Thumbheed

That performance has got me well excited for the next 2 weeks. 

Winger, forward and a DM and we're in an excellent place. 

Schär is such a fanny

We are brutal on the counter

38 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

They are looking to sell Fofana and Tielemans though, not Maddison.

Maddison and Fofana are their biggest assets. It's one of those and Tielemans who won't bring in enough alone. 

1 hour ago, SUPERTOON said:

Poor starts to the season for Leverkusen and Leicester, maybe worth one more try for Maddison or Diaby ?

If Leicester need to sell before they can buy then I can see then being a little more open to selling after this start because there's no way Rodgers doesn't weaponise their lack of transfers activity rather than face into his own shortcomings as a manager. 

18 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

From Caulkin's piece:

 

The message that they will not be suckered into paying over the odds has been received clearly (they were quoted £50million for Botman in January but ended up paying Lille closer to £36million for him last month). 

 

If that isn't justification of their approach I don't know what is. It was ages ago so doesn't feel like it but Botman could still yet be the biggest/most impressive/most lasting acquisition we'll make this summer, even if two attackers come in. 

Think the other thing that stood out is:

It is not just about this window, it is about leaving themselves leeway in January, next summer and beyond

We're the only club outside the top6 with open ambitions to win the league at some point in the future and so it makes perfect sense to have 1 eye on what resources we might need to eventually make that challenge. 

32 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Most clubs don’t want to sell in January and or negotiating position was as weak as piss. 

Surely the point is we'd allegedly come very close to agreeing a price only for it to be raised late on which would suggest a 'newcastle tax'. It's not like it happened to us at any point in the previous 15 years. 

There was also talk that the £5m that Brighton were asking for Ashworth was far higher than the compensation agreed for an equivalent appointment at a different club (can't remember who), which again suggests a Newcastle tax.

And finally, let's not forget that our own takeover was delayed because of alleged objections from others clubs who'd singled us out as a threat to their own success, something which lead to FFP rule changes which on paper look to be aimed squarely at us too. It would completely naive to assume that the opportunity to stick it to us has just flatly disappeared all of a sudden and moreso during transfer negotiations. 

Not sure where this notion that's there's definitely not a 'Newcastle tax' has come from.

There's at least 2 clear examples of times we've had the price raised on us after seemingly coming close to agreeing fees for players were after (Carlos and Botman) and they're the ones we know of. 

Also pretty sure the signing of Ashworth himself was delayed because Brighton were trying to charge us a premium too. 

His dream was to play in the Premier League and that's the end of the matter. 

46 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

There’s this idea that there’s this Newcastle tax. There’s not. 
 

There’s a tax for signing players teams don’t want to sell or feel like they should sell. 
 

We have willingly outbid teams for targets when a lower fee could’ve secured the player (if the player actually wanted to come). That’s the biggest tax, the ‘don’t play for the champions league club - play for us’ tax.  

Source: your ringpiece

22 minutes ago, Fantail Breeze said:

 

What else do you look at? Assists? He’s got 3 of those in 73 appearances.

 

13 goals and 3 assists in 73 games is barely any better than Miggy, who is generally slated on here.

Age for context?

I would really like Gallagher but these links to midfielders all seem to suggest that Howe sees Bruno as a number 6 rather than the number 8 role he thrived in last year, either that or a formation change. 

3 minutes ago, Geordiebri said:

This is a forum. A forum is a place where opinions are exchanged. Just because that opinion differs from yours doesn't mean it has any less value than yours or is better than yours, it's just a different opinion that's all, that is the whole point of a forum.

Not sure where people think we are as a club but if it's already at the point where we're genuinly disappointed, dismayed or even annoyed that we're not getting the CL quality players (emphasis on CL quality) we'd originally targetted then I'm not sure we have any right to ever be despondent when people call us deluded. 

Just because you have a differing opinion, it doesn't mean we can't point out it's a load of shite. 

Could definitely do with more embedded tweets like but we signed 2, nearly 3 players in the last couple of days of the Jan window and I have seen absolutely no reason why that might be any different this year.

Reading bits his preferred position is left though? 

Edit: Direct quotes from him and Tuchel both saying LW is his best/favourite position.

CHO is primarily a LW no? 

Seems like we've been linked almost exclusively with left wingers. ? 

Genuine question but how are people watching enough of Watford and Pedro to be able to fully assess if he's good enough for us? Have they been on TV much? 

17 minutes ago, tomlynnherrington said:

I was advocating this before the season started.A sort of ‘last chance saloon’. 

I personally beleive the rumours of a willingness to sell are actually true tbh and I'd not exactly be against it. 

Just looking at some of the most successful front 3s and the common theme seems to be an ability to link up well and it's not something I see with our 3 at all, not even close tbh and imo, ASM is bigger part of that than most would dare acknowledge. 

I'd love to see him on the right a bit more. People talk about Almiron being 1 footed but this guy is not far behind. 

Giving him natural angles to pass and shoot with his favoured foot seems like it'd make sense for both our wingers tbh. 

Edit: I'm almost certain he's looked better on the right the few times we've seen him there as well.

A couple of players with real quality in the final third and we're in a seriously good place.

Wilson is such a fanny

Schär is such a fanny

ASM should play on right

English Diego Simeone

19 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

Controversial but I'm not sold on Maddison being a transformative signing for us. Great player, I'm just not sure what the thinking behind it is at the moment. RW and ST are obviously far more pressing and if we were going for that sort of player, Maddison at that price tag isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

 

Said it before though, his numbers were almost KDB level last year, so hopefully he comes and it immediately all makes sense.

I think Maddison would be transformative in exactly the same way Willock was for that 6 month loan.