The Fish

Yeah, I still think ours is a squad game and to get a result they'll all have to do their part and then someone like Isak or like you say ASM to do that little bit extra.

Transfermarkt has him at £3m, the most valuable player they actually own. 10% of their estimated Market value. Take out the loan players and he's 15% of their £32.3m squad value. As a comparison, the least valuable squad in the Premier League is Bournemouth at £162m. They're £50m off the second lowest, Fulham. Yet these clowns think they'd get mid table? They're not even going to get fucking promoted from the Championship, from where do they draw the resource to fuel this level of delusion? Is it in the Cheese? The Chips? The Blue pop?

Been flat, boring and full of racists. Fuck all of Lincolnshire, fuck it in it's boring, flat racist face.

I have a distrust about being confident in Newcastle. Going to take a long time to get over that. I think we can beat Man Utd. I think they're still a little porous at the back and I think we're unbelievably resilient at the back. But I think they've got the quality and strength in depth that we don't. Isak might be the piece of the puzzle that means all these chances we're making get put back into the fucking net. But he might not. End of the day, if we make it to the Top 4, and the League Cup final in Eddie Howe's first full season... well, holy shit.

Lincoln, then?

The season will be a roaring success even if we don't win the League Cup, don't finish in the Top 4. Because this is just the beginning. This season was expected to be one of transition from a midtable, stodgy team to something better. Nobody expected Top 4, nobody expected us to have one foot in the League Cup final. Other fans might be bitching about how much we've spent or how much of a shithouse team we are. Wait until they get a load of NUFC 23/24.

You were swimming in a pool of your own piss not so long ago, now you're out front of Team Positive, leading the charge.

You, to me, are an enigma.

They've got 8 games between now and the final, we've got 4 or 5 if the Brighton game is pulled forward. That's 8 games when Casemiro and Rashford can get injured, 2 of those games are against dorty Leeds.

I'd not be surprised if this was spun as an attractive prospect when PIF were convinced to buy us. Here's a blank canvas, few if any existing contracts and none that would be prohibitively expensive to get out of, a sandbox to build the business side of the club into the form you want.

They've obviously got quality but; They're the only PL club still competing in 4 competitions They've got the home leg against Barcelona 3 days earlier They've got the game at Anfield after the Final They looked open at the back against Forrest

No.

Have to assume that a few were put off by thought of associating with both Sports Direct and a club with no ambition beyond survival?

No, Longstaff and Joe (Linton or Willock) couldn't play as a double pivot.

Yeah, you lot suck

We've still got Clark, Hayden, Hendrick on our books too. So who's that? Clark Darlow Dubravka Dummett Fraser Gillespie Hayden Hendrick Krafth Lascelles Lewis Manquillo Shelvey Not a lot there where you could expect to get any serious money for. Dubravka and Fraser? Maybe? More important to get those phat wages off the books

Genuinely don't think about their possible success or failures away from this messageboard (or talking to sunderland mates). My imaginings about the League Cup are solely what it would mean for NUFC, the players and me. I haven't thought about what Newcastle lifting the League cup would mean to Sunderland. I guess it would further increase the gap between the two clubs and accelerate our progress towards European competition and further domestic honours as our successes attract more, higher quality players and more, higher value commercial deals. And that would make them frustrated, it would attract more fans from areas where it's traditionally been a split between the two clubs?

I'd agree with that, certainly in ASM's case. But I do think we need to ship out some of the players who can't get us to where we need to be, players who have been in or around our first team; Shelvey, Dubravka*, Darlow, Lascelles, etc. *I know we can't sell him this window.

I get moaned at for typing out tomes of text, I get moaned at for using brevity. Seems to me like people like to moan.

We're box office!

Call it whatever you want, but bear in mind it was you lot telling me I shouldn't call it what I want. And don't get pissy when the term you're using doesn't quite get across the concept I'm talking about. "Low block" "I think you mean sitting deep" "It's two banks of four" "This is change for change's sake" "IT'S THAT FUCKING CLOUD AGAIN!!!"

Toonpack, Alex, Tom, Paddocklad would like this post if they didn't distrust modern things

If you infer that I think you or anyone else is thick from me explaining when asked to explain, I guess I'm sorry for my part in that. I'm happy to explain the terms I use, fucking hell it should be clear by now that I'm delighted at any opportunity to bang on about anything. I don't have a problem with someone asking "What's that?" I have a problem with, what I infer as wilful ignorance that follows my explanation. When I say low block I don't do it to make out like "I know something other people don't know, aren't I clever". I use it because it's a term that's used for the thing I'm trying to describe. Because of the reaction on here I don't use Mezzala, or Inverted Winger or any of the terms brought to popularity by Football Manager. I know it's provocative and it's easier to just type out a dozen more words to explain what I mean. I thought, of all things, Low Block was the least controversial.

Cavalcade of crusty cunts came after how many pages of shit? No, I don't care that you're old. I care when the explanation after the "eh?" is met with derision and abuse. I get a lot of shit on here and honestly, that's fine and I enjoy the attention, but you can't clutch your pearls when I give some shit back.