TheBrownBottle

Yeah, Keegan had him here on trial

Yep. It also took me 5 mins online to prove that the BZG ‘takeover’ wasn’t by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Edwards and his pals kept banging that drum for months. Edwards is an interesting man. He still goes on like a tabloid journalist - desperately trying to get ‘scoop’ on transfer news, instead of remembering he’s a broadsheet football writer. So he should do what Telegraph writer normally do - write longwinded opinion pieces bemoaning the lack of morality in football, in particularly when compared to rugby or cricket.

Jon Driscoll is an absolute nobody - I wouldn’t pay any more notice to him than any other call-in gobshite. No-one was buying Isak for €15m. He’s just being a contrarian dickhead. I can’t imagine anyone talking as if it is a toss-up between Wood and Isak as to who is better. Edit: in case some are confused, Driscoll isn’t a BBC pundit - he’s a tiresome twat who has a la liga podcast with a small following. He’s as authoritative as any other podcast gobshite.

Man City vs Chelsea puts one of them out anyway

Should be a canny tie that, assuming we’re taking this seriously - and we should

Geed up

I’ve not seen much of that - more comments on how shit our lot are. I don’t think many thought that XI would smash anyone.

Bit harsh on Anderson …

The moment when several of these players make their final appearance cannot come soon enough

That’s been our argument in the past, too.

Long way to go, but the line up worried me. Regardless of positivity elsewhere, annoyed at not taking the cups seriously.

I wonder if there is anyone outside of Sunderland - I.e. a ‘neutral’ fan - who seriously thinks they’re a bigger club than us? I did meet a (genuine) flat earther once, so there is a chance that there is - but like flat Earthers, they’ll be small in number. And fucking loony-crackers

Yeah, something like £120k pw

Yep. Also, the lad appears to be signing on (for PL standards) reasonable wages - also, the length of the contract is almost as important as the size of the fee. If Isak signs with a lengthy deal (say 5-6 years) then the FFP impact is reduced considerably

Also, I can’t understand the caring about the fee thing. The transfer market went mental years ago - it’s just that we had Ashley and it wasn’t our concern

Delighted we’re getting a top rated young centre forward, and loving the fact that the press knew nowt until the minute. Again, it shows the new professionalism at the club - and that we should basically ignore the rumour mill hacks. They knaa nowt.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I don’t think it is a matter of dispute that NWE was gone months before NEE renamed itself NU, after it moved to SJP. The renaming of the club is definitely a positive. I’m glad that WE died, tbh - I can’t imagine what derby days would have been like in Newcastle. My dad and I would’ve supported different clubs for a start - I’m from the WE, my fatha’s from Walker Personally, I think 1881 is the correct date, but it really doesn’t worry me that we don’t use that date. Besides, I wouldn’t want several thousand Geordies to change their PIN for the sake of historical accuracy

NEE and NWE didn’t merge though; WE had already been disbanded. Some of the WE players and staff joined EE afterwards. EE was renamed United after moving to SJP.

Red top white shorts from memory - stripes came a short while later. we did though wear blue shorts for a long time …

West End went pop. East End just occupied their old ground (not sure if Chilly Road also had an infamously sloping pitch mind!)

It’s clearly 1881, though it isn’t anything to get hung about. Off the top of my head, we are though the only club I can think of where a name change is seen as the birth of the club - Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Sheff Wed, Everton etc etc don’t.

Yep. But his debut was vs Chelsea - and it was one of the most impressive debuts SJP would have seen in my lifetime.

You always hope for a Woodgate-esque home debut, but that’s a massive ask. Thought Botman looked ok-ish today; he needs to get used to the pace and reduced available reaction-time in games. He’s a baby in CB years, I’ve no doubt he’ll learn and get better and better

Yep, we’d finished 11th the previous year too - like we did last season - and finished 4th that season And that’s the last time I’m putting ‘4th’ into a sentence with us in it, it’s only August, don’t want to get too carried away