sushimonster85

There is still the old 'Mike Ashley's Newcastle United' part of my brain that just assumes every game is the game where the unbeaten run comes to a shuddering halt. Going to supress that as much as I can. Still think this is a tricky fixture, going to go with (and would quite happily take) a 1-1 draw.

To be honest I can see him being second choice as there is zero chance Dubravka stays if he is going to be backup. My hot guess for next season is a GK pool of Henderson, Woodman, Darlow.

Will go about as well as me entering a race with Usain Bolt.

Just to throw my realistic shopping list into the mix: GK: Henderson. Will sadly spell the end for Dubravka, as he clearly won't want to be a number 2, but just feel Howe want's a keeper who is much more comfortable with the ball at his feet. CB: Sven Botman. Figure Fernandez and Clarke will be out the door. LB: Targett CM: Boubacar Kamara. Between Bruno, Joelinton, Willock and Shelvey I actually think this is the one area we don't need too much more cover in, but rather a top quality player who goes straight into the 11. Wide forward/inverted winger: Raphina. Will be tough as he will have plenty of options, but really think him on the right, Max on the left would be lethal. CF: Darwin Nunez. Don't think there's smoke without fire. We, as well as every upper mid-table side in Europe apparently, are being linked with him. Which would leave a 25 man squad looking like: GK Henderson, Woodman, Darlow DEF: Trippier, Manquillo, Botman, Burn, Schar, Lacelles, Targett, Lewis MID Bruno, Kamara, Joelinton, Willock, Shelvey, Longstaff FWD Nunez, ASM, Raphina, Fraser, Wilson, Wood, Murphy Extra space to make some daft signing. I don't know, Toni Kroos or someone mad.

Yep, think Tomori is pretty damning proof that Southgate doesn't like picking people he can't go and watch week in, week out. That Tyrone Mings and Conor Coady went to the Euro's before him was a bit of a joke.

If it was actually based on form both he and Burn should be in line for a callup. But Southgate does have his favourites.

Almost totally agree with this, they just need to sort the collar out. All black (maybe with a white lining) would have been way better than the pinstripe look it currently has.

I agree he does look good, just have to put a slight qualifier on him as he plays in Portugal. Don't get me wrong, the general standard is higher than a place like Holland, but it can still be hard to properly gauge a players quality when they come from the Portuguese league.

I saw this. Had his arm round him, but you could tell by the look on Howes face it wasn't pep talk he was giving him lol.

I saw that and thought it was weird. I want to say the last time we had a pen with both Wilson and Ritchie out it was Schar who took it. Maybe they're doing everything they can to get Wood that first goal.

Yeah. I feel like Fraser has the same issue I (and a lot of people) have where people mistake him being a quiet, more reserved character as being aloof, or uncaring. You can tell he is way more comfortable now, and his personality it really starting to come out.

I have consistently predicted each game to be the one to break our run of good results lately, so in order to not jinx anything I will go for a 1-1 draw. (Now the gods of football have moved on, I actually think we will win 2-1)

Late decision going to be made on him tonight/tomorrow. We likely won't know till word starts to leak out tomorrow afternoon. Most people seem to be leaning towards no.

He is going to be about as popular as Putin by 5pm on saturday.

Ahh, I see you're new to watching Newcastle.

Seems like Fraser has the all clear. If Max really is touch and go I can see him starting from the bench and Murphy retaining his place. You hope Max may not even be needed, but he is a fantastic option for a final 20/30 minutes.

Last night changed my thinking in that I now begrudgingly admit that maybe there is something to that PFM thing 'Burnely have been here before, they will be fine' thinking. I still am pretty confident we will survive, but now I do think it will be a team that has sort of been on the outskirts of the battle for an extended time. By brain says there's a strong chance it could be Brentford, especially if we get a positive point at the weekend. Leeds look like they're in the shit, but both they and Burnley have probably the easiest run-in of all the teams down at the bottom. Everton are one of those sides where the prospect of them going down seems impossible/far-fetched (probably how a lot of people felt about us before our first Ashley relegation), but that could go against them. They could end up sleepwalking into relegation, all the while muttering "we'll be fine". They've also got the hardest run-in, take a look at their final few fixtures and its hard to see where the points will come from.

No option/agreed fee. Villa knew if we did well his value would shoot up in the Summer compared to anything they could agree in Jan.

Totally agree. It bugs me when people go on about how Burnley always get themselves out of these situations. Surely them getting themselves into these situations so often says just as much, if not more, than their ability to escape them.

I imagine it will even be before that. All about haggling over the compensation figure at the moment. I imagine this will speed up the more likely our survival in the PL appears.

When it gets to the stage where it's clear the move is only going to happen if the player kicks off/downs tools, I'd rather they didn't come. If they do it at one club they will do it at another. The fact that he seemed to be open to it, but remained professional (same with Carlos) actually put him up higher in my estimation.

This makes sense. Combined with the lads who arrived in Jan that would be around a 10 player turnaround in the space of 6 months. Which under normal circumstances would be crazy, but given the ownership seemingly want to immediately transition from battling relegation to getting into the top half in the space of a season it would be what's needed.

This makes me nervous. I feel like, for as great as our current run has been, in terms of movement up table its only be worth a couple places. Saturday is a chance for that to change. If other results go our way (Leeds losing both their games & Everton losing) a win on Saturday could see us as high as 14th. Just feel like we're overdue a lacklustre performance, and it's going to end up coming in a match where a positive result could actually see us put some daylight between ourselves and the relegation zone.

Love when you go see a band and they play all their big hits from back in the day. Imagine his encore will be trying to somehow pin WBA's issues on 'the mighty Rafa'.

Hope no one was looking forward to the Brentford/Toon match too much. It's been replaced by a 3pm showing of The Mike Dean Experience.