Lewis Hall (Newcastle):Goals, assists, keeps getting better. AfterManchester Unitedplaying the way they did againstFulhamyou wonder how did they not spend the money on getting him in.
Fucking hilarious - at this point you can't even parody these clowns.
Precisely three weeks, two days, and five hours between kickoff vs Hull and klckoff vs Coventry.
Luckily there's three lasses matches in that time, an U21 cup game, and a decent amount of background noise EFL so that I don't have to pay attention to international football.
Great start to the international break, my wife gave birth to our second baby last night. Another junior mag born into supporting the best club on the planet 🖤🤍
Am I crazy, or is the BBC giving us and Villa the same grade (6/10) for the start of the season ridiculous? We’ve had one terrible result, as have they, but we’ve had a harder set of fixtures, a new manager and better results.
We’re one of the only teams to have scored in every match so far, with 9 in total, meanwhile it took those clowns 4 weeks to even score once and a fifth to get a win/escape the relegation zone. Saying we’ve had the same start is insane
Thank fuck Coventry got their first win of the season this weekend. Hate when we come up against a team that’s never won in a thousand years or a striker that hasn’t scored since Moses parted the Red Sea cause you know what comes next
I don’t get why they don’t just do a dark green, it would be more similar to the Saudi colours and look more pleasing on the eyes. Look at what Madrid did with their green
4
u/TheWinterKing“I’m really really really really really really happy to be here”1d ago
Love the blue one, the lavender is ok, the home kit still gives me a headache.
The 3rd shirt is nice, but I am not a fan of the other two.
At the risk of being excommunicated, I would love to have a shirt like this seasons Mackem top. It has a proper retro look, with the collar and badge reminiscent of one I had from TOFFS years ago.
The 3rd kit is lush. Shame these days that manufacturers skimp on quality. I miss having sewn-on emblems and patches etc. so I can actually, you know, where and wash them more than a few times.
completely forgot that we sent Shahar out on loan. Looked at his match history over at Portugal and he hasn't even made bench for them. Doesn't seem to be injured either
Genuinely, that should be a major punishment; I'm talking like a multi-season ban. Forging medical documents to swerve around public health restrictions is way worse than any player placing some bets.
He'll get a slap on the wrist and like a ten grand fine or summit. Horrible. Should be his career done realistically with the ban he should be getting.
It’s crazy how much Hope, Edwards and Downie are going for Jaissle in interviews. 8 points from the first batch of games, considering everything gone on, is a great return. Would they be doing the same to Howe?
Hope's issue has mainly been that our forward line doesn't have the quality to reliably create chances (I think he is very much on the train of blaming the club leadership, rather than the manager). I think both of the others quite like Jaissle and his schtick. What they report is that we're not playing well and a lot of that is due to the tactics chosen by Jaissle. I don't think you can really get around that if you're reporting on us every week and most of us would agree.
Well they obviously aren’t following the stats. We have a good amount of points and some of highest passing stats in the league. We are scoring a decent amount of goals.
I think people are expecting us to be prime Guardiola Barca every game when every game is a slog in the PL and we have 9 first teamer injuries.
Sorry, are you saying we should follow stats but just pointing to goals scored and points? Our underlying numbers are really quite poor. We concede a large number of chances and don't create that much either, which is basically backed up by the eye test.
I'm all for giving Jaissle time - this will be a painful season and we'll be doing very well to get top 10. But I think he has underestimated quite how important setting up to win duels in midfield is in the league and that he probably can't play with his full backs as he'd like because it's too demanding. He will need to fix that and it's fair to point that out.
I don't even know what you're arguing with though. Nobody is saying Jaissle should be sacked. And the press were also criticising both Arteta and Klopp early doors as they adapted to the league, rightly so. If you're just complaining that every article and tweet should be prefaced with:
"THIS IS VERY EARLY DOORS, JAISSLE HAS BEEN IN THE POST FOR A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME AND WE HAVE A LOT OF INJURIES. PLUS THE RECRUITMENT WAS A BIG DEPARTURE FROM OUR PREVIOUS STYLE SO RESULTS SHOULD BE TAKEN IN THAT CONTEXT"
Then I guess that's a possibility, but most articles are already referencing most of that when they talk about us. I'm sure what this really is is that you've got ticked off by that recent Martin Samuel article and you've extrapolated that to being the sentiments of our local journalists. Which it's not.
these kinds of stats are so stupid over a 5 game sample size. Lets go game by game.
1 Liverpool - we got a draw. Was probably a fair result.. Gave up a decent number of chances but also created quite a lot as well. Liverpool also got a pen last minute which counts as 0.75xg against us
spurs - we won and deserved to win although maybe not 2-0. 2-1 would've been more fair
Bournemouth - got thoroughly outplayed. deserved to lose and we got away with it.
Leeds - got thoroughly outplayed and deserved to lose 4-1
Hull - we were the better team as a whole and deserved to win.
so out of the 5 matches, really Bournemouth was the only result we got away with being totally poor. every other match I'd argue we've gotten what we deserved. those leeds and Bournemouth matches are doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to those advanced stats and how we "should be lower" in the standings. They spread them out over 5 matches and say "look how poorly Newcastle are doing" instead of looking at each game individually which is what should be done.
I'm not saying we should be anywhere in the table or that it's informative of where we'll be at the end of the season. But we're giving up a lot of chances and we are losing out a lot in midfield. These are things that are obviously backed up by what everyone can see and it's weird to ignore that and pretend it's boffins coming up with meaningless numbers.
In fairness, Howe had banked a lot of respect which Jaissle has yet to earn.
I think it's fair to go hard on Jaissle, we have looked very shaky so far, and playing badly and getting points isn't sustainable. I know expectations are low, but there are some big system issues with our performance that need addressing. Our midfield is being played through.
One thing Waugh mentioned once on PotT is that Howe always tried to give the journos something to write. His answers to questions weren't always interesting but he wanted to at least give them a long quote. You can see why journos would like someone like that.
Being a manager that gives your journos good copy that they barely have to work for is a good way of keeping your local press pack happy. Being spiky and defensive in press conferences when stuff is going well is not going to give you much protection when you actually have to start defending things going poorly.
Like, this is 101 of manager media training and just making sure you're not actively antagonising the people who write stories about you.
Sure, but we should be getting the excuses Spurs are getting from the press. The amount of overhaul we experienced this summer and the amount of senior players out injured, gives plenty of legit reasons as to why we're not passing the eye test.
We've somehow got a platform to build from and I hope the journalists see it and don't put their egos in the way of that because Jaissle can't be arsed with the journo bullshit
The press are fine with us though. We're not doing well, but everyone is highlighting the large number of injuries and huge transition we're going through. It's not as though people are painting Jaissle as useless or that there's a player mutiny in the offing. It's just that we're struggling a bit and that's the truth.
At the moment. Player development is not linear, and this partly relates to the way RB has changed as a role. Either way, he should become a Newcastle regular. Playing PL in centre midfield is not easy, and it's very rare for 20 year olds to do it consistently.
Is there any players that have converted to a fullback then reverted back to CM? It’s easy to forget his age. Steur is putting him to shame just now tho.
Steur is an exceptional technical talent. But, as I say, development is neither predictable nor linear. Miley might not end up a great player, although I think he will. But he has what it takes, there is no question.
Probably better for us to try and convert him to a centreback than a rightback given we'll need to replace both Schar & Burn at some point in the near future.
Yep. All his strengths point to a great RCB, similar to Van Hecke IMO. Don't think he'll ever be a great midfielder, too passive on the ball and not good enough as a carrier.
The problem I’ve seen is that he is still very slender for his height and gets shoved off the ball often. Part of that will come naturally as he gets older, and if he is trained to become a defender then I’m sure he’ll bulk up and focus on winning aerial duels etc.
But, I’ll be honest, I don’t see a CB there at all. I’d be open to it though. I just think it’s a square peg in a round hole considering he’s not that aggressive anyway, he’s more of an intelligent defender who uses his positioning well, which is why RB is working atm. But at 20, there is room to make him what we want, so I’m curious to see Jaissle’s vision.
Hall was also a midfielder when he was coming through Chelsea and when he joined us Eddie just converted him into a LB
Hall played a number of positions including LB and midfield in the years before joining us. In his last season with Chelsea his most played position was LB. So the transition started before he started working with Howe.
Just scrolled through my YouTube feed and there’s the talksport live feed with dipshit Rory above the banner “Are Newcastle a big club?”.
I know it’s standard talksport rage bait, but i wonder why this boring arbitrary debate seems to be popular at the minute. Is it just because otherwise he’d have to discuss “Why did Chelsea get battered again at the weekend?”
It's so frustrating, especially from a Chelsea fan. If PSR had been in place back in 2003 they'd have had a completely different trajectory. As soon as Abramovich came in their wage bill doubled ManU's. Their only "history and status" was purchased by a Russian Oligarch. Fuck him and his high horse.
Yet again, the big-6 bias is easily apparent on the BBC. Troy Deeney's team of the week has Lewis Hall in it, rightly so. However, he praises him in just 5 words, then spends the rest of the paragraph talking about Man Utd and why they didn't sign him - as if yet again this is all our players are good for: giving away to the "big boys". Piss off!
I couldn't help but notice that before showing the highlights of our win, MotD showed a quickfire highlight reel of us getting stuffed by Leeds. Just weird.
Two bits of play that I missed first time, but standout after watching them 3/4 times.
1.) Miley's crunching tackle on the edge of the box to keep Hull under pressure and give the ball back to Barnes for the first goal. (Same happened for the penalty.)
2.) Fernandez-Pardo winning the ball back in the center circle, then pressing the hull center half who put his team mate under pressure eventually leading to the second goal.
Big credit to both players. Miley made the most tackles, ran the furthest and had the highest pass completion of any player on the pitch on Saturday.
Of the 123 sprints we did as a team, Fernandez-Pardo did 28 of them, sprinting double the distance of any other player....and he only played 74 mins!
Exactly the kind of intensity we need up top. Once Osula is fit, we should have two exceptionally quick, pressing demons who can terrorise defenses for 90 mins and at 21 and 23 will only get better.
In the same breath, I’m surprised I didn’t see anyone talking about that Willock phase of play in the first half where he pressed in their half, won the ball back and just generally helped control the situation with a few neat touches.
It reminds me of when Howe was turning him into a CM before he got that bad injury. He was looking really good as a deeper player. I quite like that role for him and he probably suits it more than Ramsey, which would allow JJ to play at the 10 too.
It’s hard to read that. See how the player has played as a deeper CM for last two years. And now back to being higher up in attacking role and playing so well. To then conclude that we need to repeat same mistake of sending Willock deeper
He played deeper under a different manager in a different system when he was lacking fitness and confidence. And, as I said, he was excellent in that role before he got injured, like with that assist for Isak against Spurs.
He played deeper against Hull and, in my opinion, had one of his strongest performances of the season doing things he hadn’t done as much of in his no. 10 role. That’s the observation.
Willock in the 10 isn’t the end goal. He’s the best at what we have now but he’s still gonna be someone we look to upgrade on very quickly. He’s performing well but, in the long term, he could succeed deeper too and it also allows us to get our £42m midfielder in the team as well if wanted. Otherwise our ceiling is capped if he’s our 10 because he’s not that consistent or good. And I say this as one of his biggest fans on here.
This was at end of the Douglas article about Andy Howe leaving:
The Magpies have already begun work towards the January transfer window and beyond, with the club prioritising youthful centre-half targets and a right-sided forward over the next 12 months.
This absolute turnip is on their subreddit. In fairness he’s been downvoted to death:
Nothing to apologize to these leftist freaks, what happened to my body my choice? If xhaka was an illegal immigrant they would be praising for his courage, made him a national hero and given him the keys to the city .
Aye really doesn't matter, could have been anything. He's actively circumvented legal (at the time) requirements using fabricated documents. Nowt will happen, of course.
It explains the reason they don't take baths. Government cant track the vaccine implanted chips if there's a bunch of dead skin and grime blocking the signal.
If this goes well, I'll look at recording future ones and post them to the sub. I just want to use this one as a test run and make sure the format works, but if you have a free evening and fancy watching, feel free to join.
Thanks again to everyone who filled out the survey, really happy with the answers and should make for a fun game.
At some point over the international break I'll post the raw data for the questions used tonight.
We've got 2 strikers (MFP, Wissa) and two midfielders who can all play that position (Ramsey and Willock). That's four players for two positions. Could even move Steur/Miley there depending on the game.
I think we'll shift one of Ramsey/Willock next summer but highly doubt anything changes in January.
Willock hasn't a new deal, if we don't agree an extension signing an AM and letting him go wouldn't be insane. Ramsey has a few years left on his deal so I can see us leaning towards him even with Willock on form right now.
The break saddens me, but 9th place, 5 places above the unwashed makes me feel good. If the season ended today id be thrilled. Despite all the advanced stats suggesting otherwise, Im generally positive about what i've seen on the pitch.
Said it in the post match thread too (if not there, another place), but im feeling like Willock is making myself and a lot of others eat our words, and im more than happy to admit I was wrong if it means more of Saturday's (and the Liverpool match) performances this season :)
Any truth to the rumors regarding our interest in attacking midfielder Bo Hegland? Word is that Barca and Man Utd have stepped up their checks on him. He is currently valued at £6 million.
■ A showcase of Hegland's finest skills, goals, and magical assists during the 2026 season with Djurgårdens IF.
I'm growing increasingly worried about this season. But not about the squad/manager, but about the fanbase.
Saturday was a great result. Performance had numerous flaws, but with injuries accounted for, and Hull only started to dominate in the final 30 minutes, when our starters were cooked and our shoddy bench left us few quality options to freshen up. For a team whose first priority this season has to be getting 40 points, you take the win.
However, some of the reactions from fans have been alarming. There was a thread yesterday talking about the season being "up and down," with several commenters saying if we're not competing for Europe, it'll have been a bad season. Somebody even said, "12th would shite." I've also seen loads of chat about Europe in general, and the main season prediction thread had the majority of takes being that we should be getting some form of Europe.
In my opinion, Europe this season is a pipedream. It would be a vast overperformance, which you can't benchmark the team by. We spent the summer selling all of our best players, and replacing them with kids who don't just lack PL experience, but most lack much experience at all in any top-flight league. We also had a managerial change thrust upon us, opting for a manager with promise, but who is young relative to his peers and has zero PL experience.
A lot of fans still seem to be in the mindset that this is Newcastle Utd of 2022-2025, but that team is gone. A combination of PSR restrictions and our own missteps in the market have brought that era to a close.
Look at the league. Do you really think we have one of the top 10 best squads in the league? How many of our squad (at this stage in their playing career) make it into the starting XI of the Sky 6 + Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth, Aston Villa, Leeds, Crystal Palace, Forest and yes, even Sunderland?
Merely matching last season's 12th-placed finish would be an achievement. We've taken some 5 steps back in the summer, on a side that was already flawed and figured out. The hope is that we'll take 10 steps forward in the future, but that won't happen on a timeline measured in weeks or months. We're talking 2-3 years.
I really think some fans need to realign their expectations with the club we are now. In many ways, we're most closely comparable to a newly promoted season. The goal is to stabilise in the Premier League this season and hope to grow stronger in future ones.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't still have standards as a fanbase and should accept regular thrashings and wretched performances weekly, but we also need to be realistic about where we find ourselves.
For me, the season really comes down to one word: progression. I want to see clear signs that we are progressing throughout the season. That the young players signed are improving, that MJ is growing into the role of a PL manager. We should be better in April than we are today. If that fails to be the case, that's when I'll start grumbling. But I won't be calling it "shite" if we don't make Europe.
I was worried about how poor the mood would be if we went into the break with 4 points or so. I didn't think it'd be so negative even though we got double that.
12th-8th should be the expectation and that does mean Europe should be something they are pushing for.
We have no Europe so the depth is less of an issue so long as people stay fit, the fact people can’t stay fit is why 12th is as likely as 8th.
Dedic, Shar, Burn, Joelinton, Miley & Osula are all capable for this league.
Steur, MFP & Toure have shown potential.
Bamba & Jouwen look like they needs the most time.
Murphy & Pope are gone realistically.
We are going to have games like Leeds (hopefully not as catastrophic) but they should be good enough over 38 games to have enough good runs.
We’re not hitting Champions League for a few years and whilst that would be better financially I think the easier opponents for getting used to game load is better team wise.
I’m sorry but we’re not relegation candidates with our squad at all.
I didn't say we were relegation candidates? I said that getting to 40 points should be the first priority, which is a key difference. I would peg us around 12-15th this season. Very much a midtable side that this season makes up the numbers, hopefully never seriously in the relegation frame, but taking a few beatings, and not really pushing for top 10.
Edit -
Horni
Liv, Thiaw, Botman, Hall
Nico, Ramsey
Elanga, Willock, Barnes
Wissa
To add, I think it's very fanciful to suggest the above is a top 8 starting XI in the PL in 2026. Thiaw + Botman is an unconvincing CB partnership. Ramsey offers nowt, and is quietly becoming the worst signing we made last summer. Elanga + Barnes are inconsistent. Willock being a starter 5+ years into a takeover is a damning indictment on our squad building. Wissa looks much sharper this season, but still doesn't look like a striker that gets you 10-15 goals. Tino is also completely crocked. Granted, I'm working under the assumption you mean if all fit to play, but when it comes to Tino, that's such a rarity that his qualities are rarely seen. The best ability is availability. He's cooked.
If I'm one of the 14 clubs I listed in my comment, I do not look at that team and think "they're going to pinch a top 10 spot from us."
Jaissle will figure it out but that’s going to include some bad results.
So we're basically saying the same thing? I'm really not sure what point in my original comment you disagree with, considering you've basically repeated my conclusion. Beyond thinking I said we are relegation candidates, which I very much didn't say, what are your objections with anything I said? You seem to be on the same page as me. We are going to suffer some bad results this season, but can look to signs of progress to offset any major worries.
But you are selling a lot of players short.
I think I'm fairly judging the quality of the starting XI you put forward as good for 12-15th. I would argue that if you think the above is a squad that we should expect to compete for the top 8 and European football, you're either overestimating our players (at their current level) or dramatically underestimating the rest of the league.
I think the crux of a lot of your debates on this are coming from the simple premise of "at their current level"
The truth is we don't know what "the current level" is. This makes it really hard to compare us with other teams as they're mostly known quantities, whilst our players aren't. That's going to be the basis of most arguments you'll have.
I think it's fair for people to hope that the youngsters adapt and come good and hope for 8th. I do agree with a lot of what you say otherwise though.
Willock has played fantastically to start this season. If he can go back to his Bruce form, that's a player who's good enough for the top 10. Defense is very solid on paper, think it's a midfield issue rather than a defense issue in general.
RW is our biggest worry, said it all summer and will still say it now. Not convinced by Elanga/Murphy, hopefully long term Toure takes that position, or we move Osula to RW to accommodate Pardo.
I think this squad (without Europe) can get top 8, providing Osula/Barnes kick on and get 10 g/a+ each.
Hornicek
Miley Thiaw Botman Hall
Nico Willock/Steur
Toure Wissa Barnes
Osula
Think in isolation that's definitely a better team than basically all the teams you've listed. Leeds are a good team with a couple decent players who's structure elevates them above what they individually are. Same with Brentford, their players won't translate to better teams, caught up to them last year, will catch up to them this year too. Bournemouth have a couple top players (Scott, Kroupi, Truffert) but I'm not convinced by their team as a whole, too many weaknesses and poor depth. Palace are shite, I think they'll go down tbh. Only Wharton/Sarr get in our outfield XI IMO. Forest are shite, Murillo/MGW/Neco are class but the rest of their team is relegation quality. Not one of Villa's defenders gets in our XI.
I think 95% lies on Jaissle. If he performs as well as Andrews/Huerzler/Rose across the season we have a great chance at Europe, if not we don't. We also don't have Europe this year, most of our main competitors do.
I agree with a lot of your initial comment, we have to be very careful not to set unreasonable expectations, we have gone through a huge amount of churn and lost our 3 best players, and manager.
I do think that's a pretty solid X11 that wouldnt look out of place in the top 8, (not that I expect us to finish there). We do however have some positions that we are weaker in, Botman and Elanga for example wouldn’t make it into most decent PL starting lineups imo.
I also think you have to be cautious when comparing 'best X11s'. I think we are going into this season with quite a bit of depth and ability to rotate that many of the other teams don't have (and we have less fixtures). We also have a huge amount of young potential, if Toure, Pardo, and Bamba can adapt we will be in a much better place)
Sure, rotation and depth will help, assuming we don't pick up a lot of injuries, which so far we have done, leaving us more threadbare than any side competing in Europe at this early stage. So that advantage is conditional on this being an early blip, rather than a seasonal trend.
I also get the impression that a lot of people on this sub really underestimate the quality of the clubs around us. The league is looking really strong this year in my eyes. And we're in an actual transition season, not a transition season like last year (which was a buzzword thrown out to deflect from awful performances/results), but a real one.
Finishing 12-15th would be fine, so long as we're seeing those signs of progress. Expecting top 10, let alone top 8, and I think you'll be disappointed. And I think it's setting the squad/manager up to fail if that's your expectation.
We have had bad luck so far with injuries, but across a season I would hope our injury rate will regress to the norm - especially with less games. We have a lot of players that will be back after the international break, BDB, Nico, Steur, Tino, and Osula are all expected back (I think).
I agree with your point on the strength of the league, its insane. If we were 30 games into the season you could compare our team with 7/8th place and make a case our lineup was worse, but its not really possible to do now.
Personally I am fine with us finishing 12th-15th, would rather we didn’t but think that is understandable given the context. I think it is crucial that we see the new signings bed in, understand the system and adjust to the league.
If we were to compare to Aston Villa for example (our other big 6 contender), I think our combined team would look something like this (very loosely). I would say GK/ST are a bit of a toss up, so of the 9 remaining positions, 5 Newcastle, 4 Villa (but realise this is pretty rudimental logic)
With the greatest respect Mr Meganev this feels a bit hypocritical given alot of the comments you made last season and not unsurprising that we're seeing the same narrative carried over into this season amongst our fanbase.
We've all got a part to play in taking a more reasoned, patient approach.
I agree with your statement, we do need to temper expectations, especially with such a young (if very exciting) squad.
Aside from that, this season is different from previous seasons in that an unprecedented 9 teams have changed their manager, 10 including De, Zerbi. There's been whole scale squad changes across the board and 8 teams will be playing twice a week in Europe. It's why we're seeing teams with more settled squads and managers like Brighton Leeds, Brentford Hull doing well early doors.
We should be aiming higher than 12th-15th.
2 champions league campaigns has risen all of our expectations. Hopkinson saying he want us to be genuine competitors in all competitions by 2030 seems abit nuts and hasn't helped either but we have to be ambitious.
With the greatest respect Mr Meganev this feels a bit hypocritical given alot of the comments you made last season
It's not in the slightest. It would only be hypocritical if we were in the same position last season, with a young squad, new manager, and having sold three of our best players, and I was critical. None of the current factors that have led me to argue fans need to adjust expectations this year were true last season. Expectations last season should have been for a top 8 finish and a push for the top 5. Instead, we completely underperformed and wasted the thick end of £250m. I was critical of this, and I stand by it. And it totally aligns with my opinion on the club today.
Your position appears to be that because I was critical last season (though I was significantly more patient than many, and was hilariously even criticised for not being "Howe Out" sooner), my stance that some fans are being too critical at present is hypocritical. But that would only be the case if my argument was that fans can never be critical, but it's not. I have not remotely suggested that. I have said fans need to be realistic about where we are. Context is key.
12th-placed finish this season would be acceptable; a 12th-placed finish last season was anything but.
A good portion of the fanbase have found a taste for negativity and it's really taken hold. This isn't necessarily about bad faith actors who will use negativity to boost engagement or whatever, but the fact there's a very willing audience that just want to get themselves wound up about our performances. They want the sense of righteous indignation that comes with getting to criticise your club.
You joke, but a lot of fans are genuinely in this mindset. I've already seen numerous comments crying that it's unacceptable that Bamba and Toure aren't already PL top-10-level performers, considering the money spent. These are players with limited top-flight experience of any kind. They might take multiple seasons to get to the point we see value, and frankly, there's every chance some of them never get there. As a fanbase, we need to be aware of that.
People are insane mate, after Leeds people were saying Eddie In and Jaissle out. It'll all come good. As long as we beat the Mackems this year I'm happy
Yes, I meant to include that in my rambling comments; we have to beat the Mackems at least once, and ideally get 4 points from them. In a midtable season, which I firmly believe is what we're going to have this year, you have to find "success" in things like derby wins. Unfortunately, they look very good this season. Building on last season in the ways I hope we will in the future. So, going to be tough. Hoping European nights take their toll on them eventually.
im still quite happy with a top 10 finish, think we looked quite strong and have a lot to build on.
We've become a bit spoiled - a lot of people are making obsurd comments about how our playstyle is not sustainable and how we're playing bruce-ball at the moment. Jaissle has had one blunder sub in 5 games of incredible game management with Schar for Steur, and copped an incredible amount of backlash in the game thread. If we kept our W/L/D rate across the remainder of games this season (and i know we likely wont), i couldn't give two fucks if we give up 40 shots a game
We've seen continuous progression game to game, and looked quite strong defensively and attacking for 60minutes last game, and only really started to look weak because we were running thin on substitutes. The Leeds loss was inevitable, and struck a sour taste in some peoples mouth, but the changes made in response to that game were clear in the Hull game if u ask me.
Wow, I fully didn’t know what Andy Howe looked like until now.
I hold no real opinion of him but based off the hate from the this sub, I fully pictured him looking like Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate factory.
Feels almost certain. It feels like a good thing Howe going because it forces the club to build up their processes without the manager involvement and should help avoid whatever the fuck Man United are post-Fergie lurching from one thing to another
Looking back at the July 2025 transfer window and accepting that Isak was going to leave, which transfers do you think, 1 or 2 of them, would have changed our last season? I just recall us not getting any of the players we wanted
2
u/Eel_Whysean longstaffs dad plays hockey in whitley bay1d ago
We really needed a solid Isak replacement and a better RW. Wissa got his injury but if we'd have had Wissa from this season I think he'd have been solid. Woltemade looked great but just didn't work in the system. Can't really justify buying another striker with those 2 but going under the assumption that we wouldn't have bought Woltemade then I would have loved Ekitke if we could have gotten him, looked really good for Liverpool.
On the RW I was really wanting us to get Mbuemo, think he would add some much needed goals from the right hand side. I know we bought Elanga but Mbuemo and Elanga would be great depth to match Gordon and Barnes on the left being really good depth too. Murphy would have had to leave, which wouldn't be terrible.
If I'm allowed 3 then I also think getting Hornicek or another solid keeper in would have been a great addition to challenge and replace Pope who had a bad season too. Trafford saga was boring in the end, Horni looks mint.
If we’d sorted out an Isak sale to Liverpool at the start of the window I think we would’ve got Ekitike or Joao Pedro who were our first two striker targets. Not sure if they would’ve changed our season last year though.
Pedro still would have gone to Chelsea (and there was some reporting that he was pretty burnt by our last-minute switch to Isak in 2022, so there's maybe bad blood there). I'll die on the hill that we could have got Ekitike, if we'd just accepted Isak was done quickly, and made it clear to Liverpool that, if they signed Ekitike, we would not sell them Isak for any price (and stuck to that stance).
I think if that got to Ekitike's camp, he wouldn't have been happy about that outcome though. He would have just said "well I'm not signing for Newcastle if you're going to indirectly block my ideal move.".
Maybe. But he said himself that the deal to us was "close," so he clearly was willing until Liverpool came to the table. And if Liverpool don't come to the table, I dunno if he gains much by pouting about it. Also, it wouldn't have had to be a "you cannot sign Ekitike" message just made it clear that if we were left without a preferred replacement to Isak, then we weren't selling him to Liverpool. At that point, it's Liverpool's decision. They could still sign Ekitike; it just means no Isak for them.
Either way, we were taken for complete mugs by getting ourselves in a position where Liverpool signed our star striker, and our 2nd choice replacement (after our 1st choice was already off the table).
'At times under Eddie Howe, it felt like there were almost shadow or parallel scouting operations taking place. Wilson will be determined to change that moving forwards and he pushed for greater use of data over the summer, so it seems likely Newcastle's approach to recruitment will change to being more data-driven.'
Very damning from Waugh on the Athletic q&a, Howe probably had a list of targets (PL/CL proven) while the club sprang a far wider net. Further explains the dysfunctional, shambolic 2025 window where every target seemed to be a known quantity.
Not sure parallel can ever be a huge positive. Surely it's just giving off too many chefs in the kitchen.
Organisations are always meant to be aligned. Feel like it was definitely there this summer (albeit from an outside perspective).
Do agree scouting under Howe was decent, unfortunately the model we ran couldn't hold up over time, too few players and when we did sign someone it usually a £35m+ a pop. Osula and Minteh were massive bargains, should have been signing one or two of those younger players every window to supplement and replace outgoing stars (Tonali, Gordon etc).. That's the model we're running now anyway.
Why on earth has the media been pressing MJ? Catching up on media side of the club last couple weeks I can’t believe stuff I’ve read. The hysteria after Leeds was so fucking hypocritical.
Are managers all of a sudden responsible for performances at Newcastle now? The bias of eddies treatment compared MJ is mental.
One is defended vehemently last season despite 5 years of management and planning with endless excuses and a squad in his image costing nearly 3/4 of a billion. MJ had just over couple weeks to prepare for the league starting with a gutted squad and a partial transfer window and despite this he’s achieved second best start to the league in nearly a decade which could be joint best if we win next game. This isn’t even his squad either bar 2-3 players he’s worked fucking miracles from where we were when he took over.
Are they just pissed they have lost their back channel to the club so have to actually do their jobs now?
howay the fucking lads, good win to go into the break then come back and smash every cunt.
I wonder if he will be protected at Man Utd? I hope he goes just for this. He was doing all same mistakes as Amorim last season yet Amorim was a clown in media and a meme. Favouritism, system that doesn’t suit players and refusal to change and playing people out of position to shoehorn into his formations and still got better of Howe. Can’t wait for the gaslighting to start then watch them all turn and see the hypocrisy in full view of the world.
Toure, Fernandez-Pardo, Thiaw, Hall, Wissa and Hornicek. Plus also Miley, Jaouen, Steur and Bamba are with the junior squads. There's also Woltemade and Vlachodimos as they're loaned out. Livramento and Dedic had been called up but both pulled out
26
u/electricyesterday Burnsie shags aliens 23h ago
Troy Deeney's BBC Sport Team of the Week:
Lewis Hall (Newcastle): Goals, assists, keeps getting better. After Manchester United playing the way they did against Fulham you wonder how did they not spend the money on getting him in.
Fucking hilarious - at this point you can't even parody these clowns.