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How do you know that players and/or their families do not read the forum? Anyway I am really referring to match-going fans. I don’t know how many on here do.

No, the fans are not to blame. But (at least at the ground) we need as many people supporting (in a positive way) as possible.

If PIF came out and said that Eddie Howe will be Newcastle’s manager next season unless we get relegated is there anyone on here who would prefer us to get relegated so that Howe would be sacked? If not, then why not park all the negativity until our position is safe because right now we need everyone rowing in the same direction. Running for cover now….

That is my concern, I hope everyone is supportive at the ground tomorrow no matter what. Sometimes negativity can be self-fulfilling

I take your point and we will get a better idea at the weekend whether this is the case or not. I’ll be delighted to be proven wrong!

I suppose what I am trying to say as we should not underestimate the situation- all the other clubs - at the current time - are managing to galvanise themselves into a realistic but positive mindset with their fans and players pulling in the same direction. We need to do the same thing. Fans need to support, players need to get their act together and management need to find a safe passage.

That is why I said almost certainly,

If we win a game I am sure we will be safe, but what you said is not correct. if we win one game and lose the other three then our goal difference will almost certainly get worse, so Tottenham would not need to make up 9 goals or even six. But GD would not matter in this scenario anyway.

Sorry. Wasn’t meaning to be rude, but our GD is only six better than theirs. The quote from Steven Taylor “sleepwalking to relegation” is a bit too close to the situation at the moment.

I didn’t say that - of course I have hope we will get more points, but we should not be assuming the teams below us will need one more point than us.

We can’t rely on our goal difference as it will keep getting worse if we keep losing! Don’t understand why people can’t see this!

Not necessarily- our goal difference is not that much better than theirs so if we lost all 4 and Spurs drew 2 and won 2 I think they would have the better goal difference

I think some people have very short memories as teams often start putting a run together when all seems lost. Hate to hark back to 2015-16, but a team not far from here got eight points from their last four games to climb above us. i really hope that the players and management are less blasé than some fans about the situation. We need to get a point or three very quickly.

Unfortunately I think a vocal minority do and expect year-on-year progress/improvement as a result

I am surprised Graeme Jones is still at the club. He seems to be responsible for the attack and although he has not had a lot to work with this season we have struggled badly in our forward play.

I was really referring to be challenging for the title in 2030

I’m not sure he has much influence. There was a couple of games where you could see him trying to talk to subs as they were coming on, I assume to tell them their responsibilities when defending a set-piece and they were completely blanking him. You could see he was getting really annoyed. And I’m not sure you ever see him on the touchline these days. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him leave.

For me, in his latest interviews, he comes across as someone who feels incredibly let down. Let down by the club because of the way in which the Eales and Mitchell situations were mis-handled and contributed significantly to a disastrous summer. Quite possibly because of how the Isak situation was handled. Almost certainly because they keep publicly stating unrealistic ambitions which put unfair pressure on him and give fans false expectations. And let down by some players too who are not putting in the effort he would expect or deciding they have become bigger than the club.

Totally agree, there is a huge amount I dislike about the game now, but the cheating is the worst. Players and referees tend to take the criticism, but as you say it must be the managers and coaches who are telling them to do it. Wish a reporter would have the balls to challenge the worst offenders. There’s now criticism of tactical injuries, but they are far less impactful than the cheating which can directly lead to goals and sendings-off. Sport thrives on fair competition and sportsmanship and we seem to have lost them both.

Exactly and it is the real core of all the current issues: vast majority football’s income comes from broadcasters, therefore in football authorities interests to keep them happy and therefore both want to keep the clubs with the biggest global fan bases happy. Only makes the football world go around in ever decreasing circles.

It is the broadcasters, sponsors and media companies who are pumping the most money into the game by far so they have to be kept happy. Would they have wanted a Southampton v Leeds final? Absolutely not. They want to attract the biggest global viewing figures to attract advertisers therefore they are desperate for the clubs with the biggest viewing figures to be as successful as possible. Unfortunately therefore we are more likely to see more rule changes which favour those clubs, such as changing the cup-tied rules. And we are more likely to get more invitation-only competitions with massive prizes. Even these can get rule changes such as changing the transfer window. the whole caboodle is corrupt as hell.

think this has been a huge factor this season and, particularly now we need to concentrate on avoiding defeat rather than chasing wins

If you need to compare seasons, then you have to compare everything otherwise it is meaningless I don’t remember Bruce getting us to the semi-finals of the League Cup. I don’t remember Bruce getting us to the knockout stages of the Champions League. i don’t remember Bruce having to manage such a huge number of games either.

Our naivety of constantly throwing men forward in the search for more goals towards the end of games costs us massively. At times we should be concentrating on making sure we get at least a draw and not chasing wins. Keeping our shape and not committing too many forward. I think this comes from Howe and it worries me that the message will still be we need a win to keeep our Euro hopes alive when it should be we must not lose to ensure safety.