WillDanceForChocolate

I try to be even handed and not wear cherry-tinted specs all the time when talking about one of our matches but I'll be honest, I'm going to have to come back in a day or two to give our view things after what took place in injury time. I'm seething. Actually, way beyond that. Two absolute travesty of decisions. And anyone that tries to defend them, take off your equivalent of those specs...

Yes please. It might even get one or two of our crowd worked up enough to take the Werthers Original out of their mouth so they can mumble something mildly impolite at him.

Another interesting one. Given the Howe connection, I have a suspicion there was some massaging of the fixture computer results to make this our first home match of the season since it's the game where we'll be celebrating 125 years since we were founded. The precursor to the club is even older but that's the official date for this version. I doubt it will change anything that happens on the pitch but for those who are travelling, there might be a few extra things going on given our American owner's love of the razzle-dazzle. I wouldn't read too much into our first match since we fielded an odd line up due to illness in the camp and no fit or available senior striker. I suspect we'll be a bit more orthodox on Sunday. If we do play like we did against Forest you'll obliterate us but I think and hope we'll be a very different proposition. I don't have any insight on Evanilson apart from his signing feeling about as out there as a Brazilian international striker playing in the English leagues in the 1980s before the Sky money arrived. Not impossible, just highly unlikely. Incidentally, why did you sell Mirandinha? His goal record for you looks alright according to the stats. If you're going to target something then just aim to bang in loads of crosses. Our keeper looked very shaky on them most of last season and that continued on Saturday. There's some deal in the works for us to get Mamardashvili on loan but that may come to nothing since we're only the third party in a deal between Liverpool and Valencia. How's the feeling about Howe these days? And do you think there is any truth in the rumours linking him with the England job? Got to be honest, if he did take the job it would be a huge source of pride given his connections to my club. I think I read something about him having less allies in the board room because Staveley and someone else had left. Media nonsense or something in that? Let's hope for a good match either way. Both teams like to attack so it should be entertaining at the very least. If it now turns out to be a boring 0-0 you can blame me.

Small stadium that comes in close to the pitch but not a small pitch. The pitch dimensions are 105 x 68m, exactly the same as most other Premier League stadiums including yours.

Yes, 20% on the profit. After all the addons were activated Solanke's final cost was about £24m so Liverpool will get about £8m.

No matter how many times it gets said, it still isn't true. Just because other clubs report a pretendance based on tickets sold and we report on an attendance of... people that actually attended (crazy idea, I know) that doesn't mean tickets were available. Pretty much hasn't been a home match ticket that has gone unsold for over a decade now. There are plenty of people who want to go but are locked out due to the points system. Hence the plans for a new stadium. If they weren't selling out the old one, why on earth would they be building a bigger new one?

Make that +++ rather than just +. There's no way we'd sell him in January for anything less than something ridiculous. You're talking £80m at least plus incentives on top. And no, I'm not saying that's what he's worth or what someone would pay. I'm saying that's what it would take to make the owner consider cashing in. 1. He's absolutely integral to our play. Everything revolves around the workrate he has up front but we have on backup option. Moore is the only other specialist striker on the books and he's a completely different type of striker that doesn't fit the system the manager wants to play. In fact, there seems a very high probability Moore is off to a Championship club this window. If we'd sold Solanke, we'd face going into the second half of the season with a completely new strike force, all recruited in January, which may not fire. If anything, this window will be about shipping Moore out and bringing in an alternate to Solanke. Selling Solanke now would hobble the team. 2. Finding suitable options that are also well priced in the January window isn't easy. 3. Solanke has only recently signed a contract extension so there's no pressure on us to cash in. If he carries his form on and someone tries in the summer that might be a different story but it would take the kind of money nobody is going to pay to get our attention in this window. That said, I'd imagine it's simply a lazy media link because of the Eddie connection.

That's a horrendous run you've been on. All I'll say is what I've said before which is Howe can be a streaky manager at times. His teams seem to put together these runs of terrible results when nothing goes right but then it suddenly clicks and they rattle off ten wins in eleven, or something similar. If the owners have patience, I think you'll see something similar and, with no European football to worry about, I expect a charge toward the Champions League places. Whether you reach them or not I couldn't say for certain, but I'd be surprised if you didn't. On the Howe front, once this period is over he needs to take control of this situation and solve it. You can afford to have these on and off runs when you're building a club up but pretty soon the expectation will be titles for you and this will be his downfall if he can't finally crack it. I hope he can. It is a strange phenomenon though. For those that missed it last season: https://newcastle-online.org/topic/36984-eddie-howe/page/898/#comment-7478998 It's all going to work out!

66 games it took for the penalty to finally arrive. Not sure how many touches on the box it is since we've played several more matches since it was generated, but the chart still doesn't change as we'd had zero when it was put together. If you like a flutter, stick a quid on us getting a penalty in our next few matches. I think now the dam has burst, there will be a flood of them.

Because we don't get penalties. It's in the official Premier League handbook. 63 matches since our last penalty now. This was before the Palace and Man Utd victories, and note that even if we get a penalty that graph doesn't change as it the moment we still haven't had one:

Enjoying the ride? I told you Howe wasn't your average manager, not only in ability but also in how he conducts himself. Hope you're having fun with him in charge.

It wasn't. We were missing the three players who would be the first choice to play the three centre midfield positions when everyone is fit. In fact, I thought you were going to tear through us when I saw who he had gone with but it worked for today. You did look knackered though. Most definitely. The international break has come at a good time for you.

I'll take it. Best performance of the season from us but admittedly against a team who appeared to be running on empty. I wouldn't worry on your front, Eddie will get it right in the end. He's one of those annoying lifelong learners who keep improving themselves when they experience new things. The kind of person that makes me look bad in my job because I'm a lazy sod. As long as your ownership stay firmly behind him then the curve should continue upwards over time. We were pretty desperate for the points so thanks for that. For what it's worth, we started the season with ten or eleven injuries so I feel your pain. And the depths of your squad are definitely superior to the depths of ours. Now we have most, but not all, of those players back hopefully today can act as a launchpad as we go into some easier fixtures.

Lots of interesting thoughts, seems like he isn't that rated by many on here. For what it's worth, he'd only be picking up a pay packet with us as well. He won't be anywhere near challenging Neto for the number one spot, he made such an impact last season after displacing Travers that he finished the season as captain. He'll be at best backup and may be even third choice which is why the £5m fee made no sense. If it's about £1m then maybe, since Travers looks set to move on to the Championship. I'm hoping he goes on loan for a year rather than a permanent deal, which would have this making more sense. In 12 months Rudolph is out of contract so Travers would return as our number two and Darlow then be number three.

Genuinely no clue. When I see Gerrard on the bookie list I want to cry. Hopefully it's Potter or maybe Knutsen.