website has been updated. Wow... it's spectacularly shit 🤣

I was, very briefly, shown a photo of the home shirt worn by Tonali today. The actual one. I was also told that a few “leaks” have purposefully been put out into the world to throw people off. I think you guys are going to like it… difficult to tell from the photo I saw whether it was the same as any in this thread earlier… I was shown it for about 5 seconds and my mind didn’t really fixate on the details. But it reminded me very much of Laurent Robert era shirts. Looked really good to me.