TheBrownBottle

Yep - and what is often forgotten is just how expensive European away games are; and they are the ones people get excited about going to. Two of my mates were with us in Rotterdam for Feyenoord away (after a night in Amsterdam) who didn't bother with home tickets as the expense of being made to buy all three tickets up front (plus booze) would have left them without enough for the aways. Also - and the younger ones will find this incredible - it is actually possible to start treating Europe like the League Cup after you've been in it year after year for an extended period of time. If you include the Intertoto Cup games in 2001 when we lost in the final, we played European football in 10 of our first 11 seasons after promotion in '93 and our first season back in '94 (after somehow blowing it in '95). It does become just another game a lot of time* *I always loved European games, but that wasn't reflected by all match-going supporters that I knew. One of my mates just stopped going to them other than against huge clubs, viewing most of the games as a bit of a pain in the arse edit: correction, 12 of 13- just remembered losing to Depor in the Inter Toto semi final in 05-06. We were in the UEFA Cup the year after.

Oxlade-Chamberlain would be miles away from what we’ve been told (and seen) so far in terms of transfer policy. He’d be on crazy money for starters - and he’s barely played for a long time. He’s one of those who signs for a mid table side on a long term deal and they can’t get shot of him. Avoid like the plague.

We need a new left winger tbf

'I am the Mag-Finder General - and by the powers invested in me by 74.367867856% of the population of Chester-le-Street, I declare you a MAG'

Fair dos, apologies Kaka

Yep - we'll be linked with approx. 400 players between now and September, so god knows who we'll end up with in any case

I'll go with the set piece ability. The rest? Sorry, I don't agree - and at 28 there's little that could be improved with coaching.

Yeah, you're right. You know what I've seen and what I've not seen - forgot about that. Condescending load of shite mate.

He's almost on a par with Seb Larsson's GTG ratio in terms of FKs in the PL. And we all would have dreamed of Larsson running around in our midfield.

JWP is the 'complete' midfielder. Heard it all now

I'm scratching my head at that one, Kaka. His being English has nothing to do with it - he's not as good as Bellingham, Mount, Rice, Phillips, Maddison, Gallagher etc. He's not as good as Willock. I don't rate the bloke particularly highly, beyond his ability to take a decent FK. Other opinions do exist though

He's 28 years old and played his entire career at Southampton, looking like one of their better players but in a consistently below average PL side. In PL terms, he's bang average - zero chance he goes to a Sky Six side if sold.

'Quick - silence this one! He isn't toeing the party line!'

Mediocre footballer with a decent dead ball ability. Wouldn't touch him with a barge pole for anything more than 20m

It won't, I'm afraid. Qualifying will not see the PL ratifying sponsorship deals that are at Man Utd levels - it would take many years of sustained success to be able to argue that we're at that point. Which is why the club would be daft to do anything other than short-term (1-3 year) deals - the shorter the better. Don't get me wrong, the fact that other clubs get to decide what 'fair market value' is strikes me as uncompetitive practice, but as it stands that's where we are.

Agreed, it’s not healthy wherever it occurs - though the big difference is that if this was Germany, Man City would be signing the best players in Arsenal’s side this summer and sticking them on the bench

Di Stefano levels

Yeah, he’s been dropped. In fairness he wasn’t in the best form after the WC break (and a little before), and he’s not a regular starter when he is.

Happy for the lad. He should retire from international football now as it means that his goals to games ratio is better than other one cap players like David Nugent and Francis Jeffers

Different strokes for different folks, but I’ve never liked Caulkin’s writing style - I don’t like sickly sweet sentimentality in sports writing. This constant desire to make something super emotional - and the Athletic pod when I’ve listened to it has a lot of that. I quite like Waugh‘s journalistic writings, and the fact that they attempt to take the piss out of him on that pod for being like a football tactics rain man figure tells me all I need to know about it. It’s Caulkin they should take the piss out of - ‘go on George, tell me how about your latest article where you’re attempting to tie Newcastle losing to your rabbit dying when you were eight years old to try and make the reader bubble’

I think Rafa and Howe would end up pushing HBA out of the door, too. That’s not to say Pardew is on equal footing, nor that he handled HBA well - but I agree with the Gazza comparison. The fact that HBA ends up at NUFC at all - and stays for a few years - is sad testament to a wasted talent. The lad was well known about and was a wunderkind - he should’ve been moving to Barcelona (or similar) instead of us. HBA was a sublime footballer - but clearly, there was more wrong than him just being ‘Pardewed’

That's a flag of them coming over here, with their scimitars, and their ... penguins? ... and their clip boards. Hang on, I think that's Jake Humphrey and one of his lists

I mean, you're right, he agreed with Farage but didn't push on with it. But you're being interviewed by Nigel Farage for GB News; I'm struggling to fathom the circumstances where you'd agree to do that if you hold his views in complete contempt.

Being a pretentious arse. The only one of those High Performance interviews I've seen was with Howe - it was three men sat in a room sounding like one of those self-help books which now pollute an entire section of every bookshop worldwide.

Farage: "we always get this, don't we, the human rights record in Saudi Arabia ... all I'm saying is, in the end, doesn't the English Premier League need to keep some sense of Englishness" Aye, nowt political in that interview like.