sushimonster85

Without Abramovic they would have slowly slid down the table, they scraped CL in the final season before his arrival, and had never really challenged for the title. Unlike Spurs they can't really expand their ground, and with Man U never going broke, and the arrival of Man City they'd likely be knocking around mid-table these days.

Agree, but by all accounts he is going to have his pick of big teams coming in for him. And at his age (25) he will want CL football either now, or next season, he won't want to wait 3/4 years for it.

Yeah, hopefully that was the case. If we can get him in the £30-£40m range he is a fantastic signing.

Schick would be a very good signing. Though I'm sure there was a £50m+ figure on him in Jan. He isn't worth that.

At least it's not quite as cringe as whatever the fuck John Terry was peddling.

Whilst I do agree Dubravka would likely be fine for another season, the main reason Howe will likely be looking for a new number 1 isn't anything to do with his shot-stopping ability. He want's a goalkeeper who is comfortable playing it out/can find a mid-range pass. At the moment we have to rely on the other side not implementing a high press so Dubravka can get it out to Schar or Burn.

People may think I'm crazy, but I would far rather take Werner than Lukaku. That being said, I don't think we will (or even should) be in for either.

Honestly feel like Rashford would come on leaps and bounds under Howe and his coaching team.

I feel like he pulls of saves that look fantastic because generally England play weaker opponents who are far more prone to attempt a pot shot from distance. Which then can lead to those saves that look amazing for the camera.

Absolutely this. Feel like I am going a bit crazy when I listen to football podcasts wonder about the difference in Pickford for England v Pickford for Everton. Like, it's almost like having better defenders in front of him helps or something......

Bruno, Kamara, and Joe would be a very strong midfield 3. I don't actually think Paqueta would fit into the 3 as we currently play. That being said I still feel this 4-3-3 formation is more of and ends to a means, and we may end up playing more of a 4-2-3-1 once Howe has had another transfer window and a full pre-season to work with the team.

Yes, I'm sure the likes of Souness and Keane will be right on him. Because having someone manager your social media, or dyeing your hair a funny colour is clearly directly tied to your performance in training/on the pitch....

I was flicking between the West Ham/Frankfurt and Leicester/Roma matches with interest last night. Watching the CL semi's is fun, but the Europa/Conference semis were interesting to watch as realistically we could pull pretty close to West Ham & Leicester with a good Summer window. Teams like City, Liverpool and Madrid are long-term aims that are likely still 5+ seasons away.

Thanks! Only joined the forum in the past few months (only used r/NUFC before that), going to have a read through this afternoon while it's dead at work.

The media bandwagoning for both Gerrard and Lampard is so dumb. Just because they were both good, high profile players doesn't give them a divine right to be good coaches. They've both been given jobs (Lampard especially) way beyond their ability based purely on their name value. Imagine some average League 2 level midfielder retires, then the first job they're given is a Championship team aiming for promotion. They fail to achieve that goal, and so immediately get given the Chelsea job. They fail there as well, and proceed to be linked with every PL vacancy going, before it's decided they're the ones to save a team from relegation. That team goes on to actually get worse and drop further down the league, only for the media to blame the bloke that was there previously and absolve this unknown former League 2 midfielder of any blame at all. That sounds mental, yet replace 'former league 2 midfielder' with 'Frank Lampard' and its exactly what it playing out.

Got a funny feeling he may make the bench for the City and Arsenal games, then Burnley he may get the start. Seems pointless risking him, but I also think it would be good for him to get him at least some action before he goes off for another long break at the end of the season.

So many of the players have improved so much under Howe that I even look at @Johnny 11's and find myself thinking 'bet they would actually do alright.'

Keep going, I'm close!

The sheer amount of time off and lack of preparation in general seemed absolutely scandalous.

That Athletic piece is fantastic. We really did luck out getting knocked back by Emery. No offence to him, seems like him turning us down was one of those decisions that's worked out for everyone. But Howe just seems perfect, both for what we needed at the time, and going forward.

In the Championship this will absolutely be the case, especially given the length of time they have been down in League One. I don't think survival, or even comfortable mid-table, is out of the question, but they won't be back in the PL in a couple of seasons.

I'd say they're 11th - 9th quality. They're over-performing now, but lets not kid ourselves that this was the worst squad of players in the league before the takeover. Bruce had them chronically under-performing/wasn't picking the best players. Even without any Summer investment, a Howe coached 11 of: Dub Trippier Schar Burn Targett (ok, let me have him for this purpose) Joelinton Bruno Willock Max Wilson Fraser would have a good shout at top ten.

Think the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle. The club are always going to try and play down the speed of the rebuild, or else transfer fees (and fan expectations) get more inflated than they already are for us. But to players we want to attract we are likely presenting what we hope to be the best case scenario. I imagine the likes of Shelvey, Fraser, Schar, Wilson, Wood etc to all be in the squad next season, and potentially the season after. The goal will be getting to the stage where they're the squad players, rather than starting every week.

Potentially. Though according to an Athletic podcast from a couple months back he is one of those players who has an obsession with playing in Spain.

Anyone else utterly overjoyed that, unlike any other time we have somehow ended up with a superstar on our hands, we can feel pretty safe worshiping Bruno like the god he is. Now we're one of the richest teams in the world its nice to know that we can: A) Promise to do everything we can to match even his loftiest ambition. B) Not have to worry about Ashley selling him as soon as he gets a bid that gives him a little profit on the initial transfer. Was always wary fully committing to a player when they started doing really well for us, as it usually meant it was only a matter of time till he was off. I can honestly see Bruno being Newcastle captain one day.