Kid Icarus

I will never accept Don Hutchison referring to Newcastle as 'we'

Looking back, at this point in the season a lot of it was with having a really favourable run of games as well. Guthrie, Best, Taylor, and Perch all really stood up when called upon as well. HBA didn't get into the team until December time.

Yeah, I've always thought this like. Can you imagine the emotional wreck he'd be if France hadn't won that World Cup Final.

In a midfield 3 with KDB and David Raya

We've all done it

It's shaping up to the be the highest quality league in my memory like. 4 points between 11th and bottom, with none of them being an obvious candidate for the drop. You'd think it'll probably be Forest, but being bottom with 9 points from 2 wins and 3 draws in 12 still seems really, really unusual.

I haven't watched Leeds since their form's dipped. Presumably Harrison's gone off the boil as well then?

It's ridiculous to think that at this stage in 11/12 we were on 25 points considering the difference between the quality of that team and this one. We'd only played 2 of the top 6 then though and both of them were at home and draws.

Fucking hell. Proper Andy Murray in Dunblane level.

Attack was our defence really. All of the players in that back 5, particularly our 'keepers had flaws, but they were rarely tested because we were absolutely class going forward.

Early stages but yeah. It massively helps because of the way we play though, the Rafa back 5 was very good but constantly tested, the back 5 under Keegan had obvious flaws but was rarely tested.

Watched again and yeah he was really good at what he did, but I also think Bruno and Willock were too.

I don't think he's particularly slow he's just rangey so it looks that way.

It was our love of the game that was on life support. Non-Newcastle fans will never really grasp that part of it without experiencing it themselves at their club imo. Our financial stability was irrelevant, we could have easily been a self-sustaining club that also had ambition, or we could have speculated to accumulate. Instead we were told that being in the Premier League was success in itself and he took all profits out of the club, used as a free advertising board for his tat emporium, and stripped everything out of the club in order to make finishing 17th with the lowest outlay possible the ultimate dream outcome. Apparently we were supposed to be grateful for that.

It's contentious and it's a decision I can accept, but I still thought it was a penalty tbh.

I'm sure it'll be relevant in time, but at the moment we have a back 5 that cost £5m less than Harry Maguire, a midfield that cost £6m less than Casemiro, and a strike force that cost £5m less than Anthony. The idea that we've bought our current position is ludicrous like, we haven't even gone beyond the surplus that Ashley accrued yet. And that's before getting onto the fact that 2 of our best performing players have been: a converted number 9 flop who became our Player of the Season winning box-to-box destroyer a player bought nearly 4 years ago, who we all agreed was the player that most needed replacing and our weakest link - who's now our top scorer and 5th top scorer in the league

Shout out to him outjumping 6ft 2in (and his arms) Hugo Lloris with a header.

He must be after an improved contract

I'm not back to how I was pre-Ashley like, I dunno if I ever will be. The damage he did and the things he opened my eyes to maybe can't be undone. He (and the way football has gone tbf) made me fall out of love with the game a bit. Add to that the whole Saudi thing which is definitely holding me back a bit and I'm probably maxing out at about 75% at the moment, but I'll take it. Not feeling any imposter syndrome though, I think back to the successful seasons we've had - 11/12 being the main one - and the running theme with good results and good finishes in the circumstances was that we were underdogs punching above our weight. I watch us under Howe and I don't feel that way at all, we're outplaying teams, dominating them, dominating possession, creating chance after chance and playing good football. The only element of imposter syndrome we have is with some of the players we have maybe 'overperforming' akin to Guthrie, Taylor, Best, and Perch in 11/12, but the difference is that they're performing so well within a team that's dominating rather than rolling with the punches. That's all credit to them, Howe, and the coaching staff. I think if we bring in better players again on the level of Bruno and Botman, and continue performing like this, I think the imposter syndrome will go.

Yeah, I really really didn't like him during the Pardew era when he would defend him to the hilt and do the whole 'be careful what you wish for' bollocks.

I think Targett and ASM come as a bit of a package deal. At the moment we play as a back 3 when we're in possession with Trippier more or less playing as a RM, so it makes sense to have Burn playing as a left sided CB over Targett who's an out-and-out LB.

As much of a misery Ando is, in a way it's good because when he enjoys something it has more meaning. He's also sometimes funny as well. The way he reacted to Targett clearing it off the line vs Burnley was class. Yesterday when a corner was played to Schar and he goes 'OH HE'S ALL ON HIS OWN!!' proper got me.

Incidentally I wish I could watch our matches and sync Radio Newcastle with it, Raizor's really good.