TheBrownBottle

Shearer also hoying pelters at Gordon on the international feed here.

Agreed - Bruno has been worse than Gordon for me but the young’un is getting a slating. I used to sit next a bloke at the match like that - would pick on ‘easy’ targets.

Poor but only one-nowt. Desperately need to change things - and for the side to wake up generally. It’s a training ground performance so far - not just the energy levels but the decision-making is off. I do also think this shows that a pacy centre back would be a very useful summer addition. Not that there’s much wrong with our back line generally, but for games like this where we’re constantly being caught on the turn it is obvious that Botman could do with a quick no 5 alongside him

For all the ‘Emery out-tictacking Howe’ stuff, a lot of this is down to underperformance from some of our key players. Other than the first 15 mins we haven’t looked under that much pressure since - and we’ve got levels left in us

If we can weather this they’ll blow themselves out. Ho’way a sucker punch before HT

I bastard hate early kick offs. Feels like we’ve always been shite at them

Trippier has been caught upfield several times now. The woodwork has prevented them scoring twice from poor positioning from our RB. BDB’s turn was fucking ludicrous, but neither FB looks on it atm

BDB needs to start doing the simple stuff simply again. That was poor and led to that. We’ve been poor opening 10 mins again tbf - they’re catching Trippier upfield constantly

I know Milburn, Mitchell, White and Keeble all scored 10+ league goals each in 54/55 - not sure if we’ve ever managed to have five players on 10+? edit: top flight only

Rice would be the biggest signing since pre-Ashley. It would be an unbelievable deal tbh. It still feels like we’re a couple of years away from a signing like that, but wor Eddie didn’t exactly rule it out …

You might want to check where Rice is from ...

Yeah, the poorly-timed KOs and ludicrous pricing didn't help. Agree with the standard, too - it was a dreary tournament, no outstanding teams, the best player on show was a holding midfielder (albeit a superb one) which summed it up, really. Euro 2000 was a vast improvement.

The odd time I've played one of his videos he comes across ok, but I completely agree - shite like that is desperate.

I still think Maddison ends up at Spurs or Liverpool. I imagine Liverpool deciding against it has more to do with Bellingham not fancying that move.

Didn't we do that in January?

He's popped onto my recommends on youtube thanks to algorithms no doubt. Embarrassing shite like this - I've got a feeling if the year was 2026/7 then this one might be a goer. No chance at present. Being 'on the cusp of CL football' doesn't entice the world's best players.

Also, it’s been reported by a couple of decent local hacks (Waugh, Hope) that the club want to sign half a dozen players this summer. Even if they finish in the top four the budget isn’t going to be more than £150m based upon FFP. Once you’ve sounded £90m+ on Rice, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for manoeuvre

Even if we met WHU’s asking price, I don’t see us matching Rice’s likely salary demands. We’re still at least a couple of years away from £200k+/pw players

It’s a shame - he’s been excellent last few games for me. But the lad is made of glass - I don’t think we can afford players who are more or less guaranteed to miss half of our games next year with European football now starting to look more likely than not.

We’d need them if the attendances are owt like Euro 96 - Bulgaria vs Romania pulled a sub-20k crowd from memory, despite both sides having some really big names. France didn’t pull much more than that, either.

They should invite Germany to play their group games there. It’s what Casement would have wanted.

That’s clearly not the point being made

One of those odd games where I’d both take a draw now if offered and also wouldn’t be surprised to see us win. Brentford last weekend was the same. And the ‘rivalry’ isn’t just knobheads on Twitter. It wasn’t just a couple of sad acts with bedsheets in May 09 - that old ground erupted and celebrated like they’d won the league that day. We literally didn’t give a hoot about them before that day. Fuck them, this will always be a fully-fledged Geordie vendetta against this lot. HTL

By Ekitike’s age Henry was a first team regular in a superb Monaco side which won Ligue 1 and had won the WC, playing in every knockout game except the final. Ekitike’s highlights reel looked a long way short of that - anyone comparing him to Henry was being a bit daft; the lad looks a long way short at the moment.

The lad looked unimpressive to me in the admittedly Dennis Wise-esque scouting done on here (loads of YouTube clips). Looked very raw and lacking in poise. Obviously there’s something there otherwise he doesn’t attract those suitors - but he’s come across as a bad egg at PSG. I suspect his attitude at PSG will automatically rule him out on the ‘no arseholes’ rule the club employs.