Craig

BTW out of the last 5 world cups Scotland have qualified for, they’ve played Brazil in the group stage in 4 of them!

I genuinely thought the YMCA thing was a piss take. Of course it wasn’t! I genuinely think I’ve died and this is some lucid representation of hell on earth!

Laggy again right now. If we need to put our hands in our pockets to help improve performance, I’m up for helping.

Fucking kids trying to teach Rio about how a draw works. Maybe they should teach him how football works as well, the Ashley-sympathising bell end!

Just draw the fucking balls and stop sucking Trump’s pipe you sycophantic cunts

Shaka Hislop been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer apparently.

Newcastle want to be 'top club in world' by 2030 - Newcastle: CEO wants club to be among 'top' in world by 2030 - BBC Sport The year is 2030. Newcastle United are "perennial contenders" competing for the biggest prizes in the game, and "in the debate about being the top club in the world". This is the bold five-year vision of David Hopkinson, who was recently appointed as Newcastle's new chief executive. "That kind of progress doesn't take as long as you might think," the Canadian said bullishly. "First off, we need to be totally aligned about the fact that that's what we want to do. "We have to have the courage to ignore those that doubt us, and even those that laugh at us. Because there will be some." Such scepticism is not in question, at a time when Newcastle lie in 12th place in the Premier League table, but there is context to Hopkinson's way of thinking as he talks of "constructing an organisation whose sole purpose is to win". Hopkinson previously spent the majority of his career at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, where he oversaw the commercial activities of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors were, as Hopkinson put it, "lost in the woods" in 2014 before going on to win the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship for the first time just five years later. There may not be the play-offs to fall back on in the Premier League, like there are in basketball, but Hopkinson believes Newcastle are at the intersection of the "most transformational opportunity" in sport. The 54-year-old has not shied away from a bold time-frame, as a result, even if this is obviously a very different ball game. "If it's not time-bound, it's fantasy," he said. Bridging a huge revenue gap Yet it is clear such a dramatic shift won't happen overnight - even if Hopkinson rates head coach Eddie Howe as a "special" manager. Hopkinson has carried out an in-depth review since coming in back in September - submitting a transformation plan with closely-guarded milestones for each of the coming seasons to the club's owners - and he is the first to admit that there is "a lot of work to do". Newcastle's revenues are set to increase to more than £400m, which represents a huge increase on the £140m figure posted in 2021 But they still have an almighty gap to bridge on, say, Manchester City, who generated £715m in income a couple of seasons ago. This enabled Manchester City to spend nearly £200m more on wages than Newcastle within the financial regulations in 2023-24 and, historically, the clubs with the biggest salary bills tend to pick up the most points in the league. Finding a way to turbocharge revenues will therefore be a key focus for Hopkinson, who also previously served as president of Madison Square Garden Sports and, perhaps, most relevantly, the head of global partnerships at Real Madrid. Michael Sutherland, who worked alongside Hopkinson at Real Madrid, as the club's chief transformation officer, said the executive brought "a lot more structure and a more professional approach to the way sponsorships were managed". "You could say, 'It's Real Madrid. It's the easiest role in the world because who doesn't want to sponsor the club?'" he said. "But it creates a different problem. "You are basically selling the concept of being with the best club in the world so if Real Madrid don't have a good season, and don't win a championship, that heavily impacts your value proposition to sponsors. "But one of the things that changed a lot was the sophistication of the types of partners we were able to offer and, particularly, the speed with which we were able to execute." 'Manchester City were able to get there earlier' There are potential areas of uplift at Newcastle. Though the number of employees has doubled to more than 550 staff members in recent years, Newcastle have gaps in key senior areas to fill. The digital and data side of the club both need significant work, and are a long way behind their rivals. Hopkinson has also cited "less obvious opportunities" with global partners, beyond companies linked to Newcastle's majority owners, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia. There had once been a tangible fear among top-flight executives that Newcastle could enter into especially lucrative sponsorship deals with Saudi Arabian firms through the PIF. A senior figure elsewhere, who contacted the Premier League on behalf of his club and 10 others, even requested that notice be given of a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions just five days after the takeover in 2021. Associated party transaction (APT) rules were later voted through by the overwhelming majority of top-flight clubs to ensure deals were of fair market value. This was always going to be a more gradual build, as a result, as football finance expert Kieran Maguire explained. "Manchester City were able to get there earlier when there was no such thing as associated party transactions, when you didn't have to go through a constant series of hoops and constraints before being able to sign a sponsorship contract and they benefited from that," he said. "It's that much more difficult now and, if you're a sponsor, who are you going to try and go for? You're going to go for those clubs who have got the big trophies to put alongside their product." 'We've got to keep raising the bar' There are other ways to boost revenue streams in the long run, of course. Not least match day income. But there remains ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of St James' Park and Hopkinson recognised the club will be at the stadium in its current guise for "many years", regardless of whether the ground is renovated or a new one is built. "We're modelling a multitude of different scenarios," he said. "But even if we were to make a decision tomorrow, which we're not going to do, it still takes years of permits, planning, finance, construction, etc. That's the case whatever we choose." Clearly there are some big decisions to be made regarding infrastructure as a whole. Sporting director Ross Wilson, who followed Hopkinson through the door, from Nottingham Forest, said work is ongoing to effectively double the footprint of the club's existing training base. But the club recognise the limitations of the Benton site and are also planning a major investment to build a new state-of-the-art training ground elsewhere. It neatly sums up the breathless challenge Newcastle face across the board to one day gatecrash the elite. "A lot of the conversations we're having, other clubs are having as well," Wilson added. "We have got to keep raising our bar because everyone else is raising theirs at the same time."

Why are women evacuated first in a disaster? So men can think of a solution in peace.

He played the first half at West Ham but got howked at HT - thought at the time it was because he was awful but maybe he is injured.

We have, IMO the best full back pairing in the league. And whilst the media wax lyrical about Timber & Califiori, I'm happy for our pairing to remain mainly under the radar. Hall's deliveries have been nothing short of world class. Best LB I've seen during my time.

It's both for me - we need to make our dominance count - first half was criminal that we didn't score - but we need to not be sacrificing our midfield because Spurs just pushed numbers forward. Let's face it they effectively played Romero up front - he was their central defender last night. We'd have been more likely to catch them on the break. Felt we lost our identity and with it, 2 points.

O'Neill worked brilliantly alongside Goddard. Unfortunately they thought he was good enough to be his replacement at the age of 19. Threw him under the bus ... and then Smith didn't rate him.

Aye, I think the point I was trying to make was the sale of those 3 suited all parties (in one way or another). The sale of Anderson suited no-one, although Forest have benefited from it (probably more than they anticipated).

In line with what the commentators said but we were at home against Spurs whose shape was all over the place. I understand the reasoning, I just don't understand our mindset - we should have been taking the game to them rather than invite the pressure - added on time the ball was pretty much all in our final 3rd. The crowd seemed quite quiet last night as well, or was that just me?

I'm struggling to understand the Schar substitution if I'm honest. We're winning at home against a team we're expecting to beat and that's the trick we pull. I'd understand it if we'd sneaked the lead away at Arsenal, but it's like we were inviting the pressure by diminishing the midfield. Having slept on it, I'm still of the view the blame for both goals are on BDB and if he does what's expected of him, they don't happen. That doesn't mean I want him dropped / flogged / banished, but he is accountable. I think he's reaction, particularly to the first goal, meant he thinks so too.

I need to see it again but I think he may have been unsighted for the second one, or rightly expected it wouldn’t come right through at least. The first one is squarely Burn’s fault. Romero should never be getting to that ball first, it’s a schoolboy error and gave Ramsdale no chance.

I’m not sure it’s a positive, more an expectation - particularly these days.

Spurs were fucking awful man, they didn’t just play like we were the superior team, we WERE the superior team. Any time they pressed forward there was no one in the middle. It took their central defender to do anything. They were considerably worse today than they were when we howked them 6-1 and were 5-0 after 20 mins. To not get 3 points from that isn’t disappointing, it’s embarrassing.

The difference between the sale of Anderson compared to those of Waddle Beardsley & Gascoigne was that it was only necessary to satisfy some bullshit fiscal ruling. At least when we sold the other 3 it was to keep the club afloat financially/ we couldn’t compete with their ambition. Anderson is sadly the example that proves PSR was a nonsense.

Few points * We should have been out of sight by half time. * I’m not convinced it was a pen but I’m glad it was given. They need to be consistent and there needs to be fuckload more penalties if that was one. * Burn in particular had a stinker - at fault for both goals. * The way we’ve sat back on a lead (again!) is infuriating. We cannot defend leads and yet more points lost in added on time. * Romero is a cunt.

The rumour of Tino to Man City just won't seem to go away - to the point where I won't be at all surprised if it happens. This is where we as a club need to be more dynamic. If they're not planning for that possibility then they're falling short - an additional full back definitely needs to be on the shopping list.

Already in my acca

New crest will come before a new stadium, anyway.