Dr Jinx

I hope they don’t risk starting ASM if Fraser isn’t available. I think 30 mins is about his limit for the moment.

One caveat to note, Rafa was never allowed to sign his number one targets. So he would work down his list, with us sometimes signing the 4th or 5th choice. You do that and you will get a not so successful transfer success rate. Absolutely. The first name on that list should probably read Andros Thownsend, who might not have been spectacular but he was less of a punt than Murphy. The rest of the list I'm not sure but few of them were first choice. Also I'd argue that Ki, Hanley were solid acquisitions that played their part exactly as expected. Gamez was possibly an influence in the dressing room. McClaren signed Townsend iirc, Rafa sold him but I don’t think he had much choice in that

Wouldn’t have taken more than a bid of £3m or so to blow us out of the water. I remember when NUFC could blow Liverpool out of the water in the face to sign a certain England striker from Real Madrid... Liverpool at most pretended they were interested, they knew he was a little toe rag mercenary.

Some people shouldn’t be allowed on social media, they simply can’t play nice. If Keith wasn’t doing this he’d be arguing with people on a Madeleine McCann FB group, he’s the sort. I’m not knocking his efforts in relation to the takeover (whatever his real motivation) but the more he talks the less credibility his “consortium” has. He needs to go radio silent for a while for his own sake as much as other supporters.

Can he play tomorrow?

Don’t have much of a problem with that. Let’s see how they improve under Jones coaching.

Ben Arfa was fast when he got going.. For quick acceleration, nobody beats Bellamy

? Ashley is here forever

There’s others in the squad I’d have out much much sooner. Ritchie has his limitations as a player but he’s the one doing the captains work behind the scenes. Also best of luck to Yedlin, a good professional and did his best for us.

Sort of box to box, quite fast and can get away from people. Questionable decision making on the ball, as in when to keep hold, when to pass quickly etc. Reads the game well generally though. I think Hayden playing deeper does that role better than he does but he would be miles better than Hendrick and off the ball superior to Shelvey. He’ll play.

That’s true, I reckon the Ashley delegation that came to a recent match got him to sign something, or maybe he had a clause in his contract that the club could invoke in situations like this. He’s definitely been put in some sort of place. His comments are different level cuntishness, taking credit and blatantly lying saying we were going that direction anyway. If it was his idea to get Jones in and they were all working amicably together, he’d have said something positive to praise the effect he’s had since coming in. He knows the media aren’t looking at this as closely as we are so they’ll let him take credit for this which will probably lead to him getting another job somewhere else at some stage. He’s creating an unchallenged narrative. What does Jones get out of this though?

???

See the thing I don’t get is, if Jones is calling the shots as it appears to be, how is that not constructive dismissal? It’s more clear cut than what happened to Keegan. Was he going to be sacked? Said please don’t, so they made him sign something where he just agrees to be no more than a figurehead? If it’s just a case of Jones coming in as a coach, doing good work and Bruce just taking credit for it, I can’t imagine that situation going on for too long. Football is full of egos, something will snap.

You would want to be a massive cunt to take credit for someone else’s ideas/work. He seems rather comfortable doing it

Imagine him and Rondon up front together

With the players being linked, it seems that the penny may have dropped slightly about the state of our midfield.

It was a bit on the ambitious side. That’s the second big name French player to turn us down, we supposedly had a 35 million bid accepted for Soumare last year, even ASM couldn’t convince him to sign.

Well that was fun while it lasted ?

Carr being back throws serious doubt on Rafa ever coming back.

Can he get a tune out of Joelinton?

“Out of my way, I’ve got work to do”

So weird, like a different player in terms of pace, power and application. It’s almost like someone sussed out what his strengths were and then organised the rest of the team to play to them

He does that interrupting to try and control the conversation, he’s uncomfortable being exposed to hard questions so if he gets in ahead and leads the topic elsewhere he’ll never have to answer a hard one. Textbook sociopath move actually.

“I’ll answer that Steve” ?

His comment about what they worked on in training this week was telling.