TheBrownBottle

Spurs always looked like his likely destination for me. He feels like a Spurs player. We’ll see of course.

Szoboszlai would be my preference - can’t quite believe we’re in for a player like that. Could easily see him being one of the best attacking midfielders on the planet in a couple of years. Maddison would be a good signing - Szoboszlai an incredible for me.

Not mutually exclusive tbf

He’s an excellent footballer - if the lad continues to develop he’ll be an England squad player at a minimum by the end of next season.

Yeah, I’ve wrote on here before I reckon £100-120m is likely and £150m if the right players are available. £75m seems to be clear bullshitting.

That doesn’t mean throwing loads and loads of money at it. Man City failed at the beginning because they signed ‘name’ mercenaries- and we’re starting from a lower base. Buying a load of expensive players right now is more likely to fail than succeed. Sensible and proportionate squad building is the way forward. And that’s precisely what they’re doing, in fairness. While I think the £75m budget stuff is gamesmanship, the real budget isn’t likely to be too much more due to FFP

100% The only way around some fairly straightforward mathematics is to do what Chelsea have done and offer ridiculously long contracts to players to amortise the fees over a long period. Our owners aren’t that stupid. The CL money bonanza also isn’t quite the bonanza many are expecting, if the owners have made the sensible calculation that we might go out in the group stage. Our income is still far lower than the Sky Six. It’ll take a few years to justify the ramping up of sponsorship money. Also - and this is one quite a few don’t seem to want to accept - the PIF having vast cash reserves doesn’t necessarily mean that they fancy pouring a chunk of it into NUFC for shits and giggles. I think they see this as an investment - and investments need returns.

Europe’s best team win it - but they made hard work of that. Doubt they give a shite now though

Harold Rivers was one of their first managers, and he was from Walbottle. There ends my knowledge of any Newcastle-St Etienne connection.

Tottenham Holsten fan

I’ll stick my hand up and say the only football tops I ever had as a kid were NUFC or England. There was a lad who had a pair of Spurs socks who we took the mickey out of. Mind you, when I went to high school there was loads of lads from other slightly more affluent areas (in Newcastle west end terms anyway) who seemed to support every team and have every strip going. Lost on me tbh

Lee Clark moved from Newcastle to Sunderland. It’s meaningless mate

I’d much rather sell towards the end of the window, when we know what we have

Hope going full Edwards with the £70m budget. I still think it’ll be just over £100m. I would say that he’s part of the club’s tactical game when it comes to pretending we have less to spend - but he’s the one who broke the Fraser story before a cup final, so just like the rest he’s not acting in the club’s interests. The local press are dumber than a bag of hammers - so they’ll sell whatever line comes out of the club.

I agree re the unnecessary downgrading of competitions, but it’s a bit harsh on Ujpest tbf. They knocked out Don Revie’s Leeds in the semi (the same Leeds side which won the English league title that season) and Revie described them as the best team in Europe. On winning the Fairs Cup NUFC had to knock out some big sides - including Rangers (at a time when Rangers and Celtic were the equal of any English side) and Feyenoord - who won the European Cup the year after.

And you know which 'philosopher' said that? Allan Saint-Maximin. And people say he's just a one-trick pony with no end product.

Silvera is fun to watch tbf - he tore Wanderers back line apart when I watched him play against them in Parramatta late last year. CCM were fun to watch generally last season.

I remember these 'Ask A Silly Question' columns. From memory, the magazine 'Total Football' used to ask those daft questions. It was like FourFourTwo with sensibility of Loaded. Yes, I used to buy it. We didn't have t'internet or VDs to keep us entertained back then. My mind isn't what it was, though. It might have actually been FourFourTwo. Or Loaded. Or FHM. But I definitely remember them. We didn't have t'internet. Edit: it's from the Grauniad. FFS.

Keegan never met a bright blue / green / red suit jacket that he wouldn't wear Though at least his taste was better than Venison's

My ST was in the 'A' Paddock in '94-95 - the paddock closed that summer and I was moved to the Leazes. I still miss proper standing at matches

NB The tweet he makes before the rant is from Luke Edwards linking us to Maddison. edit: and a few tweets down he comments about how he ‘likes’ the approach outlined by a different Edwards tweet re targets. Some of our lot are frighteningly fucking stupid.

I’m not sure which is stupider; believing everything that Edwards writes, or thinking that NUFC wouldn’t have a potential transfer target list going comfortably into double-figures. It’s not the ‘gotcha’ the Twitter gadgie thinks it is

He got done well and truly by your lads last week mind Coastie!

Both clubs have won European trophies before last night tbf

Well, for most clubs anyway