Thumbheed

34 minutes ago, LFEE said:

But if he’s going to be one of our front three you’d want better goal return than that still?

Tbh I was just highlighting the fallacy of just using stats to judge a okayer. I'm sure his assist record is very good?

But to answer your question, a significant number of our players have scored career high goals over the past couple of years by virtue of our style of play. Neto would not be the exception to that. 

He's a superb player who's only drawback is his horrific injury record.

58 minutes ago, LFEE said:

14 goals in 135 games for Neto apparently. What am I missing?

The rich tapestry of consequential actions that lead up to goals not scored or assisted by said player. 

55 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

Pre-takeover, we had Thumbheed doing everything, or nothing much at all which is more likely. We now have top class appointments all over the shop, this is another of them. I choose to think about what he can bring to us in the future, not what he may or may not have done at previous clubs. We're a well run club with a cracking infrastructure these days. Looking forward to this summer window more and more.

I did mainly nothing much at all

10 hours ago, Thumbheed said:

 

Don't think I have, I don't think he could take any of the top teams up a level but the likes of Joe could. Still a very good player and contributed in the same way Longstaff did in the CL year and whilst I rate him higher than Longstaff their impact at their best has been almost the same.

 

Have to bare in mind Isak, Gordon and Bruno are the level we're aiming for. There's no reason therefore why we still can't go after that calibre of player in every postion. 

 

Tino and Barnes being good examples of players signed who would be good enough for a starting postion inspite of having similar quality players in front of them.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, relámpago blanco said:

Have you actually watched a fit Joe Willock under Eddie?

Yeh I have.

But is he getting into the teams who regularly make up the top 4? If you think yes he would then fine, our opinions are completely divided, if it's a no then surely you can see the logic in having a first choice option off the bench who might have the quality to get into those sides - it's not like we haven't got precedence of signing those exact type of players.

Bruno would, Tonali has pedigree at a top club (although still unproven over here) and I would argue that Joelinton has a place in those clubs given he's good enough for Brazil. 

Look at our back up options for our defence (Kelly, Tino and potentially Schar) all of those are good enough for a top club. That's the quality of depth we should be aiming for. 

Don't think it's that controversial.

14 minutes ago, Shak said:

I'd be much more confident in our backup midfielders than I would in our backup attackers.

 

Willock and Longstaff have proven that they can be effective players in an Eddie Howe Newcastle team playing top four football. Miley also needs a path to being involved in the first team if he's going to develop like we hope.

 

Even once we sign a RW, our depth there will be poor. Assuming Gordon - Isak - New RW is first choice, Barnes is the only one who's good enough after that IMO.

I think my reservation is what is the plan if Tonali doesn't make the grade? Seems to be alot of assumptions that him being Bruno/Joe class is a given when it very much isn't. 

Should he not quite make the grade are we happy with an injury prone Willock and/or Longstaff as the replacement in a run in for CL qualification

10 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

People still somehow confuse Willock’s obvious quality with not having seen him play much in a year. Still boggles the mind.

Don't think I have, I don't think he could take any of the top teams up a level but the likes of Joe could. Still a very good player and contributed in the same way Longstaff did in the CL year and whilst I rate him higher than Longstaff their impact at their best has been almost the same.

Have to bare in mind Isak, Gordon and Bruno are the level we're aiming for. There's no reason therefore why we still can't go after that calibre of player in every postion. 

Tino and Barnes being good examples of players signed who would be good enough for a starting postion inspite of having similar quality players in front of them.

Willock, Longstaff and Miley are too much of drop off in quality from Bruno and Joe, with Tonali still unproven. (Miley still a way to go to fulfill his obvious potential)

Going from Big Joe to Willock is like going from Botman to Burn. Good back up but not the quality we need to maintain a high level for the sustained period we'd need imo.

29 minutes ago, McCormick said:

Soule, who we’ve been linked to as well, has a similar play-style too. Might be the kind of profile we’re looking at.

Soulè reminds me of Olise

7 minutes ago, BonesJones said:

Something about everything that's been going on over the past few days has made me extremely excited, don't know why because its all seemed a bit chaotic. Just feel something is coming that will make us forget all this madness.

 

Let it be a RW!

There's at least £60m to play with for that position, of that we can be almost certain of. 

22 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Out of interest, who would everyone’s ideal but realistic RW target be ?

Thought that Conceição looks a tidy player for Portugal but my YouTube scouting lead me to Edon Zhegrova of Lille and he looked like he had some real quality about him. 

Neto would be perfect if he wasn't always injured. 

19 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

But we play with an inverted left and a more traditional wing on the right. We still need to flesh the squad out with good players regardless of what foot, how tall, how quick etc they are imo.

We have 2 inverted left wingers and 1 inverted right winger who's likely gonna be sold and he was the preferred choice until latter end of the season. We also play with overlapping fullbacks so yes I think the point still stands.

I don't think I said either or, we all agree we need more good players but it's naivety to say whether they're left footed or not doesn't factor into recruitment thinking. We saw that with how they specifically went after a left footed CB. 

7 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Why 

Balance and tactical. Literally the very reason inverted wingers are the default tactic. 

We need a left footer in that front 6. 

20 minutes ago, Bunk Moreland said:

Anyone else think we might sell Pope now and try to bring Mamardashvili in?

Or am I ingesting too much hopeium

I think selling Pope is a real possibility. 

16 minutes ago, Dokko said:

Very poorly managed by the club. Selling promising young players, unsettling key performers, all to buy squad players and ones we hadn't done our homework on.

 

I'm going to lay the blame at Ashworth, and why the club just weren't arsed he was leaving. I always said Tonali was his issue, and the rest may as well be flung his way as well. 

 

One thing is for sure, this cannot happen again.we either fuck off the rules and bend them beyond like Chelsea, or we stay well compliant and don't overstretch. We can't do what we did in 23, and sit in the middle hoping one of our best goes.

The thing is, with the latter option of not overstretching, in real terms, that would probably translate to not signing 2-3 of our key players.

If Isak can come to us 6 months after us being in a relagation battle, as £63m club record signing without assurances that he'd be a guaranteed starter, then I'm not sure why any other player should demand that. 

Seemingly excellent keeper, but we should never compromise on our sense of team spirit.

15 minutes ago, Unbelievable said:

So as I said, he did not compare Minteh and Foden as players, but a hypothetical situation where City has sold Foden before he reached his full potential…

Surely you can see the difference between a "wonderkid" developing at a top club, full of top class players under a world class manager with world class facilities and coaches and one that's aiming to be that profile in about 5-10 years time?

We need to establish that base before we have the luxury of doing that and that means that unfortunately, at this moment in time we can't afford to have raw talent using a vital position as a springboard for his development.  

Wonder how Feyenoord feel about all this 

Is a club that's desperately trying to establish itself as a Champions League team the best place for a raw talent to develop?

Established top young talent? Yes.

A youngster who needs his edges rounding off - I'm not so certain. 

Quite liked the idea of having to 2nd ir 3rd best striker in the world. 

200m in our back pocket would be robbed pretty quickly.

And finally, my hope is that this is agent posturing during salary negotiations. 

9 minutes ago, Upthemags said:

Eddie, is that you?

I wish

Has anyone actually kept an eye out on some of the defending in the highlight vids I assume everyone's basing their opinions on? 

Not saying he's a bad player- he's clearly good - but I was never blown away by him based on the fact alot of the defending is appalling. 

https://youtu.be/ge9x3ciwhws?si=e-MYx5-lt1rAS0yt

4 hours ago, Matt1892 said:

How have you come to a figure of below £20 million?

Aye, fair point. Been a bit optimistic with those costings but whichever way you look at either as real term costs offset by players going the other way or in terms of FFP, it's still fantastic business imo.

The outlay for the below 4 is potentially less than 20m and significantly improves our squad. I'm not sure how you can look at that list and the prices involved and say it's nothing but incredible business.

Trafford

Kilman 

Kelly 

DCL