St. Maximin

Also bringing in the Liverpool connection into it is a Steve Bruce move. Come on Rafa, you’re better than that.

Agreeing with you here. I’m fact I’d say very good job overall - you can’t really knock his achievements, but neither was it a smooth ride any of the seasons and we had to make do with very frustrating performances that wouldn’t look out of place with some of our far less popular managers. I think it’s fair to say he did both a great job here and a terrible job at Everton. His style won’t be effective everywhere and he has to accept sticking with the same approach (on and off the field) won’t always work and he should accept the blame for that. Won’t be the first or last successful manager to get it wrong somewhere. However, I would say his track record from the last 15 years or so doesn’t shout world-class - the game has progressed and his limitations have become more apparent now. For not just his management but how he conducted himself and engaged with the fans, he can stay a legend here though and that’s what matters.

I heard it was ‘Freeman’s on fire’ first, which seems reasonable given the lyrics. Mitro definitely came before Grigg though - some Wigan fan made a video as he was leading them to the Championship and then the Euros were round the corner, so the NI fans then adopted it.

Yeah he comes across a bit cocky at times, but always felt he speaks very well in interviews and seems to have a great attitude. 2022 stats terrific also - Southgate just has his favourites as can barely see any reason why he’s persisting with Mount over Maddison, or at least not alongside. See you in Newcastle in January James. Also Shreeves is such a melt.

We won our last two matches there.

Such a weird thing to say if I’ve understood right. Terrible defending, but errors can’t be fixed. Guess they noticeably declined by magic when Howe had been here a couple of months.

He’s only been there 7 months to be fair. Give it another 11 months and he’ll have completely undone the previous manager’s work, then the gloves can come off.

Obviously from a perspective of mourning the cancellations don’t make sense and are unfair on a lot of the public, but are concerns over policing quietly one of the reasons? If there will be major crowds in London and a higher terrorism risk, they might be taking police away. They wouldn’t admit that if so though.

Bit sad about this even though he was t going to feature this season. He was excellent for us and seemed like a great bloke too. Good luck Fede lad.

I know. That isn’t my point. I’m saying it was at best marginally on, but far too close to tell with the naked eye and if video technology can’t correct it then we have no reason to overturn the original decision. If VAR instead overturned a goal I’d be annoyed, but in this case it’s the fault of the linesman and rules that don’t allow for any leeway, which is a VAR-related issue I admit.

Yeah it wasn’t clearly offside, but in these situations if there’s doubt (and there was) then surely you go with the original decision. Otherwise it really undermines the linesman and highlights their mistakes even more. I’m not anti-VAR but in an ideal world it shouldn’t be used for marginal errors like these. However, in this case I do think it was applied correctly given the current rules and limitations of it.

Maybe not, but then that’s the linesman at fault and not really something VAR should be blamed for. VAR’s lines may not be accurate to the millimetre, but it’s marginal either way and can’t clearly show the linesman was wrong.

But the thing is, everyone is assuming VAR was wrong, when ultimately this was not a clearly and obviously wrong decision. It looks incredibly tight either way, so surely the benefit of the doubt goes to the linesman. If he says no goal and the technology can’t show clearly otherwise, then no goal.

I know I mentioned elsewhere, but we can slate VAR all we like, it didn’t overturn a goal. So it needs to be clearly and obviously wrong and that looks way too unclear. Yes it may be a technical issue, but without VAR that’s still not a goal.

Not saying the VAR are 100% accurate but it wasn’t given initially and wasn’t clear and obviously wrong, so it shouldn’t be overturned. I think people forget that when they see images like that and the initial reaction is to slate VAR. No VAR and it’s still not a goal. If you want that overturned, then so should all those marginal offside calls the other way be overturned. Saying that, he’s sick.

The Saudi connection is pretty subtle compared to before having Sports Direct on every corner of the stadium. This is only a third kit we’ll barely wear - imo more a gimmick to sell shirts in Saudi Arabia. Surely explicitly showing adverts to visit Saudi on Sky should be a better target for criticism?

Nah I see where you’re coming from mate, but I think he is prepared to risk some bad results (e.g. Spurs last year, when he admitted he was wrong also) for very good outcomes overall. He knows there’s enough in that team to fight back rather than be scared, even if it’s at risk of City scoring another. With Rafa also, difficult to do compare as he had a much weaker side, but the flip side of his tactics was failing to register a shot on target at home against a Fulham side that got relegated.

Not denying that’s happened mate or that it’s really annoying and embarrassing, but I think when journalists and the like talk about countries trying to “sportswash their brutal regimes” and the like it I imagine it goes further than creating a very small minority of apologists. I feel they are always going to be restricted in how far they can change widely held opinions, but these events can definitely generate tourism, further business links etc. The positive impacts are economic mainly and therefore I don’t see ‘sportswashing’ as necessarily a bad thing.

The takeover was a legal business transaction, so our take on Saudi (majority) ownership from a moral perspective is simply a personal decision on what we feel comfortable. I may not share someone’s views, but I won’t judge someone for being more or less comfortable with it than I am as it’s subjective and doesn’t change what it means to be a fan of the club. That’s partly why I dislike it when groups like AI try to interfere on the grounds of sportswashing. They’re well within their rights to not like it, but they shouldn’t prevent a club and region from positive change due to their personal feelings towards the buyers. Sportswashing is not an objective legal issue and neither is it a human rights issue in my view - instead channel your energy into the shocking human rights abuses (by all means do), not trying to stop legitimate business transactions that can have many positive outcomes and are similar in nature to many others that have been permitted.

Indeed we are (80%) owned by the investment fund of a horrible regime. We can’t do anything about our owners, but I can’t also deny we did by and large all want and celebrated the takeover. Saying that, perhaps what all our critics on social media who suddenly took an interest in sportswashing in 2021 don’t realise though, is this is the result of being owned 14 years by Ashley. At least other crap owners have the decency to accept other takeover bids that don’t involve a sovereign wealth fund. Detestable owners are sadly part of football, but I don’t want to start saying we have “the worst owners imaginable” as I don’t know if anyone particularly evil has much of a connection to the club anyway, given it’s the investment fund that owns us and I don’t know how much they’re involved in our daily decision making. MBS as the PIF chair is noted of course. Also most clubs don’t love and support their owners, so we shouldn’t either just because they have money. Luckily the fan connection is with Staveley and co and they seem pretty likeable people overall - despite the occasional Saudi apologist on Twitter you don’t see much public adoration for the PIF from our fanbase.

Still can’t quite get my head round the fact he’s literally trending because a Newcastle polls fan page tweeted his name in relation to a Burger King tweet asking what’s better out of tomato and gherkin . So ridiculously surreal. I can’t help but laugh in the meantime, but it will get boring soon. Having said that… Nick Pope.

Comments that caused an overreaction imo. HBA gets a lot of protection here due to how Pardew handled him. It’s pretty clear he had a terrible attitude and has caused problems everywhere he’s been. A real shame as he’s one of the most talented dribblers the PL has ever seen.

He’d have done a decent job I’m sure but not sure why we wouldn’t be worse off. Howe’s record is quite brilliant really. Rafa did great for us, but hardly showed he was world class then and his record since has shown he’s on the decline. Sure the defence would be solid, but not sure he’d transform the other players as effectively and make Joelinton a top class midfielder. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’d been argumentative and fallen out with players like ASM too.

Errr… So I make a polite, reasonable and detailed post and you come out with this. Classic Newcastle Online You’re the one chatting nonsense seeing as you’re talking about events that happened 17+ years ago. I clearly mentioned I was specifically talking about recently, in which Rafa has clearly been less successful. No doubt he’s has had a very successful past, but that’s not what is currently relevant here. Seriously how you’ve jumped to that nonsense conclusion I’ll never know, but seems Rafa is untouchable due to achievements from many years ago…

While any comparison is flawed given their owners, I think the recent achievements of both goes to show Howe is better. Rafa did a great job of making us a solid defensive team on a low budget, we still had lots of terrible spells and at times played dull football as a result of the style. He need completely bombed at Everton with a squad easily stronger on paper. Howe conversely consistently made Bournemouth an overachieving side that played attractive football for a few years after great success getting them promoted up the leagues, despite a poor end. He then, however, developed himself whereas Rafa has been relying on an outdated style that hasn’t brought him near the amount of success in recent years. I think while Rafa you’d always respect too, Howe’s personality is that bit more infectious too while clearly working the players hard. Should have sacked Howe and got Rafa back when he was sacked by Everton though