The Fish

Plus a £40m deal for another Brazilian. Neither of them joining until 2025.

I think that both he and Bruno play similar roles albeit in different ways. Both can defend and can evade pressure, both can get forward and create opportunities. He's not quite the out and out defensive midfield, but he's more defensive than a true blue central midfielder. He's kind of box to box but lacks the physicality you'd expect from that role. He's definitely not an attacking midfielder, but he does create chances. He's not a regista, mezzala, or carrilero, but I think the term that best describes him is Segundo Volante. https://medium.com/@moderntactics343/tactical-investigation-what-is-a-segundo-volante-2bb3491cbf5b Now, I know a lot of you absolutely fucking HATE foreign muck, but honestly read the above and I think it describes his role very well. It even references Barella who we were very much interested in, before we switched to Tonali. FWIW I think the gaping hole has more to do with Pope's absence than it is our midfield. If Pope was fit our defence would be higher up the pitch, closer to the midfield.

Not sure if the hirsute homosexuals would feel the same.

Maybe not. Maybe yes. Maybe they won't give a fuck.

We've definitely got space to spend this season. TV Money, League position payment, decent cup runs, CL money, Adidas deal, Saudia Formula E tie-in. Saleable assets are; Almiron £15-£20m Longstaff £25m Wilson £15m Targett £10m Lascelles £5-10m Krafth £2m Hayden £2m Fraser £3m Dubravka £1m c£80-£90m Plus dumping some wages from the likes of Hendrick, Ritchie, Dummett, Karius Now, lets be conservative and say we can't even raise 1/2 that amount from player sales. So, £30m plus change. Add that to 70% of the amount provided by the club's revenue which was £250m in 22/23 and our budget could be £205m (30+175) on fees and wages, amortised over the length of the contracts.

That's mostly because the players making mistakes are holdovers from the old Newcastle. Dubravka, Longstaff, Almiron, Krafth, Murphy, Ritchie, Dummett, Lascelles, none of them* were supposed to play much if any part of this season. But we've needed to rely on them to varying degrees. We've also had to lean more heavily on the bluechip players. Bruno and Gordon were playing 90 minutes game after game, with no respite. Leading to more bad decisions, more mistakes, more brainfarts.

Not sure, sometimes it comes out (like who voted for/against changes to PSR rules), but it doesn't always leak. No, I don't think we will. Where we're looking to end up, we need to make sure big decisions aren't missed. For all VAR gets things wrong they tend to be the subjective calls that happen in the box, at pace. We want to be attacking the box at pace so we'll want them reviewed.

Read my lips (enough is enough)

How will he cope moving to Newcastle? Afterall he's just a Smalltown Boy

Your football knowledge is only matched by your business acumen.

I don't think he's quite worth £130m

I'd rather

Has it hurt the top 6 more than it has helped? Will relegated clubs care enough? There's 9 nay votes.

2-2

That's the Irish

My sister genuinely sent the following to the family whatsapp "I got my jeans on!!! 🥳🥳🥳" After some very considered but stern words from Mrs Fish I did not reply.

I know I've been banging this drum for ages, but I think it bears repeating. Not a huge difference in our ability to make and take chances but... it's clear to me that we've given up waaaay more chances and conceded way more goals after Pope's injury.

Even just winning our home games against Luton and Forest (17th and 19th at the time) would have given us 4 extra points. And Joelinton and Pope aside, we had a good amount of strength available. Well, enough to not concede 7 goals, Martin.

it's just a 4-3-3/4-5-1 hybrid

I was raging last night, but I've calmed down a lot. Like Gemmill says our path is upwards and while this result was disappointing, it's not the reason we aren't going to finish 6th. Look to the Brighton, Luton and Forests results for that. Even then Given the nature of this season, finishing 7th or 8th is remarkable. We've had an injury crisis, the likes of which I've never seen here. We've had extra games which has stretched our squad even more. Not just the number of injuries, but losing absolutely pivotal players has done for us. Joelinton and Pope have missed 18 and 23 league games respectively. Willock and Tonali have only been available for 9 games. Wilson and Barnes have both missed about 1/2 the season as well. And yet, here we are with a shot of European football. Man Utd did what they've done all fucking season; played shite, but benefited from poor defending from the opponent and poor officiating from the referee. They shouldn't have scored 2, let alone 3. Pope and Joelinton should both start against Brentford, give Longstaff a fucking rest and Dubravka the bench. If Trippier is 100% fit, play him alongside Schar and Burn and Hall. If not, shift Krafth out there.

Source?

What's the year?