Polarboy

No it was today, also known as the day after yesterday.

Trippier has been pictured in the departures lounge at the airport. As said in the article I was reading he has gone to Dubai before for treatment on injuries, but as far as I'm aware he's over his previous injury and it does seem like odd timing given the players are just back for preseason training. Add this together with the story the other day that he's increasingly looking to be on his way, and it looks like this is just further confirmation.

If you look at his numbers last season they don't seem all that impressive, but upon closer inspection he only started a handful of games, and the games he started in were where he got most of his goals and assists. It's never going to sit right with me if we help Chelsea in any way given the way they conduct business in the transfer market etc, but I'm sure Howe could very easily make any trepadations I have about Madueke look stupid quite quickly. The question is will he take half a season to adjust like Gordon, or perhaps more. I know there's no guarantee any player will hit the ground running, but it would be nice to have a player who's perhaps more fully formed, but Howe of course has said we can't afford those types just yet.

I could have sworn he was given they've had him a few years, he's English, and he's still relatively young. But yeah, evidently he was at Spud's academy before going to PSV. Given they bought him fours years ago his fee probably is pretty much off the books, so even if he isn't an academy player it would still largely be "profit" for them. Edit. Just realised that I misread the contract signing date, and they only bought him last season 😂 Fuck it, let's just buy him.

Well let's hope this isn't true either. Madueke might turn out to be decent but even if you account for PSR it leaves a bad taste that he seemingly isn't good enough for them to fight to keep, and obviously it massively helps them to buy an academy player off them. Underwhelming all the way around.

Clearly I've not been party to some top bants. I shall elegantly remove myself from the situation.

Wednesday does usually precede Thursday. The quotes I seen from the Times piece said it was played. Are you saying different?

In the behind closed doors game against Burnley yesterday afternoon. Again him scoring and assisting could easily be untrue given I've only seen it on social media.

I heard, but take it with a pinch of salt, that Tonali got a goal and two assists against Burnley. It would be great if he could hit the ground running when his ban is over, but the PL is a different kettle of fish of course. As for Thiaw 10m seems like an awfully big gap in valuation, but if he's genuinely interested in joining us that's always incredibly helpful to proceedings.

Reports from Italy that we've put a bid in for the Argentinian Nicolas Gonzalez off Fiorentina. He's a right winger and has great stats when he's on the pitch, but going by his injury record that doesn't happen all that often. Given his injury history this might be the one time I'm happy that Italian papers are usually full of shite.

Gives his answer within the first two minutes, very interesting. Basically says as long as he feels supported as the manager he will continue as our manager. He's perhaps alluding to Mandy and Mehrdad leaving and Mitchell coming in, as in he needs to see what the new landscape is, what transfers he gets, what control he has over said transfers etc.

Yeah he's definitely not going to say he isn't interested, not least for the fact that he's on record that he'd see it as an honour. Howe keeps his cards close to his chest so he'll dance around it skillfully like he does with other awkward questions, but him doing that could mean little more than not wanting to even marginally insult the position, or the FA given he's, again, on record as wanting the job at some point in his career.

Just seen Bailey the journo make a decent point, that being that if Howe decides to wait until later in his career there's no guarantee that he'd get a crop of players this good again. And that if Howe is of the opinion that he could conceivably win the next world cup with said players he has a big decision to make. A relatively obvious point, but it is something more to substantial to weigh against his love of day to day club management. I'll not crack open the Pampers just yet, but I'll admit I hadn't even thought about the implications of Howe waiting until later in his career, even if it's, again, not a revelationary point.

Given the PSR situation and how close to the wire it seemingly was I'm sure it was very tense for a while there, but Edwards like most journalists is very likely overhyping the situation for clicks. And chicken boy is almost certainly not close enough to the inner circle to get a clear read on what the situation was or is. He's, again like most journalists, using the facts that are known, e.g. the PSR situation, and creating a narrative around that which is largely guesswork.

Yeah I obviously agree with your assessment, but, and I know the internet isn't really reality, I've seen plenty turning their nose up at the mere mention of Elanga, and I'm sure there's plenty who'd rather we go for someone a bit more exciting than Thiaw such as Antonio Silva. As I said I'd be more than happy with both if it means we can spread the funds about a bit and get a decent forward as well. It would be insane to try for someone like a Bowen for example and basically blow our whole budget on one player. Bowen is a pretty extreme example, but you get what I mean. Even if we could spend what we wanted I'd still rather we largely tried to sign players just before they become internationally well known elite players.

Your man Bland who made the tweet about the players being bewildered by Mandy and Mehrdad leaving has said that a contract is agreed in principle for Thiaw. But given his other tweet I'm not sure how to take him. If these are our targets, as in Thiaw and Elanga, then I anticipate people being underwhelmed, but I honestly think they'd be very clever signings.

Elanga with 14 goal involvements was responsible for roughly 30% of Forrest's goals last season. Without Elanga they'd have been relegated. Bit of an ungrateful sort your brother in law? 😉 Plus he's 22, if Howe wants him we'll have to trust that like with Gordon, who many weren't that excited about given he hadn't exactly ripped it up for Everton, he can see a vast amount of potential.

Waugh from the Athletic is about to go on Newcastle fans tv. His big tip going by the title is that the club is still going after Elanga from Forrest. Elanga makes sense in a number of respects, but I think I'd still prefer someone like Mbuemo if we're shopping from that end of the table, given his versatility. Of course maybe Brentford are playing hardball with him because they don't want to lose both him and Toney in one window. As I've said before Elanga definitely has all the attributes to be a massive player in the PL and match someone like Olise for impact, but he probably is quite a bit more raw than Gordon was when he arrived.

Some journo called Joel Bland has pushed some nonsense about the players supposedly being "bewildered" to find out on Wednesday morning that Mandy and Mehrdad were leaving. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the players don't give a flying fuck who the owners are. Some of them may have been on friendly enough terms with them, but big picture I doubt they'll be in a state of mourning. The attempt to sensationalize everything that happens at the club by the media would be laughable if it weren't so sad and emblematic of how clickbait journalism has become.

Eddie looking like Darth Vader's personal trainer at the training ground today. All joking aside the training gear is pretty sleek.

I see Boris has been at it again. Look at the mop on the young fella.

Making a comment about a young player being able to handle pressure being a good sign isn't even remotely the same as saying a player is definitely either shit or amazing from watching one game.

It may also be the case that it was always part of the deal, especially if her shares were a gift, that she was going to have to cash out when she did leave her current position.