tajjuk

If you say 38-39 points to probably stay up then Newcastle need 27-28 points from 19 games. Which looking at the current table, 27/28 points from 19 games is 8th/9th form. Needs quite a dramatic jump in form for Newcastle to hit those levels (unless of course the 4th team down there is also terrible I suppose).

Very sad for him, hope at least he can get to a point where he is pain free and able to do a decent level of exercise, play with his kids etc. in the future. I know a couple of people who have had ACLs with lots of complications and it was massively frustrating for them and their jobs were not dependent on it so I can't imagine how gutted he must be. Hopefully he becomes the English Tuchel or Nagelsmann (obviously if he wants to continue in the game)as both of those ended their playing careers very early due to knee injuries.

Times saying Botman is going to turn them down, hopefully more will follow and they fail in most of their targets. Seems only Trippier is interested because he liked playing under Howe at Burnley. If they go down that route they can have a nice squad of ex-Burnley and ex-Bournemouth players ready for the Championship.

Don't particularly hate or dislike a player, we all know the vast majority of them do whatever they can to win and we'd most likely excuse our own players for doing. If Vardy was ours we'd love him. I can't dislike Ronaldo, he backs the arrogance up with hard work, the guy is a model professional and has squeezed every ounce of his already immense talent and has become the greatest player of all time IMO. Can't give him anything but admittedly grudging respect, the guy is a machine and an absolute incredible player. To evolve his game like that and still be banging them at 36, at nearly a goal every game, it's just pure excellence. I appreciate quality players that do amazing things and doubly so ones that work really hard as well. Someone like Bernardo Silva has to be one of my favourite players from others clubs. Only one I can say I truly dislike is Alonso because he's living this dream live despite killing someone whilst drink driving.

I also feel this is another example of the professional game be even more distanced from the amateur game thousands are playing every week. I am sure loads of us have been involved in games where we've had fulfil the fixture with 10 or someone's kid brother or aging dad has had to be emergency signed on to be on the bench because the team had a bare eleven. What's this 13 players nonsense, I bet if you said the clubs had to play if they had at least 10 players then suddenly they'd find some players.

Hate is a strong word, but certainly strongly dislike quite a few. Newcastle has certainly gone up there, celebrating a takeover by an awful regime like that just for football success. But also making out Ashley was such a bad owner when in reality he wasn't, he just didn't throw money around all over the place like they wanted and like the majority of owners of football clubs across the world. Hardly hard done by, I mean he spent £40 million on a striker, half the clubs in the league or at least many of the clubs around them have never done that. Plus them idolising Rafa and hating on Bruce for basically the same results, with the same squad and the same brand of dour defensive football, yet they hero worshipped one and vilified the other. Add in the clear Covid rules cheating getting games called off because their best players are out and the window is now open they are right up there. Really hope they go down and have a feeling most of the league do. Liverpool obviously is a dislike, mainly comes from knowing far too many glory hunting fans around me when they have no connection to Liverpool and clearly just support them because they were good back in the day. Plus the whole arrogance/victim thing as well. Man Utd just because of the arrogant fans and because they complain about Chelsea and City, as if they have never spent huge amounts of money. Of so called big 6 I actually quite like City, they have a lot of players I like, I like Guardiola, their style of play but mainly because most of their existing fans seem to have a little less arrogance about them, they know the lows like going into league one like we did and know how lucky they got. Plus the plastic glory hunting crowd doesn't seem to have have taken to them that much, all the kids I see still where Chelsea or Man Utd or Liverpool. Plus they seem to be the upstarts and disliked by the old arrogant super clubs. Burnleys style of play is annoying but I have more solidarity with them these days because they are like us, battling the big spenders and having to make do within their means. Most of the rest rather indifferent to I reckon.

Is not therefore making a challenge for the ball and if Forster has it under control as per the rules, it is therefore a foul. If Doherty is making a move to get the ball in a 50/50 situation and the keeper gets there first and thus has control of it, then surely its a foul.

It's a foul because precedent always says that is a foul, if that is two outfield players then it's not a foul but stuff like that on the keeper is always a foul. As they said in the commentary, Schmeical had a finger on the foul and was deemed in control of it and therefore fouled, Forster fully caught it and got barged into, there are no doubts about that. Should he have probably not dropped it? Yes, but that is irrelevant, actions like that on Keepers holding the ball are always fouls, always have been.

Does seem very suspicious to me, two best players injured, desperately waiting for the Window to open to splash the cash and suddenly they don't have enough players? Looking at Leicester's team last night they must have had a lot out, but they just played two games in 48 hours. They had at least 4 U23 players making up their squad.

They are paying like 3 or even 4 times the total wages of some of the clubs in the bottom half of the league, they have the second highest wage budget in the league apparently and are paying people like Lukaku £350k a week, which is probably more than half our first eleven combined. If they can't form a squad to handle fixtures on that budget then they only have themselves to blame. He was pretty much the best keeper the Championship the year before, was 21, English and good with his feet, an England U21 regular and highly rated by everyone. I think the fee was pretty reasonable to be honest, he just has regressed and lost his confidence rather than improving like most expected.

That is a fundamentally dumb comment, take Mbappes pace away and he's not an elite level player, take Van Dijks passing range he's a good centre-back not an elite one, etc. etc. Ward-Prowse is the best set piece taker in the PL in a generation and probably now top 5 in world at the moment, that is world class. He is then also extremely fit, a good passer, a good penalty taker, rarely gets injured, has excellent work rate and is amongst the top in the league IIRC for tackles, interceptions and distance covered. As a package how is he anything close to 'average'? Name me a player that you could go out and buy who has the complete attributes he has? A world class dead ball taker, who covers ground like no one, barely gets injured, can tackle, intercept, pass, links the play etc.

Another loan is probably the best option we can hope for, hopefully he enjoys it here and gets on well with Ralph that he wouldn't want to risk a loan to a different PL club. Probably need to hope Lukaku finds his form for the rest of the season as well, or Chelsea go out and buy Haaland in the summer, if they did that then I think we could sign him.

Why? If he's injured then his progress is down to the medical team, who I presume would be updating Ralph on that progress. What does the manager regularly need to speak to him about? What regular conversation are you envisaging between an injured player who can't train and the first team manager who is preparing/coaching the team for games that said player can't be involved in? Player has long term injury, player is treated by medical team/physios who update the manager on the recovery from injury every week or so, manager also checks up with player to see how he is doing every week or so. I see nothing wrong with that scenario. What do you want Ralph by his bedside 24/7 nursing him back to health?

Both were probably red to be honest but if you are giving one more than the other then it's Robertson's. I mean Kane's is a genuine attempt to get the ball, it's just not controlled and ends up being reckless, but Robertson just wanted to kick the shit out of the guy, the ball being vaguely near was coincidence. Bad though VAR doesn't even tell him to go look at the Kane one. The pen for me is probably one, but for the sake of the game stuff like that shouldn't be, he goes down far too easy. it's physical contact but hardly a 'barge' as Redknapp called it. Bet someone like Haaland in that same situation stays on his feet and gets the shot away. But you'd expect them to give pens for that sort of stuff as they do most of the time. Hard to feel sad about Liverpool not getting the decisions for once and to be honest they rode their luck, Spurs should have had 4 at least.

Henderson was a waste of a squad place and clearly unfit to play any sort of important role. I actually thought he made the team much worse in the final as he clearly couldn't keep up with play. JWP was unlucky to miss out for him and whilst might not have played a big role either, at least he could if needed played a full 90 mins and been fully match fit to take part if needed. Really Southgate should have trusted Bellingham more to be honest.

I did and you are talking rubbish, it was just one of those games. They've got 5 points and haven't won a game yet, and have a much worse run of fixtures than us, they have to catch up 9 points on us and do it with harder fixtures, they are in no way 'pretty similar' to us, they are clearly much worse than us. How were we 'very bad' on Friday? Even when Villa improved they barely landed a glove on us, we controlled the game pretty damn well IMO, even if it was just 1-0, McCarthy had to save one long shot and they didn't have a single chance you could consider good. The better chances in the 2nd half still fell to us even though Villa were pushing and playing better.

Ter Stegen is one of the world's best keepers, I cannot see players of that quality signing for Newcastle ever. And if they do it's because they are well past their best or injuries have ravaged them, which is why they are being linked with someone like Coutinho, who is probably the worst sort of signing you'd want in a relegation dogfight. That is the issue they have, yes shedloads of money maybe, but they are still going to be in a relegation battle if not possibly adrift at the bottom come January, if some 'big name' comes to them then, then it'll be a mercenary type player who is just looking for a pay day and will ensure they have all sorts of escape clauses. If anything those 'pay day' sort of players could hinder them more than help, it'll end up like QPR when they starting splashing the cash and talking big names. Someone like Lingaard or Tarkowski might actually be more sensible as those two are hard working professional players, who are decent and used to the league. If they can form a team of players like that they'd have a better chance, but I also struggle to see those players agreeing to it, especially as they will likely have other takers in PL who are not in a relegation battle. Carboard hamstrings Dembele on £200k a week is not the signing you want for a relegation threatened club, that is a hell of a gamble. He's missed something like 671 days through injury since Barca signed him.

No it wasn't we dominated them from start to finish, we just couldn't break them down and one combination of some good play/coupled with poor defending from Bednerak won them the game. Overall a draw probably flattered them as we at least edged it and they certainly didn't deserve to win, but got their goal and just sat back, we then huffed and puffed but lacked the cutting edge to break their low block. They had 6 shots in the whole game and 43% possession, we had 18 shots and their keeper was probably man of the match. The worst we have played this season was second half against Everton, since then I can't say any performance has been bad and most have been good. We should have beaten West Ham as we were the better team and should have beaten Man City but got denied by VAR eff ups.

I don't understand this belief that Newcastle spending money will surge them clear of being relegation candidates. They have appointed a manager who has no experience of battle relegation except getting relegated, or particularly turning a team around in that situation. They will have played 21-22 odd games of the season before they can even get anyone new in, which includes a difficult run of fixtures and very possibly could only have something like 14-17 points or maybe even worse. Meaning these new players, that they have to find in the notoriously difficult January window, that actually want to join a relegation threatened team, have to bed in, start playing well as a team and realistically will need to pick up close to 2 points a game to stay up. IMO unless Howe pulls out some unexpected results before Jan, then they are going to stay relegation threatened all season.

Not really, performances have been consistently good aside the odd half here and there, we have consistently shown throughout all 11 games that were are pretty solid at the back, we cause teams problems, the team works hard and follows the managers instructions and whilst we don't create a hatful of chances, we create enough to score goals and hopefully will score more. When you look at all that and then take into consideration that we have probably had the hardest start fixture wise out of anyone in the bottom half then it becomes even more encouraging. At no point this season have we produced for example a half as bad as Villa had against us, where their players look like they couldn't be bothered, didn't know what they are doing and didn't seem to have a plan. Generally we seem to have a defined style of play and plan, and the players seem capable of executing it, it doesn't always work or they might make mistakes that let it down, but compare that to Newcastle, Villa, Watford, Norwich, they look like messes, who don't have a plan or style of play, and often don't look they know what they are doing. So yes whilst we could easily lose 5 in a row because the PL is tough and fine margins can go against you, I think it is less likely to happen to us because of those reasons mentioned above. So I am not confident we are going to stay clear of trouble because of those last 4 games, I am confident we are going to stay clear of trouble because we have a competent manager, with a clear game plan, that our players are capable of executing well, because we are hard to beat, because the team works its socks off and there is just about enough quality to score some goals as well. I think Ralph said don't get too down when you lose and too high when you win, just keep believing in what you are doing and the results would come, when we didn't win in 7 there was easily enough there in the performances to see we would win games, and now we have won games it's not like we are suddenly going to win the league or finish top 6.

I think Wilder is a good manager, he got a thoroughly unfancied team promoted (whilst others failed with parachute payments bloating their finances) and then did very well in his first season with basically a championship level squad, and even produced a tactical evolution in the game with his overlapping centre-backs. He failed second season because the squad just wasn't very good and the few bits of quality he had that were important to how the team played got injured or lost form. Kind of like how Liverpool lost their attacking threat because of the balanced Van Dijk gave them to play a higher line, Sheff Utd lost players to injury that were key to their system. Whenever I have heard him speak he seems pretty clued into the game and seems pretty tactically astute, it'll be interesting to see how he does as Borough manager. He has a 45% or better win ratio with his last 3 clubs, not many lower league managers have that, they are usually in the 30%. I feel there is stigma with British coaches because we have had crap like Pardew or Allardyce around for so long mentioned with every job, or overhyped people like Howe but I think there are some decent managers out there. But yeh as said be interesting to see where these clubs go, there is not a lot out there, look how hard Newcastle looked only to basically settle on Howe or how Spurs ended up with like their 7th choice in Nuno, those are both better propositions than Norwich or Villa are IMO, and they struggled to find decent managers. Same situation for us really, I think Ralph is a good manager and he's shown that here, and previously, but honestly who would we appoint that would be better? There is not a lot talent out there, we would basically I think have to be taking a gamble on someone over performing somewhere in Europe, a bit like Potter for example doing so well with Östersund.

They don't necessarily have to be up for sale, I don't think West Ham are up for sale but clearly got an offer for more investment that they are considering. Likely ones I'd think could be Us, Leeds maybe, Brentford? Palace? maybe Brighton? Newcastle have just had a takeover, West Ham are getting investment, Burnley have had a takeover, and can't see any of the so called 'Big 6' being sold, maybe the owners of Spurs might call it quits? We probably are the most publicly available club, but whether we are good value for what Gao wants is a different matter. If they are willing to spend £25 million a year just to sponsor a shirt, I mean that buys like more than 10% of the club.

Which I would say was an issue, he's at the back post where Zouma heads the ball, but just watches it happen.

People clamouring for him in the England squad, but he can't defend, out of all England's right back options he is by far the worst defensively and Reece James seems to be hitting similar heights attacking wise anyway, and is much quicker, which is another issue with TAA, he's relatively slow for a full back.

A more clever/cute playmaking no.10 would help unlock defences like that. It's an issue we have had for years IMO, Burnley, Newcastle, West Ham (of a few years ago) and a few more have played with a low block/park the bus sort of mentality (Wolves also did it this year) and we huff and puff but often can't break them down and they then fluke a goal from a long shot or a mistake amounting to their only attack of the game.