TheBrownBottle

My dad always said Irving Nattrass was a cracking RB, and Alan Kennedy must be right up there in terms of our LBs, so makes sense to me tbh. Before my time, though.

Good news at last in this space. He’s got quite a few important senior positions to fill, and needs to actually give his employer a regular kick to wake them up. Fingers crossed we now get some stability and competence upstairs.

Of course it is, I know that - but there's plenty who think that they're serious and defend them thinking that they're actually going to make us a super club. At the end of the day, they said it, they should be accountable for bullshitting the support - somehow Staveley and PIF seem to have a lower degree of accountability than any of their predecessors. NUFC has been ran by bullshit merchants for decades.

My opinion of this man has only went up over the summer - he was dealt a shite hand and handled it like an absolute master. I also reckon Howe wanted Isak fucked off - I don't see how Isak's attitude chimes with anything that we've seen so far in terms of Howe builds teams (not just players). The club needs to sort its shit out, get an actual board and executive in place, hire a competent DoF (not just the pal of the CEO) and let this man get on with the job he's best at.

Reminds me of Tim Lovejoy tbh - which is the perfect excuse to post a link to the greatest book review in the history of the medium: https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/no-love-no-joy/

And I know he's a moron

Not an option of course in a one-club city. I know a couple of lads from south of the water who go to Gateshead semi-regularly, and Gateshead in the fifth tier are the only club locally who have traditionally been anywhere near league status. I'm not from Gateshead though, I'm from Newcastle, so that was never an option as far as I'm concerned.

Shearer scored 100 PL goals for us after his 29th birthday. You're not exactly finished at that age. Wilson probably would have had another season or two in him if it wasn't for the fact that he's made out of cobwebs and stickyback plastic

Haha yep likewise, can't be arsed with forced sentiment - just put the ball in the net lad and the crowd will do the rest for you. I can understand a young local lad getting emotional about wearing the no.9, but it really isn't a requirement for anyone else.

I don’t think flouting the rules is a good idea, mind. Growing within them is what we should be trying to do, and if the rules change you work with the changes.

Not quite the case - Staveley telling the world ‘we will win (insert every trophy here) came after the LC Final loss in 2023, and Al Rumayyan’s ‘win will be no.1’ in the documentary is from the same season - well over a year after the FMV stuff was added to the rules. They made the claims, not us.

100% , we need to start producing players on a far more consistent basis.

Aye, that’s straightforward enough it just looked like we had priorities elsewhere

No, because we paid £40m to replace him, which few saw coming. You need eight ‘home grown’ players in the squad I.e. players who were registered in England for three years from the age of 15 to 21. Swapping Dubravka for Ramsdale added to this as well. Elanga would also count.

Yep - and while Isak is a cunt, I don’t doubt that he was brought in with promises of new training grounds and a new stadium as part of the ‘project’.

Which would be a first for PIF / KSA and completely against their MO when it comes to large scale civil or construction projects. Wishful thinking methinks.

They takes years to build - it doesn’t take this long to establish a scope and purchase a site.

Germany has absolutely been shit for about half a decade in fairness

Goalscorers don't cost the same as FB/CBs, even allowing for inflation

Isak was signed before the rule changes capping amortisation at five years - so only half his fee had been amortised as of 1st July, leaving c.31.5m to be amortised. The remaining book value is included in a single year's P&A for PSR, you don't keep rolling over the previous amortised fee - so allowing for the 10% sell-on fee, leaves about 81m before other distributed fees.

And for anyone questioning Wissa's age, BDB was of course also 29 when he signed for NUFC ...

I’m somewhere between thinking ‘daft cunt’ and *shrug*. A text or phone call could’ve relayed the same message without the public hoo-ha. Storm in a teacup stuff. I’m also not sure I’m comfortable with this being a thing which shows maturity - I’ve went beserk at goals, shouted abuse at referees went things haven’t went my team’s way, and even shout at the telly when the match is on these days given I’m no longer there in person. I’m going to guess pretty much everyone on here has done the same - and guess what lads; that’s not exactly a sign of solid emotional maturity when it comes to watching a game

In the cold light of day, I'm comfortable that he's gone and isn't a disruption / distraction from Howe's magnificent mags, and ultimately he scored the winning goal for us in a cup final for the first time in more than half a century - he's a mercenary cunt, but nothing will ever taint my memories of watching that game. I'll still get goosebumps when he scores whenever I rewatch it. It is the last I'll think of him until we come up against Liverpool.

We've only overpaid if the lad doesn't perform over the next two / three years - the shortened amortisation period means that a big chunk will be off the books in a CL season. If he continues to perform as he did for Brentford over the last two seasons - and given the chances we create - he'll bag 20+ goals a season. He can also hit the ground running to allow Voltemade time to settle in, a la Wilson & Isak in 22/23.

Yeah, agreed - it’s a shame Willock can’t be stitched back together because he was a very capable PL midfielder and his running offered something different from the other midfielders. Miley hasn’t kicked on for me (and I still think his appearances in 23/24 were more ‘he looks good for a kid from the reserves’ rather than ‘he looks like a natural at this level already). Perhaps he will this season; he’s certainly got the right coaching team in charge to improve him.