Keegans Export

Nothing soothes the mind after a crushing derby defeat than a new Chief Strategy Officer

I agree to an extent. If we lost both derbies but finished 5th I'd be perfectly happy at the end of the season. The opposite if we won both and finished 17th. If we go on a run between now and the end of the season and finish 8th, I'd say this season has been below par but not a disaster. If we end up 11th/12th I'd say that's poor. The individual derby results won't massively shift my opinion on that. However, part of the issue is that these games do matter to a huge percentage of the fanbase and if you can't get a performance out of the players two derby games in a row, questions are going to be asked about your ability to organise and motivate them.

Right in front of him too - it's not as if he snuck in and caught him off-guard, the entire phase of play happened directly in his eyeline, about 3 yards away

I'm not going to let the emotion of the day push me into "Howe Out" but I'd be having a very frank conversation with him ahead of the summer. Does he concede control over transfers? Tell the decision makers what he needs, let them do the work. Will he bring new, fresh and potentially dissenting voices into his coaching staff? Time on the training ground has obviously been limited but most of the time we don't look like we've been coached at all. What is the plan for if/when we are back in Europe? If we rely on week-long gaps between fixtures to get anything other than crap performances we're going to keep taking one step forward and two steps back. How does he want the team to play? What's the back up plan if plan A isn't working? If there isn't an absolutely clear, well-thought-out and logical response to the above then I'd say he's probably taken us as far as he can (which, in the grand scheme of things, is quite far). One final point - if the only reposte is "who would you replace him with?" then don't bother replying. He's just been tactically out-played by a bloke I'd never heard of until 18 months ago. Mental to suggest there isn't an alternative out there.

Didn't react to the first shot, not ideal. But he didn't even move after Ramsdale made the save. Absolutely appalling stuff imo.

Tonali is there but doesn't seem to be in training gear and doesn't have a bag like everyone else

That'll do me, can't wait to see it 🫡

Sure it will be fantastic as always. No spoilers obviously, but it's not...sunderland related is it?

He absolutely needs to bring in at least one coach. Not a "set piece coach" or some sort of analyst, someone from outside of his circle who can work with the first team day in, day out. He doesn't even need to bin any of his current group, just add to it.

Don't think he ever should have been put in that position in fairness. Can't deny he did a poor job as essentially the DOF but that isn't (or shouldn't be) his responsibility.

Exactly, three English teams have lost by six, four and five. We've hardly been the outlier in what has been a shocking R16 for English teams in general.

So, is this guy an idiot? A bullshitter? Or a miracle worker? Because I've seen nothing from the club that can't primarily be attributed to Eddie Howe that suggests we have a hope in hell of this happening.

That's my understanding. It's only football related costs that count towards SCR so things like loan interest and salaries of non-football staff (eg commercial team) are no longer included in the calculations.

I don't think the Barca vs Derby discussion is a particularly difficult one. Best case scenario, we win the derby. Brilliant obviously, but I've seen us beat them home and away on numerous occasions. Winning away at Barcelona and getting a Champions League QF? That's something no Newcastle fan in history has experienced.

I don't think it's up to UEFA is it? They just dish out the places and the relevant leagues decide how to distribute them. If you had the top 5 qualify as normal, then one of them wins the FA Cup the 2nd Europa League qualifying spot goes to the league - so 6th and 7th. If Villa won the Europa and finished 6th it would go down to 7th and 8th.

I don't believe for one second that the players (bar one or two maybe) would think like that. The fans on the other hand, they'd celebrate a goal against more than a goal for.

Obviously that huddle thing shows how little respect the players have for the ref, although that's been obvious for ages and is not exclusive to Chelsea or this particular referee. What's more surprising is how little respect the referee has for himself. Just standing there like an absolute gimp. Can you imagine if they tried that on with Collina 😬

He'd better get the support he needs from Wilson, Hopkinson etc this summer. Be decisive, be smart. Put together a squad he can work with. Most importantly, allow him to have some semblance of a break and recharge the batteries.

Considering so much has happened in those 10 years, it seems notable that we've only had three permanent managers in that time.

(4-2-3-1) Given; Trippier, Woodgate, Burn, Hall; Cabaye, Bruno; HBA, Beardsley, Ginola; Shearer As good as that team is, thinking about some of the names I've left out makes me feel very fortunate to have seen so many brilliant and/or entertaining players over the years.

Must have been very frustrating. Plan was spot on but he can't play the final ball or apply the finish himself. Even if one of those marginal offside runs had been timed a little better we could have been 2-0 up.

It's only significantly higher in the Champions League. Chelsea earned about £15m from winning the Conference League for example. It basically punishes almost making it.

Born in New Zealand. Wellington has fallen marra

I assumed/hoped that Hopkinson was that guy

This is a bit of a ramble but I went to see the NY Giants play back in 2013. Got chatting to the bloke next to me - proper New Yorker, generational Giants fan. He was telling me how he'd always wanted to bring his (now teenage) sons to the games but that their generation tend to follow "the NFL" and specific players (which he linked to them all playing Fantasy Football). Anyway, at the time I thought it sounded awful but thankfully very American. Then the "Can I have your shirt?" signs started to appear elsewhere and I thought "Well, that'd never happen up here..." Now I see that garbage and I want to go back to NY, find that man and sob uncontrollably on his shoulder, apologising for not showing the level of empathy the situation deserved...