TheBrownBottle

We’ve played the same style since he arrived tbf - it’s why we still struggle to break down any side likely to finish between 7-14th. I don’t have an issue with it tbf - we’ve been successful with it - but the last creative technical footballer we bought was Bruno four years ago. I don’t mean any of this as a criticism of Howe btw - Guardiola plays the same way he did a decade and a half ago. I like the way we tend to play under Howe.

You won’t get that under Howe tbf - similar players to fit the system will be bought next summer too.

Where are those coming from? Hall hasn’t played yet he’s over performing? Botman is performing well above his level?

I mean it is a little bit - they don’t sign or pick themselves

Agreed - and Joelinton has never looked great in MF for me tbh - but he’s excellent when he’s played LW, which he hasn’t for about a year and a half (since Willock became a permacrock)

He makes that horrible green away kit look good on him. Reminds me of something

He’s starting to make the received wisdom that ‘we improve players’ look hollow. He looks a worse player than the one we signed, and we weren’t signing the finished article. I’d flog him while Tuchel is daft enough to pick him for England.

The reaction would be different as they had zero history showing that things would change. Howe has that in bucketloads.

If we signed him to be Isak’s friend then that’s the daftest reason imaginable to spend £55m We clearly didn’t sign him for Isak, and I don’t see what would have been different with Isak playing

I feel a bit sorry for the lad - we’ve bought a counterattacking winger to solve a problem which didn’t exist. We struggle to break teams down, and Elanga isn’t the player to offer that.

We’ve still got to go to Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea etc

We look very midtable this season tbf.

Was it WKL?

The European Cup final isn’t for regular fans these days. It won’t get played in a small provincial city these days.

They are a big club tbf. Lee Dixon is a cunt.

BHA has spent 88% of its history outside of the top flight - it works for clubs like Brighton. Being in the top tier represents historical success and overachievement. BHA is a club that PSR is designed for - and why the top flight had become so ossified. If you were creating a closed-shop top flight they wouldn’t even be in the conversation - in fact, if you were creating a closed-shop PL2 they would struggle to make that list. They will be relegated at some point and return to their natural home in the third tier of English football - and be replaced by another historically small club with a similar model.

We don’t know that - if PIF had been able to spend, there is every chance he’d have been ejected in 2022.

Newcastle is far too small to host a CL final, and wouldn’t have the infrastructure to hold one. You’d need more than a hotel. We also don’t know what PIF are willing to spend on a stadium - and £2bn is an insane build price.

It isn’t inevitable tbf - big money & big talent transfers have flopped before. It doesn’t mean Isak isn’t quality; but sometimes a player is a bad fit or loses form / confidence and needs a move to shake it off. And of course sometimes that player never re-hits the previous heights (see Veron, Shevchenko, Torres etc etc).

Not sure there is, but i admire sticking to the correct spelling of Jorman

I for one am glad that Isak has Jon Dahl Tomasson coaching him on playing as a striker. I hope JDT is in the job for many years to come.

No, I remember perfectly well him half-arsing about vs the mackems

Five of the last six PL derbies vs the Mackems at SJP were on a Sunday. I don’t think Northumbria police are arsed about these games being played on Sundays.

He was the perfect manager for him - he didn’t ask him to do any work, and picked him every week when he was fit enough. Didn’t even blink when he looked completely uninterested against Sunderland.

There is zero chance Howe would sign a HBA, and less than zero chance he’d entertain him if he was already at the club. Unless his habit of buying wingers who graft their bollocks off (while lacking a bit of guile) for mega bucks is all a cunning subterfuge, and what he really is after is sublimely talented but lazy players half-arsing their way to a weekly pay cheque.