Matt1892

This should be a comfortable win for us, they are a decent Championship side at best and we have better players than them in every position on the pitch. Unlike a usual cup tie against a lower league team, this isn’t one where only one side should be treating it as a cup final and motivated to shine. If Howe can’t motivate the players today to come away with the win then any stores credit in the bank for him will be gone.

Fingers crossed we get to see the double pivot on Saturday then.

He has spent around £350 million on players, yet we are to believe that he doesn’t play his preferred formation due to not having the players to play it? He will change the formation, but it will be because this current set up has been figured out by the opposition rather than because we have signed Tonali.

It is the managers preferred formation and he has only moved away from it to trial wingbacks. He has not attempted a double pivot even in preseason friendlies, so to argue he has bought a player to play there based on him saying we need to retain possession more is clutching at straws at best.

2 + 2 = 5

Proper panic buy that.

We don’t play that formation though, despite people crying out to change to it so it is a moot point. He isn’t capable of playing in Bruno’s position in the current formation and gives the ball away far too much with slack passing.

That is where Howe played him until he lost his place to Longstaff, then he put him on the left of a midfield 3 when Joelinton was injured. Has passing is too poor to play in Bruno’s role.

nah, you are right. We we don’t need back up for Bruno.

Who?

His debut was good but his performances after that were pretty poor, he often looked lost out there. Over their games this season Miley has looked the better of the two in a Newcastle shirt. Strange that we signed him when we have such a talented youngster that plays in his position when we still have nobody capable of covering Bruno in that role, hence it being an unnecessary purchase when the money could have been used for that DM role.

I think Miley has looked better for us this season compared to Tonali, it is making the latter look an unnecessary purchase in that position.

If Tonali wasn’t banned for gambling then Miley would have had about as much game time as Lewis Hall, so every cloud and all that.

One is a situation that could potentially happen which is why other clubs complained to the FA about it, whereas the other could potentially happen but would be no cause for complaint as neither party is linked. The same way that a vote was held to try and stop clubs loaning players in from other clubs with the same owner, it is seen as an advantage and something that could be done. We don’t know if either will happen or not but it isn’t beyond belief that it could happen, that isn’t just me believing it but other clubs too, hence why complaints and a vote took place.

PSG are not owned by the same owners as we are though so it isn’t a comparable situation, which you already know. Again, there is a reason clubs were complaining to the FA about us regarding the ASM deal as reported in the Athletic, as there is a clear conflict and the ability to manipulate transfers.

There is a big difference between selling him now than in the summer though, hence why we have missed the boat.

There is a reason why clubs raised concerns with the FA about the transfer, as it was possible that it could happen and why no other club was interested in ASM. Just because this doesn’t fit in with your narrative doesn’t mean you can just shut the conversation down. If you don’t like it then don’t reply.

It is about opinions but I don’t think the club would have too much trouble painting a picture that a winger in his late 20’s who got in to double figures for a team that qualified for the Champions League would be overpriced at £30 million.

His value was higher than ASM’s back in the summer so I don’t see there being any issue at all.

Do you think Al-Ahli came bidding for ASM or do you think it was orchestrated?

I thought it was clear that I meant that you would sell one or the other for a squad place when I said that you wouldn’t buy another and keep both. Realistically we could have got £30 million for Almiron last summer from Saudi after the season he had which could have gone towards buying an improved first team player to help take us to the next level.

Other clubs are not in the same position that we are in though, our situation is quite unique.

We do not need Almiron, Murphy and another wide player. That isn’t even including Minteh coming in at a later date. You move on either Almiron or Murphy, financially it would make sense for it to be Almiron after the season over inflated his value. Then when Minteh comes in you move on Murphy

That isn’t how FFP works though. We had reached a position where we had our hands tied due to being at the end of the 3 year FFP period but had more money coming in down the line, so selling was the only way of releasing that money early.

Kiss of death.