Rayvin

Will do, but I did nothing with transfers in the first window apart from ship out Tiote. I'm also still trying to settle on my preferred formation at this point. It's looking like a 4-3-3 with Mitro up top, but I need to work on an alternative system to accommodate Gayle as it doesn't work for him. Any thoughts on that? The rest of the team is essentially as you would expect. I did think about having Perez just behind him and playing through the middle in his case, but Perez is out for 3 months and I don't trust anyone else to play the same kind of role very well.

I responded to RTW by bringing that book with me to keep me motivated At least my boss isn't in today, which means I've got some breathing space to crisis manage whatever happened over Christmas.

Agreed, that's really where our issue is. We should have a plan B though, without him. Still think Route 1 to Mitro would be workable. That said, it's probably worth keeping in mind that we did get the ball in the net twice, albeit not allowably. In the cold light of day I think HF's assertion that this was just 'one of those games' is probably about right. The reason that it's being taken more seriously is because it has happened during a 'slump'.

Duly noted, I just bought this and am in season 1 with NUFC. Unbeaten so far but only 6 games in.

Sounds like you've got this down.

If we ever played Mitro I'm confident that he'd be getting plenty. Really don't understand the situation with him. He's so well loved by the fans and is comprent enough. If we're gonna have Colback and Anita playing and therefore no penetration, why not go Route 1 with Mitro.

The BBC headline for our game is 'Newcastle have 25 shots but lose 1-0. Maybe the issue is elsewhere. We've had concerns about our finishing all season.

You mean the board forced you to sell Hojbjerg?

If he's capable of that role then sure, but is he a playmaker?

We do need to sign a backup for Shelvey. £8m-£10m should be sufficient. Only downside is that we'd potentially get a better player in the summer for the PL. Waiting isnt worth the risk IMO but maybe it would be for Ashley.

Is that three games now that Shelvey has missed? So two more to go until we can start winning comfortably again?

Guardiola looks like he's going to have a meltdown at some point this season City won today but he sounds beyond pissed off.

How is it that so many managers can't see this? Or rather, what is it that we can't see that Rafa can?

Yeah but why? For what? There's a point, I'm sure, where I'd take job satisfaction over another holiday home that I might use once or twice a year.

Not so sure about that. What can you do with £60m that you can't do with £30m? You just get bigger versions of the shit you already have.

Not convinced by that. If there's one thing that the PL has taught us in recent years its that overpaid mercenary footballers are no guarantee of success. China are taking the Man Utd/PSG approach, and while it'll serve them to a point, they're going to end up with serious imbalances in teams who have players of PL standard and others of Non-league standard. This is going to pull the PL standard ones down. More importantly, they don't have the sustainability behind them in terms of money. People aren't going to tune in and watch crap football - not in Europe, anyway. I don't think even the Chinese will be that arsed about their home teams once the initial excitement wears off.

Nice.

That helps at least, although they'll defend harder now.

Even if we had Mitro on, we need creativity. Shelvey is a huge miss who we clearly have no cover for - that needs to be addressed asap and that's likely clear as day to Rafa. If Mitro came on, the best he'd offer is a target for some manner of long ball routine - not a bad option, but if we've not been practicing it then it'd be dulled somewhat.

Apparently we're in for Loftus-Cheek on loan. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/newcastle-united-transfers-ruben-loftus-12376744

I enjoy reading these updates, keep them coming

Gloom vouches for it. Tbf their sport reporting is better than other sections.

I really need to read more of his work. I think I've been exposed to it through people like Monbiot (and actually just talking to people makes it clear why some of these phenomena are occurring) but I've not really read much Chomsky directly. But aye, that's a good post.

Just had The Simple Path to Wealth delivered on recommendation of @@Gemmill Early signs are it's well worth reading. I'm gonna devote the next couple of days to it and see if I can get into the right mindset going in to 2017. Feels like the sort of book I've been looking for without really knowing it.

Oh FFS... RIP, she seemed a thoroughly decent person and obviously was an important feature in many people's cultural upbringing.