TheBrownBottle

The back line looked shaky towards the end of last season after the change in play style (and one clean sheet in the entire second half of the league season is not exactly the sort of numbers good back lines put up). They’re even more likely to be exposed this coming season - an injection of pace is required. And it is the right side which looks the weakest - Schar more than anyone else was becoming error prone towards the end of last season, not helped by Trippier being out of position regularly. I’ve just watched the highlights of the Villa friendly - and while it’s just a warm-up game, those frailties looked like they were there.

You’re right, of course. Though UEFA and the various FAs were comfortable as long as those players remained in Europe. The problem KSA will have is that it would always need propping up to make these signings, and therefore will always require govt funding. Europeans aren’t going to start watching Al-Hilal. It could see the game grow more naturally in Asia - not a bad thing.

Funny, but not happening. NUFC is hardly their priority - this would be a national statement.

They’ve tried similar in the past. No-one gives a shite about it.

Toodle-loo FFP. There is no way the European clubs watch the best players leave due to self-imposed rules. Having said that, you can’t make the maths fit re Mbappe. This isn’t about value, it’s about geopolitics.

Frimpong's thrown a kettle over a roof; what have you ever done?

Yeah, they definitely are. The bit that sticks in their craw is that we're bigger than them, too - they oscillate between 'we're a massive club' and 'the Mags aren't as big as Preston or Leicester' etc etc. Sunderland are one of the twenty biggest clubs in the country, quite comfortably for me. The issue is that we're one of the seven or eight biggest - and that number is likely to be narrower in a couple of years, whereas sunderland are nowhere near that. Sunderland are of similar size to Sheff Wed etc - they've got more in common with them than the country's 'top ten' biggest clubs.

You are Martin Niemoller and I claim my £5

Sounds like N'Zogbia is winning at life to me. I've nothing but complete respect for taking the David F Batty route - football was something they do for a bit, it pays ludicrously well, and then off to enjoy the company of friends and family in a life of complete comfort. I genuinely think that if I'd had the talent to reach that level and make that sort of money, that would have been my life too - who would need to continue to live in the public spotlight? Sounds like a nightmare, to me.

Honestly, time to take some time out. You’re just talking complete shite now. Nothing wrong with preferring that the club sign one player over another, but this is just getting odd.

Nothing wrong with Happy Hardcore 600bpm which sounds likes it’s been tape recorded from an overmodulated radio. It’s the most appropriate backing for a ‘Welcome to Rushden & Diamonds reserves’ video

It won’t happen because ultimately he is a superb player, but I’d laugh my cock off if he signed for Real Madrid on wages of a zillion quid a week and flopped miserably

We need a Frimpong thread

Just checked Ray Kennedy: three European Cups, two Fairs / UEFA Cups, six league titles, one FA Cup, one league cup. Not bad

Yeah, definitely in terms of winning everything. Jack won pretty much everything at Leeds, but not the European Cup of course. In terms of numbers, Paully made a good shout re Carrick. It has got me thinking now - which NE player is the most successful (club football only)? In terms of rules, League Cup wins for tie breaks, and no counting Charity / Community Shields (I’m not Jose Mourinho). In thinking about it, I reckon it’s probably Ray Kennedy (rather than Alan).

Yep - it’s worth most people thinking about how long it took for the players to improve under Howe initially - it took about three months for Howe’s training to really kick in fitness-wise

Funny thing is that it’s literally not true. I would have thought that would be someone like Alan Kennedy - who of course played for both clubs (and a Mackem by birth). Scored the winning goal in two European Cup finals (albeit one in a shootout) - not bad for a left back.

It is, but where have the been for the last 80 years? Average with no ambition is an achievement over there. Three top half finishes in my dad’s lifetime, and he retires next July.

Their healing begins

Yeah, fair enough mate - makes sense

Yeah, all good points well made. I actually thought ASM was clearly working to change his game - there were times when you could see he was trying to play ‘Howe-ball’. But it was also clear that it wasn’t a natural fit. As others have said, he’s a bit of a throwback player - the type who PFM types used to talk about ‘carrying’. The game has changed and in some ways left behind old-school wing wizards. Output and metrics are the order of the day - so it does kill off a bit of the romance that these players imbue. That said, I do also think that ASM is a player better suited to lesser sides - such as Bruce’s NUFC. He was at NUFC for a reason, and wasn’t courted by top clubs for a reason. I saw one of the Chronicle hacks blathering on about asking Staveley two years ago about whether they’d be building a side around ASM, as if that was a good question at all (it wasn’t Staveley’s call, for a start). Good / great sides aren’t built around one skilful dribbler. Some of the thinking around ASM has me a bit perplexed tbh. Regardless, I fully agree with your final sentence.

I’m afraid I was always a fully fledged member of the Laurent Robert fan club - I like my tricky wingers to also have output - many of the criticisms applied to ASM also apply to Ginola (though I also think Ginola was a better technical footballer than ASM). I think Barnes makes far more sense in an Eddie Howe team - having Bruno, Willock, Big Joe and Tonali means he’s going to have ample midfielders to feed him those little one-twos he thrives off. I suspect ASM likely would still be off irrespective of FFP - I just don’t think the management rate him, or perhaps it’s more fair to say he doesn’t fit with what they’re looking to do. I think many of the negative reactions (certainly including mine) come from the desire to want to see Howe put together the team in his own image.

I remember reading Johan Cruyff saying that he could identify a great technical player through the sound his boot made when striking the ball. Ginola was one of those players - he stroked the ball even when shooting. He could beat a man, but never seemed in a hurry to do so.

Context is important. Ginola for that first six months was absolutely unplayable - and that’s why Barcelona tried to sign him from us. He was kicked off the park at Highbury in the League Cup and never returned to form in 95/96. The year after, he looked like he was back - until Dalglish arrived. And that was that. Ginola, for most, represented a standard we just weren’t used to seeing. Three years before he signed we were nearly relegated to the third division - and had ‘enjoyed’ years of footballing mediocrity which make the Ashley years look halcyon. If Ginola was 25 again and signed today his impact wouldn’t be anything like the same as it was in ‘95.