Thiago

Does this lad know anything?

I bet the amount of agents either reaching out or attaching their client to Newcastle is ridiculous.

Demiral is the same - aggressive, not afraid to get his shorts dirty. I'd like to think they're better than what we have in mentality.

Lovely lad is Mike, you'd have been fine. You'd hope not, because at least with Arca he was clearly very good and you could sub him off.

Said he was taking a mental health break too the total fucking whopper. That whole genre of media has likely caused many cases of this we'll never hear about. It's justification for obscene anger over a football game.

Anything that doesn't have our lads near the top needs to be double checked.

I don't know where it came from, but I saw mention that Wood was committed to staying regardless.

He's a waster. He always has been.

We won't regret this.

I will admit I watched Bruce on Undr the Cosh and he was a likeable bloke. That changed when it came to discussion of his dad and 'it being crazy up there'. I get it, he's your dad, he's your hero, but he also held to take £8m from 'his club' after a winless start to the season. He should shut up and he certainly should stop pestering Craig Hope.

He gives me major pervy Geography teacher vibes.

Sort code and account number would suffice.

Yeah, maybe. I mean you work in this realm I don't so I'll defer to you.

But there in is my point. He doesn't post on everything. He routinely admits when he doesn't know something.

Fair. I will say, I've met recruitment scouts for independent companies that are usually a bit loose lipped. I'll certainly watch his stuff with a closer eye.

I'm not going to fault him for not knowing Burnsie is full of shit. Also - and I mean this as no disrespect - what benefit would it serve him to show you match tickets etc?

He got this a good 20-25 minutes before any mention from the mainstream press.

He's not. He's got a lot of things right and doesn't just jump on stuff.

He needs to get to a club that will play him as a DM. He's not mobile enough to be a top level box to box player.

People are ascribing usual business practice to the alien world of football. Our owners will have done their diligence with the accounts of the club, but when you compare their ambitions with Ashley's we're comparing a newsagent to Tesco. It's not even like they have established practice to compare to. We haven't had a consistent DOF, and even our Head of Recruitment comes back with patchy references. A lot of the senior figures at this club are there because they wouldn't rock the boat. Of those who could survive many won't have anything like the experience required. Nickson, for example, did one £40m deal and it was a massive flop. Man City took a bit of time to get their top guys in, but they knew to go after Barcelona's people. They were the ones with the contacts to open doors and the experience to avoid getting ripped off. You also have to remember that these planned appointments need to be balanced with short and long term goals. They need to sign players for now, while also making sure the appointments at the top mesh with whatever the long term vision is. The notion of patience in this capacity is misguided because that suggests we're 12 months in. A lot of people are talking about our owners, slating their inability to make it work, and yet we've picked up two useful players already. Don't panic because they haven't built the house yet, it's about getting the foundations level first.

Watching Trippier gives me some hope. That lad is like a race horse in a field of donkeys.

Played for two teams this season.

There's a few that would survive, but yeah. I don't like saying it because they are human beings, but I just don't llike most of this lot.

IF we could get a tune out of Willock or find consistency with Hayden not being a card magnet we'd be fine. Joelinton is the least of our issues.

We need to be willing to throw crosses in for this lad to thrive. Given how often we find Maxi shut out, we need to be using those moments to switch it quickly to the right and get Fraser/Trippier whipping it in.