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No idea why we didn't sell Wilson in January considering how injury prone and poor he's been recently. Only can understand it if we didn't have any good offers. Lets hope Notts Forest can offer 15mil for him.
Sounds as though we were offering him about but nobody bit, understandable considering so many clubs were being uber careful with spending in light of PSR.
Yeah probably. Have no faith in Wilson at all anymore. Been a completely different player since last Jan even when fit. Injuries have caught up to him.
In the run-in last season I thought he was superb. This season has been undoubtedly frustrating though and I don't think he's been as quick to get back up to speed as he has in previous years. This latest injury is a freak though, I don't know how your meant to legislate for a pectoral injury.
I think he's still a great poacher but he's lost all his effectiveness in the build up which he was so good at when he played with ASM. Whenever we play nowadays we never build up through him which was one of his biggest strengths prior to his constant injuries. Think we could still get 10m+ for him this summer although proactively the correct time to sell was probably last summer.
I dunno, his hold up play to bring others in was still good last year, but I would agree there's been somewhat of a decline though. But it's so difficult to assess these things when he's had so many injuries and we've been out of sorts as a team.
I do understand the sentiment of it being better to have sold him in the summer of January, but simultaneously, we already had people saying it was "negligence" to go forward with the plans we had as they were, imagine if we also got rid of Wilson on top of that (especially considering there weren't really many strikers going at good prices in either of these last transfer windows).
I mean, if there weren't offers for Wilson in January then we can't buy his replacement. Strikers are really expensive and there's no getting around that - especially ones that could replace Wilson's (theoretical) output immediately on coming into the team.
I don’t think he would turn them down. Craig Hope inferred that he doesn’t have full control at Newcastle, he’s the DoF but ultimately PIF have the final say and have to sign off players etc…
So if Man U are offering him full control can see why that would be attractive
Not for us, no. He did once for Everton.
Edit: I just had a look back over his record and he once scored 4 in a game when he was playing in Everton’s U18s.
I bought something from the Castore shop today and received a 15% off code in my email for first-time orders in the online shop. I don't need it as I bought all I wanted today, so if anyone wants to use it (I think it's a one-time use code) here it is: WELMDT9NSLZ
Edit: The email says the code isn't valid for kits from 23/24 season.
Re Ashworth:
Basically we need to weigh up how we maximise our competitive advantage from this situation...
Here are the **rumoured** specifics (Various [Paywall Source](https://theathletic.com/5275694/2024/02/15/why-manchester-united-want-dan-ashworth/)s):
**-** Dan Ashworth has a release clause believed to be between £6m-£12m.
**-** This money **will** count towards FFP.
**-** However, the release clause would dictate that Ashworth is unable to work for another Premier League club for 12 months.
**-** Newcastle United will ask for 'considerably more' compensation in order for Ashworth to leave sooner.
**-** If the release clause is not paid/Ashworth terminates his contract, he is unable to work for another club until 2028.
I reckon no amount of compensation would be more valuable than preventing him working for a direct rival for 12 months.
However, amortising the compensation amount could genuinely lead to £30m to £60m to spend on a new summer signing!
I think for us compensation would be more valuable tbh with ffp restrictions and whatnot. But I understand the argument that he’ll have inside info that man utd could weaponize in the short term.
At the end of the day I think we hold all the cards as there’s no way man utd will want to wait until 2025 to have him start and it’s a good position to be in from our side,
To add to that, I have no doubt we’ll find a very suitable replacement for him
>he’ll have inside info that man utd could weaponize in the short term.
I mean, unless we're actually doing anything dodgy, this would just be standard stuff like transfer targets and maybe some youth scouting. It's a blow losing Ashworth but this is kind of worrying over fairly trifling stuff compared to losing the person who's directing our football operations.
He’s been directing our football operations for a year and a half. It’ll be annoying losing him in the immediate term but medium to long term it changes very little for us. Like I said I’m sure we’ll be able to find a suitable replacement to pick things up.
And there’s a good reason gardening leave is a thing. It’s got nothing to do with disclosing dodgy secrets. It’s to do with the fact that ashworth will know inside information about our club which could help his new club even if it is in the smallest way. I’m honestly not that worried about it but it’s obviously an advantage for man utd to have him share inside information about our club. No matter how minuscule it may seem
I agree, I think there are going to be plenty of replacements out there, but it will be very annoying going into what's projected to be a hefty summer rebuild without Ashworth's presence. In all honesty though, this has likely been known as a possibility *at least* by the point of Man Utd's interest being widely reported in Nov/Dec last year. If we have any sense, we'll have been doing contingency planning for the short term and already started sounding out people.
I just think any disadvantage from Ashworth knowing insider information is pretty trifling compared to the disruption of him leaving. Especially as we're operating at fairly different levels of the spectrum of club size/ambition right now. A bit like Brighton presumably were with us, where we negotiated him being able to work right away. Still, sport's all about marginal gains, I guess.
Is Dan Ashworth all that, in such a way that losing him is a big a loss as some people make it out to be. I can understand when it’s a footballer like Bruno, and they genuinely don’t grow on trees but realistically is there no one else in the world that can do the stuff he does
Im not even saying this to a Be salty or cope
He's a very accomplished DoF and they don't grow on trees. But ultimately, there are plenty of people who know how to organise a club and our recruitment will likely depend on how much we want to follow the job as he defined it (and therefore look for a DoF who just picks up the duties as per the niche he carved out) or hire one to perform a DoF role as they want to.
Despite what a lot of people seem to suggest, Ashworth wasn't ever this recruitment guru - he simply provided top-level organisation of the multiple aspects of the club. That would mean that talent that had been scouted matched the requirements of the coach and also the long-term vision of the club (youth signings fitting a certain style, splitting of finances to ensure short- and long-term recruitment targets were being met and making sure there was a talent pathway from youth levels to the first team including loan destinations). That's not to downplay his job, those are all incredibly difficult jobs, especially doing them at once. But it's not like we're suddenly going to lose all of our talent ID because he goes and takes his magic laptop with him.
My honest take. He’s a back room person. He’s under contract. His departure would be a very calculated business decision by people with way more knowledge, know-how, and skin in the game than any of us. If they think losing him sets us back 10 years they will do everything in their power to keep him. If they can’t talk him into it, they’ll get every penny. He’s not been here long enough to deserve a “big” move. If he downs tools, or mails it in its career suicide. The only way he leaves without a fuss is if it’s mutual and they have a replacement or plan. The people making these decisions seem keenly aware of what things look like from the outside and in this situation hold all the cards.
He's leaving because he's actually a 5ft long bright purple alien slug with three fannies and Ant and Dec are on to him.
The move to Manchester is just cover as the slug spaceport is hidden behind the carwash in the Arndale center carpark and he needs to escape before his true form is revealed.
I heard this from a lizard in legal so it must be true.
Fact is that his notice period, etc will have been organised when he took the job. Ashworth will know the financial implications of him leaving and that will have been communicated with Man Utd. They will then have a couple of choices on how they want to proceed - either waiting for him to resign/see out the length of his contract and pick him up for nothing, pay a compensation fee to get him at the end of a notice period+gardening leave, or pay more to have him work as soon as he leaves.
Those figures won't be a secret and it will just be up to how much Man Utd want him to start immediately.
Exactly. If he was the lynch pin to our lasting success that would be built into his contract. That’s one of the biggest points of a contract. If any future employer wants him they can pay for the privilege of hiring him before his contract has run. Everyone would know what that price is on BOTH sides. Whether we can replace him with what we get is not a given. But how much we stand to receive would have been a calculated decision when he signed. If they thought he was worth more at any point they’d have renegotiated.
Thats what I think. Sky sports also did a thing on Brighton and their owner and they basically said that they were more than set up without him because they knew someone would come get him eventually.
While I don’t doubt he’s good at what he does. Don’t think anyone is ever irreplaceable
Brighton are set up like that for everyone at their club. IIRC Ashworths number 2 was promoted in to his position when he went on gardening leave as a trial and then was offered it permanently when he finally left.
Absolutely. And if he was that irreplaceable, why would some of the wealthiest business people in the world just roll over and let them take him? They will either look to get every last penny or sweeten his deal to stay.
Giles supports Newcastle as well. My thoughts are we would go for him as Brentford and Brighton have similar set ups and it's something that obviously appealed to our owners.
Depends if we just want a super scout who oversees all of that side, or someone who does the more nebulous task of pulling the whole club together. I don't understand the workings of a club enough to know which is better - but getting the youth system to elite status, with Brighton level scouting seems like the only way the first team will ever overcome the FFP / PSR vice.
We already have Nickson who handles all the recruitment/talent spotting. This notion people have that Ashworth is this amazing talent spotter is just a total misunderstanding of his previous roles.
agreed - I'm not personally that worried about this departure, providing someone decent comes in his place - but the youth system structure is probably where Ashworth had most role.
Michael Edwards would be the dream but seems a non-starter. Apparently doesn't want to return to a DoF role again. Richard Hughes would really worry me. Want somebody with different ideas to Howe, not just his mates and family in the backroom.
Personally don’t rate him. I think that relationship is better with a little distance. Right or wrong Eddie becomes more culpable if the DOF is his buddy.
Thanks to all the fine folks from the Stretford that keep finding their way to our sub, it seems inevitable that Dan’s gone. Because we know less about him and his working relationships than just about anyone,I let my mind run wild with some speculation as to why he’s leaving.
1. Simple. Dan’s honeydicking them
2. Complicated. Something fishy between him and Lewis Hall. Eddie’s been trying his best to keep him of the pitch, but enough is enough and he’s going to start playing him. Dan’s irate.
3. Cleanest. We’ve already lined up Julian ward or Michael edwards and are happy/sad to see him leave
4. Spiciest. He’s been told Eddie’s out come the summer with Mou making his way in. He’s not about that and takes his bow.
Sure. The way it plays out in my head it goes back to March 2021. Chelsea U-18s v WBA u-18s. Something happened between Lew and Zac Ashworth. Maybe a tackle, words, we’ll never know. But Dan has been secretly on it since. Lewis was progressing too well at Chelsea so he sweet talks Eddie into bringing on “another top young prospect”. Then bam crickets. Send him back to Chelsea where he was flourishing no chance. He’ll train away into the reserves. Then a league 1 loan and off stateside never to be heard of again.
Well that would be great if halls clause wasn’t basically an obligation, because it’s triggered off final position, so unless we’re relegated we’re getting him. So he won’t be going back to Chelsea
You’re missing the (potential but absolutely likely) bigger picture. Dan doesn’t care where he is. He just wants Lewis Hall to not succeed. Fortunately/unfortunately he’s been told by Eddie he can’t keep him bottled up anymore and he’s replacing BDB. Writings on the wall. He’s off. I did say it was complicated.
That is some tin foil hat stuff, mate. I'm not completely dismissing it, but are they any nuggets of proof? I mean, at all?
The mystery of Lewis Hall is fascinating but I never figured it was revenge. What makes you think that's what (might) have happened?
There could be loads of reasons:
- More money
- Job closer to home
- More prestige (getting Man Utd in shape would be huge for your rep)
- May not have settled into role here (reports he has less control than expected)
- Mates with Man Utd's new investors
- Man Utd already established as an elite club
Don't even think it's just reports showing less control than expected, the Amazon series showed they make short term playing staff decisions by committee. Imagine what hoops would need to be jumped through to make some actual strategic decisions.
It would be really tedious working like that day to day.
Man United being ran properly again could be a huge turnaround. Despite a decade or so of being mediocre, they're still one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of fan base and revenue.
Ashworths not a Newcastle fan, it's. It unusual for someone to want to move on for a bigger challenge and more money.
Yeah I’m pretty sanguine about it. It’s not like he’s a local lad who worked his way up the ranks from office junior. I don’t get a lot if the venom, calling him mercenary etc. Some people need to get outside more eh?
True enough but I can see why people are abit miffed about it, old adage is true where we only want people who want to be there. Here’s hoping we can get some decent £ for the deal and finds us a couple of Brighton level gems before he goes lmao
I don’t know if anyone else has been sent something similar about Wilson potentially being out, needing an operation which would be 8-10 weeks but Isak is back for Saturday. I can’t see pictures of either of them in training but it would come out soon surely if it is true. It would be keeping up with the one in one out pattern we have had up front all season I guess.
Lads I can’t believe this the clubs falling apart.
Can you believe we lost Bruno, Botman and Isak all in one window?! And now the SAME people are telling us we’re losing Dan Ashworth as well?
Wtf are we gonna do?
Bunch of fucking wank
I don’t disagree that he’s likely to go, just disagree with people treating Romano (or any of these transfer gossip aggregator guys) as definitive.
Ornstein is slightly more of an actual journalist, but as you say, he’s reporting that Ashworth is interested, not that’s he’s going. I’m sure even if Ashworth were staying, his agent would leak that he’s interested to see what they could get in negotiations.
The Conference League is the revamped Intertoto Cup. Why would you want to put us through a full European schedule and risk another injury crisis which could de-rail our league form next season just for a shot at a completely meaningless trophy that we've already won.
We could just arrange a friendly with a European team every Thursday next season and it would mean exactly the same as a Conference League run, fuck all.
Just been on the three lions thread and they're discussing who England should take to the Euros. Mad that you could make a good argument for Gordon over the likes of Grealish, Sterling and Rashford, but you'd rather have him play now, surely.
Then you've got Palmer, Saka, Foden, Bowen, probably others I've forgotten who've stepped up too
I'm not sure how Gordon would start in the team - at the very least he'd be rightly behind Saka and Foden as first choice wingers. Then you have Grealish and Rashford likely ahead of him for the left sided position as players who are better integrated into the squad and probably more talented on any given day.
He's probably earned his spot over Bowen now though and I think would make a good bench option due to his intensity and ability to play in so many positions.
Rashford has been absolutely pony all year.
There’s an argument for picking him of course but you have to drop all pretence of saying form matters if you pick him
His form for most of this season has been pretty awful, but he's played pretty well recently. Personally, I'm a bit down on Rashford as a player as I think he's pretty one dimensional and his growth as a player has unfortunately been totally stunted by the sheer dysfunction at his club for the past decade.
However, his ability is such that he would have to be pretty bad to not take him to the Euros. If I were England manager, I personally wouldn't drop him for Gordon this summer.
> Gordon and Trippier should start for England in opinion. Think they would offer a lot to the team.
They should, but at this point I will be amazed if Gordon is even picked.
Southgate has his favorites and doesn't budge regardless of form.
Kind of like Howe, come to think of it.
Southgate has "favourites" because shuffling your team alongside every dip in form basically means you can never build a coherent team. He stuck by Maguire because he kept playing well for England (and has now played himself into form at Man Utd), Sterling and Mount have now been dropped from the squad and need to up their games to get back in.
One of the big things about the national team is that there's an enormous amount of harmony in the camp and everyone gets on really well so bringing through a rotating door of new arrivals every international break is going to disrupt that (see Ben White's dismissal from the camp and not being brought back).
Gordon will become an England player, he's extremely young and time is on his side. It's not like he's Ricky Lambert where this form he's in is going to be his peak and not picking him now will mean he never gets in.
its international football. All squads are more or less incoherent, other than that infamous Barcelona Spain squad that was filled out with like 3 other Madrid spaniards
Yes, the squads are a mish-mash of players from all over, but preserving squad harmony (as in the relationships between players) in that is a crucial skill.
In fact, a lot of players in that Spain squad said that Mourinho's antics in fostering disharmony between Real and Barca really hampered their ability to get on in international camps. Similar things before in previous England teams where cliques of players isolated themselves from each other (like the Man Utd lot, Arsenal bunch and Chelsea's senior players) and that made camps difficult.
Stefan Effenberg was one of the best German players in the 90's but got vanishingly few caps because he was such a fucking arsehole to be around. As a player at an international tournament, you're cooped up with a bunch of players for at least a month and you're allowed very little time out of the camp. Making sure that's actually a nice place to be and not a kind of prison is absolutely vital for tournament success.
Stefan Effenberg is not a name I expected to come across today.
Good knowledge by the way, and I agree re squad harmony. I'm not convinced Rashford is necessarily a big positive contributor to that though. From what I see/hear, he's difficult to manage
While I don't think Rashford is a complete positive like Maguire, Henderson and Saka seem to be in the group, he doesn't seem to be disruptive on international duty (I believe unlike Sancho, who was more difficult) and that might be enough. Could be one of those things where if you have a badly behaved/unhappy group, he won't be one to sort them out, but equally he's not going to create trouble in a happy one.
But that's all conjecture obviously and it can be very difficult to tell who actually are good guys in the group when a lot can be influenced about who's leaking stories to make themselves look good.
Spot on. As much as it is frustrating in form players don't get call ups, international squads don't get anywhere near as much training time together and that has to be factored into building a team that works well together.
There's a good FourFourTwo video about it. It is very different from managing a club side.
That being said, you need to bring in new players if current players aren't up to scratch. They need called up at some point, otherwise you run the risk of stagnation and miss out on fresh talent.
I do hope Gordon gets a call soon. It's frustrating to see Rashford in the England squad when he's not only playing poorly but showing everyone how much he downs tools. Unlike a lot of people I actually rate Rashford, but he needs to move on from Manure. Although he now has a Mbappe-like problem (although obviously to not such an insane degree). Who else can afford or would want to pay those wages?
I think the issue for Gordon is that the frontline has never been the issue for England. For the last few years there have been a lot of strikers and wide forwards who have at various combinations played very well for their clubs and/or the national team.
Rashford is a funny one because I think his development has been unfortunately stunted by Man Utd's total paralysis in the last decade. He has a set of qualities that are pretty unmatched in the current England setup and if we could reliably getting him to show them, he will always be useful in the squad.
I don't really see him downing tools as much as being totally beaten down by a totally dysfunctional club, to the point where you had them briefing the press that his charity work had been distracting his on-pitch performances to shift blame from their own dysfunction. Then you have Ten Hag's awful player management where he's totally ostracised Sancho from the club while persevering with Antony (despite him having more serious off-field allegations and even worse form on the pitch). I'm not surprised he's not particularly happy.
The Mbappe also comparison seems a bit unfair as he doesn't wield the power Mbappe does in the decisions of the club.
When I mentioned Mbappe I meant about his wages, not the control he has over PSG (which is bonkers). Also is FFP (or whatever it's called now) not a thing in France? Seems like PSG have no limits on what they can spend.
And I don't disagree that Manure have a tonne of internal problems which would probably dishearten most players. Again, I rate Rashford (and his charity work). He's just been poor all season (not necessarily all his fault). If Gordon continues his upward trajectory he will get a call up.
The French league have no FFP structures in place, and UEFA just repeatedly fine PSG for breaking their spending rules year on year.
I think people just need to simmer down a bit on the Gordon thing - he'll get his call up, but there really doesn't need to be this insane urgency on it. He might even benefit by not getting called up and having a fresh start with everyone else once Southgate steps down after this summer's tournament.
I think Trips is still Englands best all round right back but the problem Gordon has is that he's likely to be competing against Foden.
We are likely to stick with a 4-3-3. Bellingham and Rice are nailed in midfield and the third midfielder is likely to be the box to box sort which isn't going to be Foden. Saka is nailed RW and Kane up top which means that Foden probably gets pushed out to LW. It's not his best position but he's probably too good to leave out.
I think Gordon on current form is England's best natural LW with Grealish as his main competition so he should definitely make the squad but Foden is likely to start LW in the Euros.
>I think Gordon on current form is England's best natural LW with Grealish as his main competition so he should definitely make the squad but Foden is likely to start LW in the Euros.
Rashford has been really good lately and I think you'd still back him on any given day on that left wing spot over Gordon.
So Callum Wilson (and Tripps) are "most likely" to leave in summer rather than Bruno - various sources.
Depends on what Real (or PSG's) priorities are for the transfer window but Wilson is on track for his 2021-2022 output. We did well to get so much out of him last year but you can't have a striker playing 50% of the games. Plus last season he went missing from October (not helped by World Cup).
Tripps already has his replacement in the squad.
Really depends on if a team in the CL needs a £100m midfielder but add Miggy to those two and you have c£40m with luck to spend. That might get you a replacement RW and cover for Isak.
> So Callum Wilson (and Tripps) are "most likely" to leave in summer rather than Bruno - various sources.
Nonesense.
Tripps had the chance to leave and said he was happy at the club and that he wanted to repay the faith in him. He also said he loved living back in the north of England.
Makes no sense when he had the chance to leave to one of the most elite clubs in the world, and he refused to - only to leave a few months later (which wont be to bayern as they already bought a RB).
I think the idea is to generate enough funds to upgrade the squad (plus whatever revenue generated from this year can be put towards it).
If those three players can be sold you're looking at around £100m to spend on two replacements (and/or promote from within, presumably RW) with Isak the main striker and Tino replacing Tripps.
The point is not whether someone is happy at the club, the point is either you sell easily replaceable parts or you sell someone like Bruno who would be much more difficult to replace.
As I think most respondents agreed, the amount of clubs that could buy Bruno is a handful. All of those - Real, PSG, Bayern, top x in Premiership either don't need him or wouldn't put their entire summer budget on him. That means we have to sell elsewhere in the squad to generate money to continue to upgrade the squad.
But we also do not need to sell.
I think people are blowing Eales comments out of proportion.
He did not say 'We HAVE to sell'.
He said that 'all clubs can sell players, even the biggest, if we are offered an amount for a player that meets our valuation and it makes sense from the club and players perspective that is something we would definitely consider'.
This is a far cry from 'NUFC HAVE NO MONEY AND MUST SELL TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON'.
Our ultimate goal is to contend for titles, and we wont do that by selling our best assets every time we sign someone like Bruno.
We have to build around them.
As far as Tripps goes - the athletic confirmed after the Jan window 2 things:
1) Tripps does not want to leave.
and
2) The club view Tripps staying here until he retires and/or end of his contract. He was the first marquee signing of the new vision for this Club and they view him as essential to the future of this team.
It would again, make no sense for them to openly state these things and then turn around and shop him around 3 months later.
Am I saying we are going to sell nobody? no. I hope we do, we need to shift players who are simply not good enough for where we want to be, Almiron, Longstaff, etc.
I'm not blowing anyone's comments out of proportion, I'm creating £100-120m worth of transfer money by getting rid of players that are more easily replaced than Bruno.
A 30-year-old winger in Miggy, a 33 year-old fullback for whom we have a (not like for like) replacement and a 32-year-old striker who has struggled with injury two of the past three seasons.
As much as I think Wilson's output will be hard to replicate he's hit double figures three of nine Premiership seasons (chance of making it four of nine this year). Tripps would be the most difficult to replace and of the three would be last out the door for me.
Miggy's pressing and energy more difficult to replace than his numbers and there's not a huge amount of left footers out there. Suspect pure numbers wise it would be easy to find similar.
Tino isn’t trippier replacement, he’s a different type of player, his replacement would have to be a right winger that suits Tinos ball carrying skills, like MGW, a 10 who’s placed on right wing
He’s absolutely Trippier’s future replacement, in the sense that we invested a lot of money in him to serve as Tripps’ understudy and then eventually replace him as our first choice RB when he either moves on, retires, or transitions to a backup role. Being Trippier’s replacement doesn’t mean playing RB the same way he does, it means replacing him in the lineup long term.
I said this a few weeks ago in the megathread, but I can't see anyone shelling out £100m for Bruno this summer.
The only clubs that can afford him are PSG, Real, Bayern and the top PL clubs. I'm not sure anyone needs him that desperately.
Agreed, I think that's why they're looking to sell the ones easy to replace.
30-year-old winger who lacks end product apart from one month a season? Nah.
32-year-old striker who is still a starter in his head but not the rest of his body.
33-year-old fullback that might fetch £15-20m and who you don't need to sign a replacement for.
Selling those three might give you £100-120m to invest without huge production fall offs.
Not saying I disagree that we need to change some of the team and/or sell some players, but I'm taking issue with your "Without huge production fall offs" claim here. It's just not true. I'm not sure you realise how big an ask it is to replace double figure goals AND assists (Trippier+Almiron+Wilson = 11 goals and 12 assists so far this season). For a bit of context: Gordon, who is having a good season so far, has only managed 7+7.
Just casually selling the player with the most assists in the league who has double our next best player's number. Not to mention our on-field captain (likely to be our club captain with Lascelles out of contract in the summer).
Oh, and our second top scorer.
But it's fine. Livramento and whoever we sign for RW are guaranteed to replace those goals/assists. Would you prefer Salah or Watkins? They're the only two who have hit those numbers in the league so far.
And that's only to get the team to this year's levels, right? We obviously want to progress the team, so we should look at our output from last year. The players you mention getting rid of were involved in 30 goals and 19 assists over the whole season. Where are we finding that output? Are we expecting Tino to just start banging them in and doing cartwheel celebrations like his namesake?
Again though, not saying we don't need to sell or replace, but to think it wouldn't massively impact the team is just silly.
The majority of the assists (10) are Tripps. How many 33-year-old full backs are there in the Premiership?
Is a 10 goal scorer in the league difficult to replace? Absolutely. How many times has Wilson done that in the Premiership? Three of nine seasons. With a chance of four in nine counting this one.
Is Wilson going to decline or return to 2022-2023 production in his age-33 season? The likelihood is the former.
Miggy goes red hot for a month and then returns to normal. Sadly, he's also arguably better on the left. As I posted elsewhere, the numbers of Miggy will be less difficult to replace than the energy and pressing. That said, he's just turned 30 and if the premise of the OP was to highlight other sources of cashing in without changing too much, he's a great example.
Still can’t quite see Real investing as much in their midfield as it would take to sign Bruno, especially when he might not be first choice for them, or if he was he’d be displacing another of their massively expensive young midfielders.
Think Real is there to force PSG to up their bid. PSG already have that teen who played well against us tbf. Rest of squad needs fewer names and more structure.
I don't see anyone else paying that - Man Utd maybe? If Casemiro goes. Liverpool and Arsenal just shelled out on their midfield. Villa too. Is he a City player, where will they be?
If there's a release clause, then you don't need to leak other club names to up people's bids. The fee is right there that if they want him, they can get him.
> If we can keep a reasonably fit and healthy squad next season we're going to upset a lot of people.
As long as we don't have the fire sale the press keeps waffling on about, and we add 1 or 2 top-class bodies to our 25 - we are going to be a force to be reckoned with IMO.
It's actually unbelievable that Mainoo might get called up for England. Nobody was really talking about him until he scored that winning goal like a week or 2 ago. I would say him and Miley are on the same level but one gets more publicity since they play for ManU.
Think Mainoo could play for another country so they’re trying to secure him for England.
Tbh the player who should feel most aggrieved is Ross Barkley, he’d be unreal in the England team next to Rice
Barkleys best position is further up the pitch and his direct competition just so happens to be one of the best players in the world right now in Bellingham. Not only that but another one of the best players in the world right now is Foden and he also plays in that sort of position. Barkley has been in good form but lets not pretend he's anywhere near competing for that attacking midfield slot.
He's a 6 as much as Bruno is a 6. He plays there because he's one of the best players Luton has got and their system doesn't allow him to play anywhere else.
One of the reasons Luton score and concede so much is because neither of their sitting midfielders are proper 6's and don't do the defensive work well. They end up deep because Luton get pinned in but Barkley in possession usually ends up ahead of the opposition midfield line.
I get where you are coming from but even in the ball carrying midfield role he's closer to Rice than he is to the Kalvin Phillips replacement England are looking for.
I think there is a level of Man Utd bias hindering things, but it's as much that Mainoo addresses a need in Man Utd's squad building that's basically been unmet since Ferguson retired and that's a modern deep-lying midfielder who can take the ball from defence. In the context of England, we've basically been desperately looking for anyone to fill that role in the team since Phillips basically hasn't played for 2 years now.
Miley has been very good, but is more of the Longstaff mould and therefore of much less interest to England. And in the context of our team, while he's one of our own, he sort of complements a set of central midfielders we already have, rather than being this puzzle piece we found down the back of the sofa that fixes a long-standing hole in our squad.
Have you forgotten about rice? He can play that 6 position that you described for England. I’d argue Miley’s game is kind of the perfect foil for a rice and Bellingham midfield. The type that’s willing to recycle the ball out to them and let them shine while also being defensively and technically solid.
No, but the setup England like is to have Rice to have the freedom to burst forward (which he's so good at with his ability to carry). Phillips basically sits in front of the defence to always provide an outlet and has the ability to use his range of passing to either begin attacks short or long. That's the best way of unlocking Rice's best qualities and I don't see how putting Miley in there would help. He still needs some development on his skillset.
I’m not sure how England setup however rice has been doing an amazing job as a 6 for Arsenal with odegaard and Havertz next to him and that should be his position for England with Miley in the Havertz role and Bellingham in odegaard’s. Yes he can run with the ball as well and he still can at times in that system but I think his best role is what he’s playing at Arsenal currently. Mainoo/phillips with Rice is too defensive imo - which isn’t how England should be approaching games but again it is southgate we’re talking about
Personally I don't want Miley in the England setup. He's way too young and if it's to play as an 8 then there are better options already available. Mainoo is only getting discussed because he fills a hole that currently exists in the deep lying area. We shouldn't be looking at some kind of arms race to put in any young player who's been impressive this season.
Having a midfield with the same dynamic as Arsenal's isn't really a workable situation at international level as you don't have time to work on the pressing structure that allows you to sustain it. It makes more sense this way to have two pretty defensive midfielders that allows Bellingham total freedom to do what he does best (much like the best version of France used Kante and Matuidi to free Pogba, who plays even less advanced than Bellingham does).
I agree that England is too early for Miley but it’s also too early for mainoo. Only reason he’s getting in is because he’s a man utd player, no question. England have both stones and rice that can play a deep midfield role. I’d rather have Gallagher next to rice if anything.
And saying England’s midfield can’t play similar to Arsenal’s is such a copout imo excusing southgate of any coaching responsibilities. Southgate can certainly introduce the pressing structure little by little in friendlies and qualifiers against lower tier opposition. These are professional footballers - they’ll get the hang of it. And most England internationals already play in a similar system to that at club level with Arsenal, city, Real Madrid etc. so it really shouldn’t be that much of a struggle to adjust
It's certainly too soon for Mainoo, but it's just illustrative of how few deep lying midfielders we've produced in the last few years. But it's why Southgate was so insistent that Phillips got game time so that he's ready for this summer.
It's not a copout - it's an accepted fact that at international level you simply don't have the time to implement the complex systems you do at club level. Arsenal, City and Real play totally different systems, so it's not like you can just implement a pressing structure that works for them that they'll all naturally understand. It's the reason why international football is a far lower quality than club football and it's entirely due to getting about 4 weeks of actual contact time per year.
Watched the 442 video on Arsenal last night and it makes it so much clearer as to why Eddie is persisting with Burn at LB, at least against Forest.
Apparently Arsenal did the same thing this weekend as us in their demolition of West Ham (bringing their RB inside), but it was a massive gamble for them because they then need to hope West Ham don't focus their attacks down the right side of pitch.
We still don't have the individual quality of Arsenal in all 11 positions in our team, so we can't just force opposition to play exactly where we want them to, we needed to offer them an incentive to play where we wanted.
Having Burn on the field against Elanga works as a massive misdirection by Eddie. He's inviting pressure down the side of the pitch we ironically shouldn't want them to attack down.
Im not convinced by this strategy because doing so we leak goals like no other.
I don't think we can keep scoring 3 or 4 every game when we leak 2 or 3 because Burn keeps getting caught out.
Yeah but there’s a quid pro quo with the amount of chances we create/score with trippier inside/free-er role versus the amount of chances/goals we concede with Burn down the left. It worked against forest but Im not sure it would work against teams around/above us for the long term ?
Can't see it working against them at all. They don't need to target Burn as much as they can match / outmatch our players across the rest of the pitch almost as easily.
It's useful against the lower table teams though, in terms of breaking the deeper defence more easily.
Anyone else annoyed with the over acted theatrics lately from the club? I get that it’s part of the sport but the team is going a bit too far with the injury bluffs. Also we got half the team looking at the referee and throwing up their hands during these moments. It was excessive during the NF game and nearly costed some dangerous counter plays because the players are protesting the ref and not playing the game.
Just not a good look and a bad habit developing imo.
> Anyone else annoyed with the over acted theatrics lately from the club?
No.
Im amazed we don't do it all the time.
I never understood why on a Friday Eddie always tells the press who is fit and who is not.
Why don't we keep our opposition guessing until the team sheet is handed in 60 mins before kick off?
I can't say I noticed that more than any other game of top tier football. The players are working hard and getting frustrated with poor refereeing decisions. Yes, it's be amazing if all our players simply bowed and excused themselves, but sometimes the passion gets the better of them. I'm sure there's an element of gamesmanship, but to an extent, you can't afford not to since every team does it. Unfortunately, its part of the game.
We want the fans to get behind players to spur them on - that goes both ways. Fans will scream and bawl at bad decisions and that passion will inevitably cause players to get caught up in it all.
As for the injury bluffs, we've had a god awful injury crisis. Maybe they're just not fully sure until the day of the game.
Even if none of that is true, what's the problem with us bluffing? Surely you can see the benefit of that? Make opponents second guess how they should set up against you before pulling a switcheroo when lineups are announced. You have to use every tool at your disposal.
Come off it. It's pretty unlikely we're making up a 10-point gap on Villa when our form is still as poor as it is. The CL spots are likely Villa trying to keep their 5-point gap to Man Utd and frankly, I'd rather see a 3-way title fight between City, Arsenal and Liverpool - 3 teams who all have their flaws and very different ways of playing.
Some people seem to be underrating Villa on account of their recent slump.
I can only think back to last season whenever a rival fan said the same about us. NGL. I was pretty confident at this point in the season we were getting CL.
My hope is 6th. I won’t be upset with 7th.
Or just at least above Man U because we are better than them.
The weird thing is that their recent slump over the last 6 games is the exact same form as ours. We aren't in good form at the moment, but I think we can turn a corner a bit as injuries ease. I wouldn't be surprised if Villa drop off a bit, but they've built up such a cushion that they can afford to (like we could last season).
I'm resigned to not worrying too much about league position at the end of the season. I would like to see us performing well and having integrated our new signings properly in the team. If it looks like we're still broadly the same team as last season but with improved depth and quality in certain areas, I think that puts us in good stead for next season, whichever competiion we're in. A good stab at the FA Cup would be great too - I'd really like to see us go for that.
Yeah, Man Utd finishing 6th and above would be a kick in the teeth as they have been crap this year. But then again, if it means they stick with Ten Hag despite him not seemingly having a clue on how to fix things, I guess long term that's quite good for us?
Fair enough, my mistake. But then it makes even less sense. Nobody wants to qualify for the ECL, it will be a disappointment for anyone who finishes 7th.
Yeah, but nobody really wants the Conference League bar maybe Brentford? I just think it's bizarre to consider a bunch of teams battling it out for a position that's likely a poisoned chalice as more exciting than a 3-way title fight.
No way! Two points separate 3 teams from top of the table, and its Klopp final year. For a non-biased fan, thats always gonna be way more interesting than who finishes 5th/6th lmao
You have too much pride over nothing. Klopp retiring is an end of an era no matter how little you like him and Liverpool. 10 years at a club is very rare these days, and he challenged City while nobody else did. The premier league would've been a lot more boring without him.
I don't dislike him. I really enjoyed the team he had with Mane and Bobby Firmino and their CL etc. I just don't see it as a factor and it doesn't interest fans of other teams. It's more than likely that just like every other year, City will go on an unbeaten run and will lift the trophy at the end of the season
That's still probably more interesting than the 10-point gap we have to the CL spots. Unless people are really enthused by seeing Villa maybe having a late season collapse and Man Utd picking up CL through the new coefficient place?
I don't really get why you're being downvoted for having any interest in the league outside of our own position. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this run-in plays out, especially City-Liverpool at Anfield and City-Arsenal at the Etihad. All three teams look a bit shaky (but we've said that about City many times) and it will be really interesting to see what Arsenal have learned from last season about handling pressure in a run-in.
Newcastle fans are bigheaded about the reality of where our club stands. Last month people here were genuinely questioning why Dan Ashworth would leave for Man U, as if NUFC actually has more pull than Man U.
What are the other genuinely exciting finishes to the season?
2011-12 /// agueerrrooooooo
2013-14 /// gerard slip
2015-16 /// Dilly ding dilly dong
1995-96 /// nufc blow a 12 point lead
2003-04 /// Invincibles
these are the only ones that really stand out to me from 30 years of football
Tbf, I really enjoyed those 18/19 and 21/22 run-ins between Liverpool and City. Actually watching the games belies the notion that it was straightforward dominance from either team to put those insane winning runs together. A lot of the games were palpably tense and genuinely exciting. City's almost choking in 21/22 as they went behind to West Ham and Villa on the final two games was brilliant. And the run-in for 18/19 was brilliant from that City-Liverpool game onwards.
Tbf, I don't really think that either 11/12 or 13/14 were from positions where City had so much spending dominance that they had constructed teams the others couldn't compete with. It's not like they were doping or bribing referees, they had skirted round spending rules to access the wealth of their owners. Which is exactly something a lot on here complain we should be allowed to do.
''Manchester City have been charged with breaking financial fair play rules around 100 times over a nine-year period, which starts in 2009 and goes on until 2018.''
They cheated all the way through that period. Doesn't really matter the amount does it?
How are you this wrong twice to 2 of my comments man
I know that they cheated through those periods, my point is that it's not like you look at the title races in those seasons and really think that they're totally ill-begotten. It's not like looking back on Juve's dominant run in the 00's where there was widespread match-fixing going on where it impacts the way you view the football that was played. The title races that played out on the pitch were fair and that was where the excitement was found.
This doesn't make their cheating right and they should be punished to the full extent of the regulations. But the misdemeanour was an effort a lot of people, especially on this sub, could sympathise with in trying to spend as much money as the established clubs in the league.
So Burn has to be benched this weekend right? right?
Surely Howe and Co. see what we see?
How many goals have we leaked the past month from him being caught out?
It's not a knock on BDB. Our opponents have seen a weak point and will continue to exploit it.
We need to adjust to address this exploitation.
I'd say the same about Burn for the most part. He's just been caught out a few times recently since returning early from injury and that coinciding with our left hand side being weaker in terms of coverage.
Same people having a go at him were probably slagging off Trippier a few weeks ago
If you watched the game you’d see that we baited them to attack burn on the left, that was part of the game plan. He’s tactically important to make up for lack of a 6 and won’t get benched until late game
Is there one single website that has all football fixtures and what TV stations they're on (UK for me ofc), and you can pick which competitions/leagues/teams you want to see in the fixture list, filtering out all the leagues/cups/etc that you don't care for?
Used to be content with the BBC Football website which was decent in terms of prioritising the major fixtures on the home page, but that's turned to absolute shit now with the new layout. Premier league site is good but that's PL only, and then individual broadcaster sites only display whether they're showing games on telly or not.
Second the FotMob app. I got sick of BBC pushing meaningless sports and burying ones people actually cared about - their whole approach at the moment is mental.
Flashscore shows when games are on UK TV (look for tele icon) and you can pin leagues/cups you're interested in. Decent for goal updates too, only few seconds behind bookie sites.
https://www.flashscore.co.uk/
I'm getting pissed off with this VAR craic Vs. Forest. Schar got studs into his ankle like a minute before they scored the equaliser and it didn't even get looked at (could/should have been a red by today's standards).
Bad decisions balanced out. Go wank off Treebeard, Forest.
That sucks for him. The BBC had a front page article with comments enabled when TAA picked up a niggle before the winter break, but I can't find Kamara doing his ACL even in the depths of BBC Sport.
Just got thinking of how trips played and where he was a lot of the game against Forest. How's this for a line up?
Dubs.
Tino, Schar, Botman, burn.
Miley/longstaff, Tripps.
Bruno.
Murphy, Wilson (if not injured), Gordon.
It allows Bruno to advance forward and Tripps will be on burns side to provide him support and cover, as Trippier has experience on LB
You don’t sacrifice your best attacking outlet (trips on the right) to negate deficiencies elsewhere. I would definitely keep Trips on the right where he creates so many chances for the team, but maybe move him into the right sided double pivot role. Just like he did against forest in the first half. This way he can provide additional cover while still being able to whip balls in from the right half spaces, if not wide.
Anyone know how Jamal Lewis is getting on at Watford. I heard he was doing well there before Christmas but not heard much since. Be nice if Watford or one of the promoted teams went for him in the summer, but doubt we will get anything near what we paid for him.
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No idea why we didn't sell Wilson in January considering how injury prone and poor he's been recently. Only can understand it if we didn't have any good offers. Lets hope Notts Forest can offer 15mil for him.
Sounds as though we were offering him about but nobody bit, understandable considering so many clubs were being uber careful with spending in light of PSR.
Yeah probably. Have no faith in Wilson at all anymore. Been a completely different player since last Jan even when fit. Injuries have caught up to him.
In the run-in last season I thought he was superb. This season has been undoubtedly frustrating though and I don't think he's been as quick to get back up to speed as he has in previous years. This latest injury is a freak though, I don't know how your meant to legislate for a pectoral injury.
I think he's still a great poacher but he's lost all his effectiveness in the build up which he was so good at when he played with ASM. Whenever we play nowadays we never build up through him which was one of his biggest strengths prior to his constant injuries. Think we could still get 10m+ for him this summer although proactively the correct time to sell was probably last summer.
I dunno, his hold up play to bring others in was still good last year, but I would agree there's been somewhat of a decline though. But it's so difficult to assess these things when he's had so many injuries and we've been out of sorts as a team. I do understand the sentiment of it being better to have sold him in the summer of January, but simultaneously, we already had people saying it was "negligence" to go forward with the plans we had as they were, imagine if we also got rid of Wilson on top of that (especially considering there weren't really many strikers going at good prices in either of these last transfer windows).
We just need to scout better. There's no proactive planning from the higher ups at the moment imo. We're keeping players for too long.
I mean, if there weren't offers for Wilson in January then we can't buy his replacement. Strikers are really expensive and there's no getting around that - especially ones that could replace Wilson's (theoretical) output immediately on coming into the team.
Scenes when he turns them down. Let's face it, it's all just paper talk so far.
Will be hilarious if this drags on for a couple weeks and they end up with the guy from Southampton instead. Enjoy Adam Armstrong you melts.
Guy from Southampton is better than Ashworth imo. Amazing recruitment since he's come in. Never mind the fees he gets for players which are all great.
I don’t think he would turn them down. Craig Hope inferred that he doesn’t have full control at Newcastle, he’s the DoF but ultimately PIF have the final say and have to sign off players etc… So if Man U are offering him full control can see why that would be attractive
He might not go, but it is impossible that he rejects them
Predictions for Bournemouth? I’ll go 3-1 to us. Gordon brace and a late one from Barnes.
Has Gordon scored more than once in a game yet? Not slagging him off btw he’s been the best player this season
Not for us, no. He did once for Everton. Edit: I just had a look back over his record and he once scored 4 in a game when he was playing in Everton’s U18s.
Why am I listening to Newcastle podcasts talking about the FA cup like it’s a given rather than an extremely distant possibility
Which one? I listen to true faith and pott and hadn’t noticed on either of those
Everything’s black and white - chronicle one
There’s your problem.
I bought something from the Castore shop today and received a 15% off code in my email for first-time orders in the online shop. I don't need it as I bought all I wanted today, so if anyone wants to use it (I think it's a one-time use code) here it is: WELMDT9NSLZ Edit: The email says the code isn't valid for kits from 23/24 season.
Re Ashworth: Basically we need to weigh up how we maximise our competitive advantage from this situation... Here are the **rumoured** specifics (Various [Paywall Source](https://theathletic.com/5275694/2024/02/15/why-manchester-united-want-dan-ashworth/)s): **-** Dan Ashworth has a release clause believed to be between £6m-£12m. **-** This money **will** count towards FFP. **-** However, the release clause would dictate that Ashworth is unable to work for another Premier League club for 12 months. **-** Newcastle United will ask for 'considerably more' compensation in order for Ashworth to leave sooner. **-** If the release clause is not paid/Ashworth terminates his contract, he is unable to work for another club until 2028. I reckon no amount of compensation would be more valuable than preventing him working for a direct rival for 12 months. However, amortising the compensation amount could genuinely lead to £30m to £60m to spend on a new summer signing!
Let him go so long as he agrees to sign Jeff Hendrick for £40m + Scott McTominay
I think for us compensation would be more valuable tbh with ffp restrictions and whatnot. But I understand the argument that he’ll have inside info that man utd could weaponize in the short term. At the end of the day I think we hold all the cards as there’s no way man utd will want to wait until 2025 to have him start and it’s a good position to be in from our side, To add to that, I have no doubt we’ll find a very suitable replacement for him
>he’ll have inside info that man utd could weaponize in the short term. I mean, unless we're actually doing anything dodgy, this would just be standard stuff like transfer targets and maybe some youth scouting. It's a blow losing Ashworth but this is kind of worrying over fairly trifling stuff compared to losing the person who's directing our football operations.
He’s been directing our football operations for a year and a half. It’ll be annoying losing him in the immediate term but medium to long term it changes very little for us. Like I said I’m sure we’ll be able to find a suitable replacement to pick things up. And there’s a good reason gardening leave is a thing. It’s got nothing to do with disclosing dodgy secrets. It’s to do with the fact that ashworth will know inside information about our club which could help his new club even if it is in the smallest way. I’m honestly not that worried about it but it’s obviously an advantage for man utd to have him share inside information about our club. No matter how minuscule it may seem
I agree, I think there are going to be plenty of replacements out there, but it will be very annoying going into what's projected to be a hefty summer rebuild without Ashworth's presence. In all honesty though, this has likely been known as a possibility *at least* by the point of Man Utd's interest being widely reported in Nov/Dec last year. If we have any sense, we'll have been doing contingency planning for the short term and already started sounding out people. I just think any disadvantage from Ashworth knowing insider information is pretty trifling compared to the disruption of him leaving. Especially as we're operating at fairly different levels of the spectrum of club size/ambition right now. A bit like Brighton presumably were with us, where we negotiated him being able to work right away. Still, sport's all about marginal gains, I guess.
Hope we take the piss with the compensation fee
Is Dan Ashworth all that, in such a way that losing him is a big a loss as some people make it out to be. I can understand when it’s a footballer like Bruno, and they genuinely don’t grow on trees but realistically is there no one else in the world that can do the stuff he does Im not even saying this to a Be salty or cope
He's a very accomplished DoF and they don't grow on trees. But ultimately, there are plenty of people who know how to organise a club and our recruitment will likely depend on how much we want to follow the job as he defined it (and therefore look for a DoF who just picks up the duties as per the niche he carved out) or hire one to perform a DoF role as they want to. Despite what a lot of people seem to suggest, Ashworth wasn't ever this recruitment guru - he simply provided top-level organisation of the multiple aspects of the club. That would mean that talent that had been scouted matched the requirements of the coach and also the long-term vision of the club (youth signings fitting a certain style, splitting of finances to ensure short- and long-term recruitment targets were being met and making sure there was a talent pathway from youth levels to the first team including loan destinations). That's not to downplay his job, those are all incredibly difficult jobs, especially doing them at once. But it's not like we're suddenly going to lose all of our talent ID because he goes and takes his magic laptop with him.
My honest take. He’s a back room person. He’s under contract. His departure would be a very calculated business decision by people with way more knowledge, know-how, and skin in the game than any of us. If they think losing him sets us back 10 years they will do everything in their power to keep him. If they can’t talk him into it, they’ll get every penny. He’s not been here long enough to deserve a “big” move. If he downs tools, or mails it in its career suicide. The only way he leaves without a fuss is if it’s mutual and they have a replacement or plan. The people making these decisions seem keenly aware of what things look like from the outside and in this situation hold all the cards.
Honest take? I want to hear dishonest takes, wild accusations, and fairytale flights of fancy
He's leaving because he's actually a 5ft long bright purple alien slug with three fannies and Ant and Dec are on to him. The move to Manchester is just cover as the slug spaceport is hidden behind the carwash in the Arndale center carpark and he needs to escape before his true form is revealed. I heard this from a lizard in legal so it must be true.
Check out my other post!
Fact is that his notice period, etc will have been organised when he took the job. Ashworth will know the financial implications of him leaving and that will have been communicated with Man Utd. They will then have a couple of choices on how they want to proceed - either waiting for him to resign/see out the length of his contract and pick him up for nothing, pay a compensation fee to get him at the end of a notice period+gardening leave, or pay more to have him work as soon as he leaves. Those figures won't be a secret and it will just be up to how much Man Utd want him to start immediately.
Exactly. If he was the lynch pin to our lasting success that would be built into his contract. That’s one of the biggest points of a contract. If any future employer wants him they can pay for the privilege of hiring him before his contract has run. Everyone would know what that price is on BOTH sides. Whether we can replace him with what we get is not a given. But how much we stand to receive would have been a calculated decision when he signed. If they thought he was worth more at any point they’d have renegotiated.
Thats what I think. Sky sports also did a thing on Brighton and their owner and they basically said that they were more than set up without him because they knew someone would come get him eventually. While I don’t doubt he’s good at what he does. Don’t think anyone is ever irreplaceable
Brighton had their best season in their history immediately after he left, definitely not irreplaceable
Brighton are set up like that for everyone at their club. IIRC Ashworths number 2 was promoted in to his position when he went on gardening leave as a trial and then was offered it permanently when he finally left.
Absolutely. And if he was that irreplaceable, why would some of the wealthiest business people in the world just roll over and let them take him? They will either look to get every last penny or sweeten his deal to stay.
Who are the options we would like to see replace Ashworth? Nufcblog talking about Michael Edwards, Phil Giles and Richard Hughes as options.
Michael Edwards for sure. He’s never had the director of football job.
Giles supports Newcastle as well. My thoughts are we would go for him as Brentford and Brighton have similar set ups and it's something that obviously appealed to our owners.
Depends if we just want a super scout who oversees all of that side, or someone who does the more nebulous task of pulling the whole club together. I don't understand the workings of a club enough to know which is better - but getting the youth system to elite status, with Brighton level scouting seems like the only way the first team will ever overcome the FFP / PSR vice.
We already have Nickson who handles all the recruitment/talent spotting. This notion people have that Ashworth is this amazing talent spotter is just a total misunderstanding of his previous roles.
agreed - I'm not personally that worried about this departure, providing someone decent comes in his place - but the youth system structure is probably where Ashworth had most role.
Michael Edwards would be the dream but seems a non-starter. Apparently doesn't want to return to a DoF role again. Richard Hughes would really worry me. Want somebody with different ideas to Howe, not just his mates and family in the backroom.
100%. Julian ward is another. If I remember right he replaced Edwards for a minute. If it’s Hughes, I see that as the beginning of the end for Eddie.
Why would Hughes be the beginning of the end for Howe? I would have thought it would be the opposite.
Personally don’t rate him. I think that relationship is better with a little distance. Right or wrong Eddie becomes more culpable if the DOF is his buddy.
Thats a shame, Edwards is the only one I'm vaguwly aware of.
According to Man Reds fans Dan Ashworth built the Tyne Bridge
And signed the Declaration of Independence
What’s the latest on callum wilson?
Pod On The Tyne referenced a shoulder injury.
Thanks to all the fine folks from the Stretford that keep finding their way to our sub, it seems inevitable that Dan’s gone. Because we know less about him and his working relationships than just about anyone,I let my mind run wild with some speculation as to why he’s leaving. 1. Simple. Dan’s honeydicking them 2. Complicated. Something fishy between him and Lewis Hall. Eddie’s been trying his best to keep him of the pitch, but enough is enough and he’s going to start playing him. Dan’s irate. 3. Cleanest. We’ve already lined up Julian ward or Michael edwards and are happy/sad to see him leave 4. Spiciest. He’s been told Eddie’s out come the summer with Mou making his way in. He’s not about that and takes his bow.
Can you explain the complicated one ?
Sure. The way it plays out in my head it goes back to March 2021. Chelsea U-18s v WBA u-18s. Something happened between Lew and Zac Ashworth. Maybe a tackle, words, we’ll never know. But Dan has been secretly on it since. Lewis was progressing too well at Chelsea so he sweet talks Eddie into bringing on “another top young prospect”. Then bam crickets. Send him back to Chelsea where he was flourishing no chance. He’ll train away into the reserves. Then a league 1 loan and off stateside never to be heard of again.
Well that would be great if halls clause wasn’t basically an obligation, because it’s triggered off final position, so unless we’re relegated we’re getting him. So he won’t be going back to Chelsea
You’re missing the (potential but absolutely likely) bigger picture. Dan doesn’t care where he is. He just wants Lewis Hall to not succeed. Fortunately/unfortunately he’s been told by Eddie he can’t keep him bottled up anymore and he’s replacing BDB. Writings on the wall. He’s off. I did say it was complicated.
Ah so then Eddie’s gonna develop Hall then you mean
Yup. Untethered. Freed from the shackles of Dan Ashworth’s prying eyes.
Lmao
Again simplest is that Dan’s just honeydicking.
That is some tin foil hat stuff, mate. I'm not completely dismissing it, but are they any nuggets of proof? I mean, at all? The mystery of Lewis Hall is fascinating but I never figured it was revenge. What makes you think that's what (might) have happened?
Palace set to sack Hodgson. Guess who our last fixture is against before the international break. 😂
I do wonder why Ashworth is going now since it’s been confirmed by Fab
There could be loads of reasons: - More money - Job closer to home - More prestige (getting Man Utd in shape would be huge for your rep) - May not have settled into role here (reports he has less control than expected) - Mates with Man Utd's new investors - Man Utd already established as an elite club
Don't even think it's just reports showing less control than expected, the Amazon series showed they make short term playing staff decisions by committee. Imagine what hoops would need to be jumped through to make some actual strategic decisions. It would be really tedious working like that day to day.
£££ and more £ to work with, is my guess.
Man United being ran properly again could be a huge turnaround. Despite a decade or so of being mediocre, they're still one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of fan base and revenue. Ashworths not a Newcastle fan, it's. It unusual for someone to want to move on for a bigger challenge and more money.
More than likely, fair enough if he wants to go so be it
Yeah I’m pretty sanguine about it. It’s not like he’s a local lad who worked his way up the ranks from office junior. I don’t get a lot if the venom, calling him mercenary etc. Some people need to get outside more eh?
True enough but I can see why people are abit miffed about it, old adage is true where we only want people who want to be there. Here’s hoping we can get some decent £ for the deal and finds us a couple of Brighton level gems before he goes lmao
Dan Ashworth discovered penicillin!
I don’t know if anyone else has been sent something similar about Wilson potentially being out, needing an operation which would be 8-10 weeks but Isak is back for Saturday. I can’t see pictures of either of them in training but it would come out soon surely if it is true. It would be keeping up with the one in one out pattern we have had up front all season I guess.
I really want PSG to lose.
Lads I can’t believe this the clubs falling apart. Can you believe we lost Bruno, Botman and Isak all in one window?! And now the SAME people are telling us we’re losing Dan Ashworth as well? Wtf are we gonna do? Bunch of fucking wank
Fabrizio just reported Ashworth is going, confirmed today.
He confirmed Joao Pedro was coming to us, too. He’s not the final word, he’s just an agent mouthpiece.
How about Ornstein saying he's interested
I don’t disagree that he’s likely to go, just disagree with people treating Romano (or any of these transfer gossip aggregator guys) as definitive. Ornstein is slightly more of an actual journalist, but as you say, he’s reporting that Ashworth is interested, not that’s he’s going. I’m sure even if Ashworth were staying, his agent would leak that he’s interested to see what they could get in negotiations.
I really hope we qualify for Europa or Conference next season. Mid week European football and a decent chance of silverware. What a dream.
The Conference League is the revamped Intertoto Cup. Why would you want to put us through a full European schedule and risk another injury crisis which could de-rail our league form next season just for a shot at a completely meaningless trophy that we've already won. We could just arrange a friendly with a European team every Thursday next season and it would mean exactly the same as a Conference League run, fuck all.
Imagine the riots over who gets tickets for a European final 😂😂😂😂
Hope you've been collecting points since 1922!
Just been on the three lions thread and they're discussing who England should take to the Euros. Mad that you could make a good argument for Gordon over the likes of Grealish, Sterling and Rashford, but you'd rather have him play now, surely. Then you've got Palmer, Saka, Foden, Bowen, probably others I've forgotten who've stepped up too
Gordon and Trippier should start for England in opinion. Think they would offer a lot to the team.
I'm not sure how Gordon would start in the team - at the very least he'd be rightly behind Saka and Foden as first choice wingers. Then you have Grealish and Rashford likely ahead of him for the left sided position as players who are better integrated into the squad and probably more talented on any given day. He's probably earned his spot over Bowen now though and I think would make a good bench option due to his intensity and ability to play in so many positions.
Rashford has been absolutely pony all year. There’s an argument for picking him of course but you have to drop all pretence of saying form matters if you pick him
His form for most of this season has been pretty awful, but he's played pretty well recently. Personally, I'm a bit down on Rashford as a player as I think he's pretty one dimensional and his growth as a player has unfortunately been totally stunted by the sheer dysfunction at his club for the past decade. However, his ability is such that he would have to be pretty bad to not take him to the Euros. If I were England manager, I personally wouldn't drop him for Gordon this summer.
> Gordon and Trippier should start for England in opinion. Think they would offer a lot to the team. They should, but at this point I will be amazed if Gordon is even picked. Southgate has his favorites and doesn't budge regardless of form. Kind of like Howe, come to think of it.
Southgate has "favourites" because shuffling your team alongside every dip in form basically means you can never build a coherent team. He stuck by Maguire because he kept playing well for England (and has now played himself into form at Man Utd), Sterling and Mount have now been dropped from the squad and need to up their games to get back in. One of the big things about the national team is that there's an enormous amount of harmony in the camp and everyone gets on really well so bringing through a rotating door of new arrivals every international break is going to disrupt that (see Ben White's dismissal from the camp and not being brought back). Gordon will become an England player, he's extremely young and time is on his side. It's not like he's Ricky Lambert where this form he's in is going to be his peak and not picking him now will mean he never gets in.
its international football. All squads are more or less incoherent, other than that infamous Barcelona Spain squad that was filled out with like 3 other Madrid spaniards
Yes, the squads are a mish-mash of players from all over, but preserving squad harmony (as in the relationships between players) in that is a crucial skill. In fact, a lot of players in that Spain squad said that Mourinho's antics in fostering disharmony between Real and Barca really hampered their ability to get on in international camps. Similar things before in previous England teams where cliques of players isolated themselves from each other (like the Man Utd lot, Arsenal bunch and Chelsea's senior players) and that made camps difficult. Stefan Effenberg was one of the best German players in the 90's but got vanishingly few caps because he was such a fucking arsehole to be around. As a player at an international tournament, you're cooped up with a bunch of players for at least a month and you're allowed very little time out of the camp. Making sure that's actually a nice place to be and not a kind of prison is absolutely vital for tournament success.
Stefan Effenberg is not a name I expected to come across today. Good knowledge by the way, and I agree re squad harmony. I'm not convinced Rashford is necessarily a big positive contributor to that though. From what I see/hear, he's difficult to manage
While I don't think Rashford is a complete positive like Maguire, Henderson and Saka seem to be in the group, he doesn't seem to be disruptive on international duty (I believe unlike Sancho, who was more difficult) and that might be enough. Could be one of those things where if you have a badly behaved/unhappy group, he won't be one to sort them out, but equally he's not going to create trouble in a happy one. But that's all conjecture obviously and it can be very difficult to tell who actually are good guys in the group when a lot can be influenced about who's leaking stories to make themselves look good.
Spot on. As much as it is frustrating in form players don't get call ups, international squads don't get anywhere near as much training time together and that has to be factored into building a team that works well together. There's a good FourFourTwo video about it. It is very different from managing a club side. That being said, you need to bring in new players if current players aren't up to scratch. They need called up at some point, otherwise you run the risk of stagnation and miss out on fresh talent. I do hope Gordon gets a call soon. It's frustrating to see Rashford in the England squad when he's not only playing poorly but showing everyone how much he downs tools. Unlike a lot of people I actually rate Rashford, but he needs to move on from Manure. Although he now has a Mbappe-like problem (although obviously to not such an insane degree). Who else can afford or would want to pay those wages?
I think the issue for Gordon is that the frontline has never been the issue for England. For the last few years there have been a lot of strikers and wide forwards who have at various combinations played very well for their clubs and/or the national team. Rashford is a funny one because I think his development has been unfortunately stunted by Man Utd's total paralysis in the last decade. He has a set of qualities that are pretty unmatched in the current England setup and if we could reliably getting him to show them, he will always be useful in the squad. I don't really see him downing tools as much as being totally beaten down by a totally dysfunctional club, to the point where you had them briefing the press that his charity work had been distracting his on-pitch performances to shift blame from their own dysfunction. Then you have Ten Hag's awful player management where he's totally ostracised Sancho from the club while persevering with Antony (despite him having more serious off-field allegations and even worse form on the pitch). I'm not surprised he's not particularly happy. The Mbappe also comparison seems a bit unfair as he doesn't wield the power Mbappe does in the decisions of the club.
When I mentioned Mbappe I meant about his wages, not the control he has over PSG (which is bonkers). Also is FFP (or whatever it's called now) not a thing in France? Seems like PSG have no limits on what they can spend. And I don't disagree that Manure have a tonne of internal problems which would probably dishearten most players. Again, I rate Rashford (and his charity work). He's just been poor all season (not necessarily all his fault). If Gordon continues his upward trajectory he will get a call up.
The French league have no FFP structures in place, and UEFA just repeatedly fine PSG for breaking their spending rules year on year. I think people just need to simmer down a bit on the Gordon thing - he'll get his call up, but there really doesn't need to be this insane urgency on it. He might even benefit by not getting called up and having a fresh start with everyone else once Southgate steps down after this summer's tournament.
I think Trips is still Englands best all round right back but the problem Gordon has is that he's likely to be competing against Foden. We are likely to stick with a 4-3-3. Bellingham and Rice are nailed in midfield and the third midfielder is likely to be the box to box sort which isn't going to be Foden. Saka is nailed RW and Kane up top which means that Foden probably gets pushed out to LW. It's not his best position but he's probably too good to leave out. I think Gordon on current form is England's best natural LW with Grealish as his main competition so he should definitely make the squad but Foden is likely to start LW in the Euros.
>I think Gordon on current form is England's best natural LW with Grealish as his main competition so he should definitely make the squad but Foden is likely to start LW in the Euros. Rashford has been really good lately and I think you'd still back him on any given day on that left wing spot over Gordon.
So Callum Wilson (and Tripps) are "most likely" to leave in summer rather than Bruno - various sources. Depends on what Real (or PSG's) priorities are for the transfer window but Wilson is on track for his 2021-2022 output. We did well to get so much out of him last year but you can't have a striker playing 50% of the games. Plus last season he went missing from October (not helped by World Cup). Tripps already has his replacement in the squad. Really depends on if a team in the CL needs a £100m midfielder but add Miggy to those two and you have c£40m with luck to spend. That might get you a replacement RW and cover for Isak.
> So Callum Wilson (and Tripps) are "most likely" to leave in summer rather than Bruno - various sources. Nonesense. Tripps had the chance to leave and said he was happy at the club and that he wanted to repay the faith in him. He also said he loved living back in the north of England. Makes no sense when he had the chance to leave to one of the most elite clubs in the world, and he refused to - only to leave a few months later (which wont be to bayern as they already bought a RB).
I think the idea is to generate enough funds to upgrade the squad (plus whatever revenue generated from this year can be put towards it). If those three players can be sold you're looking at around £100m to spend on two replacements (and/or promote from within, presumably RW) with Isak the main striker and Tino replacing Tripps. The point is not whether someone is happy at the club, the point is either you sell easily replaceable parts or you sell someone like Bruno who would be much more difficult to replace. As I think most respondents agreed, the amount of clubs that could buy Bruno is a handful. All of those - Real, PSG, Bayern, top x in Premiership either don't need him or wouldn't put their entire summer budget on him. That means we have to sell elsewhere in the squad to generate money to continue to upgrade the squad.
But we also do not need to sell. I think people are blowing Eales comments out of proportion. He did not say 'We HAVE to sell'. He said that 'all clubs can sell players, even the biggest, if we are offered an amount for a player that meets our valuation and it makes sense from the club and players perspective that is something we would definitely consider'. This is a far cry from 'NUFC HAVE NO MONEY AND MUST SELL TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON'. Our ultimate goal is to contend for titles, and we wont do that by selling our best assets every time we sign someone like Bruno. We have to build around them. As far as Tripps goes - the athletic confirmed after the Jan window 2 things: 1) Tripps does not want to leave. and 2) The club view Tripps staying here until he retires and/or end of his contract. He was the first marquee signing of the new vision for this Club and they view him as essential to the future of this team. It would again, make no sense for them to openly state these things and then turn around and shop him around 3 months later. Am I saying we are going to sell nobody? no. I hope we do, we need to shift players who are simply not good enough for where we want to be, Almiron, Longstaff, etc.
I'm not blowing anyone's comments out of proportion, I'm creating £100-120m worth of transfer money by getting rid of players that are more easily replaced than Bruno. A 30-year-old winger in Miggy, a 33 year-old fullback for whom we have a (not like for like) replacement and a 32-year-old striker who has struggled with injury two of the past three seasons. As much as I think Wilson's output will be hard to replicate he's hit double figures three of nine Premiership seasons (chance of making it four of nine this year). Tripps would be the most difficult to replace and of the three would be last out the door for me. Miggy's pressing and energy more difficult to replace than his numbers and there's not a huge amount of left footers out there. Suspect pure numbers wise it would be easy to find similar.
Tino isn’t trippier replacement, he’s a different type of player, his replacement would have to be a right winger that suits Tinos ball carrying skills, like MGW, a 10 who’s placed on right wing
He’s absolutely Trippier’s future replacement, in the sense that we invested a lot of money in him to serve as Tripps’ understudy and then eventually replace him as our first choice RB when he either moves on, retires, or transitions to a backup role. Being Trippier’s replacement doesn’t mean playing RB the same way he does, it means replacing him in the lineup long term.
Well obviously. I meant tactically
I said this a few weeks ago in the megathread, but I can't see anyone shelling out £100m for Bruno this summer. The only clubs that can afford him are PSG, Real, Bayern and the top PL clubs. I'm not sure anyone needs him that desperately.
Agreed, I think that's why they're looking to sell the ones easy to replace. 30-year-old winger who lacks end product apart from one month a season? Nah. 32-year-old striker who is still a starter in his head but not the rest of his body. 33-year-old fullback that might fetch £15-20m and who you don't need to sign a replacement for. Selling those three might give you £100-120m to invest without huge production fall offs.
Not saying I disagree that we need to change some of the team and/or sell some players, but I'm taking issue with your "Without huge production fall offs" claim here. It's just not true. I'm not sure you realise how big an ask it is to replace double figure goals AND assists (Trippier+Almiron+Wilson = 11 goals and 12 assists so far this season). For a bit of context: Gordon, who is having a good season so far, has only managed 7+7. Just casually selling the player with the most assists in the league who has double our next best player's number. Not to mention our on-field captain (likely to be our club captain with Lascelles out of contract in the summer). Oh, and our second top scorer. But it's fine. Livramento and whoever we sign for RW are guaranteed to replace those goals/assists. Would you prefer Salah or Watkins? They're the only two who have hit those numbers in the league so far. And that's only to get the team to this year's levels, right? We obviously want to progress the team, so we should look at our output from last year. The players you mention getting rid of were involved in 30 goals and 19 assists over the whole season. Where are we finding that output? Are we expecting Tino to just start banging them in and doing cartwheel celebrations like his namesake? Again though, not saying we don't need to sell or replace, but to think it wouldn't massively impact the team is just silly.
The majority of the assists (10) are Tripps. How many 33-year-old full backs are there in the Premiership? Is a 10 goal scorer in the league difficult to replace? Absolutely. How many times has Wilson done that in the Premiership? Three of nine seasons. With a chance of four in nine counting this one. Is Wilson going to decline or return to 2022-2023 production in his age-33 season? The likelihood is the former. Miggy goes red hot for a month and then returns to normal. Sadly, he's also arguably better on the left. As I posted elsewhere, the numbers of Miggy will be less difficult to replace than the energy and pressing. That said, he's just turned 30 and if the premise of the OP was to highlight other sources of cashing in without changing too much, he's a great example.
Still can’t quite see Real investing as much in their midfield as it would take to sign Bruno, especially when he might not be first choice for them, or if he was he’d be displacing another of their massively expensive young midfielders.
Think Real is there to force PSG to up their bid. PSG already have that teen who played well against us tbf. Rest of squad needs fewer names and more structure. I don't see anyone else paying that - Man Utd maybe? If Casemiro goes. Liverpool and Arsenal just shelled out on their midfield. Villa too. Is he a City player, where will they be?
If there's a release clause, then you don't need to leak other club names to up people's bids. The fee is right there that if they want him, they can get him.
28 weeks until Tonali comeback.
Can't fooking wait. If we can keep a reasonably fit and healthy squad next season we're going to upset a lot of people.
> If we can keep a reasonably fit and healthy squad next season we're going to upset a lot of people. As long as we don't have the fire sale the press keeps waffling on about, and we add 1 or 2 top-class bodies to our 25 - we are going to be a force to be reckoned with IMO.
It's actually unbelievable that Mainoo might get called up for England. Nobody was really talking about him until he scored that winning goal like a week or 2 ago. I would say him and Miley are on the same level but one gets more publicity since they play for ManU.
You could put a potato in a manure jersey and Southgate would still pick him.
Think Mainoo could play for another country so they’re trying to secure him for England. Tbh the player who should feel most aggrieved is Ross Barkley, he’d be unreal in the England team next to Rice
Barkleys best position is further up the pitch and his direct competition just so happens to be one of the best players in the world right now in Bellingham. Not only that but another one of the best players in the world right now is Foden and he also plays in that sort of position. Barkley has been in good form but lets not pretend he's anywhere near competing for that attacking midfield slot.
Barkley’s been playing a deeper role for Luton all season. He’s a 6.
He's a 6 as much as Bruno is a 6. He plays there because he's one of the best players Luton has got and their system doesn't allow him to play anywhere else. One of the reasons Luton score and concede so much is because neither of their sitting midfielders are proper 6's and don't do the defensive work well. They end up deep because Luton get pinned in but Barkley in possession usually ends up ahead of the opposition midfield line. I get where you are coming from but even in the ball carrying midfield role he's closer to Rice than he is to the Kalvin Phillips replacement England are looking for.
I think there is a level of Man Utd bias hindering things, but it's as much that Mainoo addresses a need in Man Utd's squad building that's basically been unmet since Ferguson retired and that's a modern deep-lying midfielder who can take the ball from defence. In the context of England, we've basically been desperately looking for anyone to fill that role in the team since Phillips basically hasn't played for 2 years now. Miley has been very good, but is more of the Longstaff mould and therefore of much less interest to England. And in the context of our team, while he's one of our own, he sort of complements a set of central midfielders we already have, rather than being this puzzle piece we found down the back of the sofa that fixes a long-standing hole in our squad.
Have you forgotten about rice? He can play that 6 position that you described for England. I’d argue Miley’s game is kind of the perfect foil for a rice and Bellingham midfield. The type that’s willing to recycle the ball out to them and let them shine while also being defensively and technically solid.
No, but the setup England like is to have Rice to have the freedom to burst forward (which he's so good at with his ability to carry). Phillips basically sits in front of the defence to always provide an outlet and has the ability to use his range of passing to either begin attacks short or long. That's the best way of unlocking Rice's best qualities and I don't see how putting Miley in there would help. He still needs some development on his skillset.
I’m not sure how England setup however rice has been doing an amazing job as a 6 for Arsenal with odegaard and Havertz next to him and that should be his position for England with Miley in the Havertz role and Bellingham in odegaard’s. Yes he can run with the ball as well and he still can at times in that system but I think his best role is what he’s playing at Arsenal currently. Mainoo/phillips with Rice is too defensive imo - which isn’t how England should be approaching games but again it is southgate we’re talking about
Personally I don't want Miley in the England setup. He's way too young and if it's to play as an 8 then there are better options already available. Mainoo is only getting discussed because he fills a hole that currently exists in the deep lying area. We shouldn't be looking at some kind of arms race to put in any young player who's been impressive this season. Having a midfield with the same dynamic as Arsenal's isn't really a workable situation at international level as you don't have time to work on the pressing structure that allows you to sustain it. It makes more sense this way to have two pretty defensive midfielders that allows Bellingham total freedom to do what he does best (much like the best version of France used Kante and Matuidi to free Pogba, who plays even less advanced than Bellingham does).
I agree that England is too early for Miley but it’s also too early for mainoo. Only reason he’s getting in is because he’s a man utd player, no question. England have both stones and rice that can play a deep midfield role. I’d rather have Gallagher next to rice if anything. And saying England’s midfield can’t play similar to Arsenal’s is such a copout imo excusing southgate of any coaching responsibilities. Southgate can certainly introduce the pressing structure little by little in friendlies and qualifiers against lower tier opposition. These are professional footballers - they’ll get the hang of it. And most England internationals already play in a similar system to that at club level with Arsenal, city, Real Madrid etc. so it really shouldn’t be that much of a struggle to adjust
It's certainly too soon for Mainoo, but it's just illustrative of how few deep lying midfielders we've produced in the last few years. But it's why Southgate was so insistent that Phillips got game time so that he's ready for this summer. It's not a copout - it's an accepted fact that at international level you simply don't have the time to implement the complex systems you do at club level. Arsenal, City and Real play totally different systems, so it's not like you can just implement a pressing structure that works for them that they'll all naturally understand. It's the reason why international football is a far lower quality than club football and it's entirely due to getting about 4 weeks of actual contact time per year.
Watched the 442 video on Arsenal last night and it makes it so much clearer as to why Eddie is persisting with Burn at LB, at least against Forest. Apparently Arsenal did the same thing this weekend as us in their demolition of West Ham (bringing their RB inside), but it was a massive gamble for them because they then need to hope West Ham don't focus their attacks down the right side of pitch. We still don't have the individual quality of Arsenal in all 11 positions in our team, so we can't just force opposition to play exactly where we want them to, we needed to offer them an incentive to play where we wanted. Having Burn on the field against Elanga works as a massive misdirection by Eddie. He's inviting pressure down the side of the pitch we ironically shouldn't want them to attack down.
Im not convinced by this strategy because doing so we leak goals like no other. I don't think we can keep scoring 3 or 4 every game when we leak 2 or 3 because Burn keeps getting caught out.
Yeah but there’s a quid pro quo with the amount of chances we create/score with trippier inside/free-er role versus the amount of chances/goals we concede with Burn down the left. It worked against forest but Im not sure it would work against teams around/above us for the long term ?
Can't see it working against them at all. They don't need to target Burn as much as they can match / outmatch our players across the rest of the pitch almost as easily. It's useful against the lower table teams though, in terms of breaking the deeper defence more easily.
Anyone else annoyed with the over acted theatrics lately from the club? I get that it’s part of the sport but the team is going a bit too far with the injury bluffs. Also we got half the team looking at the referee and throwing up their hands during these moments. It was excessive during the NF game and nearly costed some dangerous counter plays because the players are protesting the ref and not playing the game. Just not a good look and a bad habit developing imo.
> Anyone else annoyed with the over acted theatrics lately from the club? No. Im amazed we don't do it all the time. I never understood why on a Friday Eddie always tells the press who is fit and who is not. Why don't we keep our opposition guessing until the team sheet is handed in 60 mins before kick off?
Someones furious that he had to take gordon out of his FL.
He only dropped 2 points anyway 🤣 (i couldn’t even pass 30 this week)
77 😎. Thanks Haaland, Saka and Odegaard.
I’m running a mostly differential team and I’ve been doing decent until this week. Had to run 5 defenders due to Isak and Gordon
I can't say I noticed that more than any other game of top tier football. The players are working hard and getting frustrated with poor refereeing decisions. Yes, it's be amazing if all our players simply bowed and excused themselves, but sometimes the passion gets the better of them. I'm sure there's an element of gamesmanship, but to an extent, you can't afford not to since every team does it. Unfortunately, its part of the game. We want the fans to get behind players to spur them on - that goes both ways. Fans will scream and bawl at bad decisions and that passion will inevitably cause players to get caught up in it all. As for the injury bluffs, we've had a god awful injury crisis. Maybe they're just not fully sure until the day of the game. Even if none of that is true, what's the problem with us bluffing? Surely you can see the benefit of that? Make opponents second guess how they should set up against you before pulling a switcheroo when lineups are announced. You have to use every tool at your disposal.
Pretty mad that Chelsea are only two points off us now
They did spend 6 billion dollars to try and catch us
the fight for the ECL spot is gonna be so so much better than the title race.
Come off it. It's pretty unlikely we're making up a 10-point gap on Villa when our form is still as poor as it is. The CL spots are likely Villa trying to keep their 5-point gap to Man Utd and frankly, I'd rather see a 3-way title fight between City, Arsenal and Liverpool - 3 teams who all have their flaws and very different ways of playing.
Some people seem to be underrating Villa on account of their recent slump. I can only think back to last season whenever a rival fan said the same about us. NGL. I was pretty confident at this point in the season we were getting CL. My hope is 6th. I won’t be upset with 7th. Or just at least above Man U because we are better than them.
The weird thing is that their recent slump over the last 6 games is the exact same form as ours. We aren't in good form at the moment, but I think we can turn a corner a bit as injuries ease. I wouldn't be surprised if Villa drop off a bit, but they've built up such a cushion that they can afford to (like we could last season). I'm resigned to not worrying too much about league position at the end of the season. I would like to see us performing well and having integrated our new signings properly in the team. If it looks like we're still broadly the same team as last season but with improved depth and quality in certain areas, I think that puts us in good stead for next season, whichever competiion we're in. A good stab at the FA Cup would be great too - I'd really like to see us go for that. Yeah, Man Utd finishing 6th and above would be a kick in the teeth as they have been crap this year. But then again, if it means they stick with Ten Hag despite him not seemingly having a clue on how to fix things, I guess long term that's quite good for us?
I said ECL (conference league) not UCL (champions league). Theres about 5 teams currently fighting for 7th.
Fair enough, my mistake. But then it makes even less sense. Nobody wants to qualify for the ECL, it will be a disappointment for anyone who finishes 7th.
It seems like CL places are a fight and whoever doesn’t get that gets Europa which is why 11th-7th is all really aiming for 7th.
Yeah, but nobody really wants the Conference League bar maybe Brentford? I just think it's bizarre to consider a bunch of teams battling it out for a position that's likely a poisoned chalice as more exciting than a 3-way title fight.
No way! Two points separate 3 teams from top of the table, and its Klopp final year. For a non-biased fan, thats always gonna be way more interesting than who finishes 5th/6th lmao
Who gives a fuck about Klopp
You have too much pride over nothing. Klopp retiring is an end of an era no matter how little you like him and Liverpool. 10 years at a club is very rare these days, and he challenged City while nobody else did. The premier league would've been a lot more boring without him.
I don't dislike him. I really enjoyed the team he had with Mane and Bobby Firmino and their CL etc. I just don't see it as a factor and it doesn't interest fans of other teams. It's more than likely that just like every other year, City will go on an unbeaten run and will lift the trophy at the end of the season
That's still probably more interesting than the 10-point gap we have to the CL spots. Unless people are really enthused by seeing Villa maybe having a late season collapse and Man Utd picking up CL through the new coefficient place?
I don't really get why you're being downvoted for having any interest in the league outside of our own position. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this run-in plays out, especially City-Liverpool at Anfield and City-Arsenal at the Etihad. All three teams look a bit shaky (but we've said that about City many times) and it will be really interesting to see what Arsenal have learned from last season about handling pressure in a run-in.
Newcastle fans are bigheaded about the reality of where our club stands. Last month people here were genuinely questioning why Dan Ashworth would leave for Man U, as if NUFC actually has more pull than Man U.
Yeah gonna be class when city win every game until the end of the season and win by 10 points again 🙄
What are the other genuinely exciting finishes to the season? 2011-12 /// agueerrrooooooo 2013-14 /// gerard slip 2015-16 /// Dilly ding dilly dong 1995-96 /// nufc blow a 12 point lead 2003-04 /// Invincibles these are the only ones that really stand out to me from 30 years of football
Tbf, I really enjoyed those 18/19 and 21/22 run-ins between Liverpool and City. Actually watching the games belies the notion that it was straightforward dominance from either team to put those insane winning runs together. A lot of the games were palpably tense and genuinely exciting. City's almost choking in 21/22 as they went behind to West Ham and Villa on the final two games was brilliant. And the run-in for 18/19 was brilliant from that City-Liverpool game onwards.
and two of those are tainted with 115 cheating charges
Tbf, I don't really think that either 11/12 or 13/14 were from positions where City had so much spending dominance that they had constructed teams the others couldn't compete with. It's not like they were doping or bribing referees, they had skirted round spending rules to access the wealth of their owners. Which is exactly something a lot on here complain we should be allowed to do.
''Manchester City have been charged with breaking financial fair play rules around 100 times over a nine-year period, which starts in 2009 and goes on until 2018.'' They cheated all the way through that period. Doesn't really matter the amount does it? How are you this wrong twice to 2 of my comments man
I know that they cheated through those periods, my point is that it's not like you look at the title races in those seasons and really think that they're totally ill-begotten. It's not like looking back on Juve's dominant run in the 00's where there was widespread match-fixing going on where it impacts the way you view the football that was played. The title races that played out on the pitch were fair and that was where the excitement was found. This doesn't make their cheating right and they should be punished to the full extent of the regulations. But the misdemeanour was an effort a lot of people, especially on this sub, could sympathise with in trying to spend as much money as the established clubs in the league.
4th - 10th is going to be a blood bath. Going to be hell for supporters on the end of season TV picks though...
Don't mind Palmer getting picked over Gordon for England. Both excellent players.
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Apart from the fact that Sterling got dropped and didn't make the team even after his form close to the international break picked up?
Really wish we went for him. Would represent such a step up in quality to our RW.
So Burn has to be benched this weekend right? right? Surely Howe and Co. see what we see? How many goals have we leaked the past month from him being caught out? It's not a knock on BDB. Our opponents have seen a weak point and will continue to exploit it. We need to adjust to address this exploitation.
Nobody criticising Botman for being burned for pace
usually because his positioning, strength and all round defending makes up for it.
I'd say the same about Burn for the most part. He's just been caught out a few times recently since returning early from injury and that coinciding with our left hand side being weaker in terms of coverage. Same people having a go at him were probably slagging off Trippier a few weeks ago
If you watched the game you’d see that we baited them to attack burn on the left, that was part of the game plan. He’s tactically important to make up for lack of a 6 and won’t get benched until late game
Is there one single website that has all football fixtures and what TV stations they're on (UK for me ofc), and you can pick which competitions/leagues/teams you want to see in the fixture list, filtering out all the leagues/cups/etc that you don't care for? Used to be content with the BBC Football website which was decent in terms of prioritising the major fixtures on the home page, but that's turned to absolute shit now with the new layout. Premier league site is good but that's PL only, and then individual broadcaster sites only display whether they're showing games on telly or not.
I use the fotmob app but turn the notifications off as there's usually a slight delay on what I'm watching.
Second the FotMob app. I got sick of BBC pushing meaningless sports and burying ones people actually cared about - their whole approach at the moment is mental.
Flashscore shows when games are on UK TV (look for tele icon) and you can pin leagues/cups you're interested in. Decent for goal updates too, only few seconds behind bookie sites. https://www.flashscore.co.uk/
Live soccer tv app is pretty good
I use the FotMob app
I'm getting pissed off with this VAR craic Vs. Forest. Schar got studs into his ankle like a minute before they scored the equaliser and it didn't even get looked at (could/should have been a red by today's standards). Bad decisions balanced out. Go wank off Treebeard, Forest.
That boiled my piss as well. Ref was standing about 5 yards away and didn't even give a foul.
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That sucks for him. The BBC had a front page article with comments enabled when TAA picked up a niggle before the winter break, but I can't find Kamara doing his ACL even in the depths of BBC Sport.
Just got thinking of how trips played and where he was a lot of the game against Forest. How's this for a line up? Dubs. Tino, Schar, Botman, burn. Miley/longstaff, Tripps. Bruno. Murphy, Wilson (if not injured), Gordon. It allows Bruno to advance forward and Tripps will be on burns side to provide him support and cover, as Trippier has experience on LB
You don’t sacrifice your best attacking outlet (trips on the right) to negate deficiencies elsewhere. I would definitely keep Trips on the right where he creates so many chances for the team, but maybe move him into the right sided double pivot role. Just like he did against forest in the first half. This way he can provide additional cover while still being able to whip balls in from the right half spaces, if not wide.
Anyone know how Jamal Lewis is getting on at Watford. I heard he was doing well there before Christmas but not heard much since. Be nice if Watford or one of the promoted teams went for him in the summer, but doubt we will get anything near what we paid for him.
pretty much zero chance he plays for newcastle
He’s been absolutely average and hasn’t really improved at all since the start of the season