Polarboy

I see West Ham fans and Simon Jordan are saying that Newcastle fans shouldn't comment on the Zouma thing because we are majority owned by the Saudi's 😂 Our moral authority forever tarnished because we didn't all in unison quit supporting the club because a decision was made that was completely out of our hands. Like I give a fuck 🙄

He played behind Grealish for last season and didn't lose the head, I think he'll be fine 😉

Ginola's stats for us are actually pretty average for the two seasons he was here, 5 goals 8 assists his first season, and 1 goal 5 assists his second, albeit he only played 24 league games the second season. He scored a handful of spectacular goals no doubt, but he was a fair bit more productive when he went to Spurs. ASM's figures aren't far off in his first two seasons, 3 goals 5 assists and 3 goals 4 assists. He's on 5 goals and 3 assists at the minute so he will hopefully eclipse Ginola's best season goal involvement wise. Laurent Robert was mentioned above and out of the three he's was actually the most productive and consistent. First season he was here he got 8 goals and 14 assists. That's getting close to De Bruyne numbers. Not that I'm saying the Robert was as good as De Bruyne of course 😉 Robert didn't quite reach the heights of his first season from them on, but he was steady enough to easily make Ginola and ASM numbers every season after that.

If I'm remembering correctly a pundit was saying that Southampton at home in December 2019 was the last time we came from behind to win a game. It's a mind boggling stat and really frames how shite we were under Ashley and Bruce, but hopefully the lads are fully aware of it, and Eddie is drilling it home so they can take the maximum amount of confidence from the Everton result.

No idea, could be 😉. I won't dash your dreams like Gemmill did.

As has been said Konsa is out for Villa, but apparently Buendia and Coutinho both had to come off with injuries, and are subsequently doubts for Sunday.

Pretty decent video, if a little repetitive in terms of what we already know about Bruno.

As I was saying in the Everton match thread my only worry for this game is the full backs. But as you say Tree, Burn can fill in for the ineligible Targett if Dummett is still going to be out. Thank god we don't have to rely on Ritchie to fill in any more. He's always game to play anywhere, but he simply doesn't have the instincts of a defender. At RB hopefully Trippier will shake off his calf issue, but if there's any doubt around it I'd rather we wrapped him in cotton wool and played Manquillo who, while has a mistake in him, rarely lets us down. We obviously don't want Tripps' injury to turn into a Wilson saga. It's odd to say it about a right back, but Trippier could literally be the difference for us from now until the end of the season. But yeah Villa are nothing special, and hopefully Gerrard's new manager bounce is starting to wane.

Villa, West Ham, Brentford and Brighton the next four, and if the team take as much confidence as they should from last nights result and performance, then I don't see why we can't go on a bit of a run and take 8 to 10 points. All four sides form has been spotty at best, with Brentford looking to be in free-fall and Brighton struggling to score. My only slight worry for Sunday is with Targett ineligible and Trippier a doubt, what's likely in large part made us much more solid, as in having decent full backs played in their favoured positions, will be missing. Hopefully Bruno will start and absolutely boss the midfield thereby making my concern moot 😄 But yeah if we can go on a run, which hopefully two on the bounce is the start of, we could be well on our way to safety by the first week in March. Edit. I will say that I'd trust Dummett at LB and Manquillo at RB to do a job for us for the Villa game, but it becomes a bit more difficult if Dummett is going to be out for an extended period of time. Now that I'm thinking though Burn can play LB so we likely won't have to rely on Ritchie to fill in.

Apparently Trippier had a slight calf issue which is why he came off. Hopefully it is slight and it was just Trippier being sensible that late in the game and coming off as a precaution.

Monkey hands Keys talking before this round of matches. He really hasn't got a fucking clue has he 😂 What else did we learn in the PL break? Well - that Newcastle are still in big trouble, that’s for sure. Their spend in January was interesting I mentioned Wood in the last blog. He’s a solid citizen. Trippier is too, although he’s not going to win you many games. Dan Burn? Underwhelming. So was the addition of Targett. Guimaraes is the wrong man, at the wrong time, at the wrong club for me. Is he really going to dig them out of trouble? I don’t think so. He’s got quality that’s for sure - but he might just be ‘new’ Dmitri Payet. You can see why Newcastle bought him. They just had to land a big one (big-ish) to prove they could, but they came up well short. They were nowhere near the ones they really wanted. All the money on the world doesn’t guarantee success. I don’t see enough goals in them to survive. I was texting a Geordie legend on another matter this week and he agreed - although he mis-understood my question - which was ‘do you think they’ve got enough to come straight back up?’ 🤷‍♂️😂. Another problem which has emerged for the Toon is that two of the other strugglers are going to give it a right go. Norwich are finding some form under Dean Smith - whose been the course before - and Roy Hodgson will get a tune out of Watford. What a great start - their first PL clean sheet in two years and six managers - at Burnley! Hodgson will have been delighted with the result. Yep - if Newcastle are going to stay up they’ve got it all on. I can’t wait for the game against Everton this week. What a difference in the attitude and atmosphere around Goodison for the tie against Brentford. It was as if a stiff breeze off the Mersey had blown the stench of the Benitez era away. I’ve spoken to people who suffered the pain of the Spaniards time with Everton. Three words keep coming up - distanced, difficult and destructive. Three ‘d’s. Here’s another - dunce. Good luck Frank. It’s great to have you back in business. Taking Paul Clement is a smart move. Listen to him talk on KeysandGray The Podcast @keysandGraypod. He’s worked with the very best all over Europe. He’s a smart guy. I’m not suggesting it’s going to be easy for them - quite the opposite - but it was a great start and I think they’ll win at Newcastle this week. Everybody at Goodison looked refreshed.

Joleon Lescott, action man who's been left too near the fire, reckons if ASM looked up more often than he does and played the sensible ball he wouldn't be at Newcastle, he'd be at one of the top European sides. In fairness we can probably all agree on that.

Bruno easily could have created a goal for himself with that ball he played to ASM. Had ASM pulled it back Bruno had bust a gut to get into the box. It also has to be said that it looks like from the replay of Trippier's goal, that Pickford got Gordon to leave a gap in the wall which Trippier duly smashed the ball around. The twat was likely trying to be clever and invite Trippier to try through that gap 😂

I also have to say, when was the last time we had a player in Trippier who was 8 out of 10 at least every week. It was probably big Al.

Trippier is a fucking legend already. A handful of matches and he's already the best right back we've ever had. Have to say Willock is having the best game he's had in a long time.

I actually think it's debatable which miss from Joelinton is worse. The second one you could maybe say the ball was played behind him and he was reaching back. Of course if he was more aware of where the ball is he could time his run to come onto it. If we carry the same energy into the second half we can get the three points. Everton are definitely at least as nervy as us at the back.

DCL surely is given his long injury layoff, and van de Beek has barely played for Man U of course. Alli probably has the most match fitness out of the three and he's been very in and out and is badly out of form of course. Not that I would bang the drum too much about his form given it would be just our luck for to come on and play a blinder.

Van de Beek, Alli and DCL on the bench for them, which in fairness is a pretty decent attacking trio to be subbed on, notwithstanding Alli's form.

All this talk about it likely being a draw I don't get. Lampard's teams are notoriously leaky but decent going forward, so the way I see it is we'll either win pretty handily, or lose by the odd goal. Obviously our defence has been shite this season as well, but there have been signs of improvement even before the last three lads were signed.

Two home wins between tonight and Saturday and we could be a in a very decent position given the fixtures for the teams around us. It wouldn't be a disaster to get four points, but we have to get three from at least one. Nervy 1-1 draws aren't going to cut it if we want to stop up. A win tonight and the confidence it could give us after three points against Leeds could really kickstart our season. A bad loss and we may start to really feel the effect of failing to add to Wood in the forward positions.

You have to say though that he's no Joe Kinnear.

Well that's a very bleak strawman you've created for yourself. Why not add in that a storm will blow a piece of debris down on top of the bench where he's sitting, and kill him dead while you're at it 😂 As for Saul it wasn't being in and out of the team that's fucked him, it was being so atrocious in the first game he started for Chelsea that he was subbed at half time, which has led to him being in and out. Fernandes did come in straight away and play literally three days after he signed, but there is no definite rule on players coming in. Some players settle straight away, some take longer. The best example of someone not settling straight away was Henry in his first season at Arsenal. The point I'm making is that it's the managers job to decide if a player is ready to be thrown in, and whether starting straight away will ultimately speed up or hinder their integration into premier league football.

Which is why you can give him half an hour for perhaps the first one or two matches. And while training is no substitute for minutes on the pitch, they do train in five a sides etc at the pace that they will have to on the pitch. It's not like I'm saying we should take the rest of the season to integrate him, but there's no need to throw him in and hope for the best if he's still settling having just flown into the country on Friday.

It's not just about fitness. The premier league is a different ball game to the Ligue 1. The pace of the PL can take players from other leagues off guard when they first come in. Starting a player from the off who then subsequently has a stinker, and perhaps loses a bit of confidence, would be monumentally stupid. As Fish was saying it's something like Pardew would do, or Bruce, Carver, Kinnear, and every other shit manager we had under Ashley would do. You only have to look at a player like Saul at Chelsea, who was a very decent player at Athletico, to see how poorly some make the transition. Hopefully Bruno won't be as off the pace as Saul of course.

On the plus side at least it's looking like Dan Ashworth is close to becoming our new DOF. His resignation as Brighton's DOF has been announced. The article did mention that Everton were interested as well, so hopefully a blank chequebook will be more attractive to Ashworth than the financial shitshow at Everton. Of course now that Overmars has resigned in disgrace from Ajax for sending sext messages trying to chat up club staff, he could be our backup 😂 First order of business for him, chuck in a cheeky bid for Greenwood. Probably too soon to make that joke, I'll let myself out.