500bhp

It was fucking great in the SoS today. Great atmosphere but the buses were a pain Anyway we were brilliant they were shit and its heaving in toon right now ?⚽️⚽️????

Not quite. Stuck on a bus on the Scotswood Road held back ?

It's not just us. The crowd at the Ally Pally are quite quiet tonight so far!

There are some pubs open from 6am ?. But anyway, there is alcohol being served in the stadium with fans arriving there from 10am so plenty of drinking time for those who want to.

The arrangement for Saturday arent great but it's the price we pay for taking 6000 v 2500. I'm not complaining because the bigger allocation means I've got a ticket and 6000 pissed up fans will be noisier than 2500!

Titus Bramble. Remember when he was about 19 and scored for Ipswich on a run from his own 18 yard box. Then he signed for us....

Reading the post back the last paragraph was a bit much and probably bollocks ? But I stand by the rest of the post. Things change quickly in football and here and now he is fantastic for where we are on our journey. On his day he is our best player by a mile and worthy of his many MOTM awards. However, if we want to improve on last years 4th place we need players like Rodi, Rice, etc in that position. He is not at that level. I remember just after the takeover one of my first thoughts was great we will now definitely keep hold of ASM and build the team around him. He can play a key role in our progress over the coming years. 12 months later he couldn't get a starting place. Things change quickly.

Time will tell ?. Let's see who he joins and what he achieves when he eventually leaves us.

We are at halfway point now and 8 points off the top 4, well its 10 if Man City win their game in hand against Brentford. We should pick up second half of the season with less games and the injuries clearing up hopefully. But no way do we get top 4 or 5. Looking at around 8th I think. If Brighton and West Ham do well in Europe we may get 7th.

Bloody hell. I hope not. Was planning on getting a couple of quick pints in Spoons beforehand.

Time will tell. As I said above if he is a Madrid/Barca/Man City/etc regular in 6-18 months I'll admit I was wrong ??. I've watched him since he signed and in my opinion he peaked in his first 25 games or so. Not been the same since his ankle injury. Maybe it's as simple as he needs his own Tiote next to him to do the tackling and break up play that he cant do. He's our main midfielder and we've been soft as shite all season in centre midfield teams running through us. Brighton, Wolves, Everton, Spurs, Luton and now Forest. I'll ignore Bournemouth as Bruno didn't play.

I cant speak for PIF obviously but they didnt buy NUFC to lose to Luton and at home to Forest. We've now entered the unknown phase. Do they allow the UK based owners to make the football decisions or are they more hands on? None of us can answer that. Only time will tell. I think we'll go on a run next year and climb the table when the injuries clear and we have no more midweek cup games. But who knows.

Prime Tiote was much better than Bruno, as was Batty who was massively underrated. No fucking way would relegation threatened Luton and Forest run through the centre of our midfield with them playing. We will know the answer in the next 12 months or so. If Bruno moves to Barcelona or whoever and kicks on then I'm wrong. If he doesn't then....

Cant see him making a traditional top 4 PL team; Manchester x2, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal. certainly not based on this season's performances particularly away from home as things stand. But bizarre things happen in football. Say Liverpool sell Salah to SA for £200m, or Arsenal with Rice then who knows what happens then? I never ever said he was shit. Just not as good as some people make out. I dont follow international football but does his mate from West Ham still get a game before Bruno. He's a very important player for us and been a fabulous signing but not beyond criticism. He's not as good as Lee, Batty, Speed, Tiote and maybe Cabae.

I'm not disputing he's a very good player. But there are some on this forum who elevate him beyond how good he is. If he gets MOTM or close to this in our next three PL games I'll admit I'm wrong ??

In which case he is talking bollocks?. We were not beaten today due to fatigue, we looked very fit all game. Burn was skinned all game from minute 2 and Almiron and others were crap. Every single team in the PL are well familiar with our 433 formation from last year. They have loads of employee (including AI?) who analyse our style of play and work out how to play against us. The Trippier, Longstaff, Almiron triangle does not work now, that was for last season. Howe needs to find a Plan B and use that when appropriate. He's a very clever guy and will work it out. Just hope he gets the time to do that ?

Ahem..... I love his passion and commitment. But would he get into CM of a top 4 team? Too slow, cannot shoot or tackle cleanly. He was outstanding against the 10 men of Fulham but when was he MOTM against a top team, especially away from home. He's perfect for where we are now but not effective away from home, just like Gini. Keep him for the next 18 months then upgrade to a player like Vieira, Lampard, Gerrard, Rice, etc. Take the cash and strengthen the team and replace with Miley. In fact, Miley can be our Gerrard.

We have the richest owners of any football club in the world. (Acknowledging that FFP means we cannot spend the money) The Saudis do not do second place. I hope he can turn this around in the second half of the season once we get back into the weekend to weekend games and injured players come back. But football is not fair and we do not know how our SA ownership will react. Will be an interesting next few months.

Agreed on both views. Thought some of him passing and vision for a 17 year old was amazing today.

Lets be honest, he's shite and has been for about the last 5 years apart from a bizarre purple patch this time last year that lasted for about 2 months. If we want top 4 he needs to be replaced at the earliest opportunity.

So less than Trippier has made already this season FFS!

Yes, playing the part time Latvian sheep farmers is not the same as facing PSG, etc ?

Just like Tuesday night, no goals conceded when this guy is on the pitch.

We are basically playing a weaker version of last season's team. None of the 5 summer signings have started today. Some of that is due to back luck in Barnes and Tonali but we are suffering from a poor transfer window.

Our centre of midfield is pathetic away from home. Every single team runs straight through it. So light weight in there.