Coffee_Johnny

Now that genuinely is ..errr… likely to provoke some anxious expectation of hypothetical future threats. (I didn’t use it Rich, no W words to be seen here!)

Different times; SBR was undoubtedly a great man manager and tactician. Not sure he had the kind of wrap around support available to EH, nor the knowledge that comes with it.

Oh-oh, intolerant sense of humour failure this soon into window? Need a word completion test: _o_ry_n_ .

Harsh. Loved Dyer (at times) Eddie and co would have helped him hit the heights his attributes deserved.

Take your point about not forcing things too soon, if it is due to injury. In terms of age, though I can understand the frustrations (whether family, him or agent). For comparison, Lewis has had a similar England career up through the age groups as Jermaine Jenas. Except by the time JJ was 19 we’d paid big money for him and he had full England caps. You need the exposure/to be relied upon if you are going to show your worth and fulfil your potential.

£100m plus Miley for Wharton and Guehi. Not that I want to lose Miley, but if he is agitating to go (dubious) then Wharton is a level above.

What makes you think the club are dragging their feet? What makes you think Eddie is playing mind games? There is no evidence to suggest anything other than the obvious; we had the capacity to sign Guehi, we didn’t; we have had significant income since then; we are working to sign what we need this summer. That amount will be considerably more than the £65m or so we would have spent on Guehi.

Does make you think though, in terms of how committed he is going to be. Perhaps unfairly, perhaps not, I don’t trust him; he strikes me as the kind who may leave a few mines strewn around.

Gutted can’t make this. Really need a SJP hit to look forward to.

Don’t light that touch paper, man. Frustrating enough doing the fruitless search for reliable rumours, if you trigger another ten pages on the vagaries of PSR you’ll push me over the edge! (…just put it in a mental box called mystical money management and marvel when, and if, a rabbit comes out of the hat)

I reckon it would be right up his street.

Open your box then—treasure chest I mean 😉

Who has the key?

When Eddie goes out of his way to praise someone who the interviewer hasn’t mentioned it makes me think (irrational I know) that (1) he’s touting them and/or (2) he is mitigating against their likely disgruntlement about a newbee coming in. He did this recently (Chelsea?) about Pope which stood out/jarred a bit. Regardless of that, I think it is nailed on we get a keeper this summer. Do think that he would never give a guarantee to the incomer that they will be no.1 choice; that will have to be earned.

Main issue was squad, imo. Some of those benches man. So it is going to need others’ abacus and persuasion skills for us to learn from last time.

Would love to take Mainoo off your hands/wage bill. For what it is worth; big future ahead if handled correctly.

Not sure. Lifted it from a Gateshead Council site.

Close season? Don’t you mean closed season? I have always liked your contributions thus far ‘keeper lover, but when I see people wantonly disrespecting the letter ‘d’ and for that matter putting the words nitpicking and pedantry together in the same sentence without any consideration of the sheer redundancy of such overuse of what are from my point of view basically synonyms, it boils my piss, as it reflects total disrespect for the rest of us and how we use our time.

Right next to you on that hill, brother. Lost in absolute head-shaking disbelief on way home after both.

I quite like it; hints of 80s East German techno scene.

Like your take on this. It’s almost like there might just possibly be an opportunity for an ambitious, already really good, team on the cusp of being a great team to take that seemingly impossible next step.

It is undoubtedly going to be a tough task for them. I imagine most fans are well aware of that. They will need more experience in the squad for sure. Clueless as to whether they can afford to do this. I suspect that if they don’t it will prove to be a poison chalice promotion; though maybe one season in the big show may help the finances for future pushes.

Loved that!

Looking at the actual events of recent seasons adding a hopeful dusting of believing the club wants what they have said they want and forgetting the journo speculation leads me to think the following. This version of NUFC have for the three and a half seasons Howe has been in charge returned top six form. Add in to that the ambitions of the owners, the unforgettable taste of cup success, Champions League qualification (plus lessons from lack of squad depth last time), a few likely departures, £89m net transfer spend over last three years and that equals a big fuck-off summer splurge. Minimum four first team players incoming.