TheBrownBottle

I started wearing jumpers in Sydney in winter a few years in - so you might well be right

Hate to break everyone’s image of picture postcard Australia, but Kuol didn’t grow up on the Central Coast but in Victoria. The lad will be used to cold, wet winters not much nicer than Edinburgh - trust me

From memory, he preferred ‘Nol’

I don’t think they’ll risk too much in this window - particularly with the premium that will be put on players. Our income levels won’t have increased enough yet to make the gamble worth it, particularly as they will no doubt have plans for the future mapped out. I can’t see us spending much - and to be fair, if we do go all the way in the LC it’s over at the end of Feb, so whatever happens the squad only has the PL to fix on until the end of the season. Diaby and Maddison this window? Seems very, very unlikely to me. And Tieleman’s likely salary expectations would probably rule him out - I can’t see Howe wanting to bring in a player who’s going to earn more than everyone else and potentially cause disruption. At a guess, I’m willing to bet they’re looking at cheaper options.

Lad hasn’t played anything like enough minutes to make any sort of prediction - I very much liked what I did see in those first few games, and the Sheff Wed game was the rusty performance of a player who’d had a significant break from football due to injury.

Yep, both comments are reflective of my experience I’m sure it doesn’t need clarifying, but I will anyway - even though I didn’t want Keegan to return, I was apoplectic at Ashley’s treatment of a man who to me saved and then rebuilt NUFC, giving me so many happy memories. I despise Ashley for the way KK was undermined and then constructively dismissed.

Has to be a piss take. Has to be. Doesn’t it? …..

I fucking didn’t, and neither did anyone I know. Chugging pints in the away end and bringing back a KK well past his sell-by date as a manager made most of us nervous, not excited. I can’t speak for anyone outside of me and my mates, but the day KK returned as manager coincided with a mate’s 30th. There was a big group of lads out with him - all NUFC supporters - and only one of them was genuinely excited. The rest of us were nervous as it suggested a thin-skinned man desperate to appease and a man with fuck all knowledge of football.

Can I just shock you? I like Sunderland

Yep - safe standing seats still take up the same room as a normal seat

Given his wages, surely Fraser would have to be free / nominal sum?

Get them on Maury

We've only got the dogs' word for that in all fairness

I think the BNP hate left wingers generally, though especially foreign and / or POC left wingers

They DEFINITELY were. Everyone on Tyneside knew about Gillespie's gambling habits, Dyer's proclivities and Bellamy's long list of wanker behaviour. They were pretty much open secrets - which were 'confirmed' by the men themselves in mea culpas years later.

Honestly, adding the Francophone part is unnecessary. Ask Raheem Sterling.

Yes - and you mention Mike Hooper, who loved pubs so much he worked the doors after quitting as a goalie (and I hope he was a better bouncer than he was a keeper). Same with Clarkie who you mention - him and Andy Cole missed Wimbledon away in 1993/94 after both spat their dummies out for different reason the week before (Clark infamously tantruming in public at being subbed and kicking a bucket). Plenty of supporters weren't happy with their acting like cocks and undermining Keegan - though pretty much all the same supporters loved what they did on the pitch every week.

A truncated list of some of the players from my lifetime who had constant stories circulating re pissheadery / non-stop partying / gambling problems / being a tool: Quinn (pisshead & gambling) Venison (pisshead / liasing with very young ladies) Gillespie (gambling) Tino (partying - though every story I ever heard sounded fucking hilarious) Bellamy (all round wanker) Dyer (all round wanker) Carroll (pisshead) I haven't heard owt re ASM tbh.

I don't think it was particularly smart for Bruno to say it either

Got you, crossed wires there, my mistake - apologies. Yeah, you might be right. ASM has gobshited in the press a few times tbf, but I definitely wouldn't argue that the 'perception' of footballers is often race-driven (any glance at the tabloid press would confirm this). There was a study done a while back re the use of terms - or maybe cliches - which are used by football commentators and found that white players were far more likely to have adjectives relating to intelligence ascribed to them, and black players more likely to have adjectives related to physical qualities. edit: there ye gan https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/29/groundbreaking-report-reveals-racial-bias-in-english-football-commentary

It doesn't seem completely crazy to think that ASM may be unhappy about his current status at NUFC; I'm not inclined to read 'ITKs' but logically it seems to have a good chance of being true. Most of us will be expecting Howe to play Isak LW with Joelinton returning to midfield once Isak is fully fit. That Murphy came on ahead of him at Arsenal possibly wouldn't go down well. ASM at present is possibly third choice LW behind Isak and Joelinton. This doesn't mean he has fell out with Howe, but it is hardly difficult to picture that he might be unhappy. There is a part of me that thinks that if this is the case, then ASM should take a good long look in the mirror. The club is now on a footing to add top rate players to his talents; he is the one who complained in the past about the deficiencies of his teammates. Now that we're doing that, he finds himself out of the team. He has outrageous talent running with the ball, but the consistency and output is lacking - quite simply, he doesn't actually produce enough for the team to carry him. He isn't that good - at least at present (though many of us think he could be, with training and application). I would think most of us would rather he shape up than ship out, but I'm now beginning to think the latter is, sadly, the more likely outcome.

Not sure if thinking that the lad's end product is questionable and his injury record patchy makes a person a racist tbh If you were looking for current players who get the most shit off the support, ASM would be somewhere near the bottom of the list. Chris Wood can only dream of getting the grief ASM gets.

They used to be called 'slide-rule passes' - not sure if others still use the term, but I do. Also applies (though less accurately in terms of the metaphor) to curved passes. It is a pass which is played on the ground to put a player through and is completely precise in its accuracy and weight - and usually has to take at least one defender (though usually a couple or more) out of the game to apply.

Hope's YT video hinted strongly that he wasn't convinced at all by the illness line

I’m 40 - and I wouldn’t have