TheBrownBottle

Only game in town as in European football, or only game for English clubs? If NUFC broke away from the FA and UEFA to join this unsanctioned shit show them the club would be dead to me.

Got you - yeah, as Christ said above, it’s against PL rules now. You’d need to leave the English football pyramid to join.

Even if we were invited in, I’d walk from the club if we entered it. Bollocks to that. We’d need a new Newcastle club.

The PL was more than that - it was a breakaway league which was created simply so that the big boys wouldn’t spit their dummies out completely - they hated sharing their money with the rest of the football pyramid. You’re right, it’s not a closed shop. Same goes for the ‘Champions League’ - it’s fundamentally different from the old European Cup for the same reasons. Money knackered football decades ago.

I’m not in favour of the Super League nonsense, but all nations definitely don’t have a chance. They used to, then the big Western European leagues wanted all the money for themselves and pulled up the drawbridge. No side to the East of Italy and Germany has a real chance to win the European Cup now.

Liverpool stayed at Anfield and have suffered the day trippers as long as I can remember. Staying at or leaving SJP won’t make a difference on that front.

The existence of the ‘Premier League’ and ‘Champions League’ is proof that the structures have already been completely fucked by ludicrous amounts of greed.

I think the opposite is true - UEFA will be shutting their pants that the usual suspects will be raring to fuck off again. FFP is what keeps the status quo - they’ll bend over backwards for them now

Doesn’t even feel like news. Of course it’s anti-competitive. So is FFP. And while we’re on it, I have doubts that the whole thing about holding a club holding a player’s registration with a ridiculous buyout clause would pass if challenged in European courts. The English, French and German clubs won’t do it - though the English ones won’t because of pressures external to the clubs. It always tickled me that the geniuses behind it didn’t see the flaw - that some of these clubs would just end up as the also-rans. Football is broken already, not sure how much of a difference this ruling makes.

Yeah, I think going out of Europe will have limited us even more in terms of what we’ll have to spend. Can’t imagine it was much to begin with. Tbf I do think Wilson’s work rate is excellent. He’s an international squad player for a reason - he’s good but not Harry Kane good. Isak is quality, but his ability to remain fit is starting to become a real worry. I can see us going for a young player as a third choice in the summer, with the hope that they’ll develop quickly.

Agreed - I was there for those matches with my dad. My brain may have added the blanks later, but I’m convinced I heard the crack when Ruddock assaulted Beardsley. The only time I experienced good atmospheres at Anfield were evening games during the week - it was always shite for weekend matches. The 4-3 in 1997 was good (I wasn’t at the first 4-3), the 2-2 in 2002 was electric, even the LC match in 1996.

Cole didn’t take penalties - mainly because he wouldn’t have been much good at them. He wasn’t a composed finisher - he was at his best when there was no thinking time. It’s also worth remembering that English football was very, very different in Cole’s era - it was shite for the most part. Wilson has been scoring at that rate in what might be the world’s best league. No-one would have argued that about English football in the ‘90s.

I think Robson being shown the door with Shearer wouldn’t have been the worst outcome, tbh. Three successive top five finishes starting in 2001 isn’t as impressive as it seems today. Despite finishing bottom half in the previous four seasons, Newcastle’s income in 2000-01 was £1m less than Liverpool’s. We were a big, rich club - Robson had money to spend. He did a good job but his time was up - he should have walked in 2004. I always thought NUFC’s comments after the Wolves game summed it up neatly: ’Bobby may wail about bleeding black and white and pin on his toon army medals, but he was many, many miles away when we suffered in near-silence the tribulations of the Dalglish and Gullit eras. It's a mite unfair, but those on the field on Sunday bore the brunt of successive failed administrations and countless regrettable signings in recent decades. Thanks for trying Bobby, but it's defeated you, like all the rest. We've cheered you, we've supported you and now we just plain don't believe you anymore. And neither do the players. We got close, we've almost failed. Again.’

Hope it’s not like the one vs Everton

Just to follow-on, I can’t be chewed with people jumping on people for offering criticisms of anything he’s done - especially the ‘you’re hounding him out’ stuff. That’s just football fans talking about football; part of the fun is talking about what you would have done different (doesn’t mean anyone knows more than Howe). Anyone saying he should be sacked is just daft, though.

Wilson is a better finisher than Cole, comfortably. Christ, he played in the country’s best side with Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Cantona, Yorke, Beckham, Kanchelskis etc feeding him and he never managed to get 20 league goals in a season for them. He was great at NUFC for 18 months in an attack which was built for him. Cole needing too many chances to score is one of the few sane things Glenn Hoddle ever said.

Anyone checked his Bet365 account?

Trippier’s the most important one - Bruno and Isak are better footballers. That’s my two-penneth worth

Agreed - though in context, Luton and Newcastle’s relative status and squad quality will be driving some of that narrative.

They want to fix European competitions before even thinking about it. Next year’s European Cup just looks awful. Various iterations have been tried before, and they don’t work because the quality isn’t even close to being there, and most of the clubs have zero appeal in Europe or South America. The European clubs won’t risk their players in every game and will treat it like glorified friendlies. It’ll last less than a decade before being killed off, only for another revival of some sort a few years later.

Crackers, isn’t it? We’re sixth in the table with half a squad to come back. If we were sixth bottom at this point I’d understand probing questions being asked. At the moment, it feels like creases to be ironed out, not massive gaping problems caused by a shite manager!

Likewise mate, I agree completely. The unknown is PIF, and I doubt they give a solitary shite what people think. That’s the only worry about this - that there is a chance that they take a different view of current form and take an opportunity in the coming months to go and get a ‘name’ manager. Personally, I’d rather give Howe time and space to develop his squad - he’ll make mistakes, but let him learn from them. I think he’s made errors this year, but I’m looking forward to seeing how he rectifies them (I think he will). But the money at the club may have a different view. Who knows?

Ashworth clearly is a smart operator which is why Man Utd are meant to want him, and the lure of a bigger club makes sense to me - that’s why he’s here and not at Brighton. I don’t get the ‘we’re more attractive than Man Utd’ crack. Just sounds delusional to me, ‘project’ or not. I don’t think it’s the end of the world if he leaves, and I think questions over the summer signings are perfectly valid.

Yep, that’s my thoughts though you’d know better. I think they’d be perfectly to watch Radcliffe make Man Utd successful and passively count the money coming in. They’ve never struck me as having Champ Man fantasies.

Agreed, and I don’t think it should be. It’s not Ferguson’s previous mind. Besides, Howe hasn’t had three finishes in four outside the top ten. I don’t think he’d survive that, and I doubt a single person on here would want him to stay if he had.