TheBrownBottle

I bet Burn will get pelters but that was half fucking arsed by Bruno

Yep. He’s a hate sponge. Bruno and Longstaff have been embarrassing thus far

The midfield is really poor which is the heart of the problem. Hopefully we win today, but we’ll lose more games than we win every time that midfield starts

Christ is Bruno on drugs?

Ridiculous booking

Murphy needs to bury that

More than likely

Let’s get past this difficult tie and hope that somehow the cup gods finally give us an easy home tie in the next round. I feel like we could build some momentum with a cup run

That’s an unimpressive and half-witted defence of Barton’s position right there.

That doesn’t make for evidence that he can do it at the top level. He might, but it’s hardly nailed-on.

I don’t think he ever looks all that great in midfield. I really like him on the left wing, but he’s not effective enough to consider him a top player.

We don’t have that luxury, as you’ve said. The club needs to sell saleable assets - it’s the ‘Almiron or Bruno’ question. You either sell the players who aren’t going to take you to another level for what you can get, or you sell the ones who can but bring in even more money.

Honestly, there are some who I suspect wouldn’t sell anyone other than Hendrick and Hayden. The squad needs significant refreshing - that will involve selling players. Footballers are surely aware of the nomadic career that most will have - I bet Almiron is, given that he hasn’t spent his career in Paraguay. Not sure when a ‘players happiness’ came into whether or not a club should look to sell.

Bruno’s new deal was significantly more than £120k pw. It’s more like £180k pw. Joelinton - if the rumours are true - is looking for a salary in line with that. The club would be mad to pay him anything like it. The truth is that we would probably just about get our money back if Joelinton was sold - but that’s more about the insane original fee than the lad’s recent performances. We paid a centre forward’s transfer fee. He’s not a player I would want to push out the door, but if we’re paying top whack then I’d want top whack footballers in return.

Water carriers seem to have exorbitant fees attached to them at this point. Ten-a-penny midfielders are now £30m midfielders.

I can still remember when Ferguson retired from Man Utd in 2002 having announced that far earlier than necessary

Breaking the rules of the AABBA rhyming scheme of a limerick there. But you don’t live by "The Rules" I know, and if there's one person who has influenced you in that way of thinking, someone who is a maverick, someone who does 'that' to the system then it's Ian Botham.

If it was the sports news that’s fair enough for me. If it was BBC News 24 that’s a piss take

It does feel like with the current owners apparent inaction is ‘part of the plan / process’, with absolutely no evidence to support that it is

The coverage seems reasonable to me. Even before 24-hour sports news it was national news when KK and BR left Newcastle. This bloke won everything it’s possible to win as Liverpool manager, even if he is a tosser

I stand corrected. He’s likely off on Rosetta Stone Arabic already

It’s more than we’re bringing in, even if the structure is opaque. No reason that we couldn’t shove Brum’s deal down the PL’s throat.

He's managed to live in English-speaking countries for a decade without bothering to learn the lingo. I’m sure he’d also not bother to learn Arabic

Totally understand if the bloke doesn’t want to move to KSA, who would? Less sympathetic to the ‘he’s settled on Tyneside’ patter. He’s a professional footballer, moving around is what happens. It’s one of the downsides to the considerable upsides of that life. Sitting on a contract if a club has shown it wants you out isn’t usually viewed as a positive by football supporters, either. I don’t think we owe the lad.

We literally can’t win PL games with our current midfield. They’ve played four, lost four, with Villa away next. Not seeing where the embarrassment factor comes in. Their turnover is twice ours - we’re not their competitor.