Kid Icarus

Don't rate Maresca, but he's probably bucked the trend and lasted there long enough to enhance his reputation by turning them into a decent team this season. Said the same about Potter, but I'd immediately question Rosenior's decision making if he went there.

They finally looked like a decent team to me, so them binning him at that point just as they did Poch in the same circumstances is ideal. You'd expect them to look shit again for a bit now unless they get someone seriously good.

Chelsea are absolute masters of waiting until things finally start to work then throwing a grenade at it all.

Every atom in me says Semenyo at Man City won't work. Can't even see a 1% chance of it working. Brought to you by the person who said Harry Kane was a one season wonder.

I appear to have accidentally logged into LinkedIn

I remember listening to that and doing the same. Thankfully I was also using power tools at the time so it all evens out. Had a few similar moments watching the match back in The Strawberry the night after, and just random moments like when listening to Local Hero in the car. My lass went to pick up our daughter from school and said there was a dad in another car blasting it with his face in his hands.

Favourite Match: 1. The final 2. Semi final first leg 3. Man United 4-1 Favourite Goal: 1. I have to be honest and say the 2nd goal in the final. I don't watch it now, but in the moment and up until the summer it was magic. 2. The first in the final. 3. Tonali vs Man United. Favourite Moment: Very hard to pinpoint individual moments from the final because it's basically the final and then the week after it where I just bathed in it all. If I had to pick out the bits where I peaked hard though: 1. Then that feeling of my heart overflowing and just bursting into tears. I hadn't even thought about this happening. Seeing it was real and it had actually happened was just utterly surreal. I've said it before, but I just remember being like this lad for the entire thing. 2. The 2nd goal: 3. The 1st goal: Favourite Player: Bruno. We all have these parasocial relationships with footballers and I think as you get older you shy away from it more and more because of how one-sided it is, but Bruno bucks that trend imo. Not only has he had a great year, but he's epitomised everything you could ask for from a Newcastle captain. Any other favourite memories: The Tonali Willock chest bump. Tonali tying his laces. Qualifying for the Champions League. Howe choking up saying that he hopes he made his mam proud. That incredible run of wins we went on where you went into matches incredibly confident. The best year I've had supporting Newcastle, easily.

Tbf I've been much happier with his last two performances. He's still been sloppy, still lost his man, still been stroppy and still not been clinical. The difference in the last two though is that he's kept going and despite all of the above, still done a lot of good. That's what you want to see from a player in that situation and it's how they re-find their form.

I can't think of a player in recent memory whose been given more rope by our fans than Gordon tbh. Getting off to a brilliant start does wonders for player's reputations.

Personally I think even this is embarrassing, but it's still clearly a very noisy minority who are keeping the stereotype alive.

It was just as congested last year up until the very last day. We went from 12th to 5th in two matches at this stage and went into the Arsenal match with 2nd in our hands. Villa were cut adrift in 11th by March and made it to 6th.

Yeah, thought him and Hall had similar performances where they both did good and bad throughout the match. Would rather focus on the good.

👌

I think I've said this quite a few times this season, but we've played much better this season and lost. We have the look of a team that's in desperate need of a proper break at the moment, quite a few players look absolutely shagged not just physically but mentally, with Tonali being the epitome of it. It's horrible seeing players (in midfield mainly) you know are so sharp and physically dominating look like they're playing with Kryptonite in their pockets. We got the result that I think we just about deserved. Hopefully it goes some way to us gaining the confidence that we can use to override the tiredness. Pope: 6.5 Miley: 6.5 Thiaw: 6.5 Schär: 6 Hall: 6 Bruno: 7 Tonali: 5.5 Joelinton: 7 Barnes: 6 Wissa: 7 Gordon: 6.5 Hall and Gordon’s scores are a bit weird because they both did some good things and some bad things rather than them just being average.

Never in doubt

I was so excited going into that Arsenal match with 2nd in our hands. It's just a shame our spineless centre forward wasn't. We were still very unlucky in that as well, Raya was unbelievable.

That's fair enough, just goes to show how quickly things change back and forth though. When they were in the CL last season they massively struggled until March. Just looking at us now and from December we went on a run of 21 wins out of 27 in all comps. Incredible.

How long does now count as? We won 15 in 20 this year while Villa were languishing in 11th. Wonder how many on the Villa forum were saying the same but with the teams reversed.

These sort of myths in plain sight (wont buy non-PL players, Villa are doing better than us) are really puzzling me like.

Yeah I've thought the same about Wolves. They're a very strange team, there's obviously sometimes not right with them, but they don't look anywhere near as bad as those record breaking bad teams.

Think that would be the best shout I've ever seen on here if that happens. Wolves are looking like they won't get 11 points.

It's the same in that where England were pre-Southgate was relentless underachievement, regardless of the immense talent pool and supposed quality of the manager. Southgate took on the role, took a squad seen as nowhere near good enough, immediately restored pride and took England to semis and finals, something previously unheard of for decades. Then not long after, that became the expectation and the very manager who had achieved that was seen as the very thing holding back a squad that was suddenly seen as the best of all time. It's not like for like but the perception of Howe definitely reminds me of that.

We've gone to our PSR limit where possible and beyond it (causing additional problems) from having one of the worst squads in the division, an inadequent academy and training facilities, and 14 years of under investment. I'd say that's shorthand for from nothing considering his achievements. The vast majority of other teams haven't needed to spend what we did. Pound for pound his achievements stand up against anyone bar maybe N-O poster boy Oliver Glasner's.

Imagine if the internet had been as much of a big thing as it is now when Keegan was manager. I think we've been blind to a lot of the craziness in our support like. Ignorance was bliss.