Shadow Puppets

Good for the first 30 mins, shite after that. I will say like, our worst performers today so far have been Bruno and Isak IMO. Both have lost the ball numerous times, and Bruno was dreadful for the goal. Whole team needs a kick up the arse, and Tonali / Barnes need to be on. Potentially Trippier too.

Cronin (fucking “Geordie Journos” YouTube channel?) is one of the worst for it.

Did you watch the press conference? Howe said with a smile that he hasn’t spoken to Mitchell in 10 days but has had no need to. It really really sounds to me like the press are circling and asking as many leading questions as possible in order to get a less than pristine answer from Eddie in order to continue their clickbait. Hope plus a few others… absolute bellends.

Watch the press conference. It's nowhere near as negative as this spin. I fucking hate that bellend, honestly.

Things always seem different written down. It’s probably an interview we needed to see, to be honest, to stop the different personalities of the journalists (*cough*Craig Hope*cough*) clouding and framing specific quotes.

🤷‍♂️ But I know Everton wanted him in January.

Not sure if it was mentioned in commentary / interviews, but Pope picked up a minor hamstring niggle in training this week which could explain some of his peculiar movements today.

Right, not sure where to put this… but a few tidbits of info I managed to get today… - Guehi was repeatedly told by Palace that a deal was close and he was expecting to travel for a medical at any point in the final week. As speculated, it was the injury to Palace’s CB that put an end to it. - Regarding the camp being unsettled… I was told that no one has “had their head turned”, but there was a lot of general anxiety surrounding a few players futures because of the PSR issue and the knowledge that technically anyone “could” be sold, which led to a lot of disruption / speculation. Apparently Longstaff and Trippier suffered badly on that front 🤷‍♂️. Weirdly I think the players who were least affected by the speculation were those who have either just signed new contracts or have been deemed our stars and definitely not for sale (Bruno, Isak). - Miley should be back by the end of the month. Moon-boot off. - Trippier 100% never asked to leave, though he is/was a little unsure of his place in the team right now. Guess that can only be fixed over time. That’s about all, but thought I’d share to keep everyone in the loop.

It wasn’t awful man. 20 mins of it were awful. The rest was a pretty competitive even game, with us edging the first half (IMO).

First half I thought we played well for large spells. The linesman issue stopped our momentum a bit, but I’d definitely put us down as the better team first half and deserved to be ahead. The first 15 mins of the second half was bad… just couldn’t string two passes together and struggled to get out of our box. We rode our luck and were fortunate to not find ourselves behind. After the subs we were much stronger… scored a good goal. Felt under control (to me) for the last 15 mins.

I have zero respect for Craig Hope (as I’ve said a few times). Even if some of what he says may be true in that article (🤷‍♂️), when he then puts in pieces that I know to be 100% factually incorrect / misleading (the unsettled Gordon story), I lose any faith in the rest of it being correct. But it’s the way he writes / speaks, as if he’s the oracle on the subject that pisses me off most. “Fans WILL turn their angst on Eales and Mitchell…” … well they will if you shape an entire article / multiple articles to make out they’re the “bad guys”. He writes with an agenda. He doesn’t report the news, he reports his own take on things he’s been told / made up.

Such a prick.

Understand your frustration on Miggy / Murphy (although I do think both are good squad players), but re: Krath… we’re not looking for a CB better than him. We’re looking for one better than both Botman and Schar.

1) I disagree. If our big players stay fit, this squad is more than capable of challenging for European places. Why wouldn’t they be? We finished 7th last year, a few wins away from 4th, after spending most of the season with 10+ first teamers on the treatment table. Gordon, Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Trippier, Livramento, Schar, Pope, Botman (when he returns), Wilson (if he can play 15+ games), Barnes… we have a really talented bunch of lads. 2) I don’t think it’s so “batshit insane” to think that EH know very specifically the kind of player they want, that would improve the team, be a “good egg”, be available for the right deal, AND actually want to join. But hey, each to their own opinions.

I can only speak to the players I have contact with, and I’ll ask them on Sunday, but they’re a pretty level headed bunch and very committed to doing their best for NUFC. They’re not going to be pissed off and start half-arsing it if that’s what you mean? I mean, the reality we find ourselves in is that we will almost certainly lose one of our big players next summer anyway. If we don’t qualify for Europe that is more likely, sure, but if we are serious about having to play within these PSR boundaries, selling high value assets is a big part of it anyway. I fully expect all the players to be fully invested in pushing this team as far as it can go this season. Beyond that, who knows? 🤷‍♂️

I never said he was pushing to leave either… but he’s actively been telling members of our squad that he wanted to join and that he expected to join. That’s different to “pushing to leave”.

From a keeping your squad together perspective, 8.5/10 From a recruitment perspective, 3/10. From a “let’s find the wildest opinions in the NUFC fan base” perspective, 10/10.

😁 Well, yeah, as of a few days ago he was. I’ll find out more on Sunday when I see people, but I’m assuming the injury to Palace’s other defender was ultimately the downfall 🤷‍♂️

Exactly.

Watch Howe’s press conference. He explains it all pretty clearly. 1) There WAS money to spend. 2) They identified “4 or 5 players” per position to attempt to sign that fit into our criteria (EH listed the criteria as very specific… the right position, the right profile / attributes / attitude, and crucially the right deal for the good of the club). 3) They couldn’t get the deals done. 4) They decided against signing players that didn’t line up with their criteria of what we need. 5) EH reiterated multiple times that working relationships are GOOD. 6) EH repeatedly said that all people were in agreement on what needed to be done and how it should be done. 7) EH repeatedly said that with PSR constraints every signing has to be perfect for the club, meet all the criteria, be the right deal etc, so unfortunately in this case they chose to do nothing rather than spend on players that they didn’t feel would improve the squad or fit the profile they want for this club. Maybe I’m just a “glass-half-full” kind of guy, but all of that seems pretty reasonable. Frustrating, yes, but completely understandable. I really really think people need to take a step back, look at where we are, how far we’ve come in 2.5 years, and question whether needlessly creating drama out of this is really the most useful thing to do. Our fanbase has a habit of imploding when things aren’t going exactly to plan, which is then reflected in the stadium and then ultimately on the pitch. We’ve had a great 2.5 years. We’ve hit a road bump. Don’t make it worse than it is by overreacting, because a negative atmosphere is far more likely to contribute to a bad season than a couple of players we didn’t sign.

Oh I will. Still absolutely love this team / manager. It’s frustrating, but we’ll be fine. We have a lot of talent in there.

Cool story bro.

Yes, sorry, I thought that was obvious.

We’re not looking for squad players… we’ve been searching exclusively for 1-2 first team ready starters.

It’s pretty common place for loans to include a loan fee these days. Mind you, you are also speaking to someone who doesn’t really rate Chalobah and don’t really see him as much of an upgrade on anyone we have in that position.