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Great turnaround, deserved win. Not a great first half but thought Howe reacted very well, changes clearly worked and kept them motivated when heads could have easily dropped.

I hate to see it but let's be honest, if Longstaff had gone down writhing in pain like he'd just had his lower leg amputated, VAR is taking another look at that.

Makes sense. If they're applying an element of "fair market value" then some clubs will get better rates of interest than others.

I'd like to think I'd have more self awareness than that. I mean, look at our first few games this season. The majority on here I'd say were happy with where we were but that we'd had some good fortune and the performances hadn't really been at the level we'd need to consistently keep picking up results.

I hadn't been paying attention to who they were playing and where their opponents were in the table but you're right, by my count it's 10 out of 14

I just want to be able to keep doing what we've been doing (pre-Jan 2024). We have ambitions to qualify for the Champions League. Any one of the signings we made could have been made by the clubs we're competing with for those places. Arsenal could have bought Bruno, they were actively sniffing around him. Isak had come off a poor season and was seen a risk at £60m+, Man Utd or Chelsea could have taken that risk. If Liverpool had made a move for Gordon at the same time we had, every chance he ends up there. I don't want to blow these clubs out of the water with our spending power, I want to be able to buy players we rate and have those clubs wishing they'd signed them 12-18 months ago when we brought them in for half the amount it would cost them now.

It's not just the logistics, it's the money. If we use 40k as the number that's 12k less to sell to Members game-to-game. Even at £40 per ticket that's just shy of £500k every home game.

It's quite obviously a throwback to the much-loved 1885/86 East End FC shirt, worn by such luminaries as William Muir. Honestly, call yourselves Newcastle fans...

If it's two teams we hope to be competing with, I always hope for the draw, let them both drop points

The difference between the two is quite striking. When we lose, whether you agree with what he says or not, you can tell Eddie is trying to work out what went wrong, what we could do better etc. Arteta just complains, makes back-handed compliments, reels off excuses and looks like he's about to cry.

Some great choices today - pace of Livramento to keep Martinelli in check, Longstaff putting a shift in, Willock offering support to Isak.

Would have preferred Tonali in there obviously, can only assume he's not 100% because we've got over a week before the next game. Burn presumably in there to counter the set-piece threat but thought Kelly had done enough to get the nod. Like Willock/Joelinton on the left though.

I'm assuming he'd be on mega money at PSG therefore out of reach even at £45m

Unless we end up in the Champions League places, I'm 95% sure we'll be selling one or more "purples" this coming summer regardless of our PSR position. The issue is that if we have to sell before the PSR deadline, we're putting ourselves in a weaker negotiating position.

Let's hope he will reach the heights of Haris Vuckic, Fabio Zamblera and Wesley Ngo Baheng. We can but dream.

In isolation, Mbeumo = yes please. The problem is that if a "big money signing" means we're going to have to shift someone before 30th June again we're leaving ourselves open to having the piss taken out of us. I've made peace with the fact that at least one of the big guns is going to have to be moved on so we can refresh the squad ahead of 2025/26, but I at least want to be able to sell on our terms, rather than accepting a miserly bid ahead of an artificial (PSR) deadline. This is where a Sporting Director needs to take the lead a bit. Of course Howe is going to want tried and tested, proven players because his job is on the line. I imagine the mindset is "Let's finish as high as we can this season and we'll work out what to do in the summer if/when we get there", basically exactly what happened leading up to 30th June this year.

He should check up on them every so often. The door might have a sign saying "Do not disturb, set piece analysis in progress" but they're actually just playing poker or something.

So they're going to be looking at 20% of $930bn rather than 30%? That's still $185bn, so enough to build 115 Mercedez-Benz Stadiums and still have a billion or so left over... Football always sounds like an expensive business with tens of millions being flung around, but on a global scale it really isn't.

Might as well wear it when he's sat on the bench. Snuggle up with a nice mug of coffee and a Sudoku.

An interesting first test of the "best in class" criteria.

Hasn't Southgate said he wants a year off? They'll know they have to get this one right, even if that means paying the money for someone in work. My guess is Thomas Frank or some promising young coach from the Bundesliga.

Agreed. If you look at the £420m we've spent since the takeover, could that have been used better, to give us a more flexible, balanced squad?

That's true but whatever we think as fans, managers are going to be judged on results. Let's say you're right, Gordon puts that penalty at Everton away and Isak squares it today so we're 8th on 16 points. That's fine, but we still haven't played well have we? We've had games where we've had good spells certainly but it's not anything close to 22/23 in terms of defensive solidity, creating chances, having a clear identity. I said it a lot towards the end of last season but Howe still has loads of time to change the narrative. He did it (mostly) last season, finishing just outside of European qualification and just behind teams you'd expect us to be around. However, if we end up behind the likes of Forest, Fulham, Bournemouth after 20 games or so, questions are going to be asked by the decision makers.

Numerous other PL clubs would agree, judging by how desperate they were to plug that "loophole" Obviously it didn't pass in the end but there was clearly concern amongst some of our rivals.