TheBrownBottle

There’s nothing murky about it - only parts of the body which can legally score a goal can be in an offside position. You can score a goal with your shoulder and the very upper part of your arm (the ‘sleeve line’. Anything else is handball.

FK reasonably central 20 yds out and do that? That ‘dead ball coach’ needs sacking FFS

Until you are allowed to score with your hand or your forearm, then he’s not offside

We pushed Steve Howey further back than midfield from CF

I’d say we need a result and a performance, but at this point a result with a turgid performance would feel fucking great. Only Wolves has shitter away form this season, and this is one of the few remaining away games where we would be obvious favourites. Just fucking win, lads.

Who needs porn when photos Michelle Collins photos exist?

I still think 21/22 was - in terms of management / coaching - his best coaching achievement. Of course a trophy and CL outweighs that in ‘real terms’ - but Bruce left him with a squad which wasn’t even fit in PL terms (in terms of actual fitness, not just talent).

Agreed to a degree - it’s not that we haven’t done well, but my view is that up to this season Howe has done an excellent job but not a miraculous one. It isn’t something that another manager couldn’t have achieved, but I suspect most wouldn’t have. Again until the summer, we’ve spent really well (jury is still very much out on the summer). So again my view is that he’s done a great job in the main, which buys time at points like the present, but that time bought is not unlimited - and there are serious questions to ask re who is making the calls on the transfers and who we are buying.

Not sure he ‘created it out of nothing’. The squad isn’t full of free transfers and bargain basement signings - he’s comfortably outspent the vast majority of the division during his time at the club.

The invested in the airport - they sold their stake the other day. We’re not far off five years in and the investment in the NE currently stands at £0. No progress on a training ground / youth academy nor the stadium. Almost as if they were talking shite.

They would need to have literal shit for brains if they hadn’t read the existing rule book and - given the 18-month delay resolved only by paying Qatar £1bn - that other rules wouldn’t be sought. I don’t think the PL need have worried - it’s as obvious as the nose on my face that there was no massive injection of funds coming.

We’ve just spent c.£120m on two of them, there is zero chance we go and buy another one in Jan. We also don’t have the headroom - and the club must be recalculating the season’s income at present, given there’s a chance we’re currently sitting below their ‘worst case scenario’ league position.

Beats being tucked in with a cup of hot cocoa

100%. This doesn’t denigrate at all from Howe’s achievement - as far as I’m concerned, he’s guaranteed himself legendary status at the club by finally breaking that ridiculously long gap between trophies, and I love the man for it - but that doesn’t mean we should accept any old shite being served up afterwards.

Wilson possibly should’ve been sold a year or so earlier to capitalise on remaining value, but I also get it from Howe - and Wilson is probably my favourite post-Shearer no.9 in B&W. He was definitely, provably finished by the end of last season, though.

Yep. I find the ‘we’ve always been shit, let’s shoot down ambition’ patter to be head-scratching. The point was always that NUFC was a historically successful club which found itself in the doldrums - we shouldn’t have been going decades without winning things.

Under Ashley? Yep. But I thought we were all unhappy, thought that the Ashley years were an errant failure and that they shouldn’t ever be seen as a benchmark for NUFC. NB I was there in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s too - and trust me the Ashley years knocked them into a cocked hat in terms of performance on the pitch.

What is ‘way ahead of schedule’?

Likewise. He has to be given the season unless the home form starts to go the way of the away form.

Brilliant; so as long as we avoid Europe, we can be qualifying for Europe. There is a problem with the logic, can’t quite put my finger on it…

Yep. You don’t sign ‘squad players’ - you sign players who can step straight in, with current first teamers potentially becoming ‘squad players’. Overpaying for a Willock clone isn’t ‘depth’.

The Isak saga was partially the fault of the club, not just the player. He wanted out and should have been sold. We play a certain way, you identify players who can play in that set-up and sign them. Howe is 100% responsible for both tactics and transfers - that’s what he wanted. If they all paid off he’d correctly be getting praised to the hilt.

Elanga was signed early doors.

Just have to hope that every PL team fields a reserve side and instructs them to sit back, like Man Utd today.

If you’ve spent three quarters of a billion the difference between being decent and being shite is one player - then yes, you absolutely are 100% at fault. But again, I don’t think that’s what is happening here.