Erikse

I agree, I thought the same (Bruno going into the 6 role). At the same time if we look past this season, we've historically had some very good form periods with Longstaff playing alongside Bruno, with Bruno playing as a 6.

Not thrilled about keeping Longstaff, but if Tonali gets injured, wouldn't he be the current best option to fill that role? My guess is that if we buy someone, it would probably be a challenger for Joelintons role. A similar type to Tonali would just be on the bench most of the season, unless ofcourse Tonali gets a longer injury (he doesn't seem prone to them). I think Longstaff will stay unless he wants to go himself, or we get a pretty good bid (the latter being less likely).

Just read about it after your post. Without knowing all the context, it seems wild to collectively punish the entire PL for it.

Yes. However only one of those times we didn't get CL. The other time we did. My wording was just a little confusing, I didn't mean to say that we finished 2nd only once.

Yeah, it doesn't say anything about qualifying rounds either on wikipedia. Just 2nd and 3rd, and then Europa League next season. We did get into the CL with a second place finish in 96/97. Keegan finished top 3 twice without getting us into the CL, so the comparison is a bit unfair as we finished 5th this season.

Just noticed that he's the first Newcastle manager to reach the CL twice with us. Outside of the one time we reached CL in the 90s, we somehow had a 2nd and a 3rd place finish with both resulting in the Europa League? How did that happen? I was born in the 90s, so I don't have a clue.

The guy clearly haven't seen Jacob Murphy this season.

I'd be happy with Elanga. I think he's more consistent than Barnes. Will probably do more for us over the course of a season. I know they're not playing in the same position, point is that we're kind of happy with the Barnes signing, and we paid around 40m for him. I wonder how much Elanga would cost after this season, though? Didn't we apparently get a 50m bid rejected before this season, which was his best so far?

It's not the only player they will sign. As mentioned right before this post they also don't have Europe next season.

Man Utd also has no Europe, so they probably won't get many injuries or much fatigue. I think around 7th is pretty likely.

Man Utd will still attract good players. Like Cunha. I know they keep overpaying for flops, but some of them work out still.

Pretty much every other fanbase hates us aswell. Just look at every match thread from our opponents forums. Everton fans were saying that we were one of the "sky darlings" and how we were getting ref decisions our way and was going to spend £300m in the summer. It's not like PL isn't literally trying to make rules specifically desinged to slow our progress.. I wonder why if they are getting payed by the Saudis to let us succeed. Maybe the new rules are just a cover up!

Pretty sure we hate every other team in here. Can't think of a team in the PL that we actually seem to have some sympathy for.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJfO0ftsRpC/?igsh=MXM5NjZyaWllcHF6cw== Just saw this.

A new power struggle between Pope and Mitchell was the final straw..

True, seems like it. Even worse considering the fact that he knew Mitchell and his personality pretty well (again, assuming that the article is true).

I doubt we will let that happen again after all this.

If that is all true I really wonder why they appointed him to work with Howe.. Sounds like something that would never work out in a million years, and it was doomed before he had even said a word. Can barely think of a bigger mismatch.

Is he somehow related to Ratcliffe?

@Froggy So are they going to sell Höjlund (the future Isak) now?

He wouldn't leave them for Spurs imo. CL or not.

We also kind of need a right fullback, don't we? Livra can cover LB if Hall gets injured, but that leaves ut with Trippier or Krafth at RB. I have some doubts about Trippier being able to stay fit. He seems to get injured way more often in his older years. I'm not sure we can rely on his performances to stay on a high either. Krafth is fine defensively, but there's a pretty big gap between him and Livra. We ended up playing Murphy at RB towards the end of this season. Next season there will be a lot more games.

I agree, there has been suggestions of lack of effort and underestimating Everton as they were "on the beach". I doubt our players going into such a crucial game thinking they didn't need to give it all because the opponent may be weak.. These players wanted the win just as much as us, if not more. They dream of playing in the Champions League. It was clear to see that they were rushing it offensively, and kept trying to play through balls in scenarios where it would never work. We gave the ball away like this so many times, and I think the players was just stressed and impatient. Our offensive play in the first half was all over the place. Pure chaos. Still, we do not have that much creativity in our team, and it does matter in games like this one.

When we look back at our own thoughts from the past: We all have some posts that will look silly today if brought back to light. I've had my fair share of Howe doubts myself.. A couple of times I really thought he was too stubborn to be able to turn it around.

The look of a man whos just been given his first summer holiday in 3 years.