Thumbheed

What a smart signing this may turn out to be. Excellent today.

I dont think anyone's being defensive, it's just that you're making a shit point. Our best team is the one that's winning on the field, not on paper.

I think he could learn to be a bit more patient and perhaps not get drawn into congested areas so much in search of the ball. Not that he's not good enough to receive the ball in those positions, he clearly is, but I'd just like to see him hugging the touchline a tiny bit more and increasing his chances of getting into more 1 on 1 scenarios where he's absolutely lethal.

I mean, he's not great imo but he's playing an important role for us.

If this guy was signed as a midfielder there wouldn't be a single criticism of him. Willock and Shelvey were Howe's go to midfielders when he first came in and they struggled to make it difficult for the opposition. That all changed once Joelinton was moved into midfield. This guy may not be pure technique but his influence is priceless.

I genuinely don't understand how people forget how little he started and how often he was thrown on the pitch with 10 mins to go. We literally had a Che Guevara mock up of him it got so blatant ffs.

Apologies if already posted but this is now my favourite stat of all time.

Aye, him looking to instinctively move the ball forward and play into space should hopefully set the tone for our forward players to make the right kinds of runs going forward. Always said a good pass is only as good as the run made.

Now compare minutes played.

Shades of Jose Enrique.

Joelinton man, desperate for you to bag and get that composure in front of goal, otherwise solid game tonight.

Got it right again tonight. Seems to have the mental/psychology side of management down to a tee.

Phenomenal tonight. Played like he knows he's part of something big now.

The YouTube compilations of Bruno make total sense now.

Never seen a 4 minute debut get me so excited about a player.

I am actually fucking giddy

Can someone tell me what sportwashing would look like if this isn't it?

It was a cheap shot at the owners, not Newcastle United. If he'd said he's [Greenwood] a right fit for Newcastle United, then have at it, the reaction from the fans would be justifiable. But for us to set on him like a pack of attack dogs and defend the virtues of the Saudi fucking regime is sportwashing in the strictest sense; something I'm absolutely not comfortable being associated with the club. I'm not interested in whether it was right or wrong he lost his job, or the debate on actions and consequences of a crass comment made on a public forum, I'm interested in the fact that the reaction to the tweet appears to be the very definition of sportwashing.

If this isn't sportwaahing then what what fuck is?! The fact a load of Saudi bots are now celebrating it and saying stuff like "a good reason to buy the club" is a fucking tragic by-product of all that nonsense.

"because it's in Arabic?!" Are you alright?

It's fucking tragic. Ritchie over Lewis as well.

Apologies if already posted, didn't want to put this in the Greenwood thread but saw the below tweet celebrating the sacking of that guy and our fans orchestration of that and made me really uncomfortable.

I think people are being overly harsh here. I don't think there's an obvious weakness we haven't addressed and that's surely all we can measure this window by. Hoping to get better in areas we're already prem standard in would be a bonus but not a requirement. We're actually a really well balanced side now with a CM 3 of Willock, Bruno and Joelinton looking like they could be an absolute handful for anyone. Our defence looks 10 fold better and our forward line is good.

Solid 8/10. Massively disappointed we don't look like adding to our attacking options but our remit was to make our squad at least the 17th best which I think we've done. The rest is on Howe now.