500bhp

Lived in the NE all my life been going to SJP for 45 years and this is the most relaxed I've ever been about a derby result. Was different 10 years ago when the FCB had dragged us down to their level and all we had was to beat them and avoid relegation each season. Not now though. We've been in CL two of last three seasons, make cup finals and win the bloody thing, our best players go for £130m, half the England team can be made up of our players (Pope, Burn, Hall, Tino, Gordon). Don't get me wrong I'd love it if beat 'em. But if offered the chance I'd happily give them six points if it means we win a trophy again this season.

Wednesday's game is just as important for me or maybe even more. I've seen us lose to these loads, home and away, so take it in my stride now but that cup final victory in March was a different level. Would be amazing to repeat that this season or win the FA cup. These games mean more to them than to us in my view, but think we will not lose, probably edge it 2-1. If we do lose please no plie on onto Eddy.

Not necessarily. We play one up top and have Wolt and a now fit Wissa with Gordon as an emergency. Loan move seems strange unless it includes an obligation to buy.

Minimum of £90m for Tino. He's young, English international, CL experience and played all his career in PL. Man City were dropping £50m on fullbacks 5-10 years ago.

Based on the MoTD highlights they were very lucky to only lose 3-0. Mind you, we get turned over every season at the place!

Seen the 30 minutes highlights this morning. We created way more second half than I remembered. Some great saves by Dubs. We weren't as bad as some on here are suggesting. Professional performance, got the job done with no injuries or suspensions.

They are one win in six and slowly slipping down the table. Expect a close game.

Our team that finished 4th had a fit Wilson and very good Isak, not to forget a brilliant Botman and Bruno and others. I saw their game last night and they have nothing like quality. I said it before on here that they are like us under Rafa but with a bit more pace and drive. That's a realistic comparison.

They made a big mistake signing all those forrins, instead of players with PL experience.....

Of the £150m we spent on the three PL experienced players this was the one I didn't get at the time. We sold Longstaff for £12m-£15m and he seems to be having a good season at Leeds, and replaced him with this guy for £43m. He's taken on the Longstaff role perfectly. Sit on the bench and come on for 15 mins at the end of every other game. Maybe I'm missing something really obvious with Ramsey but he seems too lightweight for our robust style of play. Would look better at Man City. And we handed a massive PSR boost to one of our closest rivals.

He peaked in the cup final, been poor since then. Got to hope a non PIF Saudi club offers us £50m in the summer.

It keeps getting extended until Liverpool score a winner!

They look well organised and solid with no flair and minimum goal threat. A bit like us under Rafa when he was operating on a limited budget under the FCB. Should be good a 12-15th place finish this season.

Its possible we'll be above them when we play. They have Liverpool and Man City away next.

Such a naturally gifted and intelligent footballer.

Im sure I read on here that the squad is announced on 11th December. Suspect he'll still be out until Mackems on 14th.

We are not playing three games per week. It's midweek then weekend, repeat and repeat. Its two games per week. Very occasionally we play Sunday, Wednesday then Saturday, but it's rare. That's three in seven days. But sometimes it's three over nine days. We are of course playing way more games than last season due to eight extra mid week CL games. and it impacts how we train and prepare for games.

International football which isn't the world Cup, euros or the other continental tournaments. I'd ban all friendlies and tournament qualifiers. Use the very best AI algorithm to work out the teams to enter the tournaments based on strength of domestic leagues, where the top players are from, etc. There must be enough data out there to do that 😀. So if PSG win the CL with half their squad French, then they are good enough to enter the WC. Same with England who have 6 teams in CL and we (Newcastle) regularly use 8+(?) English players in games. This will allow Eddie more time to train our squad and work out a formation that gets the best out of Big Nick and his rather unique set of skills.

It must be about one and a third seasons since our number 9 scored a league goal. Can't remember that happening before.

A radical 352 with none of our underperforming wingers. Pick the three most inform CBs from the four. Hall and Tino as very attacking wingbacks. Centre midfield Bruno, Tonali and AN Other. Wiss and Nick up top.

We need a proper defensive holding midfielder. A Tiote destroyer type player who will stop the opposition running straight through us. Like JoeL did in the cup final but seems unable to do it now.

Or a glass half empty person will say we are averaging 1.09 points per game. So on course for a 41 points finish 😁 I'm sticking to my pre season prediction. Finish between 8th-10th.

Thats not 100% correct. In the summer 2024 window we also signed the Greek keeper for £20m and were obligated to pay £28m for Hall.

And we don't rotate very often especially in PL, Bournemouth aside. We are essentially playing the same team as two or three years ago. Only Thiaw and Big Nick started yesterday, otherwise it was our 2023 team.

We are missing the rat. Was obvious all pre season and has been since the Villa game. He frightened opposition defences and was a constant threat, well for the first 60 minutes anyway. He's not been replaced and our wingers look lost without him, except Murphy at times.