Kid Icarus

You've lost me tbh. I haven't said anything about him answering journalists questions? I'm only talking about what the 'we can't make him stay' quote actually means. I don't know and neither does anyone but Howe and the people involved. You're doing an awful lot of confident guessing at the moment like.

Why do we care if we sell our best player to a domestic rival? Why is that even a question?

Regardless of whatever answers you have for the potential reasons we can't simply say 'you're staying', the reality is still that Howe has just said it. Whether that's a lie or whether there are genuine reasons for it being true, who knows.

It certainly clears up why they're not doing what we've been saying they should do, but why it's the case and what damage making that public does I'm not sure.

Such as a witnessed gentleman's agreement, contract terms that stipulate situations eg if club X come in then something comes into play, or us just outright breaking the terms of the contract, plus plenty of other possibilities. For the latter part that sounds unrealistic unless the action was against another club rather than Isak himself.

Anyone's guess on what it could mean I think. My first guess would be us reneging on a gentleman's agreement that his agent witnessed or something

It's not obviously anything, there are plenty of potential legal reasons we might not be able to enforce it.

Yeah that's seriously concerning like. Not quite sure what we're up against here.

That's seriously worrying like. At least it sort of answers a question a lot of us have, even if it does raise loads of new ones

A big dick move, would love it. Not only are you stopping a precedent being set, but you're strengthening as well as dispelling the growing argument (that Romano planted unsurprisingly) that this whole episode will make Newcastle less attractive to players.

I think we'd be playing right into their hands and setting an extremely dangerous precedent, but it seems a lot of people (potentially including the club) disagree.

Really? They've changed nothing for me, they're far too nebulous in meaning to draw any definitive conclusions from them I think.

Re reintegration I think people are maybe overlooking how much subconsciously they would love to tell themselves this was all a mistake and salvage the situation. The moment he started scoring/playing well a lot of people would overlook everything, we've seen it countless times within our own fanbase never mind elsewhere. Extreme example but how many times did our fanbase think 'maybe he's learned/changed' at the first opportunity about Mike Ashley before finally realising it was always hopeless forever?

I'm not saying he should do anything else, or criticising him, I'm just personally confused by what to take from it all.

Potentially, but "I want him to return" is quite a definitive thing to say. Also, if it was true we could just...not sell him. I'm not criticising Howe or anything, I'm just confused a bit. The whole thing is a bit exhausting

It's another discussion I think, but there's definitely a route that includes wanting him back in the group and not looking for his replacement at the same time.

He's covering all bases I think, there's just very little to take from it and whether they're his true feelings or he's saving face/presenting a unified front in his usual style.

All a bit doublespeak at the moment mind. We're Newcastle United, if you act poorly you can't train with the group...but we'd love to have him back with us...all while putting all of our resources into replacing him.

Just watched his last 80 shots, 16 goals but in a pattern you wouldn't believe. 20 or 30 shots of misses, including absolute sitters and then literally 5 or 6 goals in a row from each shot.

He's 1 in 2 G/A. I'd be alright with it at 50m, just seems unlikely

Canny drop off from £80m. Seems unlikely

Not for me

I could have sworn blind that we'd signed Harrison as a striker not a midfielder

Bruno needs to get this dawdling out of his system before the season starts

Today we spell redemption A A R O N