toonotl

Yep. We're a touch in land so it'll likely be just a lot of rain for us. We've put seven sandbags in front of the garage door. So we're 100% prepared.

To ramp things up to the ultimate in ridiculousness, it could be argued that the fee is essentially even less than 15m at this point. We've learned now that Eddie has absolutely zero intention of using the Greek GK. So we've essentially agreed to pay a few million per season in wages (that Forest don't have to pay) on top of the 20m transfer fee for an unused bargaining chip. So it's 35m minus 20m transfer minus wasted wages on an unusable shithouse GK that our manager doesn't rate until we manage to sell him.

It's not a bad shout. I don't know if Howe will go for it though. I definitely agree he'll play three at the back for the final. It worked well against Arsenal (even though it was markedly different circumstances). Keeping it tight, praying for some luck, and hoping to hit them on the break is our only chance. But, knowing us, we'll play well and everything will go to plan, only to be brought low by even more bad luck. Liverpool are so good though that even hoping to be beaten by a bit of bad luck is wishful thinking.

Horrible news. If this bloke can't get fit, we'll soon need two big name CB signings. We have a lower PL level CB pairing without Botman.

PSR fucked us massively with Anderson and Minteh deals. Forest made out like bandits. And Brighton too. I think we could reasonably expect to have gotten a lot more money for Anderson if PSR didn't have us scrambling to sell him on a few days notice. We effectively got 15m for him when you consider the makeweight Greek goalkeeper who is seemingly completely worthless to us. Or worse than useless considering we're also paying his wages to do fuck all. And Minteh would arguably be our starting RW by now. He'd at least be pushing Murphy very hard for a starting place. And longer term he could've been the solving of our RW problems given his capacity to develop further. Minteh scored a lot of goals as a teenager in a competitive European league. I mentioned this prior to us selling him that he had better goal scoring numbers for his age than a few very high quality players to come out of second tier European leagues. (And a few shit ones, i.e., Antony, but still a player who demanded a massive transfer fee.) Make no mistake, the situation forced upon us by PSR absolutely fucked us on those two deals.

That's maybe the least likely to happen transfer rumour ever. Should've included two second draft picks to top it off.

It really feels like the season is on the edge now with things starting to slip away from us. The mounting injuries and general tiredness feels like it could derail us completely. There's a feeling building like everything is close to exploding. It's all a tad annoying too since our problems are partially the contrived product of a ladder-cutting exercise by the establishment. There's a distinct limit to the feeling of authenticity associated with our "struggle" since it feels like what happens in the offices of the games "regulators" dictates what we can reasonably expect to achieve on the pitch. As for the game, Gordon is an idiot. His frustration is understandable. But that's really poor. Brighton should have had a player sent off before for a very clear second-yellow card offence. They only got the eventual red card as a square up. Pretty even game though. I can't really begrudge them a victory. A lot of wasted energy for no result for an already lagging squad just adds more concern for our last games of the season. We're coming into the League Cup final in a really bad moment. Same as last time. We've hit the self-destruct button before even getting to the venue. Same old Newcastle. We make life hard enough for ourselves without the added restrictions.

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.

Tonali's pace at 6 is such a massive asset. It seems like one of those things that you don't pick someone at 6 for specifically but if they have it it sends them into the stratosphere. He's brilliant. Fast becoming my favourite player. Looks like a roman God too.

I turn 40 today. Having breakfast with the family in Vanuatu. Not as old as most of you lot. Life's good.

Not our best performance altogether with the odd defensive lapse. But they worked hard and our quality showed when it mattered. Credit to @Dazzler. Man of the Toontastic Board. What a run of results!