The Fish

Yeah, we had childcare lined up for Friday and Saturday. But midweek poses more problems, obviously. Which will be exacerbated if we need to stay in for more than one night.

Mrs Fish would want me to say that our first was a c-section.

I just don't think he's got what it takes to play in the number 8 role for Howe.

If I had those scan stats, yeah, probably.

This one won't be light, they're already about 8lbs. We breed big Fishies. Eldest was ~10lbs. I was 9lbs 13.

I know I'm being daft, but it's just a jarring coincidence and now a stressful period until childcare is found. Could really have done without this sudden change towards the end of the pregnancy. Does her (and my) anxiety levels no fucking good at all.

Bruno, and I bet those scan stats would back that up. But what about Bruno Fernandes vs Bruno Guimaraes?

Absolutely and had we had a full compliment of midfielders he wouldn't have played half as much at 17. But Anderson is 21, the same age as Willock was when we loaned him from Arsenal, and he doesn't look as close to the first team as either of them.

A bit all over the shop to be honest. Just got back from the final scan before the birth next Friday and the consultant says asked if we can pull the planned c-section forward a few days because the baby's growth has slowed a little. I asked how accurate the measurements are and she said within 10%. Now, the kid has been measuring big (~90th percentile) and all but one of the scans show a pretty straight line, so if that one reading was over by 5% and this one is down by 5% you'd have a nice straight line and no slowing of growth recorded at all. I asked what the risk is in keeping to the existing date and she said there's a very small risk of still birth, but bring it forward and that lessens it. So that's that I guess. We have no real support system here but we need childcare for Little Fish. Her folks have passed, mine are 200 odd miles away and in their mid-to-late 70s, he doesn't really know my sisters (I've done well to keep them the fuck away from him) and hers live in London or Leeds. Only a few mates nearby and we'd need to ask them to take leave so that they're here for drop offs and pick ups, and there's no guarantee they can do that at such late notice. Now, this would be a pain in the arse, but manageable. The thing that's got me frustrated is that, two days ago Mrs Fish got a call asking if we could bring forward the birth because they were particularly busy on that day. Call me fucking silly but I'm barely containing my cynicism and if they've used the threat of still birth to ease their workload I'll be raging.

Re the latter point, I think that's chiefly because of the way we play. Miley is a real central midfielder, Hall is a versatile LB/CM, but Anderson's best position or role aren't used by Howe. So he's needing to learn a new way of playing in the few minutes he's getting. If a bottom half of the PL club come in for him next season I could see him going on loan, but a fee would have to be silly for it to be accepted simply because the only reason to sell him is to expand the PSR/FFP envelope and why sell for £15m wriggle room? It's not worth it.

Just quantifies awareness of the pitch. Dunno what the problem is. If a player is looking around more, he'll have a better picture of the positions of the opponents and his teammates, so he's better informed about where danger or opportunity lies.

Exactly this.

I reckon we could get closer to £25m for Anderson, more if he goes on to have an impact towards the end of this season. For all his value may go up with more minutes, I don't think he'll get a load of minutes at Newcastle. As I said he's behind at least 4 of our midfielders, and his best position/role isn't one that Howe utilises. He wants to play as a 10, or a narrow left sided attacker. But Gordon, Barnes have the left flank sewn up, and we don't play a 10.

I meant Anderson. Longstaff, yeah I think because his PL experience you could demand closer to £30m. Transfermarkt says €25m for Longstaff, €13m for Anderson, for whatever that's worth.

If you were in charge, what would be the lowest bid you'd let him go for?

The other thing to consider is that we've put hype onto Anderson. He's not really shown enough to make me think selling him is a bad idea. Under Ashley he looked like a huge prospect but that's because we were grading him against who we had in the first team; Hayden, Shelvey, Hendrick, Longstaff. Now he's fighting for a place against the likes of Bruno, Joelinton, Tonali, Willock, Longstaff, and Miley. I'm not writing him off, he's only played 826 minutes in the top flight, Miley has more than that this season alone.

Thing is, I think we have Longstaff's natural replacement at the club already. Miley is already showing that he's at least as good as Longstaff and really it's only the physicality where he falls short and that will come with age. If you overlay Longstaff and Bruno, then Miley and Bruno you see that Miley is the better partner. But Joelinton is the best

Some are also operating under the delusion that it's 'small time' of us to demand a fee and keep him to his contractually obligated gardening leave. Tell me, what's more small time; Treating this as any business in the world would and seeking compensation and keeping an employee to the terms of his contract ro, Rolling over because a big boy wants your stuff?

I did not know that, and my life is better for finding it out.

All that it needs to be surely? As long as he comes off as remotely competent, he's got a headstart on these absolute grifters