Pablo

I really thought we should have picked up Ekitike when he left PSG. Whether a loan or an outright purchase. Maybe we tried, kept it quiet, or maybe they lost faith in him after 2 public refusals. Young players can really damage their careers going to the super clubs too early. Very few are Bellingham at such a young age. I really hope we find a way to recruit Arda Guler this summer.

We looked at Kerkez the summer we signed Hall. More evidence that our scouting system is strong. Shame we don’t have the funds to pull the trigger more often.

Didn’t he say he would only return after we had won something…

Back to topic. Trippier, solid C

If you look who is immediately next to Tino on the pitch, it doesn’t help his development. An aging Schar and JMurph, and to a lesser extent our Gk and Bruno. Love them all, but I’m sure this affects our right backs game, as normal passing angles and passes received are from those players. He will get better again, as the quality around him increases. Totally wild and needless take to want to cash in or to criticise him on social media.

We under-value him. Always have since it turned out he wasn’t a £50m player good enough for Manchester Utd. Hes a fine understudy, good character, home grown which is useful for Europe. Not good enough to start regular, and I don’t want to rely on him. However it will be very rare the reason we lose is solely down to him. There are 10 other players on the pitch too. Would be a good pick up for a lot of teams. Happy to sell, but only when it suits the club. I trust Eddie to make that call.

Agree, we should pull out the stops to get another elite midfielder for lcm. In any other era we are on the brink of something special. The fact we can’t buy players to compliment the quality we have is so frustrating. We have 4 players who Grace any team in England, complimented by a handful of quality players and then some great grafters to support them. 3 additions to the first 11, with no injuries and we can go toe to toe with anyone in a one off game. Sadly we need another 10 players to challenge on all fronts. if we can keep the core, and mother age doesn’t beat us down, we have the potential to be the best team in England. Sadly, I just don’t see it happening as I dream, and we remain stuck in no man’s land bobbing between mid table and top 5. If I were a quality young player with time for a career to develop, we are the best destination is England. I’m just less sure a player at their peak pick us, until the financial handcuffs are off. Its both the most exciting and the most annoying time to be invested in this team.

But we buy 2 or 3 other key players, squad building. With luck, one of them turns out to be world class. I don’t want to do it, as I like having Isak as our talisman, but that is a legitimate strategy to improve as a team and as a club.

We were strongly linked with Cunha before he went to Wolves. That ship has sailed. Good player though.

Villa got an obscene amount for Grealish. Without that they wouldn’t have been able to have a go. They sold a 50m player for twice his value, and have been excellent ever since they replaced their fraud managers. if we could have sold one of our wingers, ASM. Miggy or Murphy for a similar amount, we would be title challengers now. Sad thing is, we spent good money on all of them. Shows the value of building your own ‘superstars’

I’m happy for Sven to be a rotation option. He’s done well since coming back, but after a serious injury, if we don’t have to force him to start every game, all the better

There’s a young lad at Forest called Elliot something or other, if we could attract a player like that it’d do wonders for our squad depth. He looks very well coached, greatly motivated and apparently loves Newcastle. Wonder what we could do to attract such a well rounded and versatile player.

It was definitely reffed different to most games. The commentary were doing my head in making out it was good. Had their lads received the yellows you’d expect then they couldn’t have continued deliberately fouling everytime we had the potential to break. It actually killed the rhythm of our game, led to a loss of control underpinned by Joelinton cutting down Baby Kluivert and our resultant comprehensive loss. I don’t understand why he gave Tyler Adam’s a booking for the Joelinton incident. He played on with Baby K on the break, no advantage to us,. I suspect while that incident played out VAR effectively told him it was a foul on Gordon. Makes me wonder how many more times VAR noticed his poor decision making but couldn’t intervene.

Everyone getting a ticket in the normal areas should be a season ticket holder or a member. If they don’t know the grounds layout where have they been for the last x years. Ignorance is no excuse. Agree the tickets should be labelled as standing. I can’t be bothered dealing with idiots behind me, when trying to watch the game and get behind the lads, but would rather stand given the choice. Theres a lot of decent folk around the ground, but also a lot of tools splattered all over too.

If it weren’t for ffp the bet365 lass who owns Stoke would probably have a go at getting them promoted. As it is, they won’t survive if they’re promoted. Football is becoming rubbish across all the leagues, and all so Crystal Palace, Brentford, Brighton and other unworthy teams can stay in the Premier League with no owner investment. Id say the Championship is at a low ebb as the quality is so poor compared to lower mid table of the prem.

I’ve not understood this for a few weeks now… why do we need to increase his pay to keep him to the end of the season. He has a contract which he should honour if we don’t sell him.

Hopefully someone like Burnley. Lad deserves a chance.

What everyone seems to be missing is that the main reason atmospheres are rubbish is due to the people within it. It seems that the existing season ticket holders want to stay where they are, and there is a massive family section. It is challenging to get like minded noisy, invested and radgie fans co-located. If nothing else a new stadium will force moves, and I’d expect the club to set up specific sections whether formally or informally. If we stay at SJP it will never improve, if we move, there is a chance of a small upturn in atmosphere, but football has changed and it will never be the bear pit it was in years gone by.

Hope we have a buy back clause. Doubt it cos of how rushed the deal would have been.

TAA says hello, I mean goodbye

I’d love to agree with you as that’s what they deserve. I’m concerned they are just kicking the can down the road to carry on challenging for titles until the Catalonian state, a European Superleague or an abolition of current rules occurs, with them of course a major player at top tables in whatever the next evolution of football is. It looks pretty much impossible for any elite team of the last 15 years to fall away now. I’ll eat my hat if any of Man City, Manure, Chelsea or Barcelona aren’t challenging for and winning major honours, whilst mopping up the most prestigious players for there squads in 5 to 10 years time in spite of their current and recent transgressions. Meanwhile, let’s all introduce every hurdle going, fair and unfair, so wee little Newcastle, that irrelevant team in the North East, can’t mix with the big boys. Makes you throw up your sprouts.

All this talk of not needing Sean Longstaff during a European campaign in particular is folly. If we are forced to register a reduced squad size, then injury and accumulation of games and fatigue could destroy our season again. We cannot have the same 15 or so players playing every game. There isn’t another lad in the academy that can step up and provide what Sean does, not for the foreseeable. He’s a senior pro, with bags of talent and experience, who can do a job when called upon, especially as a rotation option which is what he will accept he is now. If we make europa or conference , and for domestic cups and league games against the bottom half he would more than hold his own in the early rounds allowing our better players to rest. What we don’t want is Sean starting against the best sides frequently. As a fan base we massively under appreciate his worth, both in monetary and footballing terms. Selling Sean for a few bob is great from a psr perspective, I get it, but a replacement of similar standing is going to have a similar cost. Some of the fan base, match going and online treat local players poorly, not every lad born a geordie can be as good as Gazza or Shearer.

Whose was it then, her indoors?

Wasn’t the support for Eddie Howe chiefly in the form of despicable Dan who was promptly sacked for recommending a premier league experienced manager, rather than having a list of foreigners. The dirty rat knew better. I’m cautious not to pick fault and laugh at them too much since I’m desperate for a league win at old and broken Trafford.

The job was his, but he opted to stay in Spain for another 6 months. I think when he reflects on his career he will regret it, as we are going to get over this psr handicap in time, and quite likely without changing managers. I don’t see Emery getting a higher profile job than Villa.