Dr Jinx

How long has he been out already?

Last update was that he was running on the grass so he must have had some sort of breakdown on it again. At the time it looked like he'd done ligament damage. He jumped and came down very awkwardly on it. Was more a freak accident than blaming the schedule of games but that's an issue as well. He's a massive miss.

For where the club owners said they want to go with the club I think nearly every current squad player will be replaceable by the time we get there. Pope is an excellent shot stopper although he does have a rare lapse of judgement. I don’t mind that.. he’s human. 98% of the time he’s more than decent. The only thing which would make me say anything negative about him is that his distribution is poor for this level. He just doesn’t pass the ball well and his long kicking is weak and aimless. As a pro getting paid more in a week than maybe I do in a year, the fact he hasn’t put any effort (or at least any effort that’s worked) or time into leg strengthening and conditioning is annoying. It would make a massive difference to how he could strike the ball. He’s got proper skinny legs. I’m sure there’s a way of doing it where he can stay nimble yet improve massively on it.

Can’t really complain, we were a little below our usual level but Dortmund played well, really well organised without the ball and always dangerous on the counter. When games are going like that it’s probably our biggest weakness.. chasing but against a team that’s happy for us to have the ball.. we didn’t have the ideas to break them down enough. The frustration grew. Snatched at chances we did have and looks like a costly game with injuries.. Isak may be out for a spell and Murphy who’s been excellent this season with a dislocated shoulder. Tonali ban incoming.. it was good to have Willock back though. Can't complain about Dortmund.. they did their homework. Ref was an absolute tosser though.. he wasn’t giving us anything tonight. So much blatant stuff he let go

Reports in Italy that we're threatening legal action over Milan. They could end up having to pay us millions. This will complicate whatever decision is going to be made, the Italian FA have to look strong but they also have to protect their institutions as well which Milan certainly is one of.

What jurisdiction does the Italian FA have over the Premier League or UEFA competitions? Surely the ban would have to come from UEFA or FIFA?

If Milan is his boyhood club, that clip is the moment he properly fell in love with this one. Eventually this kid is going to be great for us, he’ll walk over broken glass for this club when he has the opportunity.

I wonder what sort of monster lawyers the club have representing Tonali currently!? He’ll have to get some sort of punishment but who does the punishing? The Italian FA don’t have a remit over players playing in the Premier League. So if it’s with UEFA, then that’ll be a bigger process which opens the opportunity for our top legal counsel to wrap them up in litigation. Likewise the FA can’t act on something that happened elsewhere. It's not straight forward.

It should have been every season with the lack of investment and apparent trust in absolute fools. He got away with it so many times. Made an absolute mockery of the promoted clubs who would invest heavily.

There were fleeting moments when things were ok under Ashley, notably HBA, Cabaye, Demba Ba, Cisse etc.. Bruce was the lowest ebb for his whole 14/15 years or whatever it was. Yes he was a symptom of the regime but honestly, i think the regime were the type to listen to Paul Mersons advice when it comes to footballing decisions. Not one clue on success. Only to just survive without spending much.

I cannot tell which was a darker time for the club, Mike Ashley or Steve Bruce, i think I hate Bruce more which shouldn't be the case, but it's a gut reaction thing. Mike was capable and had us barely surviving on a shoestring down to a fine art, the thin skinned cunt. Bruce is just absolutely shameless, only out for himself. Using his mates in the media to position himself towards his next severance package.

Being at his boyhood club, the move didn’t make much sense but if he was in the depths of it, all that self loathing, he might have just thought a fresh start was needed. It’s all speculation right now, but maybe he was getting threatened by dodgy fuckers as well. Now if it turns out his gambling followed over to here, then I’ve less sympathy.

I just saw that. Fairly smart to get ahead of it. Gives Eddie a standard response now as he can say that he can’t talk about it. When they say full support I very much believe them.

Will be very interesting to see what Howe is allowed say about it on Friday. It’s highly unlikely he’ll be involved at the weekend in any case but it will be reassuring if we hear him say “Sandro has our full support”

The club won’t be happy about this but he’s our player so unless there’s some obvious legal get out clause, let’s assume we’re going to take him under our wing and give him a second chance. His head must have been all over the shop and god knows who he owed money to. There’s literally no rock bottom with gambling, doesn’t matter if you’re on crazy money or on the dole. It’ll take pretty much everything and changes your whole character as a person when you’re an addict. He’s young enough to come back much stronger.

You’d think for 55 million quid that due diligence would be fairly extensive on a players background. Bit of a balls up by Dan Ashworth if they failed to pick up on this.

The second goal wasn’t his fault. Someone in the middle decided to run out to the wing leaving Kudos totally unmarked and open for a pass.. I could see the fucking move about 15 seconds before the goal went in. Tonali was fine. They are a good side and it’s a small pitch. Nobody had time or space to do much. Disappointing that we shrank back after bossing it for most of the half. This will be seen as a good point later in the season.

I just realised that he has that same emotional connection with the club/supporters that Keegan had. Lightning in a bottle. Great news. Onwards and upwards.

I also think for the most part, that women are not funny / lack a sense of humour / make absolutely shit stand up comedians. Prove me wrong.

He's not wrong in his comments but he should know better how that would have been taken up. It's an equality of outcome thing as opposed to equality of opportunity. Every pundit panel must contain a woman regardless if she has the personality of a turnip, or she has to be the presenter.

He makes a mockery of the doubters (including me at times). He'll have surpassed every great manager we've had here by the time he's finished. It's mad that he's young enough to stay here for Fergie/Wenger type timelines and would still be young enough to take the England job to cap off a career.

Another rotten club. It was a failure of a project. When you start paying players obscene amounts of money like what Mbappe is on.. it can only ever lead to the opposite of what we have at our club. Zero togetherness. Enrique isn’t a shit manager but I don’t think he’s ever been the same since his kid died. Who would in fairness. He’s a classy bloke and was very respectful of us before and after the game.

Man you’ve been on this board long enough all through the Ashley years. You should be able to sniff out false dawns easily. The Glazers make too much from the club, or potentially having it as an asset to get cheap credit on from other ventures. I’d be shocked if they sold.

Such a weird club, they have players that can win a match against any club on any given day but they don’t seem to have any interest in being consistent about it. Something rotten there.. the way they’ve handled significant player situations (Greenwood, Sancho) has been appalling, owners that have no sporting interest in the club, no direction, what kind of scouting do they have? You can see clear as day this will continue on and off, season after season. Change a manager, no difference.. ETH has been made to look a mug by his players. His aura of the work he did at Ajax in tatters, he’s been exposed there big time.

The nufc blog is shutting down. Dr. Ed Harrison has stage 4 cancer so unable to keep the site going. Very sad to hear this. Seems like the site has been around forever and definitely a part of my in and off season info gathering over the years. He must be given his dues.. it’s some effort to have kept that going (just as it is here too). Hope he gets to enjoy the club with the time he has left. To those running this site too, you’re appreciated massively. You’ve basically given something that I’ve spent as much time on as Facebook during my adult life.