Maggie May

Exactly. If we want Feyenoord to sell, our offer can’t Bijlow.

World Cup finalist, too.

One game down, one defeat. We can take a lot of positives out of that performance. Ultimately it was down to an avoidable error. That was the best we’ve played at St James’s Park for years. They’re a team who believe they will be challenging for the Champions League. If we keep that level up, we should be fine. What I think a lot of fans need to realise is just how lucky we are to be back in the Premier League and seeing a performance like that after years of dross. The season before last is surely one of the worst in our history. Thankfully we have a manager who managed to galvanise a team totally devoid of confidence and a fan base who endured defeat after defeat, woeful performance after woeful performance ever since we were hammered at Villa Park back in 2022. The play off final was magic. In fact, we bossed the play offs and deservedly went up after a shaky end to the season. I can understand the feelings of some fans who think we need to be doing more to secure good quality players who can keep us up. This isn’t Football Manager. The majority of us don’t really know what it’s like behind the scenes. This is going to be a tough season. But there is a lot of heart in this team. Already I’m seeing posts like “Cameron Archer? Jeffrey Archer more like” after today’s performance. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it’s a shame if we lost some of the positivity post play offs. We need to be fully behind this team. We look better than Luton, Sheffield United and Burnley last season. We have a chance. If we were playing a Championship fixture today, I would be fearing a downward spiral. But here we are, giving Newcastle a run for their money.

Even if we don’t get anything from this, it’s been absolutely sweet watching the Newcastle fans get riled up. I cannot stand them as a team.

lol I cannot stand Newcastle.

Bullseye! Happy with that. Upgrade on Mara.

Cameron Archer is a shrewd buy.

Why we gotta sing this song so loud? Ugochukwu, Ugochukwu! !

It’s a strange one on paper but I think the first signing that genuinely excited me was Rory Delap for £4million. We’d unearthed a few gems in the 90s, notably Beattie, Pahars, and Richards, for relatively small beer but seeing us break our transfer record in the summer we were moving to St Mary’s seemed like the club was ready to establish itself as a side serious Premier League side, rather than perennial strugglers.

He’s tearing it up.

It's coming up It's coming up It's coming up It's coming up It's coming up It's coming up It's Dare

Tall Paul to be our phoenix from the flames. What we saying?

This is the absolute crux of it. We’re not living in a Football Manager simulation. We’re still having to clear up the train wreck of our last Premier League season. Spending huge money on, quite frankly, dross, and paying off two managers. The more I think of it, the more miraculous promotion last season feels. I dread to think the predicament we’d be in if we were kicking off in the Championship again this weekend.

I beg your pardo?

We’ll be fine this season. We have a manager players want to perform for. The core is strong. We should be preparing for when RM is tapped up (England or top 6 IMO).

Thank you for this post.

I always assumed a number nine would do more footballing goals than the others.

Shame about Fraser. He seemed to be loving life back on the south coast.

It’s a friendly.

“If we can start enjoying ourselves…” God, this is worse than I can remember.

Has there been a concrete link with Ramsdale, other than the pictures of him at Wembley?

Then you walk the tightrope of players not caring if they know they’re going to be dumped as soon as they’re promoted. A balance needs to be struck.

I don’t know anything about Matt O’Riley as I’ve never seen him play. Why do you think he’s worth more?

Can anyone find the match thread from that night? Would love to see the early Russball hate.

All I’m saying is it was deemed a bit of a coup when we signed him and SAA from Spurs, so don’t be surprised when stories like this appear that he’s ready to move.