MarkyMark

And just like Jaaskelainen, no-one has come beating the door down with loads of cash to be offered for him. Does anyone seriously think Ashley would have turned down a decent offer for a goalkeeper? Dubravka’s consistently poor decision-making doesn’t just cost goals like the first one. It breeds fear in the back line that he’ll make another one any second - and when you have defenders as poor as ours, that is catastrophic. Some of the players that sizeable portions of the support have rated over the years has been head-scratching. The current side has more than usual - Dubravka, ASM, Almiron etc. Ineffective, unintelligent, mediocre footballers. Just proof of how far we’ve fallen. The quicker the memories of this side are wiped away the better.

Wilson is a good centre forward choked of service in a shit side. Still out -scoring the likes of Kane despite this. At a functioning club, he’d score 20 per season. He’d be a decent squad option at a top five or six PL side. He’s not a wide-man at all. Needs to be in the box as much as possible, but our bunch of knackers constantly losing possession in midfield force him to drop too deep.

This is it for me too - Dubravka has to shout, claim - and if necessary, clatter through the back of a glaiky Clark to get rid. You don’t stand watching the ball bounce inside the six yard box. Incredibly shit all round.

As Peter Schmeichel once said, ‘goalkeepers are defined by their mistakes’. Dubravka makes loads - at least one or two per game. He’s comfortably better than anyone else we have - but he’s far from being a good goalie. And his poor distribution and positioning makes bad defenders look even worse.

Almiron under Rafa - 10 games 0 goals 0 assists Almiron this season - 15 games 0 goals 0 assists The great statistical gods are trying to tell us something, I think

Two things that worry me: 1) Howe needed suspensions and injuries to play his best back line - for precisely one game 2) there has been no ‘bounce’. I’d put my house on Bruce getting pretty much precisely the same results (he was also drawing home games against shite teams - at some point, you’ll scrape a win doing that) Longer term, I’d take Howe over Bruce every time of course. But my expectations were low and they’ve been matched, so far. The clangers dropped today are similar to the ones dropped for weeks on end - at some point, you question what’s happening in training. And anyone selecting Clark - ever, under any circumstances - is open to questioning.

These games are ‘free hits’, but Christ it would feel good to just get a lucky point or three at some point from one of them. We did ok against a completely off-Liverpool side; we’ve got to try to make it count if Man City are as lethargic as they were. Wouldn’t criticise Howe or the side today unless it’s a cricket score

I used to listen to the Football Ramble; but I’ve just realised it must be a good four or five years since I last listened to it. The Newcastle supporter ones I’ve listened to on the odd occasion - I find them all difficult to get into. They’re basically post match pub conversations, only without your mates, which means there’s no obvious reason to carry on listening unless there’s something wider going on - and I fundamentally disagreed with those who have spent the last decade protesting against Ashley’s other businesses, and then used their platform to wash their hands re the new ownership. Have to agree that Norman comes across as a decent gadgie on the TF ones I’ve heard him on. This isn’t strictly the case for those like Pod on the Tyne or Everything is B&W, which have local sports hacks. But then, I have never felt football is well served journalistically. Though EIB&W can be occasionally distracting listening to John ‘Gibbo’ Gibson reminiscing about times past and talking about his match day experiences with his mate Supermac. You can practically smell the LCL coming off him at times.

Honestly, it’s another one of those ‘idiots with KSA flags on their Twitter handle are in for a rude awakening’ moments for me This isn’t a Man City / PSG style takeover - it’s been whipped up by the press and Staveley, despite the fact that she seemingly can’t shite without ringing up a reporter, isn’t in a hurry to correct them They’ll need all the help they can get to be fair, as the incompetence of the KSA govt (who are obviously the owners) will quickly become apparent. And brown noses in the press will talk about ‘process’, as if decisions are made in KSA involving detailed discussion and thought-provoking arguments before a consensus is reached. Incompetence masquerading as due diligence

Yep. He’s a fucking abysmal forward, but it’s hard to imagine he’d be any worse than Hayden or Shelvey in a defensive midfield position. Still nowhere near PL standard mind.

Liverpool have been pretty average so far - luckily for them we gift teams. Actually think Fraser has had one of his better games - but that’s saying nowt, given the general quality and quantity we’re talking about. ASM is a comedy footballer mind - more effective on Twitter than on a football pitch. I’m writing this so that he inevitably scores and makes me look daft *crosses fingers*

I’ve some sympathy for this take - and the number of times I read that we need ‘champions league’ form to survive after December is irritating; it assumes that we need 40 points. We don’t; we need more than three other teams, and that is likely to be low-30s. 34 is probably enough; 36 definitely. If we can get to January on, say, 15 points (a big ask), then we would only need a point a game to get to 34, or 1.1 to get to 36. 1.1 points per game is a 42-point season. Hardly requires us to pull up many trees going forward. This assumes, of course, that Watford, Burnley and Norwich don’t suddenly start tearing teams apart between now and Jan. I’m willing to bet that they won’t b

Yep. Seriously though, what did he expect? He knows Evetonians hate him. He knows he has no money to spend (tbf, never one of Rafa’s strong points). He know he is inheriting an Everton which wasted its sugar daddy money on drek, and is now snookered financially. Yet still he signs. I’ve little sympathy. I know how many view him around these parts, and he’ll always have some affection from me for staying when we went down, but the truth was that he was only a remarkable appointment for us because of Ashley’s ownership. A decade or so earlier and a similar appointment would’ve been par for the course. He was in talks with West Ham a few months before us. It’s been a long, long time since he genuinely was a first-rank manager. Taking the Everton job was a puzzle from a football point of view - made sense financially and in terms of location. But then he went to China for the money - so not that much of a shock. Move on, I reckon.

It’s the age old confusion of ‘get behind the lads’ not applying when they’re not actually there to hear it. As if it actually matters away from the ground (and I’m not convinced it matters at the ground - if support counts towards success, does that mean our support has been shite for 50 years?)

I’m doubtful that Pep would continually pick Lascelles despite the evidence in front of his eyes. It is a horrific job he has on his hands, but Howe was still an underwhelming appointment which could easily have been an Ashley one - no-one blinked when he was favourite to replace Bruce when Ashley was still here. Though I doubt Ashley would have gave as much credence to a PowerPoint presentation. I don’t think we’re down at all, but those signings need to be here on 1st Jan not the 31st. Based on what we’ve been hearing about the ‘process’, I’ve got a funny feeling they’re liable to be closer to the latter date …

There’s significant constructibility issues re extending the Gallowgate. For all the griping about Ashley ‘stopping expansion potential’ by selling the land, it would be a nightmare place to try and construct an expansion - an expansion which I doubt is technically possible. St James’ is, infamously, built on a slope (again, part of that ‘unsuitable site for a football ground’ thing). That slope continues further down, which presents problems. Pretty much the only way you could foresee an extension under those conditions is via massive piling. Then you’ve the issue of attempting to build a stand extension on a slope over an underground railway station - which means that the obvious route of massive piles is pretty much ruled out. My old practice had the plans for a massively increased SJP, which did the rounds in a few professional construction firms in the late ‘90s. It’s not just prohibitively expensive - it may be impossible due to the site conditions and risks from the site; certainly in terms of extending capacity by c.7k it just seems daft. And the existence of Leazes Terrace (which is a truly beautiful piece of architecture) effectively snookers the only other extension on the site. I don’t think anyone wants a stadium on the outskirts of the city. But I stand by SJP being a lopsided eyesore, the layout of which actively harms the atmosphere inside the ground (SJP was never particularly loud post-Taylor all-seating, but the atmosphere took an obvious nosedive after the expansion in 2000). There would be the option to remain at SJP with a rebuild - which would mean a reduced capacity during construction - you could achieve this by moving the pitch to where the current west stand is; it would also be achievable by rotating the pitch 90deg. With the option of rotating the pitch, you could leave the Leazes and East Stands in place, and the Gallowgate while construction occurs (it would remain a fair distance from the field of play). Demolish the West Stand, extend the Leazes (which would become a new stand rather than end), and then sequentially you could rebuild both the current East Stand (which could be moved further forward), before rebuilding a new Gallowgate stand of the same size as the Leazes, as well as a new West End. A costly rebuild, which would likely take two years - but the club would still be at SJP, you’d still have punters in the stands (albeit reduced capacity), and you’d end up with a shiny, modern stadium as a result. Or you could see if you can buy a site close to the city centre (expensive), though ultimately you’d have an expensive site available once a move is complete. And given that stadium investments don’t impact FFP, it would be an obvious means of increasing income.

Cowies are one hell of a drug

I’m in the ‘bulldoze it’ camp too. It’s lopsided and poorly positioned for expansion. Would have zero issue with starting again, either with a rebuild or a new build elsewhere (preferably Leazes Park). Personally, I always thought that the John Hall rebuild was a bit of an eyesore - something that has become more apparent as it has aged (and it has aged badly). The attachment to a building which is younger than most people who attend is lost on me - proper ‘ship of Theseus’ stuff, but it’s as much St James’ Park as the current Wembley is Wembley Stadium.

I’d add to the list: referees not calling foul throws ’they need to apply common sense’ - no, they need to apply the laws of the game. See also: Pundits complaining about an application of the law, before claiming the law is ‘stupid’ when it is pointed out that then referee is correct people with no link to the place of the team that they support referring to the club as ‘we’ and ‘us’; like a Man Utd ‘fan’ from Truro constantly talking about ‘us’ and the listener naturally assuming they’re talking about Plymouth Argyle Merson, Collymore et al pontificating on an issue relating to the professionalism of any current player PFM defences of fellow PFM Man U being called ‘United’ Football supporters talking like accountants when it comes to cup competitions - ‘we should play a second XI, there’s no money in it, the UEFA Cup just costs money to play in, could damage our chances of a top half finish and more bonus money’ etc. This especially applies to supporters of clubs who’ve won either nowt or nowt for a long time (therefore including us)

Short corners annoy me too, but there’s no logic to my annoyance - corners are really about the roar of excitement when you get one; only c.3% result in a goal (though we’re included in that average, so maybe it’s closer to 5% for everyone else), so taking them short is unlikely to be any less efficient. Hitting the first man from a corner is a piss-boiler too; that a professional footballer cannot accurately cross a dead ball is extraordinary *glowers at Matt Ritchie*

Definitely not OTT for me Tbf, there’s probably a good chance that the font is copyright of SD. So maybe it has to come down (fingers crossed). A return to the old lettering would be a simple case of ‘as you were’. I realise how much I sound like those daft Mackems getting excited about replacing their pink seats

Hasn’t the sad case who photoshopped the SD sign removal - leaving up ‘Newcastle United’ - noticed that the club name needs to come down too? Because it’s written in that awful Sports Direct font. I trust that those involved with removing the signage aren’t as stupid as Burnsie.

When we were linked with Tarkowski, Trippier etc I thought ‘wow’. That would instantly prove my concern wrong - that’s going for targets who’d cost a relative fortune, and would be hard to get. Hope’s list is more in line with my expectations. I’d be very happy with those players coming in - the shouty twats on Twitter with their KSA flags in their handle? Probably not. And they represent a bigger portion of our support than most would be comfortable with.

Perhaps, though I wouldn’t put my house on it. Memories are short in football. I was there and heard the mumbling of discontent which starting popping up at the end of the Keegan era. Like wise the latter days of Robson - and under both men, we’d been in the doldrums when they took over. And unlike that period, the criticism surrounding the new owners isn’t going to disappear - ever. Is that bearable if we’re winning all the time? Maybe. If we’re another Everton? I watched their game last night - they’re a similar club to us. The discontent was palpable. Emenalo is a self-publicist and no doubt there’ll be a load of shite coming from his end - but I do wonder if it he’s went into those discussions believing that there’s a massive pot of money coming, and that clashes with what’s actually on offer.

Given the journalist, that list is probably correct - he clearly has a line to Staveley (and the notion that Charnley leaked the Emery story? Behave. Staveley hasn’t been able to stop gobshiting to the media for years. It’s her job). It doesn’t look like a daft list of players, given our position. The problem they’re going to have is that a huge swathe of the support think that a PSG/ Man City style spending splurge is coming. I doubt that very, very much. Not just because of who would come at present - I don’t think PIF are just going to hoy money at this. Staveley talked last year about £50m per window on top of what the club can bring in - it’s more than we’re used to, but it doesn’t stretch as far as some are thinking. Edit: if this turns out to be the case - modest investment, sure and steady etc - I wonder how many will think that the constant linking to KSA will be worth it at that point. The joy of Ashley going won’t last forever - and if we’re scratching around in mid table for a significant period, the frustration will follow.