Nine

It absolutely is important in the mid/long term, but it is not essential in the short imo. We had no trouble attracting Trippier, Bruno, Botman and Isak with no European football on offer. The trouble is keeping these players when you’ve had a taste of Europe with them and then won’t again for at least a season, make no mistake all these guys want to play for a CL club. Financially of course it is a nice bonus to have.

I think it’s partly down to where we find ourselves currently, established CL clubs will make contact and try their luck to turn a players head mid season. Had we been in the CL still and closer to the top of the table I’m not sure we’d be seeing these links. The upside is we can use this season as a mini rebuild as we arnt realistically chasing top 4 anymore and Europe is not essential to the project yet anyway. Trippier and Wilson are both big players for us in their own right, but they are aging and at the end of the day any and every player is an expendable asset. The project is long term and patience is a must.

And that’s why we wouldn’t be selling him voluntarily, if he leaves it’s because he wanted the move. We lose far more than we likely gain for a £10-15m fee. The evidence shown by our business so far doesn’t suggest we’d be so ruthless to do this deal, it just doesn’t add up. I can see one of our more valuable assets leaving in the summer for sure, but this move doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on the pitch, in the dressing room or FFP wise. Still, Trippier or any player moving on is never the end of the world and it is all cash that can be reinvested. This is a long term project and plenty more players will come and go.

Logging off here for the night

Of course this could be a factor, let’s not kid ourselves.. if a club like Bayern come in for any of players with a serious offer they will be off. Again, at this point this is nothing more than rumours and links. Let’s not feed into the media until we know of something substantial.

That’s what I’m getting at, but let’s slow down. It’s all rumours and these links could just be the press taking advantage and pouring some fuel on the fire to make the most of what’s largely been a dead window so far.

Really, really can’t see how he leaves this season BUT if there is weight to those rumours that could be a game changer.

James Rodriguez, a good season or two and then mentally caved in

I don’t often look on RTG, but tonight I do and it’s funny as fuck.

Crazy to think he must have been our 4th or 5th longest serving squad member by now, 2017 was a long time ago. Good luck to him, always solid enough.

Can’t see us selling Lascelles mid season, especially this season. Hes played a large percentage of minutes and has generally done well, his presence and leadership adds value to.. not really something you can replace easily. I’m 90% sure he’ll sign an extension also. A bit of grit and determination probably goes along way in an injury crisis, more so in a physical system and from an experienced pro.

Players that are technically gifted and physically able to press to the demands of Howe ball don’t grow on trees though, and you’re talking big money for the like. We brute forced results with the press last season, depth in physical ability is never a bad thing for a system like ours.. its literally the bread and butter of what we do.

Never been convinced of his character either, huge ego there I think.

Looking more and more likely.

Maybe he was rushed back. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone out for the second half. Maybe a torn tendon is hard to spot at half time. Ironically it was probably Joe himself that said he wanted to go out and see how it felt, and try telling Joelinton not to come out for the second when 1-0 up against your local rivals.

Although I can’t see us altering our transfer plans for short term gain, if Joelintons injury really is season ending then I’d lean towards expecting us to bring in a CM on a loan to buy deal. The workload is high enough for our CMs even with Joe available, and the risk of further injuries increases again with him out.. it might trigger a proactive response from us if a decent deal is there to be done. We won’t stray to far from our mid/long term financial plan though, we are already tight enough FFP wise if reports are to be believed. It would be silly to throw our structure out of the window to chase a short term goal of finishing a couple of places higher in the table, and European football is not essential at this stage. We can still finish the season strongly and there is a lot to gain, just having 3/4 of those out injured back and fit before the end of season would be huge alone.

Willian has some impressive longevity, you’d assume he was done when he went back to Brazil but he’s still got legs and is dangerous.

They brought on De Bruyne at 60 mins and we brought on Hall at 70, says enough really. Great effort tonight.

Imagine we didn’t sign him? And signed Diaby or whoever, they would have been thrown to wolves.

ESR is never happening

I feel it’s ones of those that if the keeper would have clearly got there the body check would have been deemed a foul, but as it happened the keepers never getting to that ball with Adebayo in the way or not.

https://theathletic.com/5151540/2024/01/11/anthony-gordon-inside-the-mind-newcastle/

Solanke fits the profile perfectly tbh, he’s a pressing monster and stays fit very consistently. Ability wise it would make a lot of sense. He wouldn’t come cheap though, unless there’s a clause in place.