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Think someone has mentioned this before, but you would have expected the club to have already done a lot of groundwork on incoming transfers for the summer. And we are led to believe Eddie Howe has been involved in this. If we have been working on the basis that we intend to go after players who will fit in with the current style of play then, you would have thought, it is going to be extremely difficult to pivot to a different set of targets. i guess it depends on what style of play Ross Wilson has been planning for.

This is the way I see things at the moment. When the takeover first happened we had a project to sell players and money to burn because of Ashley’s stinginess. And no-one had really appreciated that clubs really were going to be hit by the FFP rules. All this helped sell the club. By this summer all of this had changed making it much harder to persuade players to come and also we knew we had to be more careful with wages. I don’t think the fact Howe was the manager rather than a “bigger name” would make any difference. The reality is, with all the financial rules in place, the “project” (of being number one) is basically an impossibility for the foreseeable future. We can’t compete financially with the top clubs and we can’t over-perform for ever as this season has shown. So we need a new project with a new transfer strategy (as mentioned) and we need to continue to boost our income and we need to increase our global fanbase to make us more valuable to sponsors and the media who continue to control the game more and more. Ideally we could do with finding ourselves our own Son from a country which loves British football.

In times of crisis like this you need a superhero - perhaps we should send out for Supagoalie himself, Mick Mahoney. Here he is in his most convincing superhero pose

Mahoney signed in March 1975 and took over from McFaul in 1975/76 - McFaul played for the reserves in 1975/76 before retiring. Yes, Bruce was Scottish, but a forward who was signed from Preston. Never worked out for him and he went back to Preston. I think he is thought of as one of their best ever players of “recent” times.

One to bring back good and very bad memories. Richard Dinnis being chaired around SJP after Newcastle qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1976/77. To be followed of course by the abomination that was 1977/78. Now if people really want to see what a proper bad season looks like….

Mick Mahoney supagoalie and Alex Bruce are the other two

Didn’t realise it was his brother but I think they both were for a time.

Incredibly harsh on a young player just back from injury and coming into a struggling side. He was playing safe quite a lot, but he also played some excellent short first-time passes into space that set people away. We need more players who look after the ball and don’t keep giving it away. If that means he will play it safe until he gets the confidence to do more on the ball I would far rather that than the many players that are currently gifting the ball to the opposition on a regular basis.

if you check my profile picture you will see I have fond memories of Barman Tommy who was a far better keeper!

i did say “generally”, but the Ramsdale/Pope argument seems to be as contentious as the Howe in/out one! Best just agree to disagree.

I am not sure that is the case. Despite our defensive issues (which are partly down to him) he has not actually had that many shots to save in most games. Struggling to remember him making any saves on Saturday. And he is really bad at cutting out crosses across his six yard box.

Thought you were talking about Paul McCartney there at first - but for me the same applies to both of them.

I would say that even the current incarnation of Pope is a far better shot stopper/blocker than Ramsdale because of his far superior positioning, his reach and the fact that he stays on his feet rather than crumpling to the floor. And his mistakes generally come from him being a bigger risk taker than Ramsdale who tends to be glued to his line or sometimes even behind it.

when he signed I looked at a highlights reel and the obvious problem with him seemed to be that every save he seemed to make the ball bounced back into a dangerous area. Never seemed to hold on to anything or direct it away from the goal. Never tried to look at what he was like at Forest who obviously didn’t rate him. Eddie doesn’t seem to have been impressed but hard to believe he is worse than Ramsdale.

I think Tavernier was at Newcastle at youth level at some stage.

David Speedie and Kevin Drinkell spring to mind too

It is not the first time he has ended up behind the line, or on his knees or sitting on his arse after an attack. The defence isn’t helping him, but he isn’t helping the defence either. Goalkeepers are meant to dominate their six-yard box. Pope has definitely had a dodgy season, but I would play him rather than Ramsdale any day. If he plays at Arsenal and has the deal with all their “shenanigans” I hate to think what might happen.

Honestly - comments like this are totally agenda-driven - in the sixty odd years of the League Cup before Eddie arrived we had an atrocious record and only reached the semi-final once. But you say getting there (for the third time in four years) is “nothing special!”

but 2026 Pope is still better than 2026 Ramsdale imho

me too - highly unlikely but still possible and until it isn’t I will worry

I’m keeping faith in Eddie Howe, but if he doesn’t recall Pope (in particular) and Woltemade for the remaining games then I will begin to wonder.

You can see why he has been in a relegated team so many times, Howe simply has to recall Pope. Sure Ramsdale makes the occasional flashy save, but it is often because he has positioned himself badly. And his distribution is not much better than Pope’s either.

Newcastle v Charlton 1983/84

Nobody - totally agree - but selling him now for say £24m less than his “book” value is going to be an £8m “loss” for us over the next three years.

No point selling at a significant loss from a SCR/FFP perspective, far more sensible to send him out on loan so we don’t have to start making up the shortfall.