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I live close to Stamford Bridge so, for one reason or another, tend to get quite a few Chelsea tickets (they’re a really fucking horrible bunch). Probably been 12/15 times over the last 2 seasons and I’ve yet to see Werner have a good game. As people have said, he had good stats in Germany, so it might just be Tuchel’s system, but he finishes like Jacob Murphy and has a poorer grasp of the offside rule than Papiss Cisse.

Not a NUFC picture from days of old but a great one of Jimmy Hill departing Roker park after being in with the directors and not wanting to outstay his welcome and the famous mackem hospitality......

He should be made club capstan IMO

Wants to be part of the project as opposed to being a beneficiary of it. That's why the likes of Botman are shrewd purchases and the likes of Ekitike are dodged bullets.

See you next week when you're back onside.

“ NUFC borrow money from bank” sounds better than ‘NUFC are given a huge wedge from bonesaw dude” 🤷🏻

It's not fair Ciggy is the butt of all your jokes, it's not as if he ran out of puff!

Don't know why you are so down on Ciggy tbh, he works extremely hard, he is basically the consulate professional and has the menthol strength to succeed.

I don't think Starmer or any of his shadow cabinet have said that Brexit is a good idea or even that it's fine. They've pretty much said 'we are where we are, lets try to make the best of it'. That involves regulatory alignment and going back into EU programmes but stops short of entering the single market. Starmer has said that we can't relitigate arguments of the past and he's right on that, we can't do it right now. Labour certainly haven't made it a talking point but have set out their position early because the Tories will try to scaremonger that he wants to take us back into the EU. We all want them to come out and win a massive majority on a pro-EU platform that gives them a mandate to reverse the shit of the last six years but that's not going to happen. It will be baby steps and unfortunately that's the best we can hope for right now.

Great post but the red wall shit, nah, he doesn't want to piss the floating voters off who have 'our boys' and 'Britain Uber alles' tendencies. I'll tell you now there's more of them elsewhere than the mythical red wall which was so mighty it's basically had Tory govt after Tory govt thrust on it for decades against it's wishes. In short, it's propaganda and a release valve for those in the south to blame. I've even had encounters on twatter where remainders in the south have had a dig at us, even Newcastle specifically, and when you check out their location they live in Tory constituencies which voted leave. The hypocrisy is off the map with some. They've been fed shite for a reason. Sorry for veering off your post. (There's an apology to help you balance your 'sorrys' out).

It's a key difference in outlook. Your side of this surmises that ousting the Tories will deliver a Labour government which will stealth in a lot of useful policies which will lead us to a better future. Conversations like Brexit and nationalisation can wait for the next GE with, I assume, the logic being that everyone will have realised how amazing Labour are, and will be more tolerant of some more robust left wing ideas. The right wing press are rendered powerless in the face of this, and everything is resolved and we can freely discuss reality again. Then there's my (and NJS and SBTP, not that I want to speak for them) side of this. That Labour are not stealthing in anything, and that what we see at the moment is what we are going to get. The conversation on Brexit will be surrendered into a "who did it better" deal, and we will be farther away than ever from being able to say that the whole thing is fucking ludicrous because both parties will have staked their reputations on backing it. Brexit thus becomes untouchable, meaning the primary controllable reason for our national decline becomes untouchable. If there is not a strong show of support for the idea that the truth about Brexit and how fucking stupid it is should be made very, very clear, then we are all simply buying into the Tory victory in the war if not the battle. This means that Labour are never forced to look again at this and are never forced to accept that their fucking broad church is engulfed in a right wing hellfire - they instead move to the right themselves because they know they can take you and me for granted because we are shit scared of the alternative. But the problem is, Labour can't "out right wing" the Tories. If they try, we lose 5 more years to a government, even a Labour one, which refused to really deal with the main issues that are fucking over the country because they're too politically devastating to talk about - and then 5 years later the Tories come running back in with half a decade of examples of Labour fucking things up (because Brexit cannot be unfucked while it continues), and offer a "true" vision for what Brexit should have been. Labour effectively get them off the hook for the whole fiasco by dipping their hands in the blood, and then we are back to square fucking one with a full 10 years gone by and STILL no one will be brave enough to TELL THE FUCKING TRUTH - because it will STILL cost whoever does it the red fucking wall. And when that happens, people on here will be lining up to tell me that there is too much at stake "this time" to stick to my "principles and ideals", that the Tories are just around the corner, that my issues can come later. For this reason, the only way I would possibly countenance voting for Labour, would be if they bring in PR. That's the only outcome worth making it look like I agree that they should get on with enacting Brexit. Because it would permanently remove the suggestion that I should vote for a slightly saner insanity for fear of absolute insanity. Beyond that, I refuse to choose between decline or slower decline. That's a fucking piss poor set of options and it's only being forced on us because Labour know we are fucking terrified and will vote for anything to get rid of the Tories. That's not a dedication to some nebulous ideal on my part incidentally. That's dedication to wanting a choice better than shooting yourself in the bollocks until you bleed out, or cutting to the chase and just blowing your head off. I refuse, with every fibre of my being, to endorse Brexit. In any sense, whatsoever. Labour are lying to people, they're doing it willingly, and it is pathetic. They don't believe a word they're saying and I honestly don't think any leave voters will buy it anyway. Long term, this lying leads us to an utterly horrifying place, potentially putting us a lifetime away from rejoining - therefore, giving us a lifetime of shit compared to what we could have had. What we did have. I'm not naive enough to think that we will ever get that back now, the writing is on the fucking wall. But this is the hill I'm dying on because I very literally can't compromise my perception of reality anymore to accept this horseshit. And because I don't believe we have a fucking future without internationalism and the breaking down of nation states. "Britain's best days are ahead". Not a single fucking one of them, not even the Tories, believe that. So why do we keep choosing these empty vessels, these worthless, valueless, visionless cowards to represent us? Labour can get to fuck. The Chamberlain to the Tory Hitler. The best we can hope for, perversely, is that Starmer lies to the red wall like he lied to the membership. If he does that, you'll get an immediate apology from me for not believing that he would be such a cunt, even if it's in our favour. I'll make a single dedicated thread for it in fact. The "I'm sorry for not realising Starmer is the most cynical bastard of a politician of our time, I now fucking love the guy" thread.

Nein, nope, njet, non, NOOOOO

In the spirit of honesty I'll admit that I will still vote for my Labour constituent MP, who I know quite well and is a decent man. But on the rest you have persuaded me Starmer is not a solution.

Just no filters you lot ffs

This just proves my point. The Tories have won the argument, we are the same as the US in that any sensible moderate proposal is labelled socialist, even by our own side. We just keep ceding the argument and the Overton window moves inexorably to the right.

Rayvin has absollutely laced you lot in this debate. It boils down to the fundamental importance of truth, without that the country is fucked. Starmer is a liar and a coward. The country can't move on under his stewardship. I'm aware how much I've flip flopped on this issue but I've had enough now. The only thing I care about is the truth. If you can't give me that, if your game is to appease the liars and Gemmill's mam, you can get fucked.

He looked ashen to me yesterday

Different to Wilson and on the trajectory to be better is what I'm expecting.

Be safer holding it in Ukraine, shirley?

Just so a cabal of shady Tyneside business men can reject it #magedia

Wolverhampton have thrown their hat into the ring as a potential host city. I suppose if it's going to be a Ukrainian co-production, it makes sense to pick somewhere that resembles downtown Mariupol.

Sources tell me McNeil is off to Everton

Aye, that’s how I see it. I wouldn’t compare men’s and women’s cricket directly but enjoy both and you can see (a bit like with the women’s football) how the standard has progressed loads in recent times with the players becoming full-time professionals at the highest level.

Might have helped if we'd been watching their players instead

It's not risky for us though is it, it's basically the only collateral we have, only risky if your owners can't back it up, I reckon ours might just be able to. We're stuck with legacy commercial deals, future ones are going to be substantially greater, this IMO is just a FFP friendly mechanism to bring more cash in early because what we "should" have at our disposal right now is way under what it should be all things being equal. Thanks to the FCB.

I just had a load of furniture delivered. The lads turn up. The job is delivery and assembly. Two Indian lads with broad Leeds accents that sounded EXACTLY like the lads off Four Lions. I noticed only one of them carrying stuff so I wandered into the kitchen and the other one is just standing there. "Yeah just had heart surgery bro. Can't lift anything. They're not supposed to send me on jobs with heavy stuff but you can't tell them anything." Two seconds later the phone goes and it's the courier company telling me that one of the lads injured himself on the last delivery (lying cunt!) so I'm only asking and you absolutely don't have to, but one of the items is 82kg, could you please help lift it in and assemble it. So I've just spent the last 45 minutes moonlighting as a furniture delivery driver. They were dead sound tbf and the poor cunt who had the heart attack looked late 30s, healthy, into his body building so fuck knows what's happened there. Rubber dinghy rapids bro.

he should keep his snout out of this

It can only mean one thing. Neymar is on his way

I think that's precisely what it is. Short term bridge to take us to that next level in terms of investment.

Oh shit! board royalty's turned up, going all regal on us.

His passing was smooth as silk, cut right through their defence

I’m tobacc-ing him to have a canny season

He's showing the potential to be the best reader of the game we've had since Woodgate. He's the real deal for me, one of the best purchases of the summer window.

Voting Labour in the hope they'll be "decent" and open the door to moving leftwards is a lie. See the Democrats under Obama and even worse Biden and to a lesser degree New Labour - NL did do some good things but did nothing to change attitudes to smearing the concept of socialism - as illustrated by Blair's quote about preferring a tory government to a left wing Labour party. I'm not as focused on the brexit side of things as Rayvin - I think across the board labour under Starmer will be no different to the tories.

I think they want an up and coming forward in the ekitike mould to compete with Wilson rather than a Billy big bollocks on massive wedge who will expect to start every game. I can see them dropping more money on a right winger/creative midfielder

I think my mam might even be starting to realise it's a shitshow. I was talking to her about the delays at Dover the other day and she was all "it's the FRENCH!" to which my response was "but if we've taken back control how can the French be stopping us leaving our own country" to which her response was "shut up, shut up, I'm not talking to you about it." The next day I sent her a screenshot from an article about increased red tape since we left and how it's doubled the cost to the chemical industry. She just responds with "Shush!" but she fucking knows. My new thing is gonna be sending her news of these Brexit dividends every couple of days in an attempt to counter all the fucking groups she's joined on FB that tell her it's going great.

You know, I think I could honestly get by with the notion that it can't be dealt with next time out but at least Labour aren't going to pretend it's a great and workable idea. That might just about sail on my end - but that's not what we're being served. We are being lied to that Brexit is actually fine but needs implementing properly. So Labour categorically is making it a talking point, and it's the same one the Tories are pushing. Why? Honestly what other reason can there possibly be beyond that they're taking those of us who know the truth for granted, and trying to buy into the lies that leave voters want to hear. I won't have any part of that charade, it's repellant. Labour are costing themselves my vote, I'm not being difficult for wanting a political party that deals in factual reality.

That's him out on loan then

As much as Brexit is unpopular I'd hazard a guess that talking about Brexit is even more unpopular with the general public. People are sick of hearing about it. A fair few voted for the Tories last time in order to 'Get Brexit Done'. They don't want that can of worms re-opened and the Tories would absolutely love Labour to make it an issue at the next election. We aren't rejoining the EU or even the single market in the next parliament, as a country we aren't ready for it, so it's pointless making it a talking issue.

If also add that while I see the points about it being suicide to get into brexit pre-election I also would hope someone has the balls to go at at it in plain English, with easy to establish facts and points out how much damage it's doing and will do. We've all seen the polls on it's popularity so maybe the honest approach could be more beneficial than we imagine?

Must have been watching the Eurovision host city debate and identified it as a potential threat.

I was hard too

Sunak dropped his wallet.

Fender's album nominated for the Mercury Prize.

He's got a moothfull of marbles and a heed full of broken biscuits but like gemmill says, he's enjoying himself so good luck to him. (I won't be smashing the like and subscribe buttons, though).