Checko

Nah, Rooney will drink it all.

He was a handful when he played us. I don't know much about his overall game but Everton fans seem to rate him despite him not being particularly clinical so I'm sure his all round game is decent. Wouldn't suprise me if he's another McTominay-style smokescreen though

Assuming the stats are reasonably accurate he's only scored about 3/4 of the goals he should have done based on the quality of chances over a 7 year period. That's not a great finishing record.

Yeah, a striker who's not as efficient at finishing but gets into the right positions to score more often might end up scoring as often anyway.

By comparison Wilson has 77 goals from 75.8 xG / 65 non-penalties from 65.8 non-penalty xG https://fbref.com/en/players/c596fcb0/Callum-Wilson

Tbf, accoring to football reference he has scored 53 goals from 67 xG in the seasons since they've been recording xG and 5 of those were penalties (from 6 taken) https://fbref.com/en/players/59e6e5bf/Dominic-Calvert-Lewin EDIT: 48 goals from 62.5 non penalty xG Everton fans were saying he's not very clinical on their forum

Had a friend who doesn't follow football but she saw him on TV & was like 'where's he from? He looks like he could be Jonah Lomu's cousin'

I don't think DCL's injury record is quite as concerning as first appears: 1. He doesn't appear to have one injury that keeps recurring (see Wilson's constant hamstring niggles over the years for example: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/callum-wilson/verletzungen/spieler/123682) 2. 18/19, 19/20, 20/21 he missed less than a couple of months combined in those three years - one bruise, one muscle injury and a few days with a hamstring niggle 3. 21/22 - he missed 125 days with a broken toe. Lot of time out but no repeated history of this, probably just one of those things that can happen. 4. 22/23 - Few injuries this year, can't deny it. Following the previous year probably established his sick note reputation 5. This year - only a broken cheekbone keeping him out for a few weeks. No muscle injuries etc. Obviously his injury record still is a bit of a concern, but probably not as much of a concern as Callum's multiple ACLs and constant hamstrings. Had a look on GOT and most seem to rate hm and would be sorry to see him go. Sounds as if he's been left on an island a bit by Dyche this year. Sounds a good lad. One says a reasonably reliable ITK on another forum says a deal agreed and will be announced 1st June, though this could well be internet hearsay bollocks.

After waiting 47 or so years just to finish ahead of them in the league, if they nick our European place quite frankly I want the UN called on him.

I'm still not over Perch leaving

Nick Pope in July as well. It's all true!

Man if we sign DCL and Lloyd Kelly I don't think we'll need to conduct an internal review to work out why we have so many injuries next year!

If Bruno goes it'll be gutting, but we'll get one of the highest transfer fees of all time for him and will be able to reinvest it into buying loads more lovely, lovely footballers. Still hope he stays though.

Newcastle Soccer Stuff

That's good to hear, you can tell pretty quick from watching an actual game whether a keeper's comfortable with the ball at his feet.

Saw something a few days ago, might have been Edwards, saying Howe preferred Ramsdale but others preferred Big Mama. Who knows though as Ramsdale could have been a smokescreen.

On Fb reference a launched pass is one over 40 yards

One of those graphs you look and and think, 'whoa he's absolutely insanely good' and then realise half of it is just saying 'he boots the ball really long all the time and is very inaccurate doing so.'

Guy's literally 9 hours ahead of us and claiming time difference means he's not up to date. BS.

Ashworth's probably left a jar of this knocking about somewhere. Should check his old office.

End of the year, players rest/recover physically and mentally. Preseason starts, you do some training, then go on a tour to spread the good word and play a few friendlies, couple more matches close to home to finish off. You do the publicity tour preseason because the players do actually need to play then.

In a way it feels like Howe was making a point that this whole thing was bullshit and shouldn't happen again.

Feels like as we're going to the right hand side of the world for some preseason friendlies anyway, could have done this as part of preseason, though obviously there's probably some accounting shenanigans involved to raise cash by June.

Anyone fancy teaming up to place a few random big bets on Bruno F to get booked next year, just in case?

I hear Tonali was gambling on his phone behind Ashworth the whole time during negotiations and people kept shouting 'Look behind you!' at him, but he didn't listen.