TheBrownBottle

(We are also really mediocre at ball retention in midfield despite the available personnel)

Jonathan Wilson would be bullied off N-O I reckon, and not only because he’s a Mackem

1980 Totonero had the Italian FA ban several Italian internationals, including their best player and centre forward, Paolo Rossi - the same Rossi who eventually came back and was top scorer in their 1982 WC win - which I suspect is a bit more important than being a midfielder in the shittest Azzuri team this side of WWII Plus, Fagioli was banned in the same betting scandal as Tonali. There’s no conspiracy against NUFC by the FIGC here

They do actually have previous of punishing betting, to the detriment of the national team https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Totonero

I get Anelka vibes from the lad tbh

They vote in the rules just like the other PL clingers-on, then they breach them merrily. Fuck them

Let it go lads, it has been three years

Yep. They’ve took the piss for years.

His record is more akin to Graham Taylor’s record prior to the England job tbf - and that’s absolutely not a backhanded compliment. It’s nowhere near a Clough or Ferguson conversation yet.

Burnley is who I wanted in there - they look like a bastard of a side to beat at that level

There’s plenty of clubs with much smaller catchment areas who’ve stayed up. A South Shields or Gateshead not surviving in the FL has at least made NUFC a bigger club, so I’m happy to take the positives.

Never felt luckier to be born and raised in Newcastle - if I’d been born south of the Tyne I’d have been playing County Durham Risk with our favourite friends 😁 Maybe we’re fortunate that South Shields / Gateshead AFC was booted out of the FL in 1960, because it would be a postcode %-based bloodbath

They we signing those players and spending that money to try and do this years ago - this hasn’t been a considered build. This is more like Perez’s ‘Galacticos’ horseshit at R Madrid a couple of decades ago

Without the away goals rule, 3-1 is a massive deficit to overturn.

It pours more money into their coffers and makes them more attractive than us - I’d happily see them out asap

Murphy has had a cracking season, but I’d still not be surprised if a bidding club offered half that figure - which will help keep him here. I can’t see anyone offering close to £30m.

The FA created that issue in fairness - they insisted that Man Utd go to Brazil for that daft World Club Cup shite, and then refused Man Utd permission to play a reserve team in the third round. Which of course they’d start doing regularly after the competition had been undermined so thoroughly by the holders not being in it. The FA wanted shot with shit for doing that - the Cup should’ve been absolutely sacrosanct; who gives a shite about hosting a World Cup next to damaging the FA Cup? Never made any sense to me.

He was mostly a midfielder for us in the PL after we went up - he didn’t start playing RB again until late in 95/96. We usually played him RW or CM in the PL in the two and a half seasons before that. The lad was incredibly versatile.

A couple of my favourites:

Which was a beaut - but if I remember right, he was playing CF that night (probably the most versatile player in our history)

In all honesty, I don’t remember that being the case - but at the same time, it would ring true in terms of the mess the club was in. Benitez was always a world class coach, but there is a reasonable argument that his transfer nous wasn’t always the greatest before coming to NUFC. He basically wasn’t backed once we went up, though.

I’d add Muto to the ‘not good’ list edit: apologies; I can see that Muto was discussed - though I would say that he was Benitez’s signing.

He’s our David May

Still feels like the oddest signing we’ve made under Howe (we know that the Greek bloke was a bit of PSR chicanery). Hope the lad kicks on, but he just looks miles away to me. His stats look worse than they are due to the limited mins (31 PL appearances, 0 goals - but he’s only played the equivalent of ten games). But if anyone can turn a big, strong centre forward who doesn’t look likely to find the net into a much better player in another role, it’s Howe. Ask Joelinton.

I’d be astonished if they did - we’re unlikely to sell at a loss, so they’d likely need to cough up over £40m, and none of them actually need a right back (if anything they’re all well stocked there). Porro, Timber, Gray, White, Lewis, Gusto, Dalot, Mazrouai, James, Bradley, etc etc