TheBrownBottle

Tbf salmon-pants Methven is, along with Tony ‘TC’ Coton and Scottish ‘can’t remember his name’ manager, a voice of reason in that part whilst Stewart Donald becomes obsessed with signing Grigg for five times his market value.

Yeah, he always comes across as a decent gadgie when I’ve heard him on podcasts & radio etc, but what you’ve said tallies with my thinking (though I don’t know him).

I’d just like to add that I also disliked Jimmy Hill, but not for his conspiracy to relegate Sunderland. Actually, that was a plus in his ledger for me.

You’ll have to forgive me if I think Hope knows about as much as any of us on here. Maddison bid came out of a clear blue sky but now he knows everything about our negotiations and intent re the player. Sorry, not buying it. The NE hacks we’re exposed as being effectively locked out by our new management. Which is a good thing.

Like everyone else, I’m genuinely looking forward to the season for the first time in yonks Forest home first is an odd one, mind. Could easily see this being 4-0 or 0-1. Wouldn’t be shocked by either outcome. Whatever happens, it’s nice to be able to approach a season without dread, and without the anxiety that an Ashley-owned Newcastle always brought

Sticking to the Ameobi theme - Sammy Ameobi has played as many games for Newcastle in Europe as Sunderland has played in their entire history (4) I’m willing to bet even Sammy doesn’t remember those appearances, given how few they were.

You keep thinking Hope’s correct, despite the fact he clearly knew fuck all about it. John Percy knows Forest, Derby and Leicester inside out - if he says we bid £40m, then we bid £40m. Hope and the rest of the NE lot are trying to claw back on the fact that they’ve been exposed as knowing sweet FA. Which is great, as it means the club has plugged the leaks, and we can safely ignore the shite that they write for clicks.

Leicester are direct competition with us this season, you’d think - we’re in that group of teams who’ll likely finish somewhere between 7th-12th. The fact we’re bidding on one of their best players is fucking great in my books.

He plays Streets of Rage II with Bruno all the time on the Atari or something, so I think it all stems from that

I try not to grumble about our support, but ho’way man, we can’t possibly be complaining about bidding for Maddison?

Maybe Paqueta isn’t interested? Maybe Howe isn’t interested in Paqueta? Maybe Paqueta’s asking price is not what the media has reported? Just a few reasons there.

Yeah, you could well be right - but then Leicester might ask for something crackers like £70-80m. You’d think Maddison is worth at least £50m based on recent form. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes. And I fucking LOVE the fact that not one ‘ITK’ - either NE football hack or Twitter gobshite - saw this coming n

Percy is reliable in terms of East Midlands football, so this definitely has legs. No idea if we’ll go back in, but clearly we’ve bid for him. I think Maddison is a very good footballer - no idea how much it would take or how far we’d be willing to go, but it still feels odd trying to buy good players from good PL sides. It’s been so long since that was the case …

It’s funny how memory works - the displays had sort of fell out of the front of my mind, then this thread pops up again and I remember how fucking great Wor Flags are All the best to those top folks involved, looking forward to what they do this season

Imagine writing for the Torygraph and still being the biggest wanker on the staff. It’s quite an achievement

Luke Edwards taking part in another character assassination of our support. He’s such a massive cunt that even Jonathan Liew can comfortably hammer the fucker on Twitter. Genuinely wish he’d just pack his bags and fuck off out of the NE so that we’re not on his ‘patch’. Pretty much every club Bruce has managed hates the useless fucker.

Roy Keane and Ivanovic are the other red cards I can remember in the Charity Shield I wish we’d had 5 red cards in ‘96 and got to just end the match early

It’s very difficult to compare - some of the women’s game footballers have top-notch technique, but the physical aspects of the game shouldn’t be understated - the average male professional would simply overpower their top-rank female counterparts. I suspect this might explain HTT’s point re women beating boys teams - nowt wrong with the lasses’ technical ability. I still enjoy watching women’s football - there’s some cracking end to end play, and the technique is clearly a long way above Sunday league level. And yes, the goalkeepers aren’t the best - though I’d ask anyone to watch a random weekend’s worth of Division 4 (League 2 or whatever) goals and see how many of them are down to utterly shite goalkeeping

Yep, there’s nothing of the ‘PFM’ bollocks about him

It would be nice to add some more - but the club leaking info doesn’t make it more or less likely

Great, isn’t it? I like this - it feels like competent people are in place now. Which of course they are.

Fair play, that genuinely made me laugh

Werner is on nearly £300k a week. There’s not even a tiny chance he’s coming here - that’s three times more than we’re paying anyone atm

Lyon do appear to be truly desperate to cash-in. I know he's the dogs bollocks according to all fellow NUFC supporters and he plays videogames online with his mate Bruno G after meeting him for stotties and a pint on the Quayside - but there is that paranoid part of me that wonders why they appear very happy to sell, yet there isn't a shitload of suitors queuing up? I'm not suggesting he isn't lightyears ahead of Longstaff, of course.

Yep, 3bn is about right re (reported) personal wealth - but that wealth is a lot more liquid than Ashley's (it isn't 'wallpaper' )