number37

I'm pleased it wasn't just me thinking along those lines!

Yeah, I do think we'll be alright actually. It's been mentioned elsewhere that alongside tremendous ability, we've signed really good characters and players with intelligence and although not completely immune from the occasional brain fart, you'd think the chances are considerably reduced. The second half of the season is all about survival, nowt else. We don't need pretty, liquid football, we need to win games and stay up. We've signed experienced, international players - even an Olympian - and so confidence and composure will have dramatically increased within the squad. Eddie Howe exudes composure and he's certainly not daft. Again, as highlighted elsewhere, we've had such a pragmatic window, albeit not perfect as I do feel a striker/forward would have been amazing but we've exponentially made ourselves much more solid but with so many more great opportunities going forward, crosses into the box, improved hold up play, dominance in midfield, so many of the basics that we've lacked for years. A plan, essentially, and a lot of the tools to make it happen, certainly so many more than what has been made available to previous managers. I do remember that Monday Night Football episode that Eddie Howe was on, he was detailing his set piece approach (ironically using a game for Bournemouth against us) and the players we now have, with the height, technical ability and brains, I think we or he can more than make up for in terms of goals from set pieces due to not having another forward. It's even more night and day from the previous fuckwits in charge (obviously excluding Rafa). So, yes, this ramble obviously doesn't have a point or purpose (I'm known at work as a strong filibuster) but, yeah, I do think he has the tools to prevent us from being relegated because surely individual mistakes can now be all but eradicated and set pieces can now be so much more impactful. The players we've signed aren't idiots, they know the situation. We're in trouble but we're not a stepping stone and I'm sure Eddie will get everyone signing from his hymn sheet. Also, I reckon we've done better business than our immediate rivals.

I think we need to remember how big a decision this is for such a young man to make. As with all the hot prospects we've signed and have made it through our youth system, Hugo does need to consider whether or not he fancies spending his mid-20s at Newcastle Benfield.

We're only 32 points off Chelsea and we've got three games in hand.

Let's call it compensation for all those 'Champions 2016/17' scarves they bought.

Doc Brown and Marty McFly made a better job of hiding the DeLorean.

She has Huntington's disease.

I think he means: "I'm afraid I have no information."

Then there was Rolando Aaron's. Maybe extenuating circumstances with autocorrect but no, not really, doesn't make it hurt any less.

As a bit of a segway into a potentially daft question, do Rodgers and Hammerstein (or their estates) get a slice of the action each and every single time?

Maybe it's for the best because we all know what happened the last time a private plane was involved with Burnley...

It's a very pragmatic signing and the comparison to Daryl Murphy is accurate, in my opinion. If he scores a few goals that stops us from being relegated then it's money well spent because that's what we need.

Just different worlds, that's all. Very different worlds.

Just to clarify, it's the guy on the left that we're after? Not sure the other one has what it takes to be our mane man.

I'm quite liking this new negotiation tactic, if the press are to be believed. Go in high first and then decrease.

He's a British national so would only need the 2 day PCR right now, wouldn't he?

So that would be three de Jongs to make a right?

£12m up front and then £5m per Champions League title for the duration of his contract is what I've just made up.

This signing (when it happens) reminds me of when archaeologists uncover something that's vaguely familiar to them and so they spend ages painstakingly scraping off decades or centuries of shit and dirt and neglect to reveal something absolutely amazing. We really are a great club that's slowly starting to be rediscovered after years of neglect and will be restored to past glories.

Madrid to Newcastle via Texas, there. He's keen, I'll give him that.

We should have been signing players in 1891, a year before t'club were formed, have 'em train 29 hours a day, wake up an hour before they go to bed, bathe 'em in wheelie bins o'sulphuric acid and 'ave 'em pay us hundred grand a week for t'privilege.

Those who talk the same, dress the same by the look of it too. M&S must have a sale on.

This is based on absolutely nothing at all but maybe the East Stand didn't get bleached as much or at all is maybe because it has its "back" to the sun? If that makes sense? So the sun would be shining directly at the Milburn stand at peak times but not so much on the East Stand so it's a bit more protected. Maybe it doesn't make a difference or maybe the paint they used on seats in the 80s and early 90s were a bit more "chemically different" by modern/we actually care about the environment standards. That's my crazy theory for today and it's not even lunch time yet.

I really can't stand them either. They look at most 1% ok if it's a plan strip like Tottenham perhaps but for a striped strip like ours, nah. Ordinarily, long sleeve shirts don't exist any more, which is a crime but when Ronaldo signed for Man Utd this summer, by sheer coincidence Adidas introduced a long sleeved shirt for him, which is now worn by a few of his team mates. Player issue only though, as far as I'm aware - not that I hunt down Man Utd shirts.