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The Fish

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  1. Nah, we're not ready for that. You stick the finished article in our team and we'd be unbalanced, also it's a big gamble. Buy a few up and coming players like Guimaraes, Botman, buy a few dependable if not particularly exciting players like Burn, Pope and Targett. If we went out and tried to sign Raheem Sterling a) he'd laugh us off, b) we'd become a 1-man team, c) the wages and attention he'd receive would disrupt the squad. Much more sensible approach to make incremental, sustainable changes throughout the squad (Pope for Dubravka e.g.). That way, when we are in a position to sign a top talent, it's more likely to be a success. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure after Botman we'll spend some on an attacker, but it's way more likely to be Moussa Diaby than Mbappe!
  2. I promise I'm not fishing for bites.
  3. Newcastle fan here. We've been linked with Broja recently, as an alternative to Ekitike because his agent is playing silly buggers. Don't know much about him as I've not watched a lot of your games. How does he play? What's his attitude like? Is he actually any good? Cheers
  4. You'd rather be gifted 3pts, than compete in a match?
  5. No, they're not. But if COVID hadn't further reduced our available squad, we would have to fulfill the fixture with kids, right? So, it's not injuries that've meant the fixture cannot be completed, it's the pandemic. If ASM and Wilson had both 'limped off' in the 95th minute with 'knocks'. I'd understand the frustration, but they're not faking the injuries.
  6. I can understand the frustration, but in addition to injuries, we do have a COVID outbreak at the club which has taken the number of available players below the thresh hold. I also understand that the now suddenly rich Newcastle United, with their awful owners are going to be the villains going forward. So we're going to have to get used to receiving more criticism than Burnley, for example. End of the day we have followed the same rules that apply to everybody else. And if injuries to Manquillo and Clark had taken us below the thresh hold, there wouldn't be such a fuss.
  7. Geordie in peace Christ, feels like popping by for a chat after I just nicked your telly. How we weren't comfortably beaten before halftime is a mystery. Yes you were a bit profligate, but we showed nothing. Same as the Sheffield game. Big Andy changed things because he's actually a targetman that fits the system, rather than Joelinton who is a decent forward, but has never in his life been the big man up front kind of striker. He needs to be playing as part of a two or three. When Ings put you ahead I was convinced we'd see another goal or two without reply. Didn't deserve 3 points, and if we keep turning in performances like that we'll lose more often than not. Hope this doesn't come off condescending or owt, but just wanted to confirm what you already knew, you were robbed.
  8. Any of you lot actually worried about doing a Sunderland? They're in their mess because of a specific set of circumstances. You'll be fine imo.
  9. The old bloke who used to sit beside me in the Gallowgate spent much of the game trying to tell us about Tony Green, Jinky Jim Smith and SuperMac from the early 70s. How they were better than this ****e. As Tino put the 3rd past Barcelona in the Champions League. To be fair, he was probably right. Yeah, How can you possibly hope to compete when most players want to make as much money as they can in a short career and win as much as possible which means they'll sharp leave southampton in the hunt for trophies at Liverpool, or when the manager can leave if a "big job" comes along, when the owner is more bothered about commercial partners than the fans. The only people that seem to want the club to win stuff is the fans.
  10. I get what you're saying, but I don't think you can have success in modern football that hasn't been bought and paid for. Not sustained success anyway. Newcastle United haven't won anything of note in my lifetime and I've got a proper grown up job where I use acronyms, buzzwords and everything. A new owner with ambition and who isn't an embarrassment would in itself be wonderful. that said, the downside of buying success is that it'll come with a caveat "they bought success", but as I mentioned, realistically to compete with the financial powerhouses that dominate our leagues, you have to be a financial powerhouse yourself. I'm sure if you were to ask Man City fans how they feel about their league titles, their FA and league cup titles, they won't be too bothered about the money it cost them to achieve it. We'd all love a team of local grown talent gorwin with the club as it becomes a genuine contender, but frankly that's not going to happen for us. Excellent post. I think the difference between bad and good possession football is the former waits for the defenders to make mistakes, the latter forces it.
  11. Yeah I think Benitez would have liked to park the bus, but with Joselu & Perez going off exhausted and Gayle crocked we didn't have someone up front that would keep the ball/relieve the pressure. No worries mate, not going to throw a hissy fit, I'm not Jonjo. It's such a rare occurrence that I can't honestly say if we do anything like that "on the regular". Never noticed us failing to give the ball back if you'd put it out. With it being a clash of heads it was the ref that stopped play, not Southampton, so honestly I've no problem with us keeping possession. Had Lemina put it out of play I 100% think you should have had the ball returned to you. Fwiw, I don't think it changed the game much. Re: Ashley publicly putting us up for sale, there's a few things to consider; He's done it before, 9 years ago and nothing happened He's proven to be a liar, proven in a law court This may be just a ruse to drive up the price of the parties who've already signed the NDA It may be a ruse to lure actual suitors because those parties were just tyre kickers We have a big tax case hanging over us which may scare off suitors/prolong the negotiations Nobody is even contemplating a Saudi prince flooding the club with billions of pounds worth of superstars, even someone with Ashley's finances would be fine if they had a modicum of ambition. Something that the fat Spurs fan has lacked. He bought us a decade ago with the intention of a quick sale for a quick profit to an oligarch. He didn't do due diligence and the size of our debt scuppered those plans. However, he had meetings with Mansour's representatives pre-Man City. Too bad he turned up late and disheveled, without a gift and was apparently rude throughout. Otherwise it may well have been us watching our silverware searching, skillful, stirring side smash Stoke for seven. (No idea what prompted the alliteration there). Could you imagine what my club could be with an ambitious, competent owner? We've already got the manager, the stadium, the fanbase, the (ancient) history... Can't blame some of us for dreaming. But, despite what you'll hear on 606 or talkSport, Newcastle fans aren't wanting the moon on a stick, just a club that we can be proud of. We've not had that for years. And just when we think we do, Ashley lies to Keegan, lies to Shearer, fires Hughton, lies to Benitez. The bloke is a pox and while we're all aware that for every Mansour, there's 4 Vincent Tans, we just need rid of him now. What changes have your Chinese investors wrought? Anything yet, big plans afoot, sorted out improvements to your training ground/youth facilities?
  12. Steady now. It wasn't a horror tackle. Late, sure, but it wasn't malicious. It was a second yellow, but it wasn't straight red. To be honest, had he gone off we may have made substitutions to shut up shop and subsequently may not have conceded the penalty, so really you should be glad he stayed on...
  13. Would have taken a point before kick off, so can't be too disappointed with that. Travel for the away fans was a nightmare by all accounts, but Sky wouldn't care about all that. We came with a plan and it worked, for the most part. Allow you possession in areas we feel aren't too dangerous, but shut it down when you get close to the box. Most of your touches came in your own half, or wide and deep. Idea was clearly to get you frustrated and try and pick you off on with quick breaks. Perez did well being a pest until he went off and nearly harassed Forster into a foul up or two. Speaking of Forster, what's happened to that lad? Seems sluggish and bereft of confidence. Manquillo was at fault for Gabbiadini's first and Lejeune was guilty of a stupid foul for your penalty (which was brilliantly despatched). Those two incidents aside I thought we defended very well. Boufal looks like the kind of player that divides opinions, can twist defenders inside out, get into a great position, then lash the ball harmlessly over the bar while there's 2 players free in great positions. For what it's worth I thought Yedlin was lucky to stay on, but the ref gave you most of the 50/50s. Disappointed we couldn't make more of the opportunities from set pieces, as that's been a strength of ours. Frustrated that Gayle came on, and apparently immediately felt tightness in his calf. Meant we were playing with 10 1/2 players for the final 20 minutes or so. Had he been fit, we probably were going to try and find space as the game stretched. Get the ball into gaps for Atsu/Murphy, Gayle, and the Yo-yo we've got at right back. Good luck with the season lads. I'm convinced you'll be fine, just need to find Gabbiadini with more, better chances.
  14. Is the problem the profligacy of your forwards? Or have you just not been making goal scoring opportunities? Lot of chatter about xG, and we’re ok on that front (7th), but Joselu isn’t exactly a marksman. See his goal against Liverpool? Clean through, yet got caught by Matip who cleared the ball off Joselu’s shin and watched with utter disbelief as it trickled into the bottom corner. Quite nice to have a bit of luck go our way for a change. Forster was highly rated a season or so ago, what’s gone wrong for the big man? I have to admit that I wasn’t too bothered when we sold him, but that’s because I thought Krul was going to go on to big things. Krul looked so confident, so assured, such a good shot stopper. But as time went by his frailties were laid bare; poor communication, dodgy at crosses, terrible distribution and sometimes his concentration was questionable. For what it’s worth Darlow and Elliott are decent, and we’ve an excellent young ‘keeper in Woodman coming through, but Benitez has been chasing another keeper since last year. Sels was terrible, Reina was sounded out and we’re still looking. I like Forster, but to be fair the only time I see him is when he’s had a good performance highlighted on Match of the Day or Sky. What’s stopping the new owner from throwing some cash around? Lack of funds, lack of interest or fears about breaking FFP rules? Scoring first will be telling. If we get an early goal I think the way we’re set up is grand for frustrating home teams, silencing their fans and hitting them on the break. Any gaps can and will be found by Shelvey, Merino has a decent range of passing on him. Yedlin is frighteningly fast and Atsu has a decent amount of pace too. Unfortunately if we go behind we haven’t the players to really trouble a well drilled defence. We’re seriously lacking a good #10. Perez works hard and will press Lamina and Romeu and/or your back four, but he isn’t much of a goal threat and often makes the wrong decision with the final ball. Different manager, different players, different system. Benitez is a top manager and he’s set up Newcastle United that is counter to the clichéd idea of us as a cavalier gung-ho side. These days there aren’t marquee mercenaries like Michael Owen. We graft, we’re compact and pragmatic. For what it’s worth, we travelled well last year getting 46 points on the road, we only lost 5 times away from St James’ and one of those was the Nottingham forest game with the refereeing debacle. Also, this season we’ve not conceded more than one goal with 11 men on the pitch, so whatever the result, we won’t be a push over. Apologies for the long post, but I think I’m restricted to 3 posts in a 24hr period?
  15. So much going on at St James' at the minute, haven't a clue what's going to happen. The possible takeover, the tax fraud case, Ashley's ongoing parsimony. If things go wrong Benitez may well give up his sisyphean labour. If he leaves us there's a limited number of clubs he's join. He wanted to come to Newcastle because; we're an English club and he wants to stay close to his family in Liverpool, we've got potential to grow, we were hugely underperforming, and the fanbase was immediately and entirely behind him. He wouldn't, for example, fancy a move to Watford, or Burnley etc. He's a top manager, but a lot of the top jobs are closed to him now. Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton are no gos. Man City, Spurs and Arsenal are unlikely to pursue him at the minute and I can't foresee a situation in the future where that would change. After those clubs it's the best of the rest that would turn his head. So could he be persuaded to join Southampton, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe. (this isn't a "We're a massive club" nonsense thing, just that we were in the right place at the right time for him.)
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