Kid Icarus

I'm at an age where stuff like that is automatically terrible Just need to remember it's not for us (while loads of tiny Graeme Souness's rage inside us)

I love them tbh. Proper love Spurs' Nasty Boys kit.

I've wanted Nike to do Newcastle kits since 1994 and nothing has changed really.

2-2 is a fairly unusual scoreline but I must have seen that as different people's prediction 10 times now.

Fuck it. 12

He loves his football in the same sense that the kids who take their ball home with them when they lose love their football.

Good to see that happen the other way around for once tbh. Hope he does well.

Plenty of stuff on YouTube

Not having that like, we all saw with our own eyes how bad most of the players were compared to how they were for their clubs. 2002 granted, but Euro 2004 was the only other tournament in which they played anywhere near the level they were known for at their clubs, and that was a lot to do with Rooney coming on the scene. 2006 was when most of them were peaking for their clubs, 2008 they didn't even qualify and 2010 was a joke, Wayne Rooney our supposed jewel in the crown was literally (as in statistically) the worst player at the 2010 World Cup. They were all famously a huge disappointment of an England team for a reason. The 'bigger than the sum of its parts' factor is a new thing with England and that's something that's largely credited to Ashworth for being the architect of through the different age groups.

Not to mention that those conveyor belts of talent had produced a golden generation of players who were all fantastic at club level and (with the exception of Ashley Cole and sometimes Beckham) were nowhere near the same level for England.

I totally get that he's not a star name out of the handful that there are, but what he has done is really impressive. Overhauling the England setup to the extent that's it's unrecognisable from the ones it followed on from is nothing to shake a stick at. England have gone from perpetual underachievers, where the 'best' players were being picked with no eye on cohesion or identity, bumbling from one manager to the next with seemingly no community spirit in the camp to something much better. In under a decade it's gone from that to one that's now more like a club. It has an identity that runs through from grass roots to the first team, with players brought into the fold to fit around that rather than the other way around, and it's clear as day that the players all get on so well and that there's a spirit with the players that wasn't there in the past. All of that would be impressive enough on its own, but the fact that it's resulted in England getting to a World Cup semi and a Euros final with Gareth Southgate as manager (who's bought into it all too) within 2 or 3 years is something that would have been completely ridiculed by everyone only a few years ago, it's incredibly impressive. The idea of giving someone who's largely credited with being the architect of all that the tools to give Newcastle the same sort of overhaul, with an elite level budget of players to go for, is really exciting to me.

Worth revisiting this excellent post from rgk_lfc imo.

We'll need to watch Mina from corners, but Brentford also had someone small marking him for the first for some reason. Honestly no idea how this will go. Could see a 3-0 either way and everything in-between.

Hadn't seen the Watford vs Burnley result. Excellent stuff

Watmore's Newcastle Uni Business School's best alumni of all time for doing that to Man United imo.

Class post! Love this line:

Wonder if there was ever a module on which demographic has the time, vanity, and money to be psychoanalysed more than any other and why that might make 'the data' not worth all that much.

Alex Bruce has to be the ultimate football failson like. Bloke's career was a 21st birthday present. Judging by the amount of sniveling bitterness flowing through his blood you can tell he knows it as well.

Didn't expect this one like. When's he due back from injury?

Bit of a sad end to it really. Not nice seeing players who've played their part get kept on past their sell by date to the extent that in the end the fans are pleased to see the back of them. He leaves a few years ago and I think most would only have good memories of him. Can see the same happening with Ritchie and Gayle to a lesser extent and it's a shame considering what they've done in the past.

Unreal how quickly this has happened

Would be insane. After Burn he's comfortably our best centre back

I don't think this passes the eye test. Schar is a better and more frequent progressive passer of the ball than Lascelles.

Not sure it's something to really get into on here, or in this thread, but needless to say I don't think that's the case and that I think who gets punishment and who doesn't is selective, put it that way.

Mad just how much he comes across as an easy-going, often affable bloke when just beneath that surface his vile Tory-ness is there for all to see.