Kid Icarus

I've definitely posted about it before, but I've always thought that the dip in quality at the top level around the turn of the century compared to what came before and after it was massive.

They can look up.

Paul Mitchell thinks dogs can't look up.

According to Ziggy, some idiot has chosen to play for the Tottingham Hotspurs instead of Aston Villas by mistake.

Hello 23/24 my old friend.

Would be fine with that if it was at home tbh, keeps us on our toes. Away considering the amount of other away matches we have around then is an absolute killer.

Oh fuck off man

I'd bring him back personally. The whole reason he's at Boro is because you'd expect that having 3 LBs in the squad would be enough cover. It ending up that we're down to one, who's also had injury problems this season is a strange set of circumstances that needs a temporary fix which wouldn't really be solved by bringing someone new in.

Domain change to froggy-online if that happened because I imagine we'd all be done with football at that point.

Yeah, sorry I meant in terms of what's actually possible.

Let Froggy have it iyam. Man United fans pining for the days when they were managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjær is a win. Take yes for an answer.

Can't stand Brighton, but hehehehehe

"What for!?"

I don't think it's a stretch to say we could spend X amount on players that turn out to be successful from abroad, we've literally done it ourselves. I just don't think it's a criticism to throw at the club, because we've done it and we're still doing it. I don't think it's reasonable to expect the club to only target those players at the expense of the PL signings we've made.

4 months is all it takes to make changes?

I think if you're looking to do it for a job that's true, but I don't think it needs to be that way. We all talk endless shite on here for free. I've considered doing it before but have always chickened out mainly because of the shit you'd have aimed at you, but it's never crossed my mind that it should be popular or that there should be any pressure to put out content. Once a week is more than enough imo.

This idea that you can have a third choice LB that's also going to match up to your standards of being without flaws seems like pure fantasy. If they matched up to those standards they wouldn't be third choice. Burn is more than good enough as a 3rd choice LB.

People didn't like Gordon? I can't think of a player in living memory who's been cut as much slack for as long as Gordon has. Ironically I think he's getting the criticism at a time where it seems like he's turned a corner and started playing well.

It's also part of what makes All With Smiling Faces the best of the Newcastle podcasts. While this doesn't apply to their non-Monday night presenters and Chris is definitely a bit guilty of being a bit OTT, the others - Deka, Mark, and Besty really shy away from that and will give the team and Howe every benefit of the doubt while still being critical. I can't listen to any of the other Newcastle podcasts anymore because they're so often basically living on a different planet to me and speaking a different language.

Yeah, we did all kind of predict it would happen as well. I think a lot of people just haven't reckoned with the idea that they just aren't happy, as daft as that might sound.

Yep, Tino, but for a while it wasn't a guarantee that he was even our first choice RB because he wasn't great there and Trippier was clearly better. He was only getting a look in at LB. We need a new RB basically, one that's good enough to compete with Tino for 1st spot/take his place if we sell him.

Burn is our 3rd choice LB cover, that's a fine situation. I really don't think you can blame the club for not having the defensive cover it needed this season, we've just been simultaneously unlucky that our defence has been the only area that's been heavily hit by injuries and lucky that it wasn't concentrated in midfield or attack where it would have been catastrophic.

I'm a big critic of his, but that miss at the end aside, that was another good performance from him imo.

His balls into the forward line aside I've never rated him as highly as others have tbh. Even when he was at his best and was (imo inexplicably) getting in everyone's PL Team of the Season, I thought it was Schär that was by far and away the star out of our centre backs. I don't actually think his form has dipped that much, but as a team we're nowhere near as defensively streetwise as we used to be and that's exposing his weaknesses more. Think he was dead right that Ramsdale should have been collecting that ball at the end, but from the moment it was clear that Ramsdale wasn't coming for it, it was on him to deal with it.