Thiago

I think we have to forget what he did last season. He scored a boat load of goals and looked like a Ferrari surrounded by Fiats. Truth is we didn't control games at all at that point and he - like Saint Maximin - was just finding the game and making the most of it. I'd like to see a bit more conditioning with him. He still looks a yard slower and softer than last season, but I think having him float around midfield could be a nice compliment to Shelvey sitting deeper and picking passes.

Shame like, as some lads I know are Sunderland and they're sound, but that thread is the dreggs of the fanbase. Not sure what they saw in Lee Johnson to get promoted either. Never done it before in management, and I seem to remember his Bristol City team had a nasty habit of bottling it.

I fucking love him.

So right now he's fortunate that Serena didn't want to take it further. He's camping outside the training ground which could also easily end up in a restraining order. If you want things to be less severe, he could just get a reputation. He might think he'll make a living doing this - he won't - and good luck trying to get a job if every time they google you it comes back that you're a bit of a mentalist.

I'm not joking - he needs serious help. The things he's doing, the risks he's taking, he's going to end up in serious trouble.

I honestly think he's been dealt such a shit hand. You don't make passes like the one he did for Wilson's second last season if you're a bad technical player. Allow him to be part of the front three -especially away from home- and you'll see what we saw in the first six months, a dynamic creator with bags of defensive upside.

Need a big one from Maxi tomorrow.

I think right now it would be very hard for me to find a player from a top six club I wouldn't take. Our defence - Dubravka aside - is bordering on Championship standard. Our midfield options are mediocre and one paced. I'd say the attack is relatively ok for getting us out of bother, but even then I feel like the bar for improvement here is so low. I'd say absolutely we have bigger priorities, but if he's a deal that is available to do quickly or ahead of the window, I'm totally ok with it.

Yeah, he clearly knows his onions when it comes to financial matters. Massive red flag that they won't tell you what percentage each person owns. Can say what you want about PIF, but at least we know who owns what.

Ha, Bruce is a car crash of a human.

Not even 2 months in and folk are complaining. Some of you will never be pleased

The flaw in people's discourse around Gabby's point is this - its not Birmingham vs Newcastle. It's him vs Newcastle. Both cities have a lot to offer and their shite parts, but for some muppet that's hardly left home to slate a place he's never lived is ridiculous.

What did you expect?

I could win the Euromillions tomorrow mate, doesn't mean I'm getting Blyth into the Football League. I think you're looking at this in too binary a way. Yes, he's put money in, but how he's put that money in, and the way he's built that club up have been incredibly poor. He's lurched from manager to manager, throwing more money in each time, and now they've got a squad that doesn't work well together at all. Michael Keane for £25m looks no better than what we've got here. Look at the graveyard of attackers - Rooney, Klaasen, Walcott, Sigurdsson, Tosun, Bolasie. That's well over £100m in fees never mind wages. They've had 5 managers since 2016. How do you ever expect success when your idea of stability is David Unsworth as caretaker. Aye, sure, Marcel Brands deserves a lot of stick, but he also hired him. This is why I hope Staveley gets a proper CEO in. You need expertise in this game, you can't just read a CV and assume. You need to know what actually went on at that club, how does it transfer to here, what's the club's short term and long term aims. You can't just plug Ronald Koeman in and hope it clicks.

Has the lad from our youths been any good? Heaney I think they call him.

The problem the Trust has right now is that it's in muddy waters because the most prominent leaders also have a podcast and it feels like they are monopolising influence over the fanbase. Personally, I don't mind Alex. I don't always find him Mr Charisma, but that doesn't matter. Whether we care to admit it or not the landscape has changed around this club. We have a set of owners that while morally horrific clearly want to engage with fans and the region. It does not shock me that people who slogged during the Ashley era are now rushing to the front of the queue for prominence and a chance to be involved. The trouble is, that's now how democracy works. I love the idea of the trust, I enjoyed Greg on Newsnight, but I'd also love to see greater transparency. I say that not just to those of us that have joined up, but also those who may be watching from afar. We cannot, sadly, unite this fanbase as we would like to given some of the rogue characters that want to make YouTube channels talking about their competition cases and how they took down the cartels. What we can do, however, is unite those good eggs in the fan base that want the best for the club and the wider region. For that, I firmly believe there are more of them than anyone else.

I can sort of understand the ugly football, as even here we didn't start doing the nice stuff until the last six months when things were settled. Fans/players will take that stuff if you're winning/building but I think they all know he's a glorified interim. What he's supposed to do re: Rondon when Calvert Lewin is injured I have no idea. It was a car crash idea from minute one and I don't blame the fans for kicking off. He's not local to the area, had iconic success with their greatest rivals, and absolutely talked them down when there. I'm almost as baffled at him for taking it as I am them for appointing him.

They can sack everyone below the owner, but he's the problem.

So, I think I'd have three systems in mind. A 4-2-3-1 for home games or games in which we were clear favourites or expected to dictate the game. It would transition into more of a 3-4-3-1 in possession with full backs moving into the space vacated by the wingers sitting slightly more narrow. The second system would be a back three that basically apes Rafa's system in the last six months. This would be for away games where I thought we could catch teams on the counter or we were major underdogs. The CM pairing wouldn't be necessarily needed in the final third (one could join in if needed) but the CBs either side would be expected to bring it out and exploit the lane created by the wingbacks going wide. The final one would be your classic diamond formation (love you Cruyff). It would ask a lot of the fullbacks, but we'd basically stuff the middle of the field. This one would be for games in which I thought the talent level was the same but we had the physical advantage on our opposition.

CHeron Guevera.

Bremen to Norwich, as you say, was a spectacularly dumb move for him. He needs a season in second tier, playing as a striker (not quick or technical enough to be out wide). As for Lewis. Sure, he was woeful to begin with, but who outside of Maxi and Wilson really excelled in our team under Bruce? The other night he spent large periods against Max Aarons on his own and didn't get made to look daft. Put him in.

Thing is, he's 32. He's not getting better. This is as good as it's going to get with him, and if he can drop a clanger that easily he has no place here or in a side pushing for promotion next year.

That squad is a total monstrosity mind.

There's no need to be patronising. Watch it back, there's a few different things at play. It's a good cross that lands in the channel between defender and goalkeeper. I don't think Dubravka is expecting the cross so he's on his heels a bit/guarding against a shot. He can probably see Idah steaming in and not felt 100% comfortable catching a wet ball (there'd been a few slips prior to that) so he's just reacted and tried to get it away. There's every chance it lands right at Joelinton's feet but it doesn't. It's really just a combination of bad luck/tired minds over actual catastrophic mistakes.

Quite happy to fuck Jones off in the summer tbh.