Checko

I think it should be 69k, just because even the most hardcore stay at SJP would have to admit...

Also has to be mentioned that the interviewer said in the question 'so do you put that down to the fact you're so short of your first choice defence really' - He literally gave Ange an out in the question, then Ange was a bit of a dick to him.

Yeah but over a short period of time. Personally I'm not worried. Take Isak for instance: in 2021/22 he scored 6 goals in the season from 9.8 xG. Should have had an extra 4 goals that year. He'd scored 17 league goals the year before (16.8 xG), 9 from 7.3 xg the year before that and 13 from 11.7xG the year before that. Every other year before and after he's generally scored slightly more then his xg. Sometimes you just have a year, or run of games where things don't go as well as normal. The pattern I see with Gordon over the last few years is that he's scored pretty consistently about much as many goals as expected. Goals often come in clusters, he'll probably score a few in a couple of games at some point and be back to baseline. So yeah, of course he's not been clinical so far this year, but I'm not worried about his finishing over the long-term, I think it's fine.

Since the 21/22 season he's scored roughly what you'd expect from his xG every year, his finishing's fine. He's a bit below this year but that's just natural variance. At some point he'll grab a few and all will be well. With the header, yeah probably should have scored, but really the issue there was that because Murphy had lobbed it up to keep it in play it was dropping fast. Combined that with running onto it at high speed with a defender by him & you only need to be the slightest fraction out. It just dropped a tiny bit too much and he got over the top of it. Think Isak's one on one chip straight to the keeper was worse tbh. Also, watching the highlights, his pass to put Barnes through at the end was class.

As does him managing Genoa three times in a row between 2016 and 18!

Build a new stadium and name it after him IMO.

Very good performance, very good result. Pressed high man to man and forced errors. Made plenty of chances. Saw it out in second gear at the end. Thought Murphy was excellent. Bruno was bossing things. That outside-the-foot, first-time, volleyed crossfield ball to Gordon was sex on a stick. Isak getting a hat trick finally! Also nice to see Miley back and I thought he looked good, albeit we were in see-out-the-clock mode by then. Obviously vs newly promoted team etc. I appreciated they still tried to play at 4-0 down and didn't just go into a deep block. They just didn't have the individual quality. Anyway, a few tougher games coming up, but for now, merry fucking Christmas everyone!

They're a newly promoted team who hasn't won at home all year and missing their main attacking threat. We're an established top half team off the back of a couple of good performances. We should be reasonably strong favourites here IMO. Just hope we go out and play like it, I'm tired of us always playing like the underdog away from home.

I'll take that.

Howe made a mistake getting us into Champions League IMO. Should have just got us a solid 8th/9th placed finish in 2022 instead of massively overachieving. Then last year would have been progress and we'd still be on the way up.

7th or above is a perfectly reasonable target to aim for, we're about 7th/8th for squad cost and wages so that's roughly where you'd expect us to finish up. It's where we finished last year despite a ridiculous injury crisis and crazy cup draws. Plus with the 4th best goal difference (thank you Sheffield United). I wouldn't subscribe to the 'if we don't achieve the expected 7th you must be sacked' attitude though. There's a lot of randomness in football. Over the course of a season you could easily get 4 points more or less than your performances deserve. That's an 8 point swing, which was the difference between 8th and fourth last year. And sometimes you just have a bad year. Happened to Klopp the year we finished fourth. Happening to Pep this year. Doesn't mean the manager's not good suddenly. So yeah, you definitely look at league placing, but also other factors: overall performances, has the manager improved players, team unity etc. Because ultimately it's not about what the manager's just done, it's about what you think they will do in the future, and last year's results is obviously part of that evaluation, but only part.

@Lyonista where you at bro?

I want the type of RW who gets described by journalists as having 'a cultured left foot'. The sort of left foot that listens to Puccini and watches ballet.

I reckon Willock, it's the LCM role which is his position and he hasn't had much of a chance to start this year.

Think he's worth it at that?

According to that article, they want 50 million Euros, we want to pay 30, Transfermarkt values him at 40. So presumably 40 million euros gets the job done unless someone else comes in. 40 million Euros is about £33 million currently. I wish we'd joined the single currency so my keyboard would have a euros symbol.

Also I did a firefox translate of the page and apparently "Negotiations between Newcastle and PSV are a lot of stiff stingy." Make of that what you will.

Ibrahima Bakayoko was an absolute stud for me on Championship Manager 2, and even though they're different nationalities and absolutely no relation that's enough for me to hope this goes through. That, and a good injury record.

Hopefully not being too much of a dick here, but would anyone expect a Platinum Club at a football game to have a great atmosphere?'

Solid, professional performance. Very nice to see us in a lead and think, 'let's just keep the ball and make them chase us', rather than 'let's just punt the ball back and chase them'. Don't remember them having a decent chance until late on & we were 3-0 up, and for anyone complaining about Bruno not getting booked for diving vs Leicester, check out Wissa vs Dubs in the first half. Fingers crossed things are starting to take shape, though we'll really find out against better teams and away from home.

I think part of this is the James Bunce influence. Basically, the guy hasn't played regularly for a year so manage his minutes.

Tbf, Tino played 60 mins last match Hall the full game. Makes sense at 3-0 up to rest Hall there.

I'd love it if behind the scenes Eddie makes all the staff use thick Geordie accents to help them 'get' the club. And I wouldn't necessarily put it past him either.

From that Athletic article: "The early signs have been encouraging — just as they were in Monaco, when there was an uptick in player availability from 76 per cent before Bunce’s arrival to 90 per cent in 2021-22 — even if sample size remains small. Premier Injuries calculates the volume of injuries a team has suffered per 1,000 minutes played, or “incidence” rate. Across Howe’s three previous campaigns at Newcastle, 8.7 per 1,000 was the lowest incidence rate, while it reached 9.0 last season. In 2024-25, up to the November international break (13 matches), that had dropped to 6.0, 33 per cent down season on season. Compared to the same stage of 2023-24, it dropped 39 per cent (from 9.8). Newcastle's injury record per season: 2021-22 22 2,520 8.7 2022-23 39 4,170 9.4 2023-24 41 4,590 9.0 2024-25 7 1,170 6.0" Promising signs, though early days obviously.