WilliamPS

-Unbeaten, two home wins and one away draw -Into next round of cup -Gordon, Isak and Barnes have all opened their accounts -Tonali being reintegrated -Got through Schars ban unscathed. Its a good start to the season!

In the end the Halls took a lot out, but without the upfront investment (that is now banned) none of it would have been possible. I was there in the promotion season, there wasn’t even stands at the gallogate and leazes, the revenue must have been abysmal. None of the signings would have been possible. Yes the Halls did the float and took a load out, but that was much later, it would never have got off the ground

Issue with FFP reform is it doesn’t just protect the clubs at the very top. It also protects clubs who are quite happy to sit in the bottom half of the PL as it prevents well funded challengers from the championship. Look at Forest, an ambitious owner willing to spend and its points deductions for them. The fairytale has been cancelled What Newcastle did in the 90s, Fulham in the 2000s, Brighton, Leicester etc etc all now banned. The benefactor owner is outlawed. There are a few clubs who will appreciated the promoted clubs having one hand tied behind their backs and continue to support it.

Tonali is clearly the better player but Howes judgement is Tonali isn’t ready possibly mentally, possibly physically to start - that’s ok with me. He will be after the international break I’m sure. Today I hope we see a 30 minute appearance. Trippier and Tonali refreshing the right hand side after 60-70minutes is a real opportunity

He was the worst full back defensively I’ve ever seen play for Newcastle, and there’s a lot of company there. Positionally awful. It was the 0-3 loss at home to Brighton in 2020 were he got rinsed over and over. Probably didn’t help that ASM was the left winger so not much cover, but it was clear he couldn’t defend. He wasn’t dropped, he kept his place in the team

I’d cut them a break on sales. For me, Anderson was a good sale, as was ASM, good players but not what the team needed or quite at the level needed. Shelvey and Wood were also moved on for decent fees. But beyond those I’m not sure there’s many players who are both sellable and non-core to the team. Players like Miggy and Wilson get mentioned but I just don’t think anyone has credibly came in for them. There’s Willock, but his injury record might be off putting. Lascelles may have gone if he wasn’t injured. The squad had such a bad age profile when the takeover went through, the players left behind were not just not good enough they were also old.

If Barnes isn’t RW I’d prefer Miggy to Murphy and use Trips/Tino for the width. I’d go Trips as I think the team needs his on pitch leadership, especially the back four. I think we’ll see Longstaff starting with Tonali off the bench, but if Tonali is ready I’d stick him in, Howe will have taken a view there.

These Mitchell / Howe conspiracy theories are mental. Mitchell hasn’t arrived and thought “what I’d really like as the sporting director of this club is a dreadful run of results, which will screw hopes of Europe and lead to star players leaving, so I can sack the manager and get someone else in” I guarantee he hopes beyond hope Howe delivers CL football again. That would make his life much easier. If he wants his own people he can do that anyway next summer

They absolutely shouldn’t do some joint press conference to explain a transfer window. That would be crazy, it’s a football club not a reality TV show. Reviews should be internal, and talking done on the pitch

Fair point, however progressing a few more stages and winning games would have made it a lot closer. I think a CL win is £2m prize money alone. Having a few more games with gate receipts, tv money etc may have made it so it was only Anderson or whatever.

Probably expected to drop into the EL instead of coming 4th in the CL group and so having a lot more revenue and to finish higher in the league, gaining more prize money

AS did great things but you can’t have two CEO’s, if she didn’t want to do it ultimately she was always going to have to take a backseat. Can’t have two pairs of hands on the steering wheel. Within the set up the transfer strategy probably isn’t really the CEOs job, beyond agreeing the budgets and squad salary cap. Going all in on Guehi for example doesn’t sound like that’s a decision from Eales, they will have been taken by the committee but those decisions must come from the football side of the operation. Eales job is to sort the club as a business, that’s the metric to judge him on. Revenue, commercial success, stadium, infrastructure etc.

Be a shame if Fraser, Hayden and Lewis are all hanging round the training ground for another year

Am not sure if these are joke posts or people are seriously having full blown meltdowns

I wanted signings, but this is a better squad than last year and probably the best team since at least 2002, maybe since 1996.

Too much time on the internet.

Honestly some people need to switch off and have a lie down. Yeah let’s sack the manager as he asked for a certain defender who ended up being too expensive.

Great England player. Massive contribution in 2018 and 2021. But he probably wouldn’t have made the 2026 WC so a good moment to retire. I imagine Walker might do the same.

He better hope he passes that medical

For midfield there’s Joelinton, Bruno, Tonali, Longstaff, Miley, Willock for three slots, but as you’d expect to use 4 or 5 each game having 6 is running at the minimum. Id love a specialist DM as it’s a skill set the squad lacks, but I think adding a 7th midfielder will wait until next year.

They haven’t though. They have put a price on Guehi that they couldn’t sensibly turn down, they aren’t actively hawking him

Man Utd blow huge amounts on wages and transfer fees, usually the biggest spenders in the league. I don’t like Chelsea on the pitch but recognise they are just trying to deal with the totally artificial constraints on spending which are designed to protect the spending power and profits of the likes of Man Utd and Liverpool. Good luck to them and Man City Man Utd apologists will get out their calculators and make up all sorts of silly sums to pretend they aren’t the biggest transfer spenders as usual, but the truth is they will spend double NUFC in wages and transfer fees/amortisation again this year (500m+ vs 250m), and like last year, finish below. If it was a level playing field they’d finish 20 points below.

Ruin football? How have they done that?

Man Utd must be spending north of 200m this window, whilst NUFC can’t afford a RW due to “fairness” rules written by clubs like Man Utd I respect Chelsea’s contempt for PSR and wish them the best in their legal fights

Into the next round, win is a win, but work for Howe & team in getting things firing again. Plenty to work with Didnt enjoy that shootout mind