The Fish

Bricklayers Arms is good. Built for dwarfs though.

Mate of mine is a Fulham fan and wants to know where the best Guinness can be found in town? I have no idea.

His gX? You want to know his gX? It's Fuck You Craig, Fuck you and YOUR FUCKING INTRANSIGENCE.

You going to sign anyone else? Want a terrific young prospect? Can play either right or left wing, can fill in at left back too. Passionate, good delivery, loves booting a corner flag into the testicles of a fan. May I present Ratthew Mitchie. Yours for only £30m

Mate who grew up across the road lives in Wimbourne. That's all I have to say about that.

That Lyanco was a monster in midfield, thought Armstrong lead the line well also. Chased down a lot of lost causes and never gave their CBs a moments rest.

Steady on there, CT is essentially a vegetable with ADHD, Andrew would roid-out in the first ten minutes* and while Haaland is called a machine, Gemmil is literally 50% automoton. Bad night for you lot, Southampton got in your face and disrupted your patterns, but as you suggest the changes Pep made compounded that. I'm sure you can console yourself with a PL title push, a CL trophy hunt and an FA Cup chase too. I'm confident we can get past any team over two legs, but I'm not sure that we've the experience throughout the team to turn it on in the Final against Man Utd, who I presume will end up there. I think we'll turn up, but I just think that Man Utd are a very different prospect under Ten Hag than they have been for a while.

Anyone fancy knocking up a Dan Burn as the Colossus of Rhodes bestriding the Tyne? It's for personal use.

Going to need a job lot of bronze if BDB scores the winner in the League Cup final.

British Gas charge about the same to fit it. The bastards

Listen to you, implying that Seaton Delaval is akin to Mayfair. I'm mostly joking, but the overwhelming majority of people from Liverpool that I've met have been exactly like the stereotype. Over inflated sense of self worth, unshakeable confidence in the impact their city has had on music, comedy, the arts. Instant over the top defence against any criticism (perceived or otherwise) of their club, their city, their music, comedy or similar. Some of them can be ok if you dance between those laser beams, but a lot can't.

Only 3 in 10 chances that fell to Longstaff are put away, yes. Maybe 4 in 10 chances like Dan Burn's are put away. Because there are more players who can finish like Longstaff than there are players who can finish like Shearer. Those chances can fall to defenders, midfielders or just shit strikers. We're dealing with big numbers here.

7pts between 1st and 3rd, 7pts between 5th and 17th.

loads of chances, not a lot of big ones in the first half. e.g. Longstaff's chance in the first minute was only something like 0.3xG.

Ee bah gum, yo tek tha back or al git t'HR on't you. pu wood in'thole

It's so transparent that the barometer for the PL's quality is how well/poorly Newcastle United are doing. If we were rock bottom, the PL would be praised "They don't belong in the top flight", safely midtable "There's a lot of stodge in the top flight", and so on. It's just a gossamer thin comfort blanket. They would be the league's whipping boys were they to get promoted this season and deep down they know it. Even shambles like Southampton, Wolves and Everton would batter them. Each of the three teams currently in the relegation places would be odds-on favourites to get promoted from the Championship, such is the gulf in quality and wealth.

Hillborough is definitely off the table. Scousers being self-aggrandising arseholes is fair game though.

Warnock genuinely tells a story about interviewing for the Norwich job, ages ago. And some senior exec asks "Will the fans like the way you play", Warnock proudly tells how he looked them all in the eye, took a deep breath and said "Aye, I think they'll like winning". Proudly, like it doesn't make him sound like a cunt. Also, it sounds a lot like one of those stories where the teller swaps in what he wished he'd come up with, for what he really said.

Yeah, the dead don't talk.

Sister in Law (yes I'm married, didn't I mention that?) had a survey done before a move late summer 2022. Response was that the roof needed doing. Vendor wouldn't either pay for the work themselves, or knock the cost (or a significant portion of it) off the asking price. The house is still For Sale now.

Prutton asked the pair of them about young English managers at the moment and they both talked about Frank and Steve. Not Potter, Howe, Cooper, O'Neil who are all currently out performing Lampard (18th in the League) and Gerrard (Unemployed after being shit), no, they're happy for Frank and Steve. They both sounded very much like Old Men shouting at Clouds. "Players can't go for 6-7 pints of an evening now." "Won't be as much fun though" That's right Steve, that's right Neil, professional fucking athletes can't go and get shit faced the night before a game because they're professional fucking athletes. Jesus Christ. Then Prutton asked if any young managers had asked either of them for advice, and they seemed genuinely offended that a young, modern manager wasn't desperate to shadow them. Sorry Steve, not many young managers are going to want to sit on a Portguese sun lounger watching you turn puce as you escape criticism for how fucking awful your brand of football is.

He definitely wanted a quick sale, but a working, fit-for-purpose academy, training ground, facilities are part of the club you're trying to sell. And the academy, unlike the other two, is a revenue stream. A businessman of his success should have seen that.

Even before the takeover we were in a position (if we had an elite academy setup) to attract players from Edinburgh down to Hull, and all the way across to the west coast. We could have been attracting talent who weren't taken up by the North West clubs. You mention those 4, but if you include Adam Armstrong, Matty Longstaff, Sammy Ameobi, Dan Barlaser, Callum Roberts, these are all local talents who we had at the academy who've gone on to have a professional career in the Football League. And that's without investment. Imagine what we could have done if the club was better run on that front. They don't all have to be PL quality, they just have to show promise and be moved on for actual money. I also think it's important to have local lads playing for your team, fill a club with those from afar and they're less likely to 'get' the club. Have a few Longstaff's, Burns and Dummetts and that culture gets carried onto the pitch.

Brentford Problem, not a Newcastle Problem.