Polarboy

I lived in Fenham until I was seven, my sister swears she seen Ant McPartlin get a kicking at a bus stop a few roads up from us. He probably would have been in Byker at the time. Speaking of Ant and Dec, Dec used to be well into Irish dancing as a kid, I know this because we used to go to the Irish club near the stadium every week and there use to be Irish dancing upstairs. If I recall correctly Dec's parents, who my own parents were friendly with, at least ran if not owned the Irish Club at the time.

I live about an hour or so's drive from Lifford in Donegal which is where Shay Given was born and bred. A friend of the family is pretty good mates with Seamus, Shay's dad. We all went to a pre-season match together when Dalglish, heaven help us, was managing the team. We were playing Bohemians in Dublin. Met Shay's sister who's a looker, or at least was 23 years ago Met Seamus and asked him what big Al was like and he had only good things to say, but I suppose it's not likely he'd say anything else, then again Al and Shay are supposed to be pretty good mates. After the match we went to the hotel the lads were staying at. I met Shay and John Barnes, the rest of the lads were already sitting down for a drink. Dalglish's son and another player, I can't recall who, were sharing a pint of Guinness like two old grannies. Unfortunately it was early preseason so Shearer and Rob Lee were still sunning themselves on their annual joint family holiday. Oh yeah met Dabizas as well who seemed like a sound bloke, as did Barnes and Shay. Having said all that Shay has a bit of a reputation on the drink when he's been out and about around Donegal. For further context I was 14 when all this happened if following players back to the hotel sounds a bit juvenile. Edit. Actually it was the 98/99 preseason, so it was 22 years ago.

Well yeah we need Joelinton to actually make speculative runs for balls like ASM played across the goal. It's not just Joe at fault of course, but obviously he shoulders a lot of the responsibility as the supposed number 9.

Pish at the start but we got our act together the longer it went on. It's not complicated at the minute, we just need to keep getting the ball to ASM in space with the form he's in.

Unrelated to the our match, but just when you thought Pickford couldn't look any more of twat he goes and grows a goatee.

https://reddits.soccerstreams.net/event/newcastle-united-aston-villa-live-stream/194956

Steve Wraith in a few weeks time, "say what you will about Saudis human rights record, but they run a tight ship."

A system is only as good as human nature allows it to be.

Daily Mail adding fuel to the gigantic fire that the Saudis aren't just moving against piracy for the craic. Sauces have apparently told the Mail that it's not by accident that the Saudis are doing what they are doing. Then again I suppose given what sports media is like it's just as possible that their sauces is just them adding two plus two like us. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8445181/Premier-League-nearing-announcement-300m-Newcastle-takeover-come-week.html

This has to be a great news day for us all round. Three points and pretty much guaranteed staying up, not that we weren't more or less already, but it's nice to get three points in our first match back, and the Saudis are making moves that they were surely asked to do in order to smooth the way for the takeover to be announced. The chances that the Saudis are just making moves against piracy without knowing what effect it will have on the bid seems close to nil.

An American business man supposedly offers 50 million over the agreed price, and where has Ashley been these past few months, Miami. Mauriss is likely somebody that Ashley has met while he was there, and he wants to do business with him that's unrelated to the club. Then Fatley has perhaps asked him to go through some motions to make it look like he's interested in buying the club, in exchange for Ashley sweetening a separate business deal they've cooked up. Pure speculation of course, but it makes a lot more sense than the reality.

I've heard from a sauce that this Friday will actually be the Friday, as opposed to all the other Friday's that were fake definite Friday's.

It's funny that we're so desperate for positive news that some of us are suddenly calling Simon Jordan a straight talker who knows what he's talking about, when he said he'd be very surprised if it was blocked

Isn't Shelvey on 80 or 90k? I know he's young and inexperienced, but the potential is there, and sometimes you just have to take the chance that young players will fulfil that potential. A player is basically worth how much the next club is willing to pay them, and then you have to make the decision if you agree.

The notion of home advantage is a bit of a weird one when there isn't going to be fans in the stadium's. My concept of home advantage was primarily that having the greater number of fans you create a hostile environment for the opposition team. The way players are generally pampered now it's not as if they are shooting down the motorway to an away ground in a clapped out bus, and in any case the opposition team will likely have a similar distance to travel, depending on how they work it.

Is that an excerpt from Adam Johnson's dairy?

It was a tad hyperbolic, but I couldn't think of another collective noun to describe the cavalcade of people coming out of the woodwork to object to the takeover. Although in fairness I just did when I wrote cavalcade

If the report was given to the premier league earlier this month, then why didn't they fail the consortium's fit and proper test there and then. Surely we'd have heard about it from the buyers side by now if their approach for the club had been failed by the premier. Unless the premier wanted look into the report themselves, but surely if the report proves clear links, then it wouldn't have taken them that long to follow all the claims up. Fingers crossed this is just a last ditch throw of the dice from the cabal who are trying to prevent this takeover.

There was quite a lot of dry ice, I suppose it's possible Edit. That Eurosport France journo Manu has said that an announcement could happen in the next 24-48 hours. As far as I recall he's been pretty reliable, but I could be wrong. But as some others have said, if you consistently keep saying it's going to happen you'll be right eventually. https://sportslens.com/report-newcastle-united-takeover-could-be-completed-soon-and-announcement-could-take-place-within-24-to-48-hours/298154/

John Stones and Ross Barkley, two of the most overrated English footballers of all time. Slightly hyperbolic, but not far off the truth. In fairness it likely is complete bollocks. That is unless this journalist has literally hacked Rafa's phone and or computer, which I suppose isn't that far fetched when you see what that Financial Times journo got caught doing, and every other hacking scandal.

The Telegraph are reporting that Benitez wants to come back, and that he wants to sign Ross Barkley and John Stones. If this happens to be true, and it's a big if to be fair, can we agree that Pochettino signing Sissoko is something that can no longer be held against him when comparing him to Rafa https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/05/24/exclusive-rafael-benitez-wants-make-second-coming-newcastle/

A mackem would need to tempt Brian Clough out of the grave, to have any hope of tangible success for your club for the foreseeable.

Weird? Says the person that wrote Irony? and then Time Machine? You were being weird so I gave you a weird response. And in fairness I only meant to question the position of your panties once. I wrote the comment without quoting you, another comment was made in between, so I deleted it and quoted you so there was no confusion. And if it's normal for you to wear woman's panties I'm not here to judge To be clear though I'm not trying to be a dick, it's just banter as Richard Keys would say. Others can have an opinion and so can I, and I'm baffled that some on here don't seem to grasp that, but their fanboying for Rafa seems to have blinded them. Not that I don't understand the love for Rafa, I loved him when he was here as well, but I don't like looking back. It's a partially subjective assessment when you get to the top end of coaches in any case. It depends on what style of play you prefer, and if people on here like Rafa's style of play fair enough, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong for preferring another style, again it's just a preference. As for having a hard on for him, it's no more pronounced than the one for Rafa on here, and I would argue bit less so given I haven't said anything that hasn't already been said about him in the media and elsewhere. As for Pochettino's time at Spurs, as I've already said his tenure always has to be seen in the context of Levy's penny pinching. Spurs had one of the lowest net spends in the entire league over his tenure there. I would argue that at crucial times he wasn't given the funds that say Klopp spent on Van Dijk and Alisson, to take them to the next level. Consistently qualifying for the Champions league and nearly winning it is nothing to be sniffed at given the aforementioned. As for Eriksen we have no idea what was going on in his head. He may have just had his head turned as opposed to having fallen out with Pochettino. Even if he did fall out with Eriksen it may have been case of Eriksen just being dick, who knows. And to be clear I'm not trying to start this whole debate over again. I think it's clear that I'd prefer Pochettino and why, which funnily enough isn't a crime

Didn't need one. I never have worn panties for them to be in a twist

I don't wear panties.