DC Magpie

Well I hope that process is well underway, but I haven't heard anything like that. I admit I could be dead wrong.

Fair - poor word choice by me. Cheers.

Well we've been hearing about a training facility and stadium upgrades for how long now? Nary a shovel in the ground yet though. If zoning and other permitting laws in the UK are half as much of a pain in the arse as they are here, it could be a while longer.

Agreed. My feeling is that we have been a pet project for a disinterested set of owners. Maybe PIF giving up on LIV golf will allow them to focus more resources (time and money) here improving facilities, etc.

Cheers. Fair points all, and I want what is best for the club above all else. But I will point out that after three full weeks of (mostly) uninterrupted training time, we came out looking the same tactically, but as flat and boring and predictable as we've ever looked in my recent memory, putting together the most pathetic string of performances (and results) in quite some time. Playing in Europe every year should be the goal (if not expectation just yet), and if Eddie can't adapt to managing to that workload and lack of training, we ought to find one who can.

This, in my view, is the worst case scenario (i.e, keeping him on through the summer, signing a bunch of players who run fast to fit his system (but not much else), and then a bad start to 26/27 and Eddie is out by Christmas). That sets us back more than a season I think. Credit to Eddie, I thought the lineup had no chance of success (wrong again), but I still think now is the time to pivot. I don't think he can he build (in terms of quality depth) and manage a team that is suited to playing twice a week over the long term, as his style wears his favorites to the nub. My view is that the long-term risks of going all-in on Eddie this offseason are too great after this season. Erect him a statue outside the park for all he's done for us, but we need fresh thinking and a new approach, and a new manager needs to be in place this summer to make the signing decisions to fit that approach.

Maybe not this year (though hope springs eternal) but we certainly have made a habit of taking a lead then conceding late and throwing away league points. it’s a shame, but it feels inevitable that Nick is gone this summer. Here is an honest question. Is it worth £69M to avoid relegation?

…and I wanted a pony for Christmas. He’s done at Newcastle. I really wish it had worked for him here but at this point his agent is negligent letting him stay. He has no place in this system with this coach. And it looks like Eddie is staying. ran into a couple Geordies at the inter Miami game tonight. Miami choked away a 3-0 lead and lost 4-3 in extra time. Glad we could make the Geordies feel like they were at home.

he does that frustrated “hands on head” thing quite a bit with the shit finishing, doesn’t he?

He led them in goals during WC qualifying. He looked lost in the Ghana friendly a few weeks ago though. He should have scored twice but shanked one wide and hit the post on a header. A strong summer both at the WC and in the weight room is just what the doctor ordered. I imagine there is no one more ready for this EPL season to be over than him. Except maybe me. Oops. Wirtz had more assists. Corrected above.

Agree. I hope Nick gets a chance here. I’m not optimistic he will.

Watching the game, I also was thinking Kane would be an excellent role model as to how to use Woltemade in a new system (he'll never be like Kane in a 4-4-3). It appeared Bayern ran a 4-2-3-1 with Kane up top, which is a system in which I think Nick would excel. I hope he gets that chance here. Nick needs a tough summer in the weight room to be sure. With his frame he'll never be bulky, but he can definitely add some weight and muscle mass. He has a few weaknesses to work on to be sure and I think his strength is main among them (especially when the refs don't seem to be inclined to call fouls for him). Fortunately, it's also the easiest to address.

Good luck with signing a proper striker. What proper striker is coming here after this shit show? We don't even play a proper striker do we? Shit, we barely play offense. "Come to Newcastle, where we can let you show many flashes of brilliance but then we'll just ask you to run around in circles and fuck your season because you're not fast. Oh, and we don't know anything else to do. Oh, and let's hope your national team coach isn't watching."

I watched Germany play Ghana in a friendly last month, and Nick yanked one wide he should have scored and hit the crossbar on a header where he also should have scored. I'd not be surprised if Nagelsmann is wondering what the hell happened to his #9 up there by the North Sea. I feel for Nick. Hope he can put together a good World Cup (I'll go watch Germany play US in Chicago In June for their final warmup). I'll wear my Newcastle shirt and we'll see if he waves and says hi or gives me the old Leslie Chow.

Nick has as many goals off headers this season as Gordon has non-PK goals total. And that's just three I can think of. Wolves, Arsenal, Spurs. Agree he looks terrible trying to win 50/50 balls in the air from 60 yard kicks Pope/Ramsdale but he's probably never been asked to do that and he definitely needs a solid season in the weight room putting on some muscle to make that work better.

Cheers. So I went back and looked and you're right. But even if you count the starts that way we've got 27 points in Nick's 17 starts (versus 15 points in the 17 matches without, which makes for an easy comparison). We were averaging better than 1.5 league points per game which would have us at 54 points today and right in the thick of things for Europe next year. In those other 17 games, we're averaging less than a point and at our rate in those games we'd be at 30 points right now, six points behind West Ham and four behind Spurs in the relegation zone. Point being, however you count it we're that fucking bad with Wissa/Osula/Gordon up top. Perhaps a coincidence, but facts are facts, as they say. Again, I understand there are a lot of factors that go into that and I'm oversimplifying to make a point, but I'm not sure you're making the point you think you are either. The season has turned to shit and it's less to do with Woltemade (or anyone else) than it is to do with Howe's stubborn inability to do anything differently, and his blind allegiance to his favorites. Just win, baby.

Of course that's a simplistic way I'm looking at it. But Bruno and Nick are both available now, so why the hell not give it a try again in some manner?

We don't have to rip up the whole team concept to fit any one player. We need to rip it up because it doesn't farking work any longer.

I'd like to see Osula at RW. Elanga, to me, is a lost cause. Hell, put Barnes up top and see what happens for him playing off Nick. I think he's a more intelligent, instinctive off-the-ball runner and finisher than Gordon or Osula. I envision things like this: Barnes Gordon Woltemade Osula Bruno Tonali Hall Miley Thiaw Botman

The disaster is what has happened to us the second half of the season, which is roughly when we decided Nick wasn't scoring enough up top to keep his job. And if I can ask, when exactly was Gordon doing so well? I recall hearing he had one non-PK league goal in 14 months at one point this season, and he has all of three of them this year now. We've also shit the bed and have now fallen from being right in the thick of things for Europe (we were sitting 7th after the Chelsea draw where Nick scored twice) to now being in a position where it is still mathematically possible (though admittedly unlikely) for us to be relegated. A 16th or even 17th place finish is not out of the question given our form. We have 12 goals in our last 12 league games. We were much better than that during the first half of the season. But by golly, Gordon and Osula sure are fast in practice. And I'll say it again: NW starts up top: 9 matches, 20 league points. Anyone else: 25 matches (and counting), 22 points.

Sorry in advance for the length (if I had a dime for each time I’ve had to say that…..) A well reasoned post. It took me a sec to digest. I’d be more sympathetic to the argument that the seeds of ruin were planted before our three week hiatus but all I kept hearing (admittedly I’m new to this) is that Eddie is a master when he has time on the training pitch. Now our form is arguably worse than it was when we were playing twice a week. We’ve tried nothing new at all. If the excuse now is that we were already screwed and the team’s confidence is subterranean, then it’s our manager’s job to fix it. But as I’ve said before, once a coach has lost his team’s confidence it’s gone forever. Bill Belichick won six super bowls but when things went to shit he got shown the door. Respectfully, of course. There was a bit of a row earlier about new-ish fans not knowing our history etc. That’s true but the counter-argument to that is that some longer-term fans may be so smitten with what Eddie has done in years past that they can’t see what seems so so obvious to some of us newbies re our current form and our future prospects under Eddie. Mostly it’s an abject inability to adapt or change a championship-level system that has clearly been figured out by everyone we play. To me the worst case scenario is keeping Eddie this summer and then sacking him before Christmas. And that appears to be precisely where this ship is sailing.

I wish I had a good backstory as to how I became a new (tedious as fuck, apparently) NUFC fan. I spun this fucking thing. https://spinthewheel.app/premier-league-teams-2Wtp

Lucky for you, we’ll never know if he can do it consistently. He’ll never be given that chance. Because he doesn’t run around like a madman on the practice pitch apparently.

Doesn’t matter. He doesn’t run around like a decapitated chicken so he can’t play for us.