The Fish

Tuchel? Maybe?

For all it would be a romantic reunion, there's just no chance Ben Arfa will play for us again. Everton are making waves, £30m on Pickford, £26m on Klaassen. Man Utd have bought Lindelof for £31m

Genuinely thought that said "They want to talk about DUP deal and Storm out" and I thought, Gan on lads, sass them good and proper!

Have to admit when we signed Ritchie and Diame I was pleased, but I knew they wouldn't get me out my seat like Ben Arfa did. Obviously someone like Ritchie is better suited to Benitez's systems, and he's a good player and was arguably our Player of the season, but he never had me expecting the magical whenever he received the ball like Benny did. I anticipate Ewerk and Gemmill are downing enough gallons of water to sufficiently dowse my chips in piss as I type this.

40pts by the end of February could be doable.

Meant a point in each game at the very least.

12/08/2017 15:00 Tottenham Hotspur (h) 19/08/2017 15:00 Huddersfield Town (a) 26/08/2017 15:00 West Ham United (h) 09/09/2017 15:00 Swansea City (a) 16/09/2017 15:00 Stoke City (h) 23/09/2017 15:00 Brighton and Hove Albion (a) 30/09/2017 15:00 Liverpool (h) Good start that Get a tough game out the way on the 1st weekend, then 5 games where we should be aiming for a point at least. 14/10/2017 15:00 Southampton (a) 21/10/2017 15:00 Crystal Palace (h) 28/10/2017 15:00 Burnley (a) Don't know about October, could be disappointing. 04/11/2017 15:00 Bournemouth (h) 18/11/2017 15:00 Manchester United (a) 25/11/2017 15:00 Watford (h) 28/11/2017 20:00 West Bromwich Albion (a) November is decent. Winnable games in there. 02/12/2017 15:00 Chelsea (a) 09/12/2017 15:00 Leicester City (h) 13/12/2017 19:45 Everton (h) 16/12/2017 15:00 Arsenal (a) 23/12/2017 15:00 West Ham United (a) 26/12/2017 15:00 Manchester City (h) 30/12/2017 15:00 Brighton and Hove Albion (h) December is pretty shocking to be honest. 01/01/2018 15:00 Stoke City (a) 13/01/2018 15:00 Swansea City (h) 20/01/2018 15:00 Manchester City (a) 31/01/2018 19:45 Burnley (h) January is a mixed bag 03/02/2018 15:00 Crystal Palace (a) 10/02/2018 15:00 Manchester United (h) 24/02/2018 15:00 Bournemouth (a) Opportunity to get some momentum 03/03/2018 15:00 Liverpool (a) 10/03/2018 15:00 Southampton (h) 17/03/2018 15:00 Tottenham Hotspur (a) 31/03/2018 15:00 Huddersfield Town (h) March isn't fun. 07/04/2018 15:00 Leicester City (a) 14/04/2018 15:00 Arsenal (h) 21/04/2018 15:00 Everton (a) 28/04/2018 15:00 West Bromwich Albion (h) Not a good April if we're in trouble. 05/05/2018 15:00 Watford (a) 13/05/2018 15:00 Chelsea (h) Don't fancy Chelsea at home if we need to get something from the final game. Lose Points Win

Whassat now?

Makes sense, I just can't get past the disastrous neophyte owners legacy. Ashley was a terrible owner to begin with and he's only just learned to let football men run Newcastle United as a football club, rather than a merchandising vehicle for tat.

If they see that full ownership is on the horizon, doesn't it benefit them to support the club's ambition with their investment? Like if you're on that government first time buyer scheme, it makes sense for you to spend a bit doing it up as you move towards full ownership?

If the investors want to be part of the Premier League brand and are happy to take a slice of that pie (and the marketing opportunities) in exchange for a bit of investment, I don't have a huge problem with it. I worry about a full takeover purely because we've not seen any benefit on the pitch from a billionaire owner thus far, and we've seen how inexperienced owners can spectacularly fail regardless of their cash reserves. If it gives us a little more cash we might strengthen us in pursuit of out fairly modest goals, without gambling our future on unknowns who don't have experience owning a Premier League club? Personally I'd prefer a slow transition of full ownership; Chinese consortium buy a decent share and invest some money now. A year or so later they increase their share, and so on until Ashley gets his valuation of the club from them and he fucks off to buy Rangers or whatever.

Well Gylfi for £25m is a much, much better deal than Cairney for £20m.

I'd prefer us to spend a little more and get someone we know will do what we need. Sigurdsson wouldn't be much more than £30m, right? That, to me, makes more sense than a £20m gamble on a 26yr old who's never done it in the top flight.

More likely to be Carson Yeung than anything else imo. At least we know what to expect with Ashley now, the new owner could decide to try and foist players on Benitez, or get rid of him altogether.

Because the criticism is over the top? He's a regular goal scorer at international level, scored 9 in a relegation campaign and scored 1 in 3 in the Championship despite not playing regularly, yet you're going on like he's Guivarc'h or Luque. The lad has the desire to do well here, he is patently not a shit striker and is a different option to Gayle. Yet you want him moved on asap? You wanted him playing ahead of Cisse a year ago saying: Has his stock really fallen so far despite him not playing regularly (11 starts), scoring 4 and setting up 6? He's shown he can get 9 in the top flight (more than Gayle has ever managed), he's improved his discipline and he provides a different option. Can't believe you're writing him off so young, and it's not that you're just saying he won't work in Rafa's system (which if it remains as it was in the Championship, I agree with), you're saying he's gone from "much better than Cisse" to shite in a year.

Someone has said it's the same consortium that wanted to buy Hull, but couldn't prove they had the funds.

I think we'll not be able to play to Gayle's strengths as much this season. We may well need a bludgeon, like Mitro.

I genuinely think there's a portion of our support who sees the tongue in cheek adulation Mitro gets from some of the younger fans and buck against it. Just as they did when Shola was getting OTT credit. Way I see it is that he's a 22yr old striker, who's scored 9 in the top flight already, who's addressing the biggest issue in his game by keeping his name out of the book. A yellow every 373.6 minutes. A yellow every 4 games A Goal every 280 minutes. A goal every 3 games An assist every 186.8 minutes. Assist every 2 games That's not bad. I'd also say we won't dominate games in the top flight and will need the kind of pressure release a target man like Mitrovic can be, rather than a busy wee man. No idea if Abraham can play as a target man.

Is Armstrong actually playing? I've watched a few of the games, but never seem to catch him. Everton's Lookman looks decent fwiw

Newcastle United 88 Tottenham Hotspur 82 Aston Villa 82 Arsenal 67 West Ham 67 Everton 66 Man city 62 Blackburn 58 Chelsea 57 Southampton 57

No 27 No 31 NO 22

Fuck off to Nandos.

Newcastle United 88 Tottenham Hotspur 82 Aston Villa 82 Arsenal 67 West Ham 67 Everton 66 62 Blackburn 58 Chelsea 57 Southampton 57

Nicely done Newcastle United 88 Tottenham Hotspur 82 Aston Villa 82 Arsenal 67 67 Everton 66 62 58 Chelsea 57 Southampton 57