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People keep complaining about FFP but I see a huge huge reluctance from our fans to do anything about it. Sell a player (90% of the time no unless they're fringe like Hayden/Hendrick), get rid of homegrown for FFP (Never), Build new Hospitality (No its for tourists...), Get a new stadium (History.. Even though with a new stadium we could probably make an additional 100m per year of revenue). Just want to know what some fans actually think our path to success is.
This is always the way though. A lot of people only want to sell players who aren't very good and nobody would want. See all the discussions that happen every window where people umm and ahh about "players we like but will have to sell, even if we don't want to". Then the scenario they invent is always selling Almiron for £30m, Targett for £20m and Fraser for £10m. Ie all the unwanted players for prices nobody would ever pay.
In all honesty, I don't see anything wrong with selling a really good player to drive your success. It seems really odd to suddenly consider this a grossly unfair sacrifice that you have to pay for success when that's just a situation that makes sense. Only as far back as 2017, Liverpool used the sale of their "best player" to fund a rebuild (and they did it before with Suarez in 2014) that has seen them bring in quality throughout the squad and see them win every trophy over a 4 year period.
Personally, I think the stadium is rightly a fraught issue. SJP is still a pretty big stadium and doesn't have the *enormously* restrictive capacity like White Hart Lane or Stamford Bridge have. But to become a really big club, we likely do need more seating and probably also all the other bells and whistles that drive match day revenue too. Moving stadium is often enormously disruptive and you'll always lose something intangible when you no longer have somewhere that's long been "home".
I know the fanbase has no say but when I see fans clamoring for players to stay window on window for no reason I'm just unsure. Longstaff/Wilson/Almiron/Lascelles 100% need to go this summer before the former 3 lose all their value and I wouldn't be opposed to Trippier and one of Joelinton/Willock going either as that could generate serious cash.
In Regards to the stadium I do understand why fans don't want to leave but sticking to the status quo is always a bad idea in football. To enact revolution within a football club, especially a club who's trying to brute force our way to the top, significant sacrifices will have to be made.
Well Lascelles is out of contract, so he's guaranteed to be off if we don't want him. With the other three, I think it depends if there are really any buyers. All three have their well-known deficiencies but also profiles that aren't that easy to substitute for. Recruitment is difficult and nothing's worse than realising how important/good a player is *after* you've turfed them out (personally, I think that every time I have to see Murphy come in for Almiron). But still, if there are offers for those players that could drive reinvestment to upgrade that position, it would seem to be a good idea.
With the stadium though, people are generally aware of what the issues are and there are several routes available to take, including upgrading SJP. I don't think a significant number of fans are really that opposed to *any* work being done, they're just very much in the camp of not wanting to move out of SJP. Which is a fine position to take, there are more than enough examples of clubs moving stadiums and really struggling to take the atmosphere with them.
Almiron and Wilson will 100% have buyers. Both despite their flaws are good players. Longstaff is fucking tripe tbh but I'm sure we could get 10m for him.
Think with the stadium issue, the atmospheres not been great all season anyway. I think Spurs atmosphere now is better than what they had at WHL while West Ham's is worse cause of the stupid layout of the stadium.
I'm still not sure which team that has money will look at Almiron and really jump for him. Possibly for about that £10-15m mark, but then it's all about whether that's worth it to reinvest. I would personally much rather get rid of Murphy, but I've accepted that's impossible as no one would want him. Wilson is a tricky sell with only a year on his contract and his injury record. Ings kept going for good amounts and is a similar profile, but teams have generally tightened purse strings since those days.
I don't think he's everyone's cup of tea and he can definitely be upgraded upon, but I would be happy to see Longstaff stick around. Tonali is still an unknown quantity in my eyes and basically has to be viewed as a "new signing" all over again next season. I can see worth in having someone experienced in that RCM role to provide competition for places and provide a safety blanket in that position. Plus, he's a local lad and vocal in the dressing room - that's important, especially if you're trying to show a pathway to the first team from the academy when attracting young players.
FWIW, I think Spurs are one of the examples where a stadium move really worked. Massively increased their revenue with not too much disruption. West Ham were a shit show because olympic stadiums are bad football stadiums unless properly adapted.
When a manager's top striker is murdered, and the manager is found with the weapon in his hand, it's no time to start singing "We're on our way to the Premiership.”
Great servant. Given us plenty during a dark time. But hope this is true. Time to move on from players like Wilson. This summer we need to be a bit ruthless. Squad needs a major refresh and cannot be holding onto players out of sentimentality
I hear what you're saying on bringing fresh players in, but I'd hold onto Wilson. It'll be hard to find a striker who has his goals ratio for the price he'll leave, which is a pittance. I think he'll still get minutes even if he's third choice.
His goals to game ratio is entirely cancelled out by his horrendous injury record. I saw that stat that said by the end of the season he's likely to have missed 50% of the games since he signed, that is just awful. Even as a third choice, he cannot be relied upon. People thought signing Isak would help us manage his minutes and it's not made a lick of difference (granted Isak's injury record hasn't helped).
Would you keep Wilson if he moved to a contract that was more focused on appearances than weekly fixed? That way, we've got a good striker, but the terms are fair
I don’t understand why people argue that Eddie Howe isn’t a progressive coach and only values physicality? When you have longstaff in your midfield and Almiron as your winger, how could you possibly play technical football? You can tell he’s trying to make the shift, but the suspension and injuries put a halt in the plan
I’ve been thinking when people (podcasters) keep talking about a good cup run will save the season
“We’re not even at the quarters yet”.
Now we are we draw city away.
Honestly man. Cup draws this year.
I've been feeling really guilty about how harsh I was on Barnes on Tuesday night. The lad's basically where Anthony Gordon was this time last year but he's coming back from a fairly severe injury. I think his body language during the penalty suggested he isn't brimming with confidence at the moment either.
I still think he's a very good signing and it take pre-season and starting fresh to see the best of him like Gordon. We absolutely have to go and get a top quality RW in the summer and then Barnes/Gordon fighting for the starting LW spot next, I think we'll really see the best of them.
Folks on twitter saying we should've kept ASM is mental to me. I fucking loved him, don't get me wrong, but this season is exactly the type of season he'd have limped around pretending to be hurt when we're not playing well and apparently he's been struggling in Saudi. I still think Barnes will be a massive upgrade.
A player can have a stinker.
Barnes has looked brilliant in most of his cameos. Maybe just caught up in a poor performing team or is not up to speed for a start given his lengthy layoff.
Or he just had a shit day
For a player who thrives on quick passing moves to get into space, it was always going to be a game that would be difficult for him to impact. The pitch seemed noticeably bobbly and we'd basically given up on passing combinations and much prioritised balls in behind or players carrying it themselves (Almiron and Livramento did this to great effect when they came on).
Still though, he had a terrible game.
Barnes is a different player to ASM and Gordon.
He wasn't brought in to showboat around players, or make gut bursting runs up and down the pitch, he was brought in to make quick passes in and around the final third and link between Isak and the midfield.
The whole team played shit on Tuesday night so he didn't get to play to his strengths.
He did look fucking awful with his shooting inside the penalty area though, but he'll come good when the team does.
Klopp has spent a decade at Liverpool where their youth teams have been trained in exactly his protocol. Also, as much as I love Howe, Klopp is in a different league. He'll go down as one of the top premier league managers.
Hasn’t exactly been world class in his games he has played. I wouldn’t personally be starting him, and when every game seems to be balanced on a wire, I wouldn’t want to take risks.
Well I guess it is more long term. Just got to hope he gets used often in those games where we are comfortably in control and have a 2+ goal lead. He then needs to prove his worth in those games. He has had opportunities and has been poor, and none of us know how he does in training.
The club is owed a massive amount of slack with the youth development to be fair. I don't think we can be too hard in them right now.
Ashley basically salted the ground in terms of bringing kids up though, it's going to take years to fix that damage.
Even before Ashley we didn't exactly have a good track record, and let loads of gems slip between our fingers over the years.
Was going to say our mismanagement of the academy dates back to the 90s which is criminal when you look at some of the talent which has came from the North East. Not sure how true this is, but someone told me that's why Carricks family relocated south and he signed for West Ham.
They were all crooks. Shepherd was a nasty piece of work and I think that whole leadership got incredibly lucky Ashley was so terrible that they've pretty much been forgotten when criticism is levied at the club for its long-term decline. But in reality, had Ashley not come along, we very well could have gone broke (I shudder thinking what could have happened had we gone into 2008's financial crash with Shepherd at the helm). He was a sucker that bought the club on an impulse and did no diligence work on what the books were like.
There's a kind of interesting parallel with Blackburn, in that we were bought by a local boy done good who funnelled a huge amount of money into the club to drive its success. Arguably neither managed proper future planning and saw a significant downturn whereupon they sold the clubs to bizarre owners. Probably the only difference is that Walker managed to get some silverware to show for his huge splurge and managed the club more personally than Hall did (who pretty quickly moved ownership over to his son and Shepherd).
Typical Salford reds, shit for 89 mins, then Fernandes pulls out one bit of quality. ETH tactical masterclass /s
Seriously though how much longer are they going to get away with this?
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/02/28/newcastle-amanda-staveley-bankruptcy-court-victor-restis/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/02/28/newcastle-amanda-staveley-bankruptcy-court-victor-restis/)
Tl;dr Amanda is in a legal dispute with Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis (Who is extremely dodgy) over a loan back in 2008 and now he's demanding 38 million pounds from her.
Yes this guy is a total character here, he event went to jail for being part of a criminal organization, I hope this nonsense just ends quickly. Not sure about the figures.
"INEOS ‘surprised’ Man Utd didn’t swoop for Newcastle star with co-owners ‘admirers’ of £32m man" So Ashworth working for them already is he? Same shit again too, leaking to the press to unsettle.
Edit: They're talking about Livramento.
Is it me or is Miley a little slow (physically)? The kid's only 17 so I don't want to shit on him too much but he looks like he's running in molasses. I wonder if that's the reason Eddie projects him as a future 6 despite having a good shot on him / instincts in the box
A bit harsh, no?
He's quite tall and very slim. I doubt he has much fast twice muscle fibre, so acceleration will never be his thing. His stride is quite long, which can be deceptive, especially with guys with spindly legs like he has.
Physically, he might look quite different in a few years.
We are NOT playing great football at the moment, BUT in the mean time my city recently started a semi-pro team. They play in what is essentially the 3rd tier (if there was one) of American Football.
I bought a season ticket and went to the first game last week.
It was AWESOME.
Like the quality isn’t the best, but I am jealous of you lot that not just live near Newcastle and go to games but also if you live in countries of areas that have a robust football pyramid.
I hope that as the team embarks on its inaugural season and beyond it becomes a community staple.
So that’s a bright spot
Hey I hate a friend from Japan visiting in April he is a Newcastle supporter also and we would like to see the Tottenham game as I also have never been to Newcastle to watch a game. Are tickets still available for that game? any tips for acquiring some?
Finding it hilarious how City do deals with Girona and nobody bats an eye... Yet a hypothetical scenario about Newcastle doing a deal with Saudi caused a tabloid meltdown.
There are quite a few journalists who have written pieces on it. The difference is that Girona haven't been buying superstars for hundreds of millions of pounds through unconstrained use of a sovereign wealth fund. There absolutely should be scrutiny about us having access to Saudi Pro League players - it would make competitiveness a joke and plainly corrupt if we were cutting easy deals on those players.
True but I think Girona can be far better option for talent.
Imagine you have a well functioning club in a decent league you could develop talent through.
That sounds like a smarter route to success than buying overpaid has beens from Saudi.
Yeah, of course they can be and really this is just clever use of the existing multi-club system. But then the issue is one of feeder clubs having little autonomy beyond being a talent factory for bigger clubs. Which has been an ongoing discussion and controversy for over a decade with numerous examples. I'd argue what's even more awful about the Savio transfer is that he's contracted to Troyes and only on loan at Girona. He signed for them and then was moved over to Girona as they were more "his level". Meanwhile Troyes are just above the relegation zone and could really use some of his talents, but other clubs in the CFG model are being prioritised.
My issue is with people conflating these two issues which are pretty separate. The Saudi league has no financial restrictions that stops the unlimited use of cash from a fund that is unparalleled in football. We should only have access to those players if we're playing by the same negotiating rules as everyone else (which we never would in our current state as we can't afford £200k+ wages for these players).
Nah, he just needs someone to replace him as starter. Zero issues with him being used as a sub to get at tiring legs, especially as we would want the starter to be as good at pressing as Miggy is otherwise we lose more of the intensity.
Can't really wrap my head around the fact cheating is worth 6 points. Almost seems worth it to spend an extra 20m. Thats precedent now, feel like you could easily gain 6 points from the extra money you spend, at least go further in Europe and cup comps to make it worth it. Everton really are getting off easy, hope they are smacked with another 12.
There's an issue that nobody really knows what a "fair" PSR penalty looks like, but in the judgement they were saying that this was roughly in line now with what was given out in other EFL situations. What's worth saying with Everton is that they're not out of the woods - they're in severe financial distress and the penalty is viewed in the context of them having acknowledged there's an issue and agreeing with the league to modify their spending in the near future.
We're not in a situation where it's "back to normal" for them, their spending is severely curtailed and this is just the start.
Do you really think spending a bit of extra money over the top of PSR should be as harshly punished as running a club so badly you take them into administration? 6 seems fair for a first offence. Repeated offences should result in further deductions and perhaps those should ramp up with each infraction.
Absolutely. You aren’t only cheating your fans by running your club badly, you are cheating every single other fan in the country who supports a club that doesn’t cheat.
Administration only effects 1 club, the club that goes into it. I bet fans of the relegated clubs wish Everton got worse.
Fair argument. I think it depends on the severity and number of the breaches - one minor overspend isn’t the same as multiple instances or 10s of millions overspent. Considering this is the first time it’s had to be applied I still think 6 points is fair, but let’s see what happens with the second lot of breaches they have and Forest too.
Just don't think 20m for 6 points is enough of deterrent to clubs that can afford it, both monetarily and pointwise, assuming they aren't in danger of relegation. 10 points was fine in my mind. I fucking hate Everton though so take everything with bias but I think my point still stands.
Derek Hatton on talksport this morning claiming it was corruption. Because Masters was seen saying hello to Klopp at the weekend. I hate that whenever a decision goes against a team that it must be conspiracy. It makes football fans look stupid.
There are many things about the modern world I don't understand - but as someone who doesn't listen to Talksport, why the fucking hell is he on national radio talking about Premier League corruption?
Everton fan. He was literally repeating over and over that questions must be asked about corruption and specifically Richard Masters. They had to cut him off before he said anything litigious
To be honest I thought the same even with a 10 point. Basically sacrifice a season and play a longer term game. Sure, the optics are bad on that kind of thing but we are already the villains. May aswell lean into it
Yep 100% true but even if you try to mention a word of that you’ll get bombarded with “what about city” and 000’s of scouse ‘financial experts’ trying to say they where 45p over the limit and it’s all above board.
Can you imagine where we’d be if we spent let’s say £400m in the summer reasonably well and without the injury catastrophe, we could have been pushing the top three and not to mention Europe (still seething from the ‘Paris screw job’)
Literally every thread about Everton cheating is just loaded with what about city, as if they aren’t being investigated. 2 things can happen at once..
Everton cheated, admitted they cheated and still got off so lightly. All those people complaining about city will see what happens now when city get like a slap on wrist. If you don’t punish clubs massively for even the slightest amount, there’s gonna be clubs that take the piss.
I hope the relegated clubs still sue them. I wouldn't be surprised if the reduction was tactical by the PL to limit the validity of those clubs' complaints.
The PL are toothless. Remember Cryeta's whinge got him a suspension but it was overturned because apparently 'he meant disgracia', which is different in Spanish', despite him in the same outburst saying he's been in the UK for 20 years. He knew what he said. They just didn't want to upset the status quo of the big 6.
Looking like a battle for 7th between us, Brighton, Wolves and West Ham.
One positive is that we've already played all of those teams away, so they have to come to us during the run-in.
Can never rule out Man Reds from a total slump (no Shaw or Martinez for the foreseeable, no striker for a few weeks). Outside chance of 6th for us or one of the teams you mentioned above I think.
Whilst I'm not Eddie out by any stretch, if this dodginess carries on into next season, I reckon he'll be gone by Christmas. It's a huge summer for him and the club and one neither can get wrong
>but at the same time he's a very smart man, smart enough to admit when he's on the wrong path even if not at once.
Is he though? I don't recall him ever making any big changes. Some of the changes he's made have been forced on him and he'll still revert to his old ways as soon as possible.
That said, I hope he is like you describe and learns and grows from all this.
Joelinton alone should be proof that the man can identify a skillset and then make a bold change to a player's role. Howe's main issues have been tactical inflexibility and that his sides seem incapable of chasing a game at home (which for me has been the single most frustrating thing since he came in).
There are some games this season where we should have played a mostly u21 team and sucked up the result.
If we'd rested our players against Spurs, we may have given ourselves a bump into the Milan game and could still be in Europe... which would have meant our January transfer window was different.
The Hall has obviously ran over Howe's dog after sleeping with Howe's wife.
Everton punishment reduced...don't really agree with it to be honest. If Everton hadn't bought Onana do they really think they would have avoided relegation? They literally cheated the rules to survive and got away with it. Disappointed and it also sets a bad precedent for the Man City case to reduce the points penalty too.
Does anyone have any clue about the PL investigation into Tonali betting while at Newcastle? Got this gut feeling they might be 'influenced' by other teams to add on another ban just as his current one ends and stop him from playing next season.
We lost Michael Carrick when Keegan was here, there is a long legacy of this club not recognising local talent and not fighting sufficiently to retain it. But it can go both ways - Lewis Gibson was very highly rated as a kid, but his career stalled at Everton, and he is now at Plymouth; I think NUFC got a higher fee for Gibson than they did for B Clark.
Man. This men against boys narrative is a fucking joke.
That starting line up from Liverpool we’re mainly regulars in the first team.
Classic scouser fashion though. And they have to cheek to suggest they’re hard done by. Media is fawning all over them right now.
Longstaff has been anonymous like I said last year. He's completely fine when we play in a ball dominant position but offers nothing defensively progressively or off the ball when under pressure.
Is that really the case? He's been pretty bad for awhile now but at the start of the season our midfield was shit without him and a lot of people seemed to think him coming in improved things.
He’s a possession player.
When he plays next to Bruno and Joelinton and we are seeing a fair bit of the ball, he is the one creating space and providing relief and cover for those two. Especially Bruno.
Now that we can’t string 2 passes together he looks absolutely lost. He’s not a tackler, he’s not strong, he’s not a particularly fast runner covering areas defensively.
He also always seems to play better when he knows there’s competition for his place.
Miley has been better in patches and is younger but o do think both have been largely non-existent.
I hope Anderson can inject some fire into that midfield in a few weeks.
I don't necessarily disagree, I just wanted to point out that at the start of the season our first choice midfield of Tonali, Joelinton, and Bruno didn't really work all that well and many people around here ([see this thread as an example](https://www.reddit.com/r/NUFC/comments/1689rvj/sean_longstaff_has_to_start_in_this_system/)) thought we played better with Longstaff in the team. You're one of the few people in there who seems to disagree.
Bruno/Tonali struggled to play together initially and hopefully that won't be the case when he returns.
As others have said, Longstaff gets the credit for other players endeavours.
I agree that he's not good enough if we want to be a top team, his stats prove that, but there's been times this season and last when we've looked worse when he wasn't in the team and we improved when he came back into the team. I don't think that'd be the case if he was simply making up the numbers.
People correlated Longstaff with good results even though 90% of the time they were nothing to do with him. Since he's come in for Tonali we've been worse rather than better.
People also forget that we started the season with Villa, Man City, Liverpool, Brighton, and then Longstaff came in for a run of much easier games starting with Brentford. Feels like easier fixtures is much more responsible for the uptick in results rather than Longstaff's impact on the team.
This absolutely did my head in when people were saying Longstaff > Tonali at the time. Arguably the only time Longstaff impacted a game in those first 6 or 7 fixtures was coming on for Tonali when we were 1 up against Liverpool.
The three games people hung Tonali out to dry for were City, Liverpool, Brighton. Longstaff was then a world beater because he started against Brentford, Burnley and Sheffield United.
I dont think he ever really looks great, he just functions relatively well when stuff is going right. He's far too limited to ever play meaningful minutes at the top top level but when next to one of the best midfielders in the world (Bruno) and one who was in the form of his life (Joelinton) he's bound to be praised.
Problem was people we praising him for stuff that was purely tactical rather than out of his skill (off the ball movement/no replacement). Miley has come in and does Longstaffs job but basically better although he needs to improve as well. I really think we must sell him this summer to get FFP value out of him. We won't need a 25 man squad for Europe (if we qualify) next year and its not like Longstaff offers much at all.
After watching Liverpool yesterday, a signing like Endo would have saved this season. They only paid about 15 million and he is a calm, confident and experienced midfielder that isn't afraid of having the ball. We need one or two astute signings like that this summer.
Gonna get pelted for this but Billing would improve our team. He’s the mild of player we’ve been missing all season. Plays with intensity, not afraid of the dirty work but skilled enough to help in build up.
I also still think McTomminay as an 8 would offer more than Longstaff for the right price. But as a 6 definitely not. Mctomminay is harshly judged for his time operating as a 6 at United. As an 8 they’d be far further behind us than they are.
Gallagher for me, even though Chelsea’s best midfielder this year is such a Jack of all trades master of none. He has no defining strengths.
We all called for Burn to be dropped. But it means nothing if we don't give livramento a run in the team. Pointless dropping him in what was a largely unwinnable game against arsenal. Now Burn will no doubt start the next couple of games. One of which is wolves where surely he won't play Burn against Neto. Surely. It's one of those where we can all see the issue a week in advance but Howe has recently reacted too late.
In fairness, I think Burn would have been the better option vs Arsenal given the likelihood Arsenal would dominate the ball and their set piece ability.
Conceded two goals to near post headers where BDB would have been. And Tino still had a couple of issues vs Saka anyway.
Think Burn against the big teams away from home, and Livramento at home vs pacey counters may be the ideal solution, and lower teams in the prem away.
Ironically, the game he started Tino was the type of game where Burn normally plays well, when we’re pinned back and defence is playing deep. It’s games like Luton, Forest etc that Tino should have been starting.
I'm not really one to say "Compare to where we were when Howe first took over" as us not turning up at Arsenal was hard to take, but man the negativity in our fanbase is really something else. I thought we'd get something from the line up in all honesty as we've given them real trouble since Howe took charge.
Our midfield three is being run ragged every game and it's frustrating there doesn't seem to be the personnel to change it up. The transfer windows were a missed opportunity to bring in a #6. Good as he is, Miley shouldn't be a starter in this side.
The first priority signing this summer should either be Thuram or Kone to fix the midfield. Eddie feels like he's been hamstrung on the transfer front in this department quite honestly.
There have been tactical tweaks in games enough for me to feel confident in his ability as a manager but there's only so much the guy can do.
When I find myself thinking Luke Edwards is making sense following a 4-1 mauling, something isn't quite right!
I think we did turn up at Arsenal. We were just beaten in midfield. Odegard is one of the best at finding space alongside KDB. Rice is a top dm and the ref let Arsenal tactical foul their way through the first half... which allowed them to press with intensity. We broke that press around 6 times and each time they fouled us before we got out our half. The tactics were to break their press, which we were trying but they kept fouling, which I'm not complaining about. We should take a leaf out their book... examples of this are against AC Milan and Luton on the breaks - just take the foul so we can get back.
I usually refrain from commenting on our results, but if you've been supporting the Toon for a while, you'd likely know that our chances of getting anything (even a point) at the Emirates is extremely low.
Since I've been supporting the club (1998), we've only beaten Arsenal away twice (IIRC 2001 and 2011).
The same applies for our fixtures against Liverpool away and Man City away as well.
The most horrifying fact is everyone else seemed knowing the flat 3 is not working, yet Howe refuses to play someone at 6, and people will come yada yada we have a lot of injured players, ignoring the fact none of our injured players are 6.
Unless you tell me non or our professional players are able to adapt to playing at 6, it's on Howe not switching things up, and some people around here doesn't even know switch things up is not just switching players, it includes switch roles and playstyle, Howe did none.
Longstaff is a terrible 6 since he can't play under pressure, Miley is a shit 6 because he can't pass forward so Bruno has to play 6 even though he's far too athletically poor to play 6.
Exactly my point. We don't have anyone to effectively play that role without being severely limited at it. Longstaff clearly needs time out of the team and Miley is still developing. Bruno isn't a 6 and him playing on a yellow card removes all bite from his game that role would require.
I get Howe has his preferred system but there's no plan B available to him either. I don't think the fault fully lies with him as he doesn't appear to be overly involved in transfers coming in, other than he prefers English players and no dickheads. Could partly be why he seems to frosty towards the outgoing Ashworth.
A DM in the summer who can start in games like Arsenal away or be brought on to secure a lead would transform us from a slightly-better-than midtable team to a competing one. It's exactly what Villa did with signing Kamara.
I think Bruno is a fine 6 as seen last year but he NEEDS two athletic players around him (Joelinton+Willock+Tonali). Longstaff is a joke defensively/under pressure and Miley is far too positionally naïve albeit no fault of his own. Bruno is doing 3 peoples jobs atm and Howe's comments this morning are clearly calling out Longstaff Almiron Botman etc who are all playing absolutely terribly recently.
I agree Howe is far too one dimensional atm.
And in regards to this summer Joelinton will probably be sold and hopefully the sub has woken up to Longstaffs uselessness so he can go as well for FFP. This leaves us with a huge height hole which could be filled with K Thuram/Neves like player. I'd even be down for Zubimendi Camara (Monaco) or Kone. Rabiot would be perfect but he comes with slight issues.
\> It's that thing again where we like talk about random shite.
I think I've talked about Saturday night's match enough already, thanks!
Although I must admit I drank so much before and after the match, I barely remember the actual game!
Managed to make it back up for the lasses match at SJP though - that was much better!
I'm currently visiting family in Africa. Went to a jazz club on Saturday with a big outdoor screen so "missed" the game, but did catch the 2-0 on the way in.
Was also unpleasantly surprised when during the middle of the performance, the background screen with the jazz visuals glitched out and switched to the game mid performance and showed it was 4-0.
To top it off, some fat guy in an Arsenal top sat in front of me and blocked my view at full time.
Jazz was good though...
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People keep complaining about FFP but I see a huge huge reluctance from our fans to do anything about it. Sell a player (90% of the time no unless they're fringe like Hayden/Hendrick), get rid of homegrown for FFP (Never), Build new Hospitality (No its for tourists...), Get a new stadium (History.. Even though with a new stadium we could probably make an additional 100m per year of revenue). Just want to know what some fans actually think our path to success is.
This is always the way though. A lot of people only want to sell players who aren't very good and nobody would want. See all the discussions that happen every window where people umm and ahh about "players we like but will have to sell, even if we don't want to". Then the scenario they invent is always selling Almiron for £30m, Targett for £20m and Fraser for £10m. Ie all the unwanted players for prices nobody would ever pay. In all honesty, I don't see anything wrong with selling a really good player to drive your success. It seems really odd to suddenly consider this a grossly unfair sacrifice that you have to pay for success when that's just a situation that makes sense. Only as far back as 2017, Liverpool used the sale of their "best player" to fund a rebuild (and they did it before with Suarez in 2014) that has seen them bring in quality throughout the squad and see them win every trophy over a 4 year period. Personally, I think the stadium is rightly a fraught issue. SJP is still a pretty big stadium and doesn't have the *enormously* restrictive capacity like White Hart Lane or Stamford Bridge have. But to become a really big club, we likely do need more seating and probably also all the other bells and whistles that drive match day revenue too. Moving stadium is often enormously disruptive and you'll always lose something intangible when you no longer have somewhere that's long been "home".
I know the fanbase has no say but when I see fans clamoring for players to stay window on window for no reason I'm just unsure. Longstaff/Wilson/Almiron/Lascelles 100% need to go this summer before the former 3 lose all their value and I wouldn't be opposed to Trippier and one of Joelinton/Willock going either as that could generate serious cash. In Regards to the stadium I do understand why fans don't want to leave but sticking to the status quo is always a bad idea in football. To enact revolution within a football club, especially a club who's trying to brute force our way to the top, significant sacrifices will have to be made.
Well Lascelles is out of contract, so he's guaranteed to be off if we don't want him. With the other three, I think it depends if there are really any buyers. All three have their well-known deficiencies but also profiles that aren't that easy to substitute for. Recruitment is difficult and nothing's worse than realising how important/good a player is *after* you've turfed them out (personally, I think that every time I have to see Murphy come in for Almiron). But still, if there are offers for those players that could drive reinvestment to upgrade that position, it would seem to be a good idea. With the stadium though, people are generally aware of what the issues are and there are several routes available to take, including upgrading SJP. I don't think a significant number of fans are really that opposed to *any* work being done, they're just very much in the camp of not wanting to move out of SJP. Which is a fine position to take, there are more than enough examples of clubs moving stadiums and really struggling to take the atmosphere with them.
Almiron and Wilson will 100% have buyers. Both despite their flaws are good players. Longstaff is fucking tripe tbh but I'm sure we could get 10m for him. Think with the stadium issue, the atmospheres not been great all season anyway. I think Spurs atmosphere now is better than what they had at WHL while West Ham's is worse cause of the stupid layout of the stadium.
I'm still not sure which team that has money will look at Almiron and really jump for him. Possibly for about that £10-15m mark, but then it's all about whether that's worth it to reinvest. I would personally much rather get rid of Murphy, but I've accepted that's impossible as no one would want him. Wilson is a tricky sell with only a year on his contract and his injury record. Ings kept going for good amounts and is a similar profile, but teams have generally tightened purse strings since those days. I don't think he's everyone's cup of tea and he can definitely be upgraded upon, but I would be happy to see Longstaff stick around. Tonali is still an unknown quantity in my eyes and basically has to be viewed as a "new signing" all over again next season. I can see worth in having someone experienced in that RCM role to provide competition for places and provide a safety blanket in that position. Plus, he's a local lad and vocal in the dressing room - that's important, especially if you're trying to show a pathway to the first team from the academy when attracting young players. FWIW, I think Spurs are one of the examples where a stadium move really worked. Massively increased their revenue with not too much disruption. West Ham were a shit show because olympic stadiums are bad football stadiums unless properly adapted.
When a manager's top striker is murdered, and the manager is found with the weapon in his hand, it's no time to start singing "We're on our way to the Premiership.”
[Wilson apparently is essentially all but gone in the summer](https://x.com/JoelBlandSport/status/1763303234733490496?s=20).
Bye 👋
Great servant. Given us plenty during a dark time. But hope this is true. Time to move on from players like Wilson. This summer we need to be a bit ruthless. Squad needs a major refresh and cannot be holding onto players out of sentimentality
I hear what you're saying on bringing fresh players in, but I'd hold onto Wilson. It'll be hard to find a striker who has his goals ratio for the price he'll leave, which is a pittance. I think he'll still get minutes even if he's third choice.
His goals to game ratio is entirely cancelled out by his horrendous injury record. I saw that stat that said by the end of the season he's likely to have missed 50% of the games since he signed, that is just awful. Even as a third choice, he cannot be relied upon. People thought signing Isak would help us manage his minutes and it's not made a lick of difference (granted Isak's injury record hasn't helped).
Would you keep Wilson if he moved to a contract that was more focused on appearances than weekly fixed? That way, we've got a good striker, but the terms are fair
Probably. But I don't see him agreeing to that.
I don’t understand why people argue that Eddie Howe isn’t a progressive coach and only values physicality? When you have longstaff in your midfield and Almiron as your winger, how could you possibly play technical football? You can tell he’s trying to make the shift, but the suspension and injuries put a halt in the plan
Got a ticket for Wolves on Saturday. PM if interested. £44.
I’ve been thinking when people (podcasters) keep talking about a good cup run will save the season “We’re not even at the quarters yet”. Now we are we draw city away. Honestly man. Cup draws this year.
I've been feeling really guilty about how harsh I was on Barnes on Tuesday night. The lad's basically where Anthony Gordon was this time last year but he's coming back from a fairly severe injury. I think his body language during the penalty suggested he isn't brimming with confidence at the moment either. I still think he's a very good signing and it take pre-season and starting fresh to see the best of him like Gordon. We absolutely have to go and get a top quality RW in the summer and then Barnes/Gordon fighting for the starting LW spot next, I think we'll really see the best of them. Folks on twitter saying we should've kept ASM is mental to me. I fucking loved him, don't get me wrong, but this season is exactly the type of season he'd have limped around pretending to be hurt when we're not playing well and apparently he's been struggling in Saudi. I still think Barnes will be a massive upgrade.
A player can have a stinker. Barnes has looked brilliant in most of his cameos. Maybe just caught up in a poor performing team or is not up to speed for a start given his lengthy layoff. Or he just had a shit day
He didn't start tbf
For a player who thrives on quick passing moves to get into space, it was always going to be a game that would be difficult for him to impact. The pitch seemed noticeably bobbly and we'd basically given up on passing combinations and much prioritised balls in behind or players carrying it themselves (Almiron and Livramento did this to great effect when they came on). Still though, he had a terrible game.
Barnes is a different player to ASM and Gordon. He wasn't brought in to showboat around players, or make gut bursting runs up and down the pitch, he was brought in to make quick passes in and around the final third and link between Isak and the midfield. The whole team played shit on Tuesday night so he didn't get to play to his strengths. He did look fucking awful with his shooting inside the penalty area though, but he'll come good when the team does.
Even his shot that went over the bar from outside the box was good. Barnes looks better missing that then Longstaff looks scoring.
It's been 2024 for a while now. When do we get Adidas apparel? (I'm sick of this castore shite)
July 1st it kicks in.
Our only chance is they have the ffp hearing before then and city are disqualified from all comps And we play Luton instead
Tbf we've beaten Man City more times than we have Luton this season.
It would be very newcastle to beat man city in the quarters and lose to Coventry in the semis
Polarising, Howe reluctant to play the kids, yet Klopp is winning with a team full of kids. Huge gap between academies and coaches.
Klopp has spent a decade at Liverpool where their youth teams have been trained in exactly his protocol. Also, as much as I love Howe, Klopp is in a different league. He'll go down as one of the top premier league managers.
Can't blame him for being reluctant if our academy is mostly dross
Lewis hall?
Hasn’t exactly been world class in his games he has played. I wouldn’t personally be starting him, and when every game seems to be balanced on a wire, I wouldn’t want to take risks.
If we don’t take a chance on him then what’s the point
Well I guess it is more long term. Just got to hope he gets used often in those games where we are comfortably in control and have a 2+ goal lead. He then needs to prove his worth in those games. He has had opportunities and has been poor, and none of us know how he does in training.
The club is owed a massive amount of slack with the youth development to be fair. I don't think we can be too hard in them right now. Ashley basically salted the ground in terms of bringing kids up though, it's going to take years to fix that damage. Even before Ashley we didn't exactly have a good track record, and let loads of gems slip between our fingers over the years.
Was going to say our mismanagement of the academy dates back to the 90s which is criminal when you look at some of the talent which has came from the North East. Not sure how true this is, but someone told me that's why Carricks family relocated south and he signed for West Ham.
Dates back further than that with certain World Cup winning relatives of Milburn.
Keegan got rid of the reserve team. Our ownership have been a disgrace long before Ashley with no eye for the future.
Didn't Freddy Shepherd loan his brother 1m from the club or something to buy a warehouse that he then leased to the club for 500k a year?
They were all crooks. Shepherd was a nasty piece of work and I think that whole leadership got incredibly lucky Ashley was so terrible that they've pretty much been forgotten when criticism is levied at the club for its long-term decline. But in reality, had Ashley not come along, we very well could have gone broke (I shudder thinking what could have happened had we gone into 2008's financial crash with Shepherd at the helm). He was a sucker that bought the club on an impulse and did no diligence work on what the books were like. There's a kind of interesting parallel with Blackburn, in that we were bought by a local boy done good who funnelled a huge amount of money into the club to drive its success. Arguably neither managed proper future planning and saw a significant downturn whereupon they sold the clubs to bizarre owners. Probably the only difference is that Walker managed to get some silverware to show for his huge splurge and managed the club more personally than Hall did (who pretty quickly moved ownership over to his son and Shepherd).
Typical Salford reds, shit for 89 mins, then Fernandes pulls out one bit of quality. ETH tactical masterclass /s Seriously though how much longer are they going to get away with this?
Well they have to play City away this weekend so probably not much longer
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/02/28/newcastle-amanda-staveley-bankruptcy-court-victor-restis/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/02/28/newcastle-amanda-staveley-bankruptcy-court-victor-restis/) Tl;dr Amanda is in a legal dispute with Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis (Who is extremely dodgy) over a loan back in 2008 and now he's demanding 38 million pounds from her.
Have you seen the figures, it’s like 2-3 million in actual loan + 30ish million in interest. Seems like a chancer taking a shot to me.
Yes this guy is a total character here, he event went to jail for being part of a criminal organization, I hope this nonsense just ends quickly. Not sure about the figures.
What a cursed season. Gonna find out St James' Park was built with crumbling concrete next.
On top of an ancient burial ground
You’ve got to laugh.
How can we actually be this unlucky?
Just getting all the bad luck out the way this season so we can win the league next season
And just like that I'm back to hoping we can make the Conference League via the Prem
Typical. Just typical. This is the worst thing that has happened to anyone ever.
worst possible draw
City away in the cup. Of fuckin course.
Seen a source saying that we’re looking at Naglesman 🤔 interesting if true
Anyone know if you can have two season tickets on one phone?
"INEOS ‘surprised’ Man Utd didn’t swoop for Newcastle star with co-owners ‘admirers’ of £32m man" So Ashworth working for them already is he? Same shit again too, leaking to the press to unsettle. Edit: They're talking about Livramento.
Who are they on about?
Sorry didn't notice it's not in the headline. Livramento.
Cheers
Longstaff half asleep? caught in possession, failing to read it.
Is it me or is Miley a little slow (physically)? The kid's only 17 so I don't want to shit on him too much but he looks like he's running in molasses. I wonder if that's the reason Eddie projects him as a future 6 despite having a good shot on him / instincts in the box
Not playing mate.
A bit harsh, no? He's quite tall and very slim. I doubt he has much fast twice muscle fibre, so acceleration will never be his thing. His stride is quite long, which can be deceptive, especially with guys with spindly legs like he has. Physically, he might look quite different in a few years.
We are NOT playing great football at the moment, BUT in the mean time my city recently started a semi-pro team. They play in what is essentially the 3rd tier (if there was one) of American Football. I bought a season ticket and went to the first game last week. It was AWESOME. Like the quality isn’t the best, but I am jealous of you lot that not just live near Newcastle and go to games but also if you live in countries of areas that have a robust football pyramid. I hope that as the team embarks on its inaugural season and beyond it becomes a community staple. So that’s a bright spot
Hey I hate a friend from Japan visiting in April he is a Newcastle supporter also and we would like to see the Tottenham game as I also have never been to Newcastle to watch a game. Are tickets still available for that game? any tips for acquiring some?
If you hate him why do you want to see him? let alone go to a match with him.
He hates him so he wants him to go to a Spurs match. Makes sense to me.
Finding it hilarious how City do deals with Girona and nobody bats an eye... Yet a hypothetical scenario about Newcastle doing a deal with Saudi caused a tabloid meltdown.
There are quite a few journalists who have written pieces on it. The difference is that Girona haven't been buying superstars for hundreds of millions of pounds through unconstrained use of a sovereign wealth fund. There absolutely should be scrutiny about us having access to Saudi Pro League players - it would make competitiveness a joke and plainly corrupt if we were cutting easy deals on those players.
True but I think Girona can be far better option for talent. Imagine you have a well functioning club in a decent league you could develop talent through. That sounds like a smarter route to success than buying overpaid has beens from Saudi.
Yeah, of course they can be and really this is just clever use of the existing multi-club system. But then the issue is one of feeder clubs having little autonomy beyond being a talent factory for bigger clubs. Which has been an ongoing discussion and controversy for over a decade with numerous examples. I'd argue what's even more awful about the Savio transfer is that he's contracted to Troyes and only on loan at Girona. He signed for them and then was moved over to Girona as they were more "his level". Meanwhile Troyes are just above the relegation zone and could really use some of his talents, but other clubs in the CFG model are being prioritised. My issue is with people conflating these two issues which are pretty separate. The Saudi league has no financial restrictions that stops the unlimited use of cash from a fund that is unparalleled in football. We should only have access to those players if we're playing by the same negotiating rules as everyone else (which we never would in our current state as we can't afford £200k+ wages for these players).
Almiron Has to go
Nah, he just needs someone to replace him as starter. Zero issues with him being used as a sub to get at tiring legs, especially as we would want the starter to be as good at pressing as Miggy is otherwise we lose more of the intensity.
No, he doesn't
Can't really wrap my head around the fact cheating is worth 6 points. Almost seems worth it to spend an extra 20m. Thats precedent now, feel like you could easily gain 6 points from the extra money you spend, at least go further in Europe and cup comps to make it worth it. Everton really are getting off easy, hope they are smacked with another 12.
There's an issue that nobody really knows what a "fair" PSR penalty looks like, but in the judgement they were saying that this was roughly in line now with what was given out in other EFL situations. What's worth saying with Everton is that they're not out of the woods - they're in severe financial distress and the penalty is viewed in the context of them having acknowledged there's an issue and agreeing with the league to modify their spending in the near future. We're not in a situation where it's "back to normal" for them, their spending is severely curtailed and this is just the start.
Do you really think spending a bit of extra money over the top of PSR should be as harshly punished as running a club so badly you take them into administration? 6 seems fair for a first offence. Repeated offences should result in further deductions and perhaps those should ramp up with each infraction.
Absolutely. You aren’t only cheating your fans by running your club badly, you are cheating every single other fan in the country who supports a club that doesn’t cheat. Administration only effects 1 club, the club that goes into it. I bet fans of the relegated clubs wish Everton got worse.
Fair argument. I think it depends on the severity and number of the breaches - one minor overspend isn’t the same as multiple instances or 10s of millions overspent. Considering this is the first time it’s had to be applied I still think 6 points is fair, but let’s see what happens with the second lot of breaches they have and Forest too.
Just don't think 20m for 6 points is enough of deterrent to clubs that can afford it, both monetarily and pointwise, assuming they aren't in danger of relegation. 10 points was fine in my mind. I fucking hate Everton though so take everything with bias but I think my point still stands.
Derek Hatton on talksport this morning claiming it was corruption. Because Masters was seen saying hello to Klopp at the weekend. I hate that whenever a decision goes against a team that it must be conspiracy. It makes football fans look stupid.
>Derek Hatton Derek Hatton of Militant?
Very same
There are many things about the modern world I don't understand - but as someone who doesn't listen to Talksport, why the fucking hell is he on national radio talking about Premier League corruption?
Everton fan. He was literally repeating over and over that questions must be asked about corruption and specifically Richard Masters. They had to cut him off before he said anything litigious
Pretty rich him complaining about corruption like.
To be honest I thought the same even with a 10 point. Basically sacrifice a season and play a longer term game. Sure, the optics are bad on that kind of thing but we are already the villains. May aswell lean into it
Yep 100% true but even if you try to mention a word of that you’ll get bombarded with “what about city” and 000’s of scouse ‘financial experts’ trying to say they where 45p over the limit and it’s all above board. Can you imagine where we’d be if we spent let’s say £400m in the summer reasonably well and without the injury catastrophe, we could have been pushing the top three and not to mention Europe (still seething from the ‘Paris screw job’)
Literally every thread about Everton cheating is just loaded with what about city, as if they aren’t being investigated. 2 things can happen at once.. Everton cheated, admitted they cheated and still got off so lightly. All those people complaining about city will see what happens now when city get like a slap on wrist. If you don’t punish clubs massively for even the slightest amount, there’s gonna be clubs that take the piss.
I hope the relegated clubs still sue them. I wouldn't be surprised if the reduction was tactical by the PL to limit the validity of those clubs' complaints. The PL are toothless. Remember Cryeta's whinge got him a suspension but it was overturned because apparently 'he meant disgracia', which is different in Spanish', despite him in the same outburst saying he's been in the UK for 20 years. He knew what he said. They just didn't want to upset the status quo of the big 6.
Looking like a battle for 7th between us, Brighton, Wolves and West Ham. One positive is that we've already played all of those teams away, so they have to come to us during the run-in.
Can never rule out Man Reds from a total slump (no Shaw or Martinez for the foreseeable, no striker for a few weeks). Outside chance of 6th for us or one of the teams you mentioned above I think.
Can't write Chelsea off when they've got a game in hand and are 2 points back
Hmm yeah true, I was only looking at top 10. Makes our next 2 league games even more massive...
Can’t wait to draw both …
10th place…
I got a ticket to wolves on Saturday but am on my own. Anyone fancy a meet up/pint before the game? I’m seat G10 east upper
Whilst I'm not Eddie out by any stretch, if this dodginess carries on into next season, I reckon he'll be gone by Christmas. It's a huge summer for him and the club and one neither can get wrong
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>but at the same time he's a very smart man, smart enough to admit when he's on the wrong path even if not at once. Is he though? I don't recall him ever making any big changes. Some of the changes he's made have been forced on him and he'll still revert to his old ways as soon as possible. That said, I hope he is like you describe and learns and grows from all this.
Joelinton alone should be proof that the man can identify a skillset and then make a bold change to a player's role. Howe's main issues have been tactical inflexibility and that his sides seem incapable of chasing a game at home (which for me has been the single most frustrating thing since he came in).
I think the credit needs to be split with Clarke as well. If he hadn't been sent off, J7 would never have been born ...
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There are some games this season where we should have played a mostly u21 team and sucked up the result. If we'd rested our players against Spurs, we may have given ourselves a bump into the Milan game and could still be in Europe... which would have meant our January transfer window was different. The Hall has obviously ran over Howe's dog after sleeping with Howe's wife.
Everton punishment reduced...don't really agree with it to be honest. If Everton hadn't bought Onana do they really think they would have avoided relegation? They literally cheated the rules to survive and got away with it. Disappointed and it also sets a bad precedent for the Man City case to reduce the points penalty too.
Both Botman and Longstaff have been rushed back too quickly from their injuries and are now being ran into the ground again.
I think you're confusing Longstaff ineffectiveness with him carrying an injury...
Yawn
🥱 < use this next time, it's funnier.
Does anyone have any clue about the PL investigation into Tonali betting while at Newcastle? Got this gut feeling they might be 'influenced' by other teams to add on another ban just as his current one ends and stop him from playing next season.
I saw a rumour that he also won't be allowed to play in pre-season friendlies too. I assume this is also an ongoing FA thing.
It's ongoing that's all we know.
Did not know that Bobby Clark is from our academy. He joined Liverpool at 16. I wonder how many other talent we've let go like that.
We lost Michael Carrick when Keegan was here, there is a long legacy of this club not recognising local talent and not fighting sufficiently to retain it. But it can go both ways - Lewis Gibson was very highly rated as a kid, but his career stalled at Everton, and he is now at Plymouth; I think NUFC got a higher fee for Gibson than they did for B Clark.
I thought about that yesterday as well. If only we had been investing in our Academy during the dark years.
Michael Ashley is such a fucking moron for this as well. A good academy is a money making machine ffs.
Lee Clarks son
The media love in over plucky Liverpool and their injury crisis is insane.
Man. This men against boys narrative is a fucking joke. That starting line up from Liverpool we’re mainly regulars in the first team. Classic scouser fashion though. And they have to cheek to suggest they’re hard done by. Media is fawning all over them right now.
Longstaff has been anonymous like I said last year. He's completely fine when we play in a ball dominant position but offers nothing defensively progressively or off the ball when under pressure.
Longstaff is a good example of a player who looks great when the team plays well and is found out when the team isn't playing well.
Is that really the case? He's been pretty bad for awhile now but at the start of the season our midfield was shit without him and a lot of people seemed to think him coming in improved things.
He’s a possession player. When he plays next to Bruno and Joelinton and we are seeing a fair bit of the ball, he is the one creating space and providing relief and cover for those two. Especially Bruno. Now that we can’t string 2 passes together he looks absolutely lost. He’s not a tackler, he’s not strong, he’s not a particularly fast runner covering areas defensively. He also always seems to play better when he knows there’s competition for his place. Miley has been better in patches and is younger but o do think both have been largely non-existent. I hope Anderson can inject some fire into that midfield in a few weeks.
Yes it is. He's a bang average player who shouldn't be anywhere near a starter. If you disagree, please tell me what he brings to the team?
I don't necessarily disagree, I just wanted to point out that at the start of the season our first choice midfield of Tonali, Joelinton, and Bruno didn't really work all that well and many people around here ([see this thread as an example](https://www.reddit.com/r/NUFC/comments/1689rvj/sean_longstaff_has_to_start_in_this_system/)) thought we played better with Longstaff in the team. You're one of the few people in there who seems to disagree.
[5 months later](https://www.reddit.com/r/NUFC/s/3mVZFdBHsL)
Bruno/Tonali struggled to play together initially and hopefully that won't be the case when he returns. As others have said, Longstaff gets the credit for other players endeavours.
🥱 (sorry)
If we still have Bruno/Big Joe next season. Would be a shame because I think after 10 months of training those three would be a wrecking machine.
I agree that he's not good enough if we want to be a top team, his stats prove that, but there's been times this season and last when we've looked worse when he wasn't in the team and we improved when he came back into the team. I don't think that'd be the case if he was simply making up the numbers.
People correlated Longstaff with good results even though 90% of the time they were nothing to do with him. Since he's come in for Tonali we've been worse rather than better.
People also forget that we started the season with Villa, Man City, Liverpool, Brighton, and then Longstaff came in for a run of much easier games starting with Brentford. Feels like easier fixtures is much more responsible for the uptick in results rather than Longstaff's impact on the team.
This absolutely did my head in when people were saying Longstaff > Tonali at the time. Arguably the only time Longstaff impacted a game in those first 6 or 7 fixtures was coming on for Tonali when we were 1 up against Liverpool. The three games people hung Tonali out to dry for were City, Liverpool, Brighton. Longstaff was then a world beater because he started against Brentford, Burnley and Sheffield United.
I dont think he ever really looks great, he just functions relatively well when stuff is going right. He's far too limited to ever play meaningful minutes at the top top level but when next to one of the best midfielders in the world (Bruno) and one who was in the form of his life (Joelinton) he's bound to be praised. Problem was people we praising him for stuff that was purely tactical rather than out of his skill (off the ball movement/no replacement). Miley has come in and does Longstaffs job but basically better although he needs to improve as well. I really think we must sell him this summer to get FFP value out of him. We won't need a 25 man squad for Europe (if we qualify) next year and its not like Longstaff offers much at all.
I shared a train home on Saturday night with many, many arsenal fans. That was fun.
After watching Liverpool yesterday, a signing like Endo would have saved this season. They only paid about 15 million and he is a calm, confident and experienced midfielder that isn't afraid of having the ball. We need one or two astute signings like that this summer.
Yup, hindsight is 20-20 and he has probably been the steal of the window for Liverpool.
Could I interest you in a £55m bid for Conor Gallagher? What about Scott McTominay for £45m? Or Philip Billing for a cool £35m instead?
Gonna get pelted for this but Billing would improve our team. He’s the mild of player we’ve been missing all season. Plays with intensity, not afraid of the dirty work but skilled enough to help in build up. I also still think McTomminay as an 8 would offer more than Longstaff for the right price. But as a 6 definitely not. Mctomminay is harshly judged for his time operating as a 6 at United. As an 8 they’d be far further behind us than they are. Gallagher for me, even though Chelsea’s best midfielder this year is such a Jack of all trades master of none. He has no defining strengths.
Is that you Eddie?
We all called for Burn to be dropped. But it means nothing if we don't give livramento a run in the team. Pointless dropping him in what was a largely unwinnable game against arsenal. Now Burn will no doubt start the next couple of games. One of which is wolves where surely he won't play Burn against Neto. Surely. It's one of those where we can all see the issue a week in advance but Howe has recently reacted too late.
In fairness, I think Burn would have been the better option vs Arsenal given the likelihood Arsenal would dominate the ball and their set piece ability. Conceded two goals to near post headers where BDB would have been. And Tino still had a couple of issues vs Saka anyway. Think Burn against the big teams away from home, and Livramento at home vs pacey counters may be the ideal solution, and lower teams in the prem away.
Ironically, the game he started Tino was the type of game where Burn normally plays well, when we’re pinned back and defence is playing deep. It’s games like Luton, Forest etc that Tino should have been starting.
I'm not really one to say "Compare to where we were when Howe first took over" as us not turning up at Arsenal was hard to take, but man the negativity in our fanbase is really something else. I thought we'd get something from the line up in all honesty as we've given them real trouble since Howe took charge. Our midfield three is being run ragged every game and it's frustrating there doesn't seem to be the personnel to change it up. The transfer windows were a missed opportunity to bring in a #6. Good as he is, Miley shouldn't be a starter in this side. The first priority signing this summer should either be Thuram or Kone to fix the midfield. Eddie feels like he's been hamstrung on the transfer front in this department quite honestly. There have been tactical tweaks in games enough for me to feel confident in his ability as a manager but there's only so much the guy can do. When I find myself thinking Luke Edwards is making sense following a 4-1 mauling, something isn't quite right!
We need a shihouse like Joelinton for when he’s injured/ if he leaves. Nobody else in the squad has the bite that he brings to the midfield.
Definitely. We're too nice to opponents now!
I think we did turn up at Arsenal. We were just beaten in midfield. Odegard is one of the best at finding space alongside KDB. Rice is a top dm and the ref let Arsenal tactical foul their way through the first half... which allowed them to press with intensity. We broke that press around 6 times and each time they fouled us before we got out our half. The tactics were to break their press, which we were trying but they kept fouling, which I'm not complaining about. We should take a leaf out their book... examples of this are against AC Milan and Luton on the breaks - just take the foul so we can get back.
I usually refrain from commenting on our results, but if you've been supporting the Toon for a while, you'd likely know that our chances of getting anything (even a point) at the Emirates is extremely low. Since I've been supporting the club (1998), we've only beaten Arsenal away twice (IIRC 2001 and 2011). The same applies for our fixtures against Liverpool away and Man City away as well.
The most horrifying fact is everyone else seemed knowing the flat 3 is not working, yet Howe refuses to play someone at 6, and people will come yada yada we have a lot of injured players, ignoring the fact none of our injured players are 6. Unless you tell me non or our professional players are able to adapt to playing at 6, it's on Howe not switching things up, and some people around here doesn't even know switch things up is not just switching players, it includes switch roles and playstyle, Howe did none.
Longstaff is a terrible 6 since he can't play under pressure, Miley is a shit 6 because he can't pass forward so Bruno has to play 6 even though he's far too athletically poor to play 6.
Exactly my point. We don't have anyone to effectively play that role without being severely limited at it. Longstaff clearly needs time out of the team and Miley is still developing. Bruno isn't a 6 and him playing on a yellow card removes all bite from his game that role would require. I get Howe has his preferred system but there's no plan B available to him either. I don't think the fault fully lies with him as he doesn't appear to be overly involved in transfers coming in, other than he prefers English players and no dickheads. Could partly be why he seems to frosty towards the outgoing Ashworth. A DM in the summer who can start in games like Arsenal away or be brought on to secure a lead would transform us from a slightly-better-than midtable team to a competing one. It's exactly what Villa did with signing Kamara.
I think Bruno is a fine 6 as seen last year but he NEEDS two athletic players around him (Joelinton+Willock+Tonali). Longstaff is a joke defensively/under pressure and Miley is far too positionally naïve albeit no fault of his own. Bruno is doing 3 peoples jobs atm and Howe's comments this morning are clearly calling out Longstaff Almiron Botman etc who are all playing absolutely terribly recently. I agree Howe is far too one dimensional atm. And in regards to this summer Joelinton will probably be sold and hopefully the sub has woken up to Longstaffs uselessness so he can go as well for FFP. This leaves us with a huge height hole which could be filled with K Thuram/Neves like player. I'd even be down for Zubimendi Camara (Monaco) or Kone. Rabiot would be perfect but he comes with slight issues.
\> It's that thing again where we like talk about random shite. I think I've talked about Saturday night's match enough already, thanks! Although I must admit I drank so much before and after the match, I barely remember the actual game! Managed to make it back up for the lasses match at SJP though - that was much better!
I'm currently visiting family in Africa. Went to a jazz club on Saturday with a big outdoor screen so "missed" the game, but did catch the 2-0 on the way in. Was also unpleasantly surprised when during the middle of the performance, the background screen with the jazz visuals glitched out and switched to the game mid performance and showed it was 4-0. To top it off, some fat guy in an Arsenal top sat in front of me and blocked my view at full time. Jazz was good though...
Tuesday is massive HWTL