TheBrownBottle

Well, yes I am saying otherwise - do you think that a 40m loss at a football club is the result of paying tea ladies and stewards too much? Bournemouth's wage bill was huge for the time - over 30m - Howe didn't spend much at all on transfers. Again, that doesn't detract from the achievement - just as spending 90m in January doesn't detract from the phenomenal job he's done at NUFC. The always excellent Swiss Ramble explains it far better than I can: https://swissramble.blogspot.com/2016/05/bournemouth-welcome-to-pleasuredome.html

If Howe eventually wins the League or the European Cup, I'll be campaigning for more than a statue - I want there to be an entire suburb named after him. Maybe rename Arthur's Hill as Howechester or something. I genuinely believe he's going to be the man who breaks the duck. First time in two decades I've felt comfortable even imagining that. I could easily see him being here as long as a Wenger or Ferguson, before getting the England job at 60 for the last few years of his career. Hope so, anyway.

They made a loss of nearly 40m in their promotion season - and bear in mind that this was nearly a decade ago. Like I said, a fortune. At the time, clubs in the second division were allowed losses of 6m per season.

Eddie Howe is an excellent football manager - but context is required re getting Bournemouth into the PL. Yes, Bournemouth is an oversized Tory retirement village with zero history of footballing success - but Howe's Bournemouth spent a FORTUNE getting promoted. It wasn't a plucky underdog story - they were fined millions by the Football League for their sizeable breach of financial fair play rules. Of course, this doesn't detract from Howe's ability - look at how much Bruce spunked in the second division at Villa to finish lower midtable - but Bournemouth's rise wasn't a Wimbledon-esque fairytale. Their billionaire owner chucked a lot of money in to get that promotion.

Don't get me wrong, there's nowt I'd like to see more than the club throwing serious cash at a player with the potential of Osimhen - he's got everything you'd need to be a top-class centre forward. I just think players like him are likely to be a season or so down the track

I just think that people are reading to much into all of this. Fun88 looks nailed on for next season - and as I've pointed out earlier, a new sponsor would be unlikely to bring in much extra cash and I'd be willing to bet that Ashley didn't insert a break clause, so chucking Fun88 might cost more than the difference the new sponsor might bring in

Yeah, if I was to bet on it, I'd think the club would rebuild with good footballers in every position before going down the one- or two-marquee signings each summer route. Can't see us chucking 85m at a transfer fee until we're truly strengthened across the board

Because Castore are incompetent?

Likewise - I don't see us dropping 50m+ on a centre forward when so many positions need recruits. GK, LB, CB, RW etc.

David Bowie's 'Good evening Newcastle' at Roker is of course hilarious because it sums up just how the rest of the country thinks of them. A kind of half-awareness of a place near Newcastle; or is it a part of Newcastle? Who knows. Who the fuck cares. Sheeran is a tiresome lickspittle, though.

That one is my pet peeve, not too fussed about reusing songs. Also, singing at it New Monkey 200bpm speed. Rant awa

If we're doing palindromes, what about the one who got away? Not sure if trialists count, but Massimo Oddo (yes, that one) was at NUFC on trial a couple of decades back. Had a canny career afterwards, so I understand

It’s bold of the club to go for them, but I think you’re spot on re the club’s attractiveness at present. We’ll hear lots of young talent not being ‘sold’ on the ‘project’ in the next year or two. It won’t be that they don’t believe we’ll make it eventually - it is because they need to develop and progress their career now. If I pretend I’m not a Geordie and (stretching it now) pretend I’m a pro footballer being offered a contract by NUFC and one by AC Milan, there’s no way I do anything but sign for Milan - unless the NUFC offer absolutely blows it out of the water. But the club are (sensibly) not looking to destroy the wage structure - so that’s a no-go

It’s entertainingly childish, a bit of fun. Like football itself is meant to be

Yeah, a couple of others here have pointed out that there was a sizeable influx of miners from Sunderland into Ashington for work. Makes sense - I’d (mistakenly) read your post as suggesting that support for Sunderland was intrinsically linked to mining. My misinterpretation tbh

I don’t hate him, don’t really know anyone who does. Just think he’s a shite manager. Plenty of them out there

Their current squad is incomparable to previous ones. Belgium were always solid qualifiers but not much else - over the last five or six years they’ve been peppered with genuine world class talent

Tbf the football must be desperate if they can get twice as many through the gate to listen to Ed Sheeran’s dreary busker shite

I’d definitely take that Twitter stuff from the Italian hack with a massive grain of salt

Absolutely. That we’re in the same conversation with players that they want is unbelievable given the previous decade and a half.

Why would mining turn someone into a Mackem? My granddad worked in the pits in Northumberland, but managed not to become one

Yeah, Ashington always had a high Mackem quota - never understood why, mind Our greatest no.9 grew up as a Sunderland fan in Ashington of course. He saw the light in the end

No idea if the lad will sign or not - but surely no-one could be annoyed at him choosing AC Milan over us? They’re one of the four or five grandest clubs on Earth to me. Admittedly there are parts of my brain which basically froze in the late 90s, but still.

100%. Never understood that one, they’re on the verge of wasting a golden generation of talent. I was deeply worried when we were linked with him before appointing Howe

The French police, UEFA and French govt are confirming it was mainly local ticketless people breaking through the barriers and causing bother: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61685718 I really do think we need to have a think before just pointing accusative fingers at Liverpool’s support generally. Of course they have shithouses in amongst them - so do we, so do most clubs of any reasonable size. I think it is almost guaranteed that if we got to a European final in a city with easy access and enough watering holes, there’d be more Geordies there without tickets than the ones with them - and a decent % of them would undoubtedly try to pay, cheat or burst their way in if the opportunity arose. Glass houses and all that.