Tiburon

Ginola was sexy and so different (today I’d try and convert him into a Ronaldo type CF role, playing through the middle with his left and right foot capabilities), HBA was undoubtedly the most talented and exciting of all, Robert the most productive, but Sellars for me was the man! We’ve been blessed with talented wingers and wide players over the years on both flanks.

Scottish managerial royalty, RIP!

Can we not just 3D print a new stadium and have it shipped over while SJP gets demolished during pre-season?

Newcastle fans queuing for tickets for an FA Cup quarter-final vs Sunderland in 1956

I’d rather we went for Walker-Peters, he can cover both right and left back roles.

I guess such titles for players are all about which player from our past is part of someone’s greatest memories and times following their team. I mean my fave all-time NUFC player would probably be Andy Cole, yet Shearer IS the legend, the better player and did more for us. It’s about fan favourites too. I just don’t consider the likes of Robert a legend here. He’d probably be GOD himself if he had of played for the mackems mind who reserve legend status for absolute no-bodies like Ball which again goes back to how such titles are awarded to players based more on what they mean to someone the most than what they actually merit in the annal’s of the club’s history overall.

All true, but again I like that brutalist architectural look. I’d demolish half (most?) of the buildings that were built during the T. Dan Smith era and a few from the later 70s and 80s, but a lot of people I know who aren’t originally from here note how contrasting our city is in terms of architecture and layout in that you have a good mix of the brutal grim grey concrete buildings, lovely Georgian and Edwardian buildings and then the more modern. Having said that almost all of the modern buildings that have been built and are being built are an eyesore too and look cheap and nasty and will date massively in the coming years.

He was part of a defence that did keep a clean sheet there… And isn’t that what team-work is about, everyone helping each other out when one of the players is being overran or beaten by someone who holds all the aces which Saka did that game and still would mostly in a 1v1 even against someone infinitely better than Burn.

Any top quality attacker should (every now and again) get the better of a full-back regardless of how good that full-back is. We’ve seen Shearer absolutely smash some of the best Centre-back’s in our game, does that mean the likes of Terry getting rinsed every now and again mean Chelsea should have got rid for a much better centre-back? Of course our own Dan Burn is not of that level and ideally we’d have a top-class LB, but talk of selling him is madness, replace in the first-team yes, but not just get shot of him. He’s a very solid defender, even out of position at LB and is integral behind the scenes off the pitch in terms of what he brings to the squad. He does get forward, but isn’t a smooth footballer or particularly quick which makes him stand out like a sore thumb. It doesn’t help that when he does get forward beyond whoever is playing on the left, that player rarely makes use of him or the space he’s taken an opposition player away from. I will add, I’m not exactly keen on having a CB play LB just because he’s tall and left footed so as to give us extra defensive solidity back there based on that. We can have a LB who is also a good defender as well as being a good attacker who isn’t a giant. Trippier for me isn’t particularly great at defending and he’s small, but he reads the game so well and he sniffs out danger and has a great leap on him for his height too so that helps negate any defensive weakness in his game. We all know how good he is on the ball and getting forward. I’d like us to sign Walker-Peters for LB who can also play RB and wouldn’t cost the earth. The more pressing need in terms of defensive reinforcements, however, is a quick, mobile, ball playing CB to cover for Schar and eventually replace him.

Is Bellamy, who did just as much if not more in a NUFC shirt? Robert for me goes down as a classic former hero/icon in the way Dabizas, Nobby et al are. Obviously the likes of Robert and Nobby especially are the bigger club icons/heroes. Legend status should be reserved for the likes of Shearer et al only. IMO anyway!

I’ll be keeping a close eye on Celta Vigo now that Rafa is their gaffer.

I wouldn’t go so far as say he was a Newcastle legend and a Geordie twang? Where? Monsieur Robert is looking good though

A friend of mine who is a born and bred Milanista, but now lives here in Newcastle, is absolutely gutted about this and likened his sale to us selling Shearer under Sir Bobby to say Villa or Spurs when we were finishing 3rd and looking to challenge for the title. I asked him who in comparison is he similar to in our game and he said our Bruno, but quicker and not as good a passer, but he’s still decent at passing. His best position is box to box and that he is a born winner, will come here to be the best he can be for us and and to win big honours. He won’t flop because he has all the attributes and a monster mentality. He also said the Barella links were likely a smokescreen and if we were seriously in for him, other bigger clubs would have outbid us. I’m wondering if Inter got wind of our interest in the AC player and leaked stuff to their media that we were in for Barella to try and create a bidding war for their man given how cash strapped they are… Either way, I must say I’ve not seen anything of Tonali and if I have, he never caught my eye, but I’m very excited about this deal and what it demonstrates going forward in terms of our ambition and intent. We are in it to win it - the lot!

Just been to the hoppings, not a mackem top in sight, full of Saudi Mag tops though, and all gravy stained marra!

I quite like the brutalistic external concrete design of the East Stand which sits nicely with the beautiful architecture of Leazes Terrace and the cobbled brick lane towards the Strawberry, it’s very unique. We can’t lose Leazes Terrace just for the sake of a few extra thousand seats, but we can’t loose St.James’ Park for that either. A compromise will have to be found in order to modernise and increase the capacity without losing what’s special about the stadium and Leazes Terrace. I’d be against relocation and a new stadium.

Interesting read, so thanks. However, AC Milan didn’t pass up on Botman I won’t comment on your man or the Inter player as I’m not familiar with their game or indeed Italian football these days. Regarding Maldini if what you say is correct in that your owners are trying to sully his reputation, that’s quite tragic and something straight out of Mike Ashley’s playbook and I’d be worried if my club’s owners had to resort to such crap, what else will they resort to next? Maybe selling your poster boy? Maybe Maldin, a true Milanista, saw through your owners and their lies and bullshit and that’s why they sacked him and are now trying to degenerate his credibility, character etc. Sounds all too familiar with how Ashley did things here. I expect your man to be on a private jet all the way to Newcastle for an undisclosed fee soon!

I’m as optimistic about our club right now as anyone and I’m relaxed about the transfer window, but it staggers me since our amazing season that fans in general just dismiss the likes of Spurs when the reality is they are a top club and one we need to not just better over a season, but every season. I fancy them to have a good season if they get behind their manager on the stands and he gets to mould the team the way he wants. Of the so-called top 6 if I was a Man Utd fan I’d worry the most as they are still a mess and need another massive spend to rectify previous massive spend mistakes. They hardly have any players that they can cash in on massively ether. The ones they do like Rashford and Fernandes, they have to keep. Plus they have their takeover saga.

I find those fans who consider ourselves a better option for any player over Spurs quite baffling really and bordering on stupidity when all we have over them right now is one better season and a better manager. As we should know most, that can all change over night. All Spurs have ever lacked really since Poch left is a good manager who also happens to be the right manager. They’ve had good managers, but neither Mourinho or Conte were ever the right man and their new man may not be either. But if he turns out to be, as we’ve found out with our own Eddie Howe, all that will change. They have everything else going for them and a lot of things we don’t have ourselves right now. They arguably have the best stadium in the world, over a decade + strong European pedigree with a few Champions League campaigns thrown in including reaching the final itself recently and have been one of the top 6 sides in the division in that period. They arguably have the best all-round centre-forward in the world right now in Harry Kane who will likely stay and who along with Son despite being off form last season and like Kane not getting any younger, as a pair they form a deadly front two any player would love to play alongside, especially one like Maddison who creates so much. They also have the core of a good strong squad throughout, an academy and training ground way better than our own and as ambitious as we now are, let’s not kid ourselves they aren’t just as ambitious because they are. They’ve spent fortunes in the past and will continue to do so and because of their huge revenue streams and commercial power can pay players a bigger wage than we can currently. There is also the London factor too. Again the only thing that sets us apart on the pitch is our manager and that we had a better season than them which was close thing between the two prior to our 6-1 thrashing of them. At that stage we were both in the same race for Europe. if their new man is backed and shows himself to be the right man, they will be back right up there with us and may even be better positioned to regain their. place back in the top 6 which will be less tougher for them without any European distractions. If I’m a Maddison I’d be right up for a move to Newcastle United, but likewise a move to Spurs would be just as and maybe even more appealing to the likes of him so let’s not kid ourselves just because of our stellar season we are suddenly the big draw all of a sudden when in reality we still have a long way to go and as quickly as things have changed massively for the better where we are now in the conversation for top top players, so too are Spurs and always will be, like ourselves, as long as they are ambitious and have what we have in Howe, a top manager who happens to be the right manager for them. It won’t take much to turn things around at Spurs, not with their stadium, finances, ambition and Kane banging them in for fun. But, but… we have Bruno in the middle! Lets face it without the takeover, we’d be lucky just to have Hayden starting for us next season man and only then because we’d be lucky to see him fit!

Did they take long? What is a long time in any case? I mean transfer deals are never easy anyway or straight forward, especially in today’s game. I’m confident we will get who we want on our list or the right kind of players we need come the close of this transfer window. Since the takeover there seems to be some kind of mad scramble type mindset by fans and media alike to just go and sign some players already. There is no rush or panic. We have a huge team from Howe himself to everyone else involved in the recruitment side working behind the scenes on things and their record thus far is almost exemplary.

I think internally the club are fairly relaxed as things stand right now regarding transfers because I think they have already done the heavy spadework with their ‘list’ and are confident in signing the one or two players they really want on that list. And that’s why it’s kind of been quiet (compared to previous early windows post takeover anyway and what’s happening with other clubs) despite the constant links to either the same usual names or new names thrown about by the media who don’t seem to have a clue really and that’s because in truth (something the media don’t know the meaning of), they actually don’t. They most definitely don’t have a clue about budgets and while FFP could replace the club’s official nickname given that’s how much it’s used next to the name of ‘Newcastle United’ these days, I think the whole FFP thing, despite being a very real issue, if not a total bullshit one in terms of its creation, existence and enforcement or lack of, isn't the big deal it’s made out to be by both the club and especially the media. How much we will or won’t or can or can’t spend isn’t the issue or something that we have a limit on, it’s how much wages we will or won’t or can or can’t pay a player that’s the real issue with. Isak for the huge record fee of £63m in total on his current wages was no problem at all. Now if we had to pay him double those wages, that would have been a problem and will remain so until revenues increase and keep increasing. We’ll see movement soon in my opinion after the internationals and we see more players returning from their pre-season holidays. That and we will be watching who other clubs are interested in and want or not as well. I think we’ll get Maddison who we have already attempted to sign last season and seem eager to land, some higher quality squad level players and maybe one out of nowhere type big signing like we did with Isak. We have already or are in the process of adding players for future development not ready for first-team action right now. Basically, we need to chill and ignore most of the noises in the media. This is the most relaxed I’ve been in over two decades regarding the transfer window despite not being as this excited before as I am at the mere thought of how our squad will look like once the window closes.

O’Neil did what can really only be described as a fantastic job in keeping Bournemouth up, which was surely their only aim last season?! As a result he can feel rightly hard done by getting the sack, however, if they feel he’s not the long-term right man for the job, they are well within their rights to say thanks, but no thanks and look for someone who they obviously feel is the right man for the job. So a new name to the madness that is the Premier League then… I can’t say I know anything of him or Iraola’s body of work, but it wouldn’t be surprising to say he will likely end up on the managerial merry-go-round probably sooner than their fans would certainly hope not. No doubt our xenophobic media will be on his back from the off and all the noise will be how another British manager lost his job to Johnny Foreigner which can massively work against a manager new to our game. For O’Neil though, off the back of his - let’s be honest here - very very good achievement in keeping them up, a decent job somewhere awaits. It will be interesting to see how he progresses. The man he replaced, our former Scott Parker has some notable promotion achievements to date, but seems headed for a destiny of a journeyman type manager if he’s not careful. He will need to find his ‘own type’ of club and settle down with that club surely if he’s not to become that journeyman. I get the impression he’s been too ambitious and too eager to make an impact right from the off since becoming a manager and that can backfire. Bruce started out like that when he started out, going from club to club, and had a decent thing going for him with Sheff Wed before darkening our doorsteps. Luckily for Parker I think he has more about him than Bruce, mind that’s not saying much… As for Moore, that’s a shame as he seems a top man, but maybe the Sheff Wed job was probably just a tad too much for him in terms of size/task ahead etc. especially with their neighbours back in the top-fight. You’d hope he would get a crack at a decent club soon enough though. Prediction - O’Neil to replace Luton or Sheff Utd’s manager at some point during the season on his way to becoming that ‘type of’ appointment.

The gig is up for him, no ambitious enough team left in the PL would touch him it seems, he’s basically given up going back to Celtic. Easy money and more easy titles.

I’ve read that Howe identified Joelinton more as that type of player during his round of interviews for the job when detailing how he could add value to the existing players. He basically evaluated every player at the club for the new owners and saw Joelinton as integral to how he wanted us to play and how he saw the player himself developing. We now have a coach as methodical and as analytical as Rafa when it comes to players and it’s showing in the huge turnaround in players’ games like Joelinton who is on the verge of becoming a full international for Brazil when under 2 years ago he was a laughing stock among our own fans (something I myself was guilty of) ad deemed a huge flop and simply not cut out for PL football by so-called experts. Thank god Howe saw different and knows better. He’s been transformative for Joelinton. It has to be noted, however, the player himself has shown a great aptitude to develop, change and become the best version of himself he can be and the beauty of that is he is only just starting and will get better and better, as will we. Happy days!

The fact he along with many others were still at the club even post takeover having been part of a Championship promotion side a few years prior sums up the whole Ashley era. Average players on long contracts hard to shift. Unlike a good number, however, Clark can leave with his head held high and with good thanks from the club and supporters for his time here which was largely decent enough given what we were as a club and his limited talent. He scored vital goals and played a huge role in us going back up under Rafa and proved to be good value for money. I wish him good luck, but also I’m glad the likes of him will never be accepted here at this now more ambitious and serious club, not even as a squad player. We still have a number to shift on, but that will come.