Anthony Elanga

[54]

1 minute ago, Dokko said:

 

We'll sell you Murphy for £75m. Everyone is happy. 

[Dokko]

1 minute ago, SteV said:

Tbf has he ever said that we were overpaying for one of our signings before?

 

Most likely every single one. Probably didn't meant it though. The scamp. 

[The College Dropout]

It is tough judging the ball retention thing with Forest because they just don’t play that way. All of their players have poor stats on that. As do pretty much all

of ours too.  
 

I guess it indicates a continuation of style. The elephant in the room is that those styles don’t scale with European football and establishing a team as a levels elite. 

[Theregulars]

1 minute ago, SteV said:

Tbf has he ever said that we were overpaying for one of our signings before?

Don’t think he can while Hojlund and Antony are still paid wages by them

[Theregulars]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

It is tough judging the ball retention thing with Forest because they just don’t play that way. All of their players have poor stats on that. As do pretty much all

of ours too.  
 

I guess it indicates a continuation of style. The elephant in the room is that those styles don’t scale with European football and establishing a team as a levels elite. 

Not sure I agree. If the plan is to have a front 3 with legs that interchange and dovetail and run you into the ground, then I just watched PSG do that to scathing effect

[Froggy]

5 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

But a big upgrade compared to Mbeumo

 

[Kid Icarus]

4 minutes ago, SteV said:

Tbf has he ever said that we were overpaying for one of our signings before?

That other Swedish lad I think 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, Theregulars said:

Not sure I agree. If the plan is to have a front 3 with legs that interchange and dovetail and run you into the ground, then I just watched PSG do that to scathing effect

Was thinking the same, biggest difference with PSG and Madrid is that they have a team of world class players who never fail to control the ball or miss a pass. 

[SteV]

8 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Mate - I know we support Newcastle United but the facts are the facts. I’m not suggesting anything - I’m stating some simple facts.

Villa had a much deeper squad than we did for their CL season - fact

 

Villa benefited from the new format of the CL which made it much easier for them to go further - fact 

 

We can both be happy with our facts and get back to our new signing that Eddie will turn into a superstar.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2025 by SteV

[Ikon]

Just now, Theregulars said:

Not sure I agree. If the plan is to have a front 3 with legs that interchange and dovetail and run you into the ground, then I just watched PSG do that to scathing effect

Difference being that they have very technical players as well as being great when it comes to ball retention. They can mix it up and control games when needed.  PSG is what I’d like us to be as a team of I had to pick one. 

[TRon]

9 minutes ago, Froggy said:

 

Big downgrade on Murphy.

 

Don't worry, Murphy will still be here. Maybe we can bring out the big guns for the Man U fixture. 

[Froggy]

3 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

Don’t think he can while Hojlund and Antony are still paid wages by them

 

We haven't been paying Antony's wages and Hojlund has more G&A in his career than Elanga and is a year younger.

 

But if it's not from Statman Dave maybe that doesn't count?

[The College Dropout]

7 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

Not sure I agree. If the plan is to have a front 3 with legs that interchange and dovetail and run you into the ground, then I just watched PSG do that to scathing effect

PSG average 62% possession in the champions league. 70%+ in Ligue 1.  Our average in the PL is 51%. We spend a lot more time out of possession. 
 

They spend most of their time with the ball, much less of the time is spent closing opposition down. They also have a massive squad and much higher quality players vs opposition.  
 

How many teams play regularly in the CL that average 51% possession? Would be interesting to see possession stats on the first 3 years of Liverpools Klopp team. By the end they were dominating possession like crazy. That was mostly out of fear from the opposition. They would win any basketball game. 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2025 by The College Dropout

[The College Dropout]

8 minutes ago, SteV said:

Villa had a much deeper squad than we did for their CL season - fact

 

Villa benefited from the new format of the CL which made it much easier for them to go further - fact 

 

We can both be happy with our facts and get back to our new signing that Eddie will turn into a superstar.

 

 

 

Yeh that’s my point. They did better because their squad is better 

 

Unless the squad is significantly improved - I’d be shocked if we got to the CL QFs and finished level on points with 5th or better and not sell in June. Would love it though.  I might take 2 of those now if offered.  Let’s see where the squad is in September 

[DevonGeordie]

3 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

It’s not really hard to compare. They got to the QFs and qualified for the Europa League.  They played twice the amount of CL games we did. Their squad was better equipped for the job. They also didn’t have to sell any players in June despite an aggressive transfer policy to make them so competitive.  They did better.  
 

Now - is Emery going to do as good a job as Howe and get them back to the CL? Even then that’s all down to Howe. The squad we ended with in June 2025 was weaker than the squad we in July 2024 and weaker still than the squad we had in May 2024. And all the leadership turmoil. I don’t think Villa’s leadership will be giving Emery the same head winds Eddie has had to deal with. 

They played Club Brugge 3 times and young boys amongst those games and could rotate the team; they had to bring 3 big loan signings in the January window as well and didn’t have an injury crisis.

We’d have arguably done similarly well against the same opposition in the same format last season. Aside from a 1-0 to Bayern when they faced a top team they were knocked out. 
 

It’s all hypothetical bollocks anyway. They did well aye, I also think we did well considering the group we were drawn in.

 

[SteV]

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Yeh that’s my point. They did better because their squad is better 

 

Unless the squad is significantly improved - I’d be shocked if we got to the CL QFs and finished level on points with 5th or better and not sell in June. Would love it though.  I might take 2 of those now if offered.  Let’s see where the squad is in September 

And my point is they did better because the format was easier. And I think that was the bigger factor.

 

But we’re going round in circles here. 

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, SteV said:

And my point is they did better because the format was easier. And I think that was the bigger factor.

 

But we’re going round in circles here. 

They also did better than us in the league vs our CL season despite playing twice the amount of CL games. 
 

Why was that?

[sushimonster85]

Not normally a negative lad, but why do I get the feeling that this afternoon we'll either get a "Much more work still to do on this, the two sides aren't close on a fee" or "Chelsea submit offer for Elanga" type tweet??

[TRon]

24 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It is tough judging the ball retention thing with Forest because they just don’t play that way. All of their players have poor stats on that. As do pretty much all

of ours too.  
 

I guess it indicates a continuation of style. The elephant in the room is that those styles don’t scale with European football and establishing a team as a levels elite. 

 

Not much we can do about it. The players who are at the elite clubs cost mega money and are on huge wages. Without rich owners sinking their money into the squad - which we can't do because of PSR - there's no way to get those players at Newcastle in the short term. 

[SteV]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

They also did better than us in the league vs our CL season despite playing twice the amount of CL games. 
 

Why was that?

By one place.

 

I am not disputing they had greater squad depth than we did. I am not disputing we need to improve our own squad depth for this forthcoming season.

 

I am disputing that, even with the squad they had, they would have progressed any further in the CL than we did, given the same format and group.

 

Do we really need to keep going round in these circles?

[Chicken Dancer]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Celtic go to the play offs. Villa didn’t even play the playoffs because they did so well.  And got a better draw as a result.  They also did much better in the league.  
 

It’s pretty simple. They did better than us in their CL season because they had a better squad.  
 

If given a squad equipped for the extra games. I’m confident Howe would do even better. 

 

They did do better than us, that's not debateable. But they definitely had favourable games in the league phase ('big' teams at home) and they got Brugge over 2 legs in the knockout phase. I'd love for similar games this season for sure.

 

Their squad was definitely better equipped though, that's also not debateable.

[Shearergol]

15 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

They also did better than us in the league vs our CL season despite playing twice the amount of CL games. 
 

Why was that?

 

They won one more game like

 

We only won 2 more games this season than our CL season. 

[Harry 209]

From 'Forest Banter':

[gbandit]

Your best player is MGW, followed by Elanga, followed by Anderson @blue_eyes77

[SteV]

1 minute ago, Harry 209 said:

From 'Forest Banter':

Nice to hear, but does seem a bit RTG-esque, ‘everywhere I go people want to talk about Elanga’. Really?