TheBrownBottle

Tbf Sven’s business would boom if they sponsored the bog doors in the Gallowgate. So at least one of those involved would still be winning.

I know it is - but in fairness, your timelines keep slipping - you said you’d judge at the end of the summer. It’s Xmas in a couple of weeks. The point is that official announcements may never occur. We haven’t managed to onboard a training kit sponsor in three years, but I’m sure that with the big calls they’ll absolutely nail them.

Everything Lotus wrote is what mates of mine who’ve worked for VERY big clients in KSA have also said. ‘Wait and see’ misses the point - this is how that country is run and operates. Sometimes decisions are never made, sometimes they are made so late as to be ineffective. Sitting on your hands is still an action. Yes, the stadium would take time - but there is (and has been) radio silence generally (which plenty of us anticipated when the owners took over - again, it’s not a govt built on efficiency). I think many expected that them having megabucks would mean that they’re all financial whizzes - they’re not. NB PIF is worth less than Norway’s sovereign wealth fund - and Norway’s is built on North Sea oil rather than the insane volume produced by KSA. Mainly because one of those funds is well-run …

4-3-3 could be argued to be the perfect formation - it is the total football formation, requiring skill, intelligence and yes, athleticism. Michels and Cruyff favoured it with good reason. We saw it work best when players could switch positions - which is why Burn at LB wasn’t at all the disaster that lots made out, and why Joelinton and Willock on the left switching out made it work. It doesn’t work well with a player sat in a holding role and not moving forwards, with full back who won’t overlap, and with wingers and midfielders not moving to cover other positions. That’s what we were doing well and it’s in part why we have seen such a drop-off - we’re not playing as you’re required to in that formation. We lack guile and movement. 4-2–3-1 was always a blandly defensive formation, and no less reliant on athleticism. It produces miserable football. Hence our old mate the king used it during his time at SJP. And it absolutely needs a ‘10’, which we don’t have. The problem we have is that we don’t have the personnel to play either particularly well. edit: and it’s also why our transfer policy deserves criticism and scrutiny. The squad build hasn’t been great, and we have a ‘lop-sided’ squad not built for any particular form of football. Which is why DoF exist and you don’t give a manager complete power at a football club. Staveley and co overindulged Howe.

We do nowt with that line-up. Barnes at 10? He doesn’t have anything like the vision to play there. His entire game is cutting in and shooting. That midfield ends up 30 yards behind the three wingers playing behind the forward. Looks like a mess to me.

Why would we sacrifice three years of income on the chance that a court case might rule in our favour? We could just sign new sponsorship deals if the court ruled that the old rules were thrown out. If the plan was to put us on steroids then I would have expected that we would be at least on muscle supplements until the real stuff is legal. We’ve had three years of almost zero communication from PIF. Previous NUFC owners and board members were (correctly) excoriated for the same - yet somehow zero criticism appears to be aimed at the current ownership. Tbh we feel rudderless at the moment. It’s a familiar feeling at NUFC of course.

"and from making of sport they come to doing of mischief". I remember using that quote from Fuller in an essay on Marlowe many many years ago.

We've made a Faustian pact and got the reward a Faustian pact brings ...

I remember Peter Schmeichel saying that goalkeepers are defined by their mistakes - and tbh I don't think Pope makes all that many. There's better out there, certainly, but he isn't our biggest worry atm. I actually think his newly-developed habit post-injury of meekly pushing the ball out from strikes on goal instead of directing them away from goal is a bigger worry than his consistently average kicking.

Used to love it when the war cry went up. Me and my mates used to try and do it when knocking about on our BMXs. Even before our balls had dropped we could never nail it. I always wondered if it was just one bloke doing it?

Yeah, fair enough

Haha you did - and I think you’re probably right tbf. I was trying to be generous

Bruno is an excellent footballer so shite for him means he’s performing like a bang-average PL footballer. But by his standards he’s been shite.

anything short of a mild beating wouldn’t have been enough with Fraser

That’s what I was misremembering - Shearer was banned vs Leverkusen and it popped into my head that he’d been sent off. Normally I’m ok with recollecting matches, but that Inter game at home is pretty much a blur.

Yeah I remember that Barca match. Kluivert and Del Piero said complementary things about the support after playing at SJP, and after that were linked constantly - with Kluivert coming in not long after (still feels odd that he played for us when he was in his ‘prime’ - by age not form) Honestly that Inter home game was a complete blur. Game was over quickly, and it might be the only home game I’ve been to where I pissed off to the concourse and continued drinking.

‘Wasn’t allowed’ is a stretch mind. Despite being completely fucked in terms of FFP (because Howe has been backed to the tune of c.£420m) the club still pursued his no.1 target past the point of reasonableness. Then we switched to an insane bid for Elanga which was thankfully rejected. Trippier’s been lost it seems due to a complete failure of professionalism. Perhaps some better management might have helped? I’ve no idea on that front, but could a different manager have produced a different outcome there? Shitload of counterfactuals and ‘what ifs’ on that score.

Context is, as you keep writing, vital here. I’m one of those who used to watch us in the old second division in the early ‘90s. So yes, I have seen absolute shite in B&W. I had a season ticket during what was the second worst season in our entire history. But that side was assembled on the cheap and stuffed with kids (the ‘Ossie babes’). At the moment I’m watching an expensively assembled side - bought for the current manager; three years is ample time - look like a bunch of uncoached strangers. And our ‘match going fans’ are no more or less educated than anyone else on that score. I don’t want to see Howe sacked, but the idea that the performances haven’t been pretty shite this season is borderline delusional. We’ve got eyes. We’ve been mainly shite - and the buck stops with the manager.

I didn’t like Howe’s comments either. I know he isn’t going to kick his players under the bus, but I don’t think they could’ve spat their dummies out if he criticised the collective performance. If he genuinely thinks that performance was decent then we’ve got big problems. I still think it’s too soon to talk about sacking him, but I wouldn’t exactly be up in arms if he was.

Shit, did I write that rather than think it? 😀 Daft isn’t it? The number of dafties in our support who rewrite the history of Robson at the club. They’d get along famously with the knackers on RTG

The Bobby Robson comment is a right old load of bollocks mind. Robson should’ve been sacked earlier - the issue was appointing Souness, not sacking Robson.

I agree re Willock, but I think he offers a dynamism which none of our other midfielders offer

I’d definitely stick with Tonali in the deeper role and Bruno pushed further forward (Bruno is badly out of form, I’m sure he can play there). Not sure re Miley - he looked a long way from the finished article last season (he is a kid of course - plenty of time yet). It would be Bruno-Tonali-Willock for me if we stick to 4-3-3

Agreed - though the problem became apparent as Bruno was really poor. I’m absolutely puzzled as to why we’ve got both of them at this point

I thought Hall played well. The others were ok.