Upthemags

Howe on exceedingly thin ice - his mistakes in selection today playing out before our eyes. Mitchell will look for any excuse now to give him the hook.

Class.

Time for another

Hall isn't ready, Osula isn't, Tonali isn't, Barnes isn't ready to start, neither is Kelly.... Fit for purpose are we?

Hall has been dreadful

Exactly

We are rank man

A minute in and we're already better with Barnes on... who would've guessed?

Isak off???????? From his nose?

Is Longstaff blacked out on ur tv?

*with Longstaff and Murphy on the pitch Eddie's genius strikes again

Big Joe is out of control. No discipline. Needs a word.

We should be battering them. Relegation fodder thus far.

You wonder if Barnes might start mulling over an exit... Unless he's carrying a knock

Bizarre any way you slice it

Burn starts at cb over Kelly because Burn is better at football than Kelly

Lad doesn't even get in over Krafth right now.

Would be massive if Everton could hold this

Haaland with 9 goals already

It isn't behind closed doors when Eddie says "don't look at me, look at Paul Mitchell", is it?

I think a good manager is brave enough to call a spade a spade. Could Mitchell have politician-speaked his way through the whole interview, sure I guess? It's funny because so many were so desperate for an explanation from Mitchell, and now that he's given us one, we don't like it because he's hurt some feelings with his assessment. Remember: he was backed into a corner when Eddie said that he was hands off this transfer window - that comment was indirectly saying the entire debacle was Mitchell's fault. Newcastle top brass are big boys, and they can handle the criticism, I'm sure. There's nothing unusual about a manager voicing his displeasure with a system, especially when he's literally been brought in to fix it. I'm glad our director has the cajones to stand up for himself and improve our system.

CP going down would be such an intense hit of schadenfreude

Haaland man....

Covering your eyes at internal disorganization is how you end up like a club like ManU, an unmitigated disaster with zero internal structure. We nearly swapped AG for Joe Gomez a few months ago because we've been unprepared to meet the burden of the new rules. The only reason Mitchell's comments should upset you would be if you disagree with what he said. Eddie backed him into a corner when he said he had zero say in the goings on of the transfer window. That was aggressively, arguably maliciously, dishonest. Do people really expect a guy who has run operations at clubs like Tottenham and Monaco, who's unearthed world class talent in players like Mane, to not stick up for himself, and to give us a dose of honesty - and reality- we've been clamoring for for weeks, if not months? It doesn't take a genius to see that a system where we're knocking on the doors of the cartel six, begging them to take our crown jewels at the eleventh hour, is grossly, negligently, unfit for purpose. I'll take the honesty over more smoke and mirrors from the rest of the lot.