Football 2021/2022

[kaosmark2]

7 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Shambles again, Bruce must go tonight, need someone in to sort these players out. Lots of the squad are not good enough too (no surprise when most played in our Championship season 5 years ago.

 

Fitness levels are a worry, no surprise though when Bruce gives them so many days off.

I think the squad is around 15th-18th, it'll be around relegation, but a decent manager keeps the team up with it. I think with one forward player and a DM there's enough talent around to give the better and younger players a chance. I think any fan who's calling for a mass overhaul over the next 2 years is foolish. I'd prefer to see investment going into the training ground, youth academy, etc. alongside a couple of players per window.

[pink_triangle]

Are Spurs a good team this season? They are probably the team I am struggling to get a reading on the most.

[WS_Jack_III]

21 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think the squad is around 15th-18th, it'll be around relegation, but a decent manager keeps the team up with it. I think with one forward player and a DM there's enough talent around to give the better and younger players a chance. I think any fan who's calling for a mass overhaul over the next 2 years is foolish. I'd prefer to see investment going into the training ground, youth academy, etc. alongside a couple of players per window.

We need a big overhaul mate, but it needs to be done right. Need a spine this Jan and anymore would be lovely.

[kaosmark2]

40 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

We need a big overhaul mate, but it needs to be done right. Need a spine this Jan and anymore would be lovely.

Dubravka, Lascelles, Schar, Longstaff, Almiron, St Maximum, Wilson. There's some decent players who I'd like to see stay in the squad.

[WS_Jack_III]

3 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Dubravka, Lascelles, Schar, Longstaff, Almiron, St Maximum, Wilson. There's some decent players who I'd like to see stay in the squad.

Never rated Lascelles and Longstaff looks way off it, hopefully he can get it back. The rest I agree. That's 5 of a 25 man squad for me, not good enough.

Edited October 17, 2021 by WS_Jack_III

[eastynh]

1 hour ago, kaosmark2 said:

Dubravka, Lascelles, Schar, Longstaff, Almiron, St Maximum, Wilson. There's some decent players who I'd like to see stay in the squad.

None of those are top 6 quality. St Maximum looks the best player there, but is he any better that Zaha?

Newcastle need a complete overhaul really. Those players might help you progress, along with 4 or 5 decent players. But, not a single onw of those will be there in 3 years, if you are serious about chalkenging the top teams.

Edited October 17, 2021 by eastynh

[WS_Jack_III]

I think ASM could stake a claim to hang around, under a good coach he could be frightening. He's an absolute lifeline to the team right now.

[thetime]

6 hours ago, eastynh said:

None of those are top 6 quality. St Maximum looks the best player there, but is he any better that Zaha?

Newcastle need a complete overhaul really. Those players might help you progress, along with 4 or 5 decent players. But, not a single onw of those will be there in 3 years, if you are serious about chalkenging the top teams.

Where are Newcastle in relation to city teamwise on your takeover?

Chelsea was a bit different, as they were around the champions league places and winning a trophy here and there.

[eastynh]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

Where are Newcastle in relation to city teamwise on your takeover?

Chelsea was a bit different, as they were around the champions league places and winning a trophy here and there.

I would say City were a mid table team with the makings of a top 4 defence. City had Hart, Richards, Zabaleta and Kompany before the take over. They also had Haman, Elano, Petrov, Richard Dunne, Corluka, Daniel Sturridge and Darius Vassell. There there was the likes Of Stephen Ireland and Michael Johnson. They were a steady team.

I forgot to mention Wilson for Newcastle. I like him, hes a very handy player.

[WS_Jack_III]

No doubt about it, we're in very big trouble. The rebuild could be happening in the Championship. It will be if they leave Bruce in for any longer. Can't believe he's still not gone.

[thetime]

39 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

No doubt about it, we're in very big trouble. The rebuild could be happening in the Championship. It will be if they leave Bruce in for any longer. Can't believe he's still not gone.

They've got to be struggling to get a replacement.

[TheGayTent]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

They've got to be struggling to get a replacement.

No one at the top table will want the job. Yet. They’ve got to get the right stepping stone manager in which isn’t always as simple a task as many would believe. 

[The Nal]

7 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

No one at the top table will want the job. Yet. They’ve got to get the right stepping stone manager in which isn’t always as simple a task as many would believe. 

Theyve money to spend but whos going to want to go there in January, players or managers. To a club in a relegation fight. 

[kaosmark2]

13 hours ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Never rated Lascelles and Longstaff looks way off it, hopefully he can get it back. The rest I agree. That's 5 of a 25 man squad for me, not good enough.

Lascelles under Benitez looked a player. I'm not going to criticise him for being dogshit under Bruce. I do feel that those players can contribute over the next few seasons. Forgot to mention WIllock as well.

12 hours ago, eastynh said:

None of those are top 6 quality. St Maximum looks the best player there, but is he any better that Zaha?

Newcastle need a complete overhaul really. Those players might help you progress, along with 4 or 5 decent players. But, not a single onw of those will be there in 3 years, if you are serious about chalkenging the top teams.

The next 2 windows aren't about getting rid of players that aren't top 6 quality though. They're about getting rid of the Championship fodder and stabilising the club in the top 10, before trying to challenge into top 6 territory around a spine. The base pieces of that spine need to be signed, but our current key players shouldn't be instantly discarded. 

Is Dubravka one of the best 6 goalies in the Prem? Probably not, but I don't think replacing him is something we're under time pressure to do, in the same way as we need to get in upgrades on Joelinton, Manquilo, Clark, Shelvey, Ritchie (who I think has done a good job for the club, but as a workhorse utility player).

Sign a DM, full-backs for both sides, and an attacking player to go with ASM and Wilson, and we probably stay up. Then in the summer sign one CB top make Lascelles/Schar compete for one place, a midfield upgrade, and whichever of a winger/striker we don't sign in Jan.

Each window we should be identifying our 3 weakest points and signing players there that improve us right now. We need to build the platform to attract the top players before trying to challenge the top teams. City took 5 years to win the title didn't they? And Newcastle are arguably 1-2 years behind in terms of what squad/manager is there at the start.

[lost]

4 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Theyve money to spend but whos going to want to go there in January, players or managers. To a club in a relegation fight. 

The papers were speculating £200m before they hit ffp rules. The issue is going to be that amount is only going to get you 1 or 2 world class players per window. You are then asking the first ones in to gamble a third to a half of their career on the ability of the club to have 11 world class players in say 4 or 5 years time.

Its a big ask and I think that's the reason they maybe shopping for say players just outside the first 11 of the top teams or promising youngsters both of which have no grantee they will significantly improve the team.

[WS_Jack_III]

4 hours ago, thetime said:

They've got to be struggling to get a replacement.

Just get him out and worry about that later, Jones take charge for now.

[kaosmark2]

Genuinely think only Souness and Shearer have been worse managers for us in my lifetime, and we've had a lot of bad ones.

[WS_Jack_III]

2 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Genuinely think only Souness and Shearer have been worse managers for us in my lifetime, and we've had a lot of bad ones.

Allardyce was the pits. Not saying Shearer is a great manager because I can't, equally you can't really judge him as a bad one. He had 8 games at the end of an absolute toxic season.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Allardyce was the pits. Not saying Shearer is a great manager because I can't, equally you can't really judge him as a bad one. He had 8 games at the end of an absolute toxic season.

It turned out that we needed 7 points from them. Going in it looked like 10 would be near-sure to keep us up. Not getting that just on a motivational point as a club legend is pretty bad. That squad was a lot better than most we've had since.

[charlierc]

6 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Genuinely think only Souness and Shearer have been worse managers for us in my lifetime, and we've had a lot of bad ones.

Souness was pretty atrocious, and was equally difficult to work out why they felt the ideal replacement for Bobby Robson was someone who was apparently on the verge of being fired by Blackburn Rovers. The fact his watch included Dyer vs Bowyer was pretty bad. I recall it being stupidly toxic by the end of his tenure.

McClaren has to feature among the worst imo. He was thoroughly hopeless. Barely better than John Carver, who was just one meme after another. Shearer was strange - he was very close to fulfilling what he was brought in to do and I think over a whole season may have worked out, but the pressure situation clearly got to him and a bunch of underperforming players who really fucked up by being in that position in the first place.

10 hours ago, thetime said:

They've got to be struggling to get a replacement.

Yeah I think that's it. I don't think the consortium was preparing for it to go through when it did, given the deal was seemingly tied up in litigation until January so any conversations with possible sporting directors or managers are clearly being done on the hop afterwards. Yesterday was a great chance for Bruce to prove he was worth a go but the second half was just thoroughly hopeless.

There is going to be work to do. I think the attacking options Newcastle have could be worked into something half-decent - in fits and starts there have been good moments this season - but the defensive unit is in need of a refresh. Or at least better coaching. January is all well and good but there's still over 10 games until then and no guarantee a whole raft of new signings will be arriving immediately when it opens.

[kaosmark2]

34 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Souness was pretty atrocious, and was equally difficult to work out why they felt the ideal replacement for Bobby Robson was someone who was apparently on the verge of being fired by Blackburn Rovers. The fact his watch included Dyer vs Bowyer was pretty bad. I recall it being stupidly toxic by the end of his tenure.

McClaren has to feature among the worst imo. He was thoroughly hopeless. Barely better than John Carver, who was just one meme after another. Shearer was strange - he was very close to fulfilling what he was brought in to do and I think over a whole season may have worked out, but the pressure situation clearly got to him and a bunch of underperforming players who really fucked up by being in that position in the first place.

The squad he inherited from Sir Bobby was great. Consistent top 5 finishes, average age 25 even with Shearer as the main striker. Then Souness drives out Bellamy, Jenas, Woodgate, Dyer, Viana, Robert, signs a load of aging dross, and institutes a training regime that injures everyone else.

McClaren was awful yeah, I felt a lot for Carver as he was mostly just endlessly in because of other managers not being so. Shearer was only close to saving the club from relegation because of how easy it should have been. 7 points needed from 8 games with that squad and home games vs Fulham and Boro included in them. The fact we got 5 is embarrassing.

39 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Yeah I think that's it. I don't think the consortium was preparing for it to go through when it did, given the deal was seemingly tied up in litigation until January so any conversations with possible sporting directors or managers are clearly being done on the hop afterwards. Yesterday was a great chance for Bruce to prove he was worth a go but the second half was just thoroughly hopeless.

There is going to be work to do. I think the attacking options Newcastle have could be worked into something half-decent - in fits and starts there have been good moments this season - but the defensive unit is in need of a refresh. Or at least better coaching. January is all well and good but there's still over 10 games until then and no guarantee a whole raft of new signings will be arriving immediately when it opens.

Agree with both of these points, apart from the idea that Bruce might have succeeded at proving himself.

I think the defensive unit needs a mix of a refresh and better coaching. I've mentioned the full-backs being a priority before, Manquillo is just incredibly mediocre, Ritchie is a 32yr old right-mid who's playing LB because he's lost his pace and there's virtually no other option, Dummett is serviceable but barely. You've also got the fact that Hayden's never played well under Bruce, but even so, most of his good moments before that were showing glimpses of promise and never gaining that consistency is a concern, and there's noone else who can play as a DM.

Under Bruce, the only way we ever defend effectively is with 10 men behind the ball, in which case its dour football grinding out a 0-0. The moment we commit more than 1 player forward the entire unit looks exposed, which is a mix of no midfielder who can add to a defensive shape, and incredibly mediocre full-backs.

[WS_Jack_III]

Rooney now being mentioned in a short term role. Really doesn't sound like what we need, how has he done? He's also managed under really difficult circumstances.

 

Genuinely think NUFC are looking at Championship next season. Also, how TF is Bruce still there, it's beyond crazy now!

[lost]

PL clubs vote to block Newcastle doing internal sponsorship deals:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/18/premier-league-clubs-vote-to-block-newcastle-sponsorship-deals-at-emergency-meeting

[Gnomicide]

19 minutes ago, lost said:

PL clubs vote to block Newcastle doing internal sponsorship deals:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/18/premier-league-clubs-vote-to-block-newcastle-sponsorship-deals-at-emergency-meeting

"Manchester City abstained" 😄 Of course they fucking did.

[WS_Jack_III]

1 hour ago, lost said:

PL clubs vote to block Newcastle doing internal sponsorship deals:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/18/premier-league-clubs-vote-to-block-newcastle-sponsorship-deals-at-emergency-meeting

S*tting themselves, everyone was happy for us to have Sports Direct plastered around the ground for 14 years.