toonotl

Yeah. Exactly my thought too. Overcompensating to the left and it cost him to his right.

Geordie Journos were questioning whether Nick "Zoolander" Pope has lost some of his ability to dive to his left side since the injury. Might have some truth to it.

Another bi-polar performance from us. Ten minutes of the good team managed to do enough to cover for a good half and a bit worth of the shit team. Forest irrelevant. That was a game between the two sides of this team. The squad desperately needs a refresh and more competition for places in key positions. We'll get hammered by Liverpool in league and cup with a performance like that because they won't gift us goals from poor defensive structure the way Forest did. But they will certainly punish us for defending like that.

Good night.

Of course we turn up and play them into form by having all the defensive solidity of a welcome mat. Standard Newcastle.

What in the world is Trippier doing there?

Masters continuing to try and run inference by claiming that the new rules are legal. I doubt it. Masters and co. would do anything to keep the want away European super league clubs happy. So long as these rules continue to delay us it doesn't seem like the PL give a shit if they're legal or not.

The wham hoodie situation has me in stitches. Why did they bring up the Wham hoodie?

Described as a "knock" in Chris Waugh article. And to other knee than the ACL injury. Maybe a cork or something. Might even be the type of thing he'd play through if it were normal circumstances. Fingers crossed. Poor bloke has had a rotten trot of luck and he's pure class as a CB. We need him big time.

An explanation from him would be nice. But we won't get it. There's a real cost associated with publicly disclosing our financial situation for all of our opponents. It's a shit situation really. Say nothing and get criticised. Hold a press conference and say nothing of substance to protect our interests. And get criticised. It's just one more aspect of following football that has arisen because of PSR. As fans we want exciting players to come to us. We shouldn't have to give this much of a shit about the club's financial position. This isn't to say that I'm arguing that these topics should be left alone or that Mitchel et al should be trusted because they are the experts. I struggle to see how specific expertise for our situation could exist. We are a unique case. Nobody in world football has experience with a club in our position. We are ManC after the rules brought in to stop another ManC. We're the test case for the rules designed to stop us. If Mitchel and co succeed they are succeeding against the intentions of the rules as they currently exist. Are they that smart? Maybe. But it's not a matter of blind faith for me. I dunno. It's a tricky one. More transparency would be great. But what they can safely tell us is probably the square root of fuck all.

As much as it's nice to move out players on the fringes of the squad, it is still a mighty underwhelming series of transfer windows we've had these last three windows. And I'm not convinced it becomes a question of simply turning on the money faucet come the summer. It's safe to say that PSR is properly doing a number on us at this point. One of the most passionately supported clubs in the country curtailed by the arbitrariness of historical timing. If we had basically any other owner than Ashley prior to the PSR era we'd be streets ahead now because we'd have had a much stronger base to build from with a PIF takeover. As it is we built to PSR capacity in a few windows and now suffer the penalty of a seemingly impenetrably low ceiling which is the product of 15 years of stagnation under that fat cunt. We'll get through it, of course, in time, but imagine if we were on the fringes of European spots rather than a fuckin' yo-yo club prior to the takeover. For one thing, we would have had players to sell to lower PL teams rather players that nobody wanted and others who could only perform above expectations in fits and starts. And the drop off between trying to sell to PL teams (or equivalent) and trying to sell into the championship is night and day because of the relative gulf in buying capacity between the levels. If we weren't a habitual basket case prior to the takeover the difference now would be enormous. As it is we have clearly stagnated and simply hanging onto what we have is viewed as a victory. Of course what money we have available to spend is the chief concern come the summer but it's also a worry if our buying capacity has weakened in terms of how we are perceived by the agents/players we're looking to buy. The possibility of Isak, Bruno, et. al. leaving owing to our stagnation is obvious but what about potential signings also not considering us for the same reason. You'd have to wonder if we had the money to sign an Isak/Bruno now and given our stalling project, would they come? Would they believe that we're a team capable of working towards challenging for silverware across the short term of the best years of a player's career? It's a question for sure. So when it comes to the summer transfer window, money to spend or not, I'll be very interested to see how capable we are of getting deals done for elite players if we can't show the type of trajectory such a player would desire. Not to be a complete misery guts but I think where we finish this season could be the most important moment for the takeover since we avoided relegation in the first season. I tend to agree with Gloomy, if we miss CL, we'll be force to sell in the summer. Then its about the message that sends to the players we manage to keep and the elite players of the world we're looking to sign that despite everything we're still a selling club/stepping-stone to the elite clubs of the world. I really wish that the PIF would just push the boat out on sponsorships and what not. Hopefully the new training ground and stadium are accompanied by some truly eye-watering naming rights sponsorships that challenge the "Big Club" lapdogs at the PL's administrative arm to go fuck itself.

I agree. And it's a massive benefit of Murphy's outstanding recent form. The recruitment net can be broadened to consider a youngster to develop and compete for Murphy's spot rather than an established replacement. Murphy has been nothing short of outstanding and one of our best players amongst some stellar performers in recent weeks. Perhaps it's wishful thinking but I think Murph's form is more sustainable than the likes of Miggy in his purple patch because his game is built on simpler principles. Most of the time he is looking to receive the ball and play it quickly to Isak. They have a wonderful understanding between them too which helps both of them. He seems like a very intelligent and very humble player. It seems evident in the sense of a humility to appreciate what works and to do it without any superfluous fluff.

It's nice that he got the chance to go out with a win and the away support singing his name after the game. Good luck to him. He'll be a top player in the US league.