number37

Until the 1970s, there was a rule in the FA Cup that if there was a clash of kits then both teams had to change. It's meant that Newcastle and Sunderland have borrowed kits from each other to fulfil games in the 1950s.

I'm really sick of commentators referring to "Trent" as if he's Seal, Prince or McLovin.

Looks like Kevin de Bruyne spent a fair bit of time in 1995 during his injury layoff.

I think it would help if we were wearing black shorts even though they are too because there's loads of white on their shirts. Or maybe if they had red shorts?

I actually quite like that retro (but contemporary for Sunderland) graphic.

Paul Merson is always stressing the importance of winning football matches too. Golf commentators often love to praise a good golf shot. Sums that lot up though.

It would have been nice if the guys had also popped in to see the other half of the squad when they were at the RVI, would have given them a welcome boost before Christmas.

Dalot thinks he's Shola.

At least it's been nice to see some Adidas long sleeve shirts, which bodes well for next season. No compensation for the Waitrose Pardew v Bruce style football though.

Would have been a genuine "well done, he's 13" moment.

Is this another "baller" situation? Has "bottled it" got a new definition these days? To me it's related to being cowardly or lacking courage and that's the exact opposite of what I've seen from each and every player and member of staff in recent times. They've given it everything they have, stretched themselves to the limit and gone toe to toe with multiple-time European champions a couple of years after almost being relegated. It's fine to be disappointed, it's good to be feeling anything these days but to question the integrity of our players is a wee bit extreme, I think.

I'll never ever forget the sound of the two older guys who sat behind me in the Milburn stand tutting at me when I walked out during that Cardiff game. Two grown adult men tutting at me. I know I wasn't exactly chaining myself to the railings but at least I was doing something. They were the same guys who'd often ask each other "who's that? Never heard of him" when referring to our own players. They'd also always pronounce de Jong with a hard 'J' which maybe pissed me off more than it should but those tuts, man, the sound is stuck in my memory forever. I hope they enjoyed the PSG game.

On the positive side, Tottenham have picked up a point away from home with an aG of 3.

They have that Jonathan Liew sometimes on Sky Sports News as part of their newspaper review and he's such a dweeb.

Adidas Equipment style shirts from the early 90s. This sort of thing: https://www.soccerbible.com/performance/football-apparel/2020/02/10-of-the-best-adidas-eqt-football-shirts/

That's more to do with my own preference because I often struggle to separate the person from the player, unfortunately.

It was a close call, believe me! I think I didn't want to be too caught up with recency bias and perhaps wanted to see more in Cabaye compared to Bruno than there might be if I didn't want to end up with too many of the current crop. Bruno should be in instead if I were to reassess properly though, you're right.

I was thinking about the all time best XI, give it a bit of thought, maybe too much thought, and came up with a lineup but then considered substitutions but couldn't remember how many subs are allowed these days and ended up with a squad big enough to take to a rugby World Cup. I also tried to think of a viable, feasible team based on playing style and also relationships with other players and how they would fit in with each other. It was a bit difficult when considering players from different eras. So I did the easy thing and abandoned the single team approach and instead went for how a match between two teams could look like if there were to be a glamorous friendly played at St. James' Park, a Newcastle Exhibition, if you like - Sir Bobby Robson XI v Rafa Benitez XI. I picked these two managers for their legendary statuses and also, most importantly for this exercise, because they're not involved on the pitch. Here are my two teams. Sir Bobby Robson XI: Rafa Benitez XI: They're definitely fuelled by my own personal biases and I know there are notable exclusions but isn't that the beauty of this kind of thing? I've swapped players in and out of both teams and also swapped between them and even I'm not 100% satisfied but I have to draw the line somewhere. The goalkeepers are most likely the easiest to interchange but I thought Given wouldn't be under too much aerial threat from Gallacher/Milburn/Keegan (admittedly I don't know how tall Jimmy Lawrence was but I suppose I could check if I wanted). I was really keen to go for a Shearer/Gallacher combo due to their size differences in a Shearer/Bellamy type way but I then thought having Macdonald/Shearer up front with Hibbitt and Solano out wide would be quite tasty. The differences between the two defences was also interesting to me because it's a nice clash of styles as they could maybe show there are many different ways to defend. Plus, I think it would also be interesting to see how they'd deal with the attacks they'd each have to face. As I say, even I don't think either side is the absolute "best" eleven of Newcastle United and there are most likely players in each side who wouldn't make a "best of" but my approach was to put together teams that would in principle be most likely to function (kind of) if they actually had to play with each other - but still be comprised of a significant number of our best. There are some examples of square peg/round hole as I've tried to shoe horn players in positions where they wouldn't be fully comfortable but maybe there can be some tactical flexibility and a strong use of imagination. Who knows who would win this game (I do lean slightly more towards Rafa's team though) but I would be surprised if both sides still had their full eleven at the end as I reckon it could get a wee bit spicy. It would be great to see who would make it into our respective sides, who our common players would be and maybe the odd wildcard here and there. In case you're interested, I just used www.lineup11.net but other similar sites are available.

Liverpool throwing the big guns on now like they've got nothing left, Toulouse.

Sickeningly, using 'is' is correct but agree it looks and sounds awful and I would always use 'are' like the rebel I am. It's because you're treating the club, in this case, as a single entity rather than as a group or collection. So it's always "Eddie Howe is mint" but not "Eddie Howe are mint" because even though he is mint, he's still just a man (but we're looking into sainthood). So treating a club as a single entity gives you "Chelsea is worse" but I'd always consider a football/sport team as a collective of players so "Chelsea are worse" would be my preference as I laugh in the face of what's right. I think it works better for countries like "Japan is amazing" to describe the country rather than "Japan are amazing" to describe their football team. Oh, what's that noise at my door? It's that hoard of beautiful women again, now if you don't mind someone needs to underwhelm these lovely ladies.

By the time we play Chelsea in the League Cup we'll probably only have 8 fit players but I still think we'd win.

🎶 Captain Black, we'll make you cry tonight Just a little push and you'll be lying. 🎶

If that Japan goal at the World Cup was in then so was this.

It was definitely a lot less stressful when we were shit.

Why are they outside?? They were in a perfectly fine studio.