Whitley mag

Can’t argue with Edwards on this one mind.

Ashley esque behaviour from club yesterday, sign nobody today and questions need to be asked.

Ffs first day back at graft and have to worry about this thread all day now. Capitulation at the final hurdle, if we don’t sign a striker where in serious trouble.

Feels like season riding on getting a striker tomorrow. If club gamble on big Nick to January, it feels a huge risk and massive wasted opportunity after CL qualification.

Especially Brentford who are in the same position where player is refusing to play. It’s got to be said Wissa only has a year left on contract as well, so effectively where in a stronger position than them to say no to Liverpool. If we sell for under 150 and no striker signed, that’s 2 conditions of sale not met and we’ve folded.

It’s a tricky one like, the reality is he’d probably come back score a few, but also look a lazy cunt at times and miss games with the slightest knock. Where going to find out soon enough once these despicable cunts lowball us again.

Looking very unlikely a deal gets done now in my humble. Massive show of strength from NUFC if we keep hold of him.

The Champions League might not be ready. It’s the dream scenario I just don’t know how he’ll be brought back in without some of the best PR football has seen.

Isak stays and we sign one of Lopez, Nusa, or Santos we’ve done everything we can. I think where a creative midfielder/forward away from having a very decent window.

Unsettle him then refuse to pay the asking price.How dare we not just capitulate.

The annoying thing here is that Isak and big Nick could be formidable together. I could see Nick playing some lovely through balls to Isak and vice versa.

Brilliant player.

Openda?

If we’re dropping him against Leeds for tactical reasons it would suggest we thought Leeds would have a low block and he wouldn’t be able to use his pace. If he was dropped due to Murphy working harder defensively away from home I’d be concerned. As this is where surely Elanga will be able to exploit his pace on the break. Using the squad is a legitimate reason, however in my opinion Howe thought him and Barnes would be better off the bench with the game broken up. My main concern being if it’s the first point we haven’t solved any problems from last season through signing Elanga. Time will tell but can only go off what I’ve seen so far and I’m not impressed.

He didn’t start, therefore he was dropped. Take your pick as for the reason.

We created next to nowt apart from when Elanga was clear through against Villa. Against Liverpool one Joelinton half chance when it was 11 v 11?

We bossed them without creating exactly my point.

If Liverpool won’t go above 120 then no deal it’s really quite simple. I’d still back us to get 100 million next summer even if he doesn’t play a game this season.

Not convinced think he thought Elanga and Barnes would be able to cause bigger problems off the bench with the game broken up. Regardless never seen anything from Elanga so far to say he’s any better than Murphy in any metric apart from pace.

The formation never worked against Everton and that was with Isak playing. I look at the Everton wide players Ndiaye, Grealish and Dibling all offer something different. We had electrifying pace in Gordon did we need to replicate that on the right? For all Ramsey looked ok yesterday is he what we needed for 40 million? The lad from Leicester was completely different and available. Howe has doubled down on his approach this summer, if it works great, but if it doesn’t he’ll rightly face questions. After 3 games we look devoid of creativity, think a lot hanging on big Nick already.

He was saying the plan was to play Ekitike with Isak a few weeks ago.

We supposedly replaced Murphy with quality and he’s had to brought back in.

There’s a reason no other top club was in for him in my opinion. Even Nuno didn’t start him a few times last season. I feel he’s been bang average in 2 games so far and awful off the bench yesterday. When he’s had full pelt it looks exciting on the eye, but he’s created and scored nowt. Let’s hope once we have a proper striker up top he comes into his own and we get a tune out of him, this was meant to be a signing that improved the first 11, the reality is he’s been dropped after 2 games.

Keep the cunt and if we’ve got some money still to spend sign a player who can play a killer pass instead.

Lacking creativity and it was the same even with Isak last season. Take Isak’s ability to create a moment out of the team and we look very pedestrian going forward. Big Nick should improve this once he gets in the team, but yet again despite the money spent this summer it’s a glaring oversight for me.