The Fish

I keep forgetting Moyes walked away, rather than getting the boot.

You reckon the monies for Pickford and (likely) Kone and Ndong aren't going to be made available to the new man to rebuild a squad?

Moyes would have to stop listening to Pearl Jam and crying in a dark room first. (couldn't think of a properly sad band)

Makes sense, but it's still remarkable that a manager would want to ply his trade in a league that is so unbalanced that despite finishing 2nd three years in a row they've got got pretty much no chance of winning the thing. On a personal development front, surely he's got a better chance of managing in the Premier League by taking Sunderland up, than he has of a team from the English top flight taking a punt on him?

We might get his right boot for that

No point in worrying yet.

I mean, Sunderland in the Championship is still a big step up from Aberdeen so there must be a shituation behind the scenes that he wants nowt to do with. We all know they're broke, but I can't imagine Aberdeen have a warchest, I wonder what else is going on?

Leon Goretzka? No? Ante Coric it is.

Got to think of someone unexpected and exciting but possible. Arnautovic?

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.