kitch

I'd take that, as long as we were sufficiently financially compensated.

Christ, imagine being a team that were comfortably being beaten by Southampton not 10 years ago, now buying one of their prized assets simply as a squad player. Not sure if it reflects well on Newcastle, or badly on us. Probably both.

That's a better way of saying how I feel about JB to be honest. None of it's his fault, and he's been excellent value for money. If he'd remained a squad player, he'd have been a great success, but that's a reflection on the club and the people running it, not him.

Best of luck to him, but not sorry to see him go in the slightest. One of the first signings to me that signalled all was not well with the club. Bought in as a squad-level player (same as Martina, McCarthy, Pied etc) who was some way off the quality of the established starters, but ended being up first-choice in the PL when he should never have been (though still ahead of Stephens, easily). That signalled the drop of quality of the team to me, as opposed to an issue with Jan B - the fact he shouldn't really have ever been a starter. He was too slow for the PL. Proved a good CB at Championship level, sure, but he's been part of the same squad of losers for too long now. He needs a new start, as do we. That's a great move for him, no doubt about that.

Some finish from Downs, that.

By the fans (the people who watch this team week in, week out) sure, I agree. By the club? No chance. They seem tone-deaf to the issues at hand, i.e. half of the squad not being good enough.

Scottish Championship, sure.

I worry about this Gibbs-White situation. If Spurs (or anyone) prise him away, how tempting is Matty F going to look to Forest?

I dunno, a bookies?

Quite possibly, but we've not had football for a while and we're all (well, most of us) are scarred 😆

Had a brilliant seat over in the main stand next door but one to Alfie House, so be interesting to see if his thoughts are similar to any of mine. Game of two halves (duh). First half gave me the heebie jeebies. No pace, no character, no hunger - just totally flat. Charles looked tidy, BBD was trying hard but looked like could have been one of Eastleigh's players, the youngster in defence was an absolute unit, fuck knows what they've been feeding him and Smallbone's mishandled pass was what started Eastleigh's breakaway to get their early goal, so nice to see nothing has changed there. Eastleigh set up deep and surrendered possession and deserved their lead until a questionable penalty gave us an equaliser. "It's all just for fitness" ...is what I kept telling myself. Second half the entire team changed and with it, the entire pace of the game. First half looked like what we've been used to for the past couple of years, but second was fast, direct, energetic and determined...for about 30 mins, at which point they looked out of ideas. Quarshie is FAST and a bit nasty, but some of the passing was concerning (keep telling ourselves it's pre-season). GReat signing though. Woods looked more a leader in defence. Downes is Downes - different gravy. Matsuki is an upgrade on Smallbone, good close control and lots of movement. Not a PL player by any stretch but he's a decent squad addition for the Championship. Dibling had a couple of moments but looked like he had the handbrake on a bit, or his head was elsewhere. Edozie looked like he'd forgotten how to beat a man, which is a concern because that's all he ever really had in his locker to begin with. Standout was Jay Robinson. Yes, it's against a National League team, but none of the others stood out, whereas he did. Good control, decent pace, good positioning...he's going to be useful. Will Still looked pissed off on the touchline for most of it. Maybe that's just his demeanor?

Drinking before 10am isn't a good look.

'Foreshadowing'

I love the club too, doesn't mean I should be playing centre back!

I fucking despair of this club sometimes.

Pretty sure he was with us when DG was at Everton though...

And who was he playing with? It's not as simple as looking at stats. On paper, plenty of players who look great often end up falling over. Demari Gray was at Everton not long ago, regularly starting in the PL. For Birmingham, that's a good signing IMO.

That's a hell of a signing for them

There's a tenuous link, to be fair, as Carnival own both P&O and Cunard. The latter bought out the White Star Line sometime after they got into financial troubles because one of their boats sank.

That's not an irrational dislike, to be fair. Lovren was a cunt.

I've got a hatred of a lot of the current squad at the moment 😒

Got to be Toby Alderweireld, surely? Ings, Bertrand and KWP all started on loan here, too. They were all deemed so good the club wanted to sign them permanently, so you can't get much more successful than that.

Agreed, the squad wasn't good enough and a lot of managers would have struggled to keep us up, but that's not the issue with RM. He was a poundshop Pep who was in it for himself, and he took at lot of us in (myself included) because he talks well. The issue is that he put his 'belief' ahead of the good of the club, its staff, its players and its fans. He dogmatically refused to adopt any other means neccessary to grind out results here and there, which is what proper managers are supposed to do. Ipswich and Leicester ultimately failed, too, but especially in the case of Ipswich they did it with a lot more dignity than we did. The odds were against them, but they went down fighting. We went down with a whimper, packed with a squad full of emotionally damaged players who'd been hung out to dry and made to look like absolute clowns on the biggest national football stage in the world, all to satisfy one man's ego. We got away with it in the Championship, just, and nearly bottled it before scraping over the line with what must be the only case of him bending that I can remember. Even he realised his stupid approach wasn't going to work in the final, yet he didn't consider it might also happen in the PL, did he? It didn't matter that he got the boot when he did, the damage was already done. None of those players believed they could do it, thanks to him. It didn't help that SR replaced him with a personality vacuum who wasn't really any better, just in different ways.

Consistency is key.

He played his last game for Saints 10 years before I was born, and I'm middle-aged! 😆 Regardless of the semantics, the point stands. Tall Paul should be much better than he is in the air.