Howay

Looking forward to it. The part where Howe is saying “if they want a quick game we will give them one” is apparently ahead of the Man U game we absolutely pumped them after Ten Hag whinged about us saying we time waste .

I feel that’s how a lot have went after joining the Athletic.

I remember having a very similar argument last season with people when I said I wouldn’t sign Targett. As Alex says a lot of the goal scoring wasn’t just a purple patch he was also playing against defences that played into his strength, the back end of the season teams sat deeper against us and he struggled not just for goals but in his overall game as he’s not that good on the ball. I couldn’t disagree more about him being the best player against Brighton, he wasn’t even close to Joelinton and others in fact at 2-0 up him missing a total fucking sitter almost cost us as Brighton made it 2-1 immediately after. He’s improved but that still doesn’t make him close to players like Gordon. His pressing side of the game is good but it’s overblown in terms of effectiveness because of how much he runs, I saw OTF mention Gordon’s pressing in comparison I think it’s a tough compare since Gordon is adapting to our system and we’ve not got a huge sample size from him but I’ve posted his stats below and you can see last season per 90 Gordon was among the best in terms of pressing type actions. I also think you’re being unfair on Barnes OTF, I’ve added his stats below as well from the season before last - it’s a hard compare because Rodgers doesn’t play a press he’s more possession based and wants his forwards to remain up top which was made worse last season as they struggled so Barnes stayed forward. Players like Almiron and Murphy missing so many chances at the back of the season is what started to make the end nervy, that’s why I hope Gordon plays as he’s a far better player than Almiron and we’ve spent significant money on him. I’d keep Almiron as a squad player as he can be a useful player but we need to improve that position. I disagree with your last point too Gloom, Howe backs his players but he’s also ruthless - Lascelles, Targett, Fraser, and Ritchie all were effective players for him in the takeover season and he basically dropped all of them when we’ve improved on them. Maybe he will start Almiron but as I say I’d be disappointed as I don’t think we will get anything more out of him next season and tbh I think we will get a drop off. Almiron last season: Barnes 2021/2022 Gordon last season A lot of the defense for keeping Almiron as starter seems a bit sentimental to me, which is fine obviously but as I say I’d prefer we improved the position and kept him as back up. It’s similar to how Southgate plays Maguire and Pickford over objectively better players in that they’ve performed for him so he won’t take a risk to see if things improve - I think, and hope, Howe will take the risk.

I’m hoping not tbh, Almiron is one of the more frustrating players on our team imo. He had a good goal run up until about January but outside of that he’s just good for pressing.

He looked canny when he came on, gave Villas high line issues and obviously helped in the lead up to the third goal. I think he’s going to start on the right as he moved there when Barnes come on

I love the screaming on at a lot of these reporters “ya caal yasel a north east journalist” completely missing the point that’s staring them in the face. We just need some Hartlepool fans to start chipping in that their preseason friendlies aren’t getting much coverage either.

Agreed, it’s a weird one for the twitter rabble to jump on Tonali missed the ball and then Buendia at full sprint clattered into him it’s not at all the physical battle people are making out, but I suppose that’s the level of football discourse nowadays.

Canny run out so far, Howe is trying something different formation wise and it’s been an entertaining game for the most part. The ref is doing all he can to try and stop the flow of the game mind.

It’s staggering they’ve spent so much when you look at their squad.

What’s going on with Barnes btw? few days ago he was at the ground and training facility but there’s been nowt since.

It wasn’t that long ago they were all squeezing into a rented transit van to play friendlies against non league sides .

Aye, a 33 year old Fabinho went for about £10m more

Why is Ornstein or these clubs bringing up market value? Firstly they need to stop crying any and everytime the club do anything, there’s nothing dodgy about the ASM deal - it’s a fair fee all things considered it’s not like we’re getting 55m for Hendricks. There’s also no such rule or anything about market value, they could give us 300m if they wanted. I also don’t get why they think the PL has purview over what a Saudi Arabian club do, even UEFA doesn’t - if our owners wanted to take the piss they absolutely could have as there’s nothing stopping them, but they haven’t and still these clubs and journalists whinge I can’t see the PL wanting to touch this one with a ten foot barge pole as they’ll know PiF are playing ball. I also don’t get all these conspiracies about the ASM deal, if the PiF was using these clubs to massively aid NUFC they’d never have given Liverpool and Chelsea large sums of money for their aging/unwanted players completely flies in the face of the idea they’re helping NUFC with this.

The knight Ryder has landed, I like that he records videos while zoomed in.

Really like the possible Livramento signing, he can play either full back position (as can Trippier), and a left flank of Livramento and Barnes is very pacey, strong, and direct. It’ll be interesting to see if we sign a right winger or if Gordon is the plan for that flank. I still think we need more this window but we will have a really strong first 11 that you can see clearly fits Howe’s system.

Getting blamed for shite that’s fuck all to do with us now. It’s cute that Villa fans think they would register in the PiF’s thoughts though. The fact that Man City, Chelsea, and Liverpool have been given large FFP boosts from these Saudi clubs completely undoes this weird conspiracy theory angle.

Because of his drink driving offense. Fair enough really shame as I’m probably going to the game against Brighton so was looking forward to seeing him play.

Believe me or not I’m not arsed, I’ve never claimed to be ITK and as I mention in that post there’s 3 people that make all the decisions now and even the scouts are kept in the dark. I’m pretty sure Hope at one point even wrote an article about it, it’s why transfer gossip around Newcastle has become very inaccurate. But sure cling to thinking Eddie Howe is fucking devastated about a player with 6 goal involvements and who last scored a PL goal 11 months ago being sold without him knowing anything.

Agree to disagree I suppose. I think Howe is a lot more ruthless than he’s given credit for which is why I read it the way I do.