Kid Icarus

'not much more to say really.' :lol:

Re Shelvey, I thought starting him against Leeds was suicidal and he ended up playing well, scoring, and we won with a clean sheet, so hopefully the same thing happens here is he does start. I'm not a fan of him, but I have to admit that aside from his yellow against Everton he's played well and I can understand why Howe might be apprehensive about making changes even if on paper Shelvey in for Bruno seems really obvious. I have a feeling we'll be unchanged aside from Targett out for Burn or Manquillo, with Bruno coming on for Willock again.

and that's the bit that matters like. Obviously I love HBA, but the constant need to compare (not from you, but just as some sort of reflex thing on here that we all end up taking the bait over) doesn't do either of them justice. Always feels weird to watch ASM, think how good a performance he had and then find myself looking for his flaws because someone's decided to compare him to my favourite player of the last 20 years.

I honestly don't see the difference between the two tbh like. Could be a bit of recency bias with ASM's. WBA 11/12 would be the one where he almost had 2 or Bolton style goals or assists on top of scoring and assisting. Don't think it's on YouTube though. It was a 10/10 performance in every way though. Little bits of the WBA match are here, with a couple of the runs. https://youtu.be/iTiQhiZe9cE

If Stan Seymour hadn't have won us the F.A Cup, we wouldn't have been as enticing a purchase for Ashley. Something to think about.

Fuck it, yous are getting on my nerves now. Just off the top of my head: West Brom away 11/12 - 1 goal, 2 assists, took on their entire team 2 or 3 times. Aston Villa home 12/13 - 1 goal, completely took the piss throughout. Spurs home 12/13 - won and scored a pen, constantly took them on through the middle. Aston Villa away 13/14 - scored, assisted, completely ran riot. Stoke home 13/14 - won a penalty, assisted, hit the bar twice, and completely took the piss (dropped by Pardew the next match) All were comfortably at the same level of performance as ASM's vs Everton. There were others where the quality was the same but he wasn't on the ball as much, I'm thinking Everton 10/11, Sunderland, Liverpool, Swansea, Bolton, Blackburn and Stoke 11/12, Norwich, Everton, Arsenal 12/13. Can we get back to enjoying ASM now?

I didn't hear him say it either FWIW. He said it about Bruno.

Didn't mind Fletcher's shouting when I first heard him commentating on genuinely exciting Champions League matches. Now that I realise he shouts over literally every chance and never shuts the fuck up he's really annoying.

He frustrated the fuck out of me most of the time tbh. I accepted it and at times liked him because he played such an important part of Rafa's set up and would eventually go on nice runs of form, but it felt like to get there you had to put up with loads of misplaced passes and directionless dribbling that ended up with him losing the ball. It was especially frustrating when paired with us having really low possession. Either way Newcastle should definitely be aiming for better.

Absolutely not. Unbelievably frustrating player that I could live with because he played an important role and served a purpose in a team regularly struggling to stay up. Much like Rafa, choosing him when you're in a position of being able to potentially choose anyone is just sadism.

I used to love that sort of thing, but I dunno if it's reached saturation point, I've reached saturation point, or I'm just getting older. I don't think I believe anyone's really knowledgable or insightful until I've heard them talk about Newcastle, because quite often it's clear that they don't know what they're talking about. Gary Neville has been especially guilty of this and it does make me wonder whether the same applies to other clubs. Tifo, HITC, James Lawrence, and a fair few journalists on TFS and other podcasts have all done it too. It makes me think that a huge part of it with a lot of them is just blagging and relying on the majority of the audience being blaggers too, similar to TalkSport.

Anyone know where the north sea posts are on there? Wouldn't mind a good laugh

Would have preferred a Palace win because I don't think they'll be in the mix near the end of the season. Could do with Villa grabbing a late winner too. All in all the results have been decent though

I don't disagree like, just some people seem to absolutely hate him for what seems like barely any reason.

Coutinho's rolling back the years here. No fucking way can Shelvey be allowed to be in any one on one situation with him on Sunday.

Must say I've never really understood the strength of dislike there seems to be for Zaha. He can be a diver, but he also regularly gets kicked all over without getting anything from refs.

Is that Klich shite? Every time I've seen him he's looked pointless and shit.

Worst penalty of all time

Missed!

Pen to Palace!

I've thought Brentford are going to get dragged into it a couple of times now only for them to immediately pick up points. They're on their worst run now though so let's hope it continues.

Should probably be watching Norwich vs Crystal Palace, but Palace are almost impressively shit and the Villa Leeds match is class.

N-O probably has an average age of 44 now. We remember.

Pickford's so funny like. I honestly absolutely love him when he's playing for England and I think all of the stick I've seen him get from us is done in good spirit. At times it seems like he takes it that way as well, but time and time again he either bites (deliberately holding onto the ball and trying to wind up the crowd) or he completely loses his shit, it's class.