Polarboy

I seen someone make the point that we may need to get Target back into the team to see the best of ASM again. Target is underrated for his ability to release and or pass the ball into areas for the winger in front of him. It had been said previously that he did a lot of work for Grealish when they were both at Villa. Burn has done a decent job at left back, but he's still playing out of position even if he's had a fair bit of experience filling in there for Brighton and now us.

Man U fans/Journos : Well you ran over your granny so why should we be help responsible for doing the same.

Sky were saying that while you can't appeal to CAS you can appeal the decision to the PL who will form a brand new six person body to judge said appeal.

They were hamstrung by how far back they could request evidence. The PL don't have any statute of limitations restrictions.

Supposedly there are leaked emails, I assume obtained through the hacker for Die Spiegel, that prove that Mancini was getting paid by this UAE club. I'm not sure I'd call it a witch hunt exactly. You may be being unfairly targeted given other clubs likely engage in cheating as well, but there does seem to be some sort of case for you to answer. I'd be shocked if you's get completely exonerated of all charges when it's all said and done. It would be monumentally stupid of the PL to bring these charges against Citeh if they didn't think they had the goods when it comes to evidence. Then again the people running it aren't exactly the brightest.

Mancini was supposedly getting paid more by a club in Abu Dhabi for fours days work than he was paid by Man City yearly. If that's indicative of how they operate then there's clearly very dodgy shit going on. Also if Man City had nothing to hide why have they slowed the process down with every trick in the book. It was 18 months ago that a high court judge expressed concern over how long the investigation was taking. Ultimately as I've already said I think the chances of other big clubs not doing similar to cook their books is slim, but your club might have to be the fall guys to get a handle on the rampant corruption in the league. The timing of the British government releasing their white paper on perhaps introducing an independent regulator has come at a poor time for you's, given it will motivate the PL to come down hard on you to make the point that they can regulate themselves.

I don't know the details of the case, but it would seem to me that you wouldn't be paying a 10 million pound fine if you had gotten a "total acquittal". Some clutching of straws going on in the Citeh fan base it seems.

Citeh only got caught out because Die Spiegel magazine in Germany got intel from a hacker. It would be naive to think that any club that can afford the top lawyers and more importantly accountants isn't fiddling the books to some extent. Which is not to say I think clubs should be bending and breaking the rules. Football would be in much better shape if teams only spent what they could comfortably afford.

The problem is, as has been said, we'll never have a better opportunity, at least in this early stage of development, to get top four and the money, sponsorship that brings with so many of the big money clubs being below par. We could invest another 150+ million in the summer and find it much more difficult to finish within the top four next season. If we don't finish in the top four this season we'll miss the opportunity of maybe skipping a few steps in our development.

The problem Spurs have is that they are at their best when can set up to counter like they did against Citeh today; and obviously you can't set up that way against every opponent. It's questionable whether this a turning point in form for Spurs or not, especially when Man City are so out of sorts. Having said all that unless our goal scorers start scoring goals we'll be overtaken whether by Spurs, Brighton or someone else. So hopefully we can get a convincing win away to Eddie's old club next Saturday, and get as many of our goal scorers on the score sheet as possible. Fairly obvious thing to say, but Isak and Gordon will likely be the players who contribute most to dragging us across the line if we're to make the top four. Wilson I hope recaptures his best form, but there does seem to be something amiss with him despite his goal against the 'ammers.

In fairness hasn't Mendy been cleared. Not sure of the details or whether money has just talked in his case. Tragically rape is quite a difficult thing to prove in a court of law. Conversely I know someone who was falsely accused by a women who's accused 3 or 4 men and lost every case. It's become clear that she's literally doing it for the money which is about 20 grand regardless of the outcome of the trial.

Yeah just posted that in the Gordon thread. It all seems a bit dubious, but if he can get away with it and help us get a few results fair enough.

Seems very much like the dog ate his homework as well, but I suppose there's a small chance given how much upheaval has been in his life recently. If he can swerve it fair enough given how important he could be for us over the next few matches. It would be perfect if he scores one against the bin dippers.

I would imagine there's close to zero chance that Gordon doesn't start over ASM against Bournemouth next week. That is unless there's much in this driving while banned thing. I'd be tempted to start Isak over Wilson as well, but now that he's scored he's usually very streaky, so it might be a foolish time to withdraw him if he can score a few and build up his confidence again.

Gordon should drive himself on in one of those little remote controlled cars they had to bring the ball out in the world cup.

My guess is too much analytics and not enough common sense in use.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11712035/Newcastle-star-Anthony-Gordon-face-JAIL-time-getting-caught-driving-road-ban.html There's a worrying pattern emerging for our players and driving offences. Obviously the headline is a bit hyperbolic because the likelihood of Gordon serving time is slim to say the least. As for the alleged offence itself it says he was seen parked, so whether he was shown just in the driving seat or there's actually pictures of him driving it's not clear. We do know that he needed a lift back from the Metro Centre a few days before this, so it would seem he's either had a moment of madness or it's a misunderstanding. Regardless neither he nor the club need this craic given he's just signed and there was already controversy surrounding him. Edit. There's pictures in the sun of him clearly driving the car. What a fucking idiot.

Obviously Howe has more than earned our trust, but if he goes ultra conservative with the second choice my heart will sink a little bit. Then again if we get 6, 7 points in our next three fixtures playing that way it will have been the correct decision.

I like your confidence but in my opinion we'd be unwise to underestimate the pull of the so called top six clubs and London clubs in particular, even if the clubs geographic position is overplayed as an obstacle for us by certain pundits. Although there is of course the argument that we shouldn't be worrying about players who don't buy into the project and or would rather play for a club down south.

Just seen Craig Hope drop Ruben Neves' name as someone we'll go back in for in the summer. We'll be lucky to avoid a lot of competition for his signature and subsequently a bidding war. We just have to hope the teams capable of competing for him have other targets in mind for that position. Chelsea for one are surely well stocked in that position after their spending spree, Man U have Casermiro but I suppose they need quality back up for that position, Spurs have plenty of players of that type but it comes down to whether Conte fancies Neves over them or has other priorities, Liverpool should really be doing everything they can to sign Neves but will probably go for Bellingham who's a great player but Neves is a type they arguably need more, Man City again are fairly well stocked with Rodri and Philips. It would be amusing if Liverpool miss out on Neves to us because we qualified for the CL and they didn't.

It's going to be very interesting to see how we set up tomorrow. The obvious change is Joelinton pushed back into midfield and ASM on the left, but with Isak probably going to be available and Gordon ready to be selected there's a few ways we could go. The answer as to whether Howe still trusts ASM to play 90 minutes will be answered fairly conclusively. Actually now that I think about it it's very unlikely Gordon will start given he's only had one training session with the rest of the squad, and Howe's general reluctance to through players straight in.

He's 22 and Maddison is 26. Also they're not completely different in the sense that Gallagher can also score and create depending on where you deploy him. They're different in the sense that Maddison can also play wide and can't play in a more defensive role like Gallagher, but I think for our squad's needs Gallagher probably fits a little better if it's a choice of one over the other. I'd be delighted with Maddison given as you say he's coming into his prime years, but I think Gallagher has the potential to fit our team ethic and set up more given, as I've already said, he's a better presser of the ball and arguably a better runner, athlete than Maddison. Any deficiencies in technical skill in comparison I believe would be compensated by the other parts of his game. And again given his age he may yet go up a level technically under Howe's tutelage.

According to the Evening Standard we're at the head of the queue for Gallagher come the summer market. There's some rule that means that it's better financially to sell homegrown players so Chelsea are set to clear out players like Gallagher, Loftus-Cheek etc. so they can go on yet another spending binge. I know the majority on here would prefer Maddison, but I honestly think Gallagher, who's four years younger, is potentially of a similar level to Maddison and has a better all round game given he's much better at the defensive side of the game. I'd love to see how much Howe could improve him, again given he's relatively young. Obviously getting both would be the ideal, but I can't see us spunking 80 odd million on two fairly similar players.

Just seen a match report. Apparently the Hearts manager played some weird formation using Kuol and another forward out of position in centre midfield. By the sounds of it, it wasn't Kuol's fault by any means.