Dr Jinx

The thing about Schär is that he quite often gets wound up yet doesn’t quite have the physicality to mix it in certain games and he’s definitely been guilty of ball watching on a number of occasions that has led to goals.. but his distribution is the best of what we had. With Botman in, that won’t be as much of a factor. If two left footed CB’s can work, just how formidable would Pope, Botman and Burn be? I think there’s going to be games when Schär should play, for example against weaker teams where we’ll be having most of the possession. But for the ones where we’re going to be up against it, I’d go with Burn every day. Going by quotes last season, attacking players hated playing against him.

3 goalkeepers and then for each position you want cover for each position. The defence is quite straight forward Trippier/Krafth Schär/Lascelles Botman/Burn Targett/Dummett (or Lewis) Midfield is not so straight forward because each one is very different. There’s essentially 2 replacements for 3 positions. Bruno, Joelinton, Shelvey / Willock, Longstaff Just get the feeling it’s square pegs in round holes in midfield, especially Willock. Up front ASM/Elliott Wilson/Wood Fraser/Almiron etc

So does that mean we’ll have only spent 30m of whatever our summer budget is? Could potentially have another 100m to spend on 2 positions.

Does he need a work permit? Brexit innit

It’s fairly straight forward. The medical was fine, he wouldn’t have been at SJP afterwards otherwise. Contract also done, that was Dan’s role in it. Eddie Howe will be up to give an interview on this one as it’s a significant signing.. a coup as you would. So they’ll make a bigger deal out of this one than the previous. Video team will have most of it put together and will be splicing in bits as we speak.

We’re not ready for top 4, even if we signed a few more top class players. We have a squad of maybe 11 or 12 mediocre players who need to be shipped on. Outgoings just as important as who we’re bringing in currently. I suspect the season we’re about to have will increase the value of some of them so that we actually make a bit of ££ when either January or next summer come along.

Well he didn’t state that’s what the contract was, he said that was the asking price. So there’s enough wiggle room to be vague ?

To be honest can’t say I’ve seen it heard of him before now, a quick Denis Wise scouting mission revealed that he has the most shite “amazing skills, assists & goals” clips I’ve seen all summer.

He reminds me of Kern from Highlander.. just has that sort of Neanderthal look about him ? He was definitely riding around on a horse beheading people in a past life.

Yes! I’ve been saying this for weeks! I don’t think he cares too much, it’s a piss take of an industry.. as Steve Bruce figured out, no matter what he does, there’ll always be some other fool willing to give him his next severance pay out. This kid doesn’t care because he’s got plenty of options but that just goes to show he doesn’t want to be here, or at least couldn’t be bothered either way. So, no thanks. But the club still seem to be interested, despite the current noises “all but dead..”, which I find more interesting.

He was all for the move before he saw that little creep hanging around outside

If Hugo is higher up on the list of targets than these mentioned above, just how good do they think he was going to be?

Nothing in this, he currently lives in Newcastle, moved here for his home base to help Bruno settle in and help him look for a home. He said he’d stay for 1 year.

Agent: “we want x, y & z before we sign. The club: “nope, you can have x but not y & z” Agent leaks info. Media: “Bayern want to sign…” The club: …………… Agent leaks info. Media: Newcastle are back at the table for talks… And so on.

The situation around football is beginning to turn, PSG, the main one’s driving the lunacy have stated a shift in policy, they want homegrown Parisians in the side. Yeah they just did that with Mbappe contract but you have to ask why? It’s not that they think the same system and strategy will win them a champions league. That ship has sailed. Messi coming in was last throw off the dice as far goes their serious CL ambitions and it didn’t work. The reason for that signing is the same end goal as keeping Mbappe, it’s about their (Qatar’s) self image before the World Cup starts. They couldn’t be seen letting their star player leave for Madrid and were prepared to strangle themselves financially (ffp) to do so. They might try to sell the club afterwards, but if they don’t, it’ll be a total cutback compared to how they’ve been doing it. World Cup will be over, and so will the motivation. Spain is a hard one to make sense of, if reports were to be believed, Barca would be in danger of bankruptcy, Madrid too when that stadium work needs to be paid for, yet they continue to spend, albeit far far less than what they once did. The PL will set the tone once PSG exit the stage. Man City will be ok for a few more years, relatively young squad etc, at least they’ll only need to add one or two quality signings each summer to keep things fresh, but when the overall squad needs an overhaul, they might have to drop back a bit, their success also depends on how long Pep stays. Man Utd have such high turnover that they could afford to keep throwing money at a problem they don’t know how to fix, but there’s no sign yet that they have a clue where to start. It’s a 2-3 year rebuilding job, unless Ten Haag is the worlds best manager? I just can’t see anything other than history repeating from previous seasons. Liverpool are well run, refusing to pay the money that their players can get elsewhere, which means players coming in are joining for sporting reasons, something we should aspire and stick to at all costs. But financially they will be vulnerable to clubs like us when we eventually get to their level, they won’t be able to compete for signings if we’re happy to pay that extra 10m etc. (ie Lille holding out for us over Milan) It may not necessarily be a case of the party being over but thankfully I think that Mbappe deal was the peak of it, or as Hunter Thompson wrote.. “and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark — that place where the wave finally broke, and rolled back.”

See that was True Geordie as well, he used to do those Mike Ashley rant videos like he was the biggest fan going, then as soon as he got the fancy studio and stooges to back him up, I’ve quite literally heard him say.. “well I’m not exactly a die hard football fan”. But the main difference between them is that I’d happily go for a pint with TG, I’d want to get a restraining order again the other lad. There’s no way he’s playing a character, it’s like saying that about Michael Owen, that he just decided to be the king of cringe. Nah, proper creepy behaviour.

While I do subscribe to the “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough”, I also think it doesn’t do any harm to have some experience in there (in the midfield), especially when things are not going for us. Although Shelvey is one of (if not the) the oldest in there for us, he’s highly unreliable when under pressure.

The Maguire signing was mental really, he looked decent at Leicester in fairness but am sure if you really watched all his games there you’d see his traits quite clearly. * and he had Kante protecting the back 4. Just imagine what a cb pairing of him and Lascelles would be like..

He’s 6’6

He’s not slow man!!

I’m not entirely sure he’s a priority of the club, I think he’d come to be with his best friend, but aside from that there’s no major interest, I’m not sure if we’ve even scouted him. But he’s quite obviously a very good player.. They wanted Botman and have missed out on some solid alternatives while they waited this out, if it somehow happens, it’ll be a major coup given the level of the clubs competing for his signature. We’ll see what happens with the young French lad, but wouldn’t be surprised if they are playing the same game of chicken with this one.

We have saga threads, the takeover was the big one and before that the endless soul destroying that our previous club owner inflicted on us. But this summer, Eketike and Botman have both been sagas ?

That first one looks like someone pointing at him telling him he’s a shit manager.