HarvSFC

Tottenham should have requested a postponement tonight and played the game once Hojbjerg became unavailable.

JWP, Broja, S. Armstrong and perhaps A. Armstrong are the only players in the squad capable of scoring a goal from nothing. Got to keep them, as they're like gold dust for us, and that's with the unlikely situation of Broja staying.

And so it begins! If we can find some gems from the City academy, like we have done in Chelsea's then great! City have a load of clones coming through, who are all good footballers, passers and very technically gifted. Two of those being Palmer and McAtee, who looked comfortable in his debut against Everton last month. Delap hasn't really stood out when I've seen him play. Born in Winchester, but likely moved away soon after with his dad.

If we can continue as we are without needing to sell to buy every single time we want to bring in a new player, then I'm all for it.

Brentford have rinsed the Scandinavian market and have eight Danes alone just looking at their squad on Wiki. I wouldn't mind us going back to doing that.

Rangnick makes Solskjaer look like a genius.

Trippier would have got early odds on his move to Newcastle too.

Graham Potter's one of the most overrated managers in the current game, and his Brighton side is always excused by "if they had a goal scorer, they'd be a lot higher."... So would every club. His highest finish with Brighton is 15th, which was also Chris Hughton's highest finish with Brighton, with just one fewer point. They haven't progressed since the sacking. You can't say he hasn't been backed either. Bloom's one of the best owners in the game, in my opinion. In Potter's first season he signed Tossard for £18m, Webster for £20m and Maupay for £20m alongside Clarke, Mooy and Lamptey, who all cost a few million. This summer they broke their transfer record to sign Mwepu for £23m, Cucurella cost £15m and Sima cost £7m. Now, for the most damning stat... Potter's win percentage at Brighton is 28% over 107 matches. Pellegrino's with us was 25.71%, albeit over a fewer amount of games (35), but he was considered a clown! The most league games Potter has won in a league season is 9, Pellegrino won 5. Puel's win percentage was 37.74% from 53 and Hasenhuttl's is 34.81% from 135 matches.

How many league matches do you reckon Liverpool are going to play without Mane and Salah? I’m going with 0.

I don't hate all of these, but they're the most "annoying" in their position for me: Schmeichel - Always in the refs ear and trying to get involved in decisions, despite playing in goal, will go charging up the pitch to have his say. Also known to snake previous managers. Walker - Just a bit of a thick twat. Probably harmless, but his actions at the start of the pandemic showed no awareness. Van Dijk - No explanation needed. Alonso - Needed to fit two LB's in this team as they're the two worst characters in this league. His shit defending can also impact the team. Vile man, who lives a very pleasant life and is lauded by Chelsea fans, despite taking the life of a 22 year old while drink driving. He paid a £60k fine, half a weeks wages for him and moved on. Benjamin Mendy - Shit footballer and a shitter human. Bissouma - Another bad human. Fernandes - Cheat. Cry baby. Mr. Penalties. Lallana - No explanation needed. Sigurdsson - Zaha - A child in an adult's body. Vardy - Good player, but pretty much ruined a second half of the season for us and got no punishment.

Thought he may have retired after leaving us, albeit sooner, but the club did the right thing to stick with him for as long as they could. Sad, as he did seem like a good prospect at one point. An obvious highlight of his career will have been playing at the San Siro. Hopefully with the time he has had, he has a clear idea of what he is going to do next.

I don't like Brighton from the League One days. They had some horrible little individuals like Poyet, Taricco and El Abd and of course have Lallana, while Maupay is a bit twattish too. Wouldn't consider them south coast rivals, though, they can continue with their weird and manufactured one with Crystal Palace. I don't like Liverpool for their victim/everyone's against them complex, despite many bending over for them. Newcastle are getting the same after their takeover. Everton, Aston Villa and West Ham have deluded fanbases.

I will put my head on the line here and say that no one is replacing Gao this year. Even if we're priced at 0.10p in the next 3 hours it won’t make a difference as the camp is not healthy after their heavy Christmas dinners and whoever the guys are that make those decisions are now taking little action. Why it’s not being done now I don’t know but the source who has radio links with the club* said nothing is being planned. *He's my builder.

Indeed. Which is why their local journalist reported this morning that some of the players who were injured earlier in the week were back in training today, as of course they have to get some preparation/training in before the match on Sunday, if it was going to go ahead. It is likely that the Premier League made the decision to postpone the match prior to the learning of Newcastle having players back available, who they had to bring back in today as it was pretty much last minute to get those players ready for Sunday, as they believed this morning that the match was going ahead as planned. All about timing.

The most obvious example of trying to play the system was Crystal Palace last weekend, who didn't get their match postponed. They had two matches in a week, Tottenham and Norwich. Which match would they prioritise a win in? Well, that's simple and they applied to get the Tottenham match postponed, assumedly so that they would have everybody fit and fresh for the Norwich fixture. However, they were denied, the Tottenham match went ahead and they named their full starting eleven from their last match against us in their squad. Assuming they put a few more names down as injuries to the league, otherwise why would they try for a postponement?

Given how infectious Omicron is and how Newcastle played Manchester United just three days ago, United should also be missing a tonne of players due to positive tests tonight, right?

Swansea have a “considerable amount”’of COVID cases, according to the club’s website. I doubt they’d also want to play home matches behind closed doors, especially an FA Cup match, given the loss in revenue hitting the Football League already previously. So…

Yep, Rodgers and Benitez have both given pre-match press conferences, complaining about the amount of injuries in their squads and how the Premier League was forcing them to go ahead, then having their matches called off within the next 24 hours. Doesn't mean too much.

Whoever chucked the flare after the disallowed Kane goal must have felt very embarrassed.

We played Newcastle last season with Jack Stephens at right-back and a bench containing Ramsay, Finnigan, Watts, Chauke and N'Lundulu. KWP, Armstrong, Smallbone, Diallo and Walcott were all missing from the match squad. I cannot recall the Newcastle fans believing that match should've been postponed and played at a later date when we had everybody fit. The top comment on that post is "It would be a welcome break and give us time to tie 1-2 signings.This team needs some fresh faces in all areas." That will be exactly Eddie Howe's thinking as well, he'll see us as a winnable match with reinforcements. Clubs who were previously in a dire situation, like Newcastle currently are (1 win in 19) have tried to use COVID to gain an advantage and call for the season to null and void, and that's what's happening here. They lost their two best players to injury on Monday evening and all of a sudden they cannot play anymore, within 24 hours of playing previously. You'd expect Manchester United to now get a tonne of COVID cases, right?

Just got home from the match. Was the ref as abject/one sided as he seemed in the stadium without the opportunity of viewing replays? Seemed totally one sided, barring the Forster "foul" mistake, which should have been a goal to be fair.

Crystal Palace tried to play the system over the weekend, requesting their game be called off against Spurs, despite their entire 11 that started the previous game against us being available and in the matchday squad against Spurs (they made one change with Guehi moving to the bench). Everton/Benitez was also moaning last week that their game was going ahead and that their application for a postponement had been rejected, 24 hours later they pick up some non-COVID related injuries and their match gets called off, while their match on Thursday against Newcastle is so far going ahead after an extended rest period. It wouldn't surprise me that after the injuries to Saint-Maximin and Wilson last night, Newcastle try to get their next few games postponed before they can then sign players.

What is Ralf junior going to moan about post match then? Newcastle only got an eight day break, as opposed to Man United 16 day break, so he should probably stop harping on about that, as Newcastle were playing full of energy, while United looked sluggish with a lack of any cohesion. I suppose he was only able to bring Sancho and Cavani on at half time and wasn't allowed to turn to another three, which includes Shaw, Wan-Bissaka and Van de Beek, who all cost over £20m to sit on the bench, so there's always that.

I don’t know if I’m just being bias, but I thought the penalty was stonewall in real time, and then the replays confirmed it. However, I noticed that Broja was trending on Twitter yesterday, had a look to see if opposition were starting to clock onto how good he is. But, oh no. It’s just West Ham fans thinking the decision for the penalty was one of the worst they’ve seen this season. See replies: Had a look at their forum, turns out the VAR thread is active, like ours is on occasion and instantly see this: “As far as I’m concerned another incompetent or bent VAR /refereeing collusion has cost us today.” So, finally I go to see if David Moyes has said anything/moaned about it… Nothing interesting, but the West Ham website reports the incident as: “However, Southampton went back in front through James Ward-Prowse after Kevin Friend awarded a controversial penalty after viewing the pitchside screen on VAR Craig Pawson’s recommendation, penalising Craig Dawson for a foul on Armando Broja when the initial contact appeared yards outside the penalty area.” Which can be seen here: https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2021/december/26-december/david-moyes-lots-things-didnt-go-well-wed-have-liked In my view, the only thing controversial about it was that Friend needed a second look to award it. Weird. 🤷‍♂️

It’s what he does, remember when he booted Adams in the head and nothing came of it.