TheBrownBottle

He sells it to your dad tho but

Woodgate is not the ASM of centre halves. There is a reason Woodgate joined Real Madrid from us. Real Madrid were notable in their silence in bidding for ASM

Also, Craig Hope is a trouble making cunt. I hate local hacks who try to create drama so that they’ve got something to print, then claim that they’re supporters of the club.

Anyone shitting on him needs a heed wobble. But that’s not the same as saying he doesn’t walk into the Real Madrid team.

Don’t remember that. I do remember him being the most technically sublime centre half I’ve ever seen in B&W, though.

Terry wouldn’t be close to that for me.

My worry is that those with unrealistic expectations are more likely to become more critical than those who aren’t. Apologies, didn’t mean it as a personal insult

Depends on UEFA coefficients. If English clubs have a similar season to last year, then yes.

Oof. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment mate. Try not to get too radged up at the players / management if it doesn’t happen.

My abiding memory of Steve Bruce didn’t come from his time managing us. It came from watching the VHS back the day after we beat Man Utd 5-0 (I used to tape the games back then, and watch them hungover the next morning. When it was still a bit exciting to be able to go to the match and watch it all over again on telly the day after). Bruce had left Man Utd earlier that year - but you wouldn’t think that the ‘lifelong Newcastle fan’ had left. The cunt was whining on about the score line, and how Man Utd should have had a pelanty, and how that would have changed the game entirely. My dad still worked with Bruce’s dad at Parsons, and I understand Bruce snr was given a ribbing at work for it that week (Bruce snr really was a massive NUFC supporter). The whole ‘I’m a Geordie and it’s my club’ patter? Sorry Steve - no sale.

Yep and yep. Both great points for me.

Progress = league position?

Oof - that’s a big call I think they’re up there tbh. Certainly in my lifetime.

I’m fully aware of who they are and how much they’re worth. But that can’t be brought to bear due to the financial constraints placed upon the club. Which means that, for now, our spend will be well behind the clubs who were around us last season. And generally speaking, wages + net transfer spend correlates to league positions. I still think top 8 and a cup run - if we exceed that, I’ll be delighted, just as I was last season. If your expectations are 4th or above, then you’re very likely to end up disappointed.

True, though the fact that Shearer is 5th in the all time rankings and Kane is below Tony Cottee tells its own story. The all time records are the only ones which really count - the PL breakaway didn’t reinvent football in 1992. I don’t like over a century of history being rejected because Sky didn’t have the broadcast rights. And on that list, Shearer is second to only Jimmy Greaves post-war - and Greaves might well be the greatest English centre forward of all time in any case, record or not.

They didn’t bother with actually noting assists until the C21st, though I imagine someone will have gone back and counted them. I still think they’re basically worthless stats.

Totally understand being disappointed he’s leaving - though I would say that he’s had the benefit of a manager with tactics & good coaching and better players around him in the last 18 months. Also notable that he praised Bruce when he left NUFC, but hasn’t exactly been as effusive re Howe.

Anyone who thought that is being daft and getting their bubbles popped. Far too much time cheating on Champ Man managing a second club to buy their first club’s players for inflated fees. The real world doesn’t work like that. It is the same for those who’ve spent the last 18 months pretending that FFP isn’t a thing, really. We’re nearly two years into the ownership and it is abundantly clear what the strategy is - a slow build while staying 100% within the rules. Commercial deals gradually increasing, facilities improved, buying players with significant potential resale value to maximise revenues. They’re not going potentially bring scrutiny and criticism by selling a player to another of their clubs for an inflated fee. ASM isn’t going to attract more than what he’s being sold for - and doesn’t appear to have any other suitors at this price, which suggests the fee being paid is inflated. It’s basically what Mike Ashley claimed to be doing in 2008-ish, only competently done and with actual investment to nurture the growth. What it clearly isn’t is a vanity project nor a opportunity for wasting huge sums of cash. PIF is doing that in KSA with the Saudi league, for political reasons.

Cheers - I'll root around and see if I can find it

Yeah, I quite like watching that turn & step away from the opposition - he deliberately times it to either draw a foul or take an opposition player out of play. When he does get caught, it usually results in a foul - I can only recollect a handful of times when he was caught last season, and he must do that a dozen times per game. His shooting boots definitely disappeared just before Xmas, mind.

'Lewk Ur Nyen'

Bruno is likely priced out of a transfer to any European club that would want him, and I can't see us selling to a PL rival for under 100m. A transfer at this juncture simply isn't on the cards. And he doesn't strike me as the sulking type - Ginola hoyed the pet lip on when denied a move to Barca in '96. Bruno is a good lad - I can't picture him causing unrest. That doesn't mean of course that he'd never leave - but that is something which isn't happening this year.

Isak for me, comfortably. I could picture Real signing that lad in a couple of years.

Great, and I'd be over the moon if that is the outcome. Bookies odds just reflect where the money is being put, though. It isn't a probablised outcome of the event.

Shearer scored 39 PL goals after that age despite playing for an average side and having several career-threatening injuries in his past. If Kane signs with a good side at 33 I’d stake my house on him getting to that figure.