The Fish

He can drag any club to bottom half cloggers. For us, Everton, West Ham, that's shit, but for the mackems it was the height of ambition. Guarantee if he had the same number of points from his run there, but lost the derby, they wouldn't be half as keen to crawl up his Bisto pipe.

Nailed it. I think Hayden and M.Longstaff were absolutely vital in this. If Shelvey had been on the pitch we would have lost this game. Not just because of the hair trigger on his Hollywood passes, but how little effort he puts in to press or just make himself available for the pass. Longstaff Jr looked leggy as the game went on, which is understandable, and I'd have preferred him replaced with his brother, instead of swapping left backs. Also, Gayle or Almiron for Joelinton rather than keeping him on the pitch when his limited influence had Wayned. Nit picking aside, that was a good performance and, like the Everton game, should be the blueprint for games going forward. Set up like that against lesser sides and our midfield/attack will have more chances as well.

This post prompted me to look at the table for the first time in weeks. I didn't realise how tight it is in the top half. Would have been a good season to be up there.

Think we had a midfield of Butt, Geremi, Smith and Milner for the loss to Derby. Should have lost the home game as well.

Sorry like, but that's bollocks. Scores of managers would like the opportunity to manage a club where the remit is finish 17th or better in the Premier League, with a decent midtable squad. Especially those who have experience managing on limited budgets with a buy-to-sell focus.

Well that's a fucking lie. I have never in my life owned a sleeveless denim jacket.

Fucking scores of worse players than Joelinton. But nobody is going to set the world alight in Bruce's carnival of crap. Maybe if we had the ball, played it on the floor, and created chances he wouldn't look as bad as he undoubtedly does. there's a bit of the JDT about his transfer for me.

Write a song about it?

You want a patented Fishy diatribe instead?

Bruce is closer to McClaren than he is to Benitez, was my point.

From Happy Face's substack; Newcastle United lost a game by three goals for the eighth time in Steve Bruce’s 50 games playing Leeds United tonight. Here’s how that 16% value compares to other permanent managers in the past decade. Five goals were also conceded for the third time. Which, again, still isn’t as bad as McClaren… …but then, McClaren wasn’t sacked for his heavy defeats. He was sacked for his lack of bouncebackability. In Bruce’s case, these embarrassing defeats will, of course, continue to be totally acceptable to the Newcastle decision makers in Shirebrook, as long as points can be scraped elsewhere by hook or by crook and the league position is 17th or higher

No, it isn't. Not for a midtable Premier League side.

By professional drivers, does he mean hauliers?

Sounds good.

We've taken an organic approach to growing the podcast. No guests, no competitions, no regularity, no fucking ideas, and see if that works.

Someone on twitter (I can't remember who) said this season is similar to 2015/16 because how badly the traditional 'big' clubs are doing and asked if a dark-horse could win it. Could Mourinho shithouse Spurs to the title?

Basically whenever the opposition doesn't press. Give our team a bit of time on the ball and they've the individual ability to punish you. Be that Shelvey's passing, or ASM/Almiron's directness. Still think we're crying out for a Cabaye-like player, and for all his Hollywood passes, Shelvey ain't that.

Fair enough. I do feel old when I google these youtubers and find out they're millionaires with millions of people (kids) following them. Like, I'm vaguely aware of pewdiepie(sp?) and KSI, but honestly, what the fuck do they actually do to get these huge numbers of fans?

If you were a top tier fighter and some youtuber put up £50m to fight you, wouldn't you fancy a largely manageable few minutes knocking 50 shades of snot out of him? forgive me if I'm wrong, but hasn't McGregor retired from competitive fighting? Couldn't he treat this like the old golfers treat the Pro-Am stuff they do?

You think if they weren't mostly famous for being our local rivals they'd put in so much effort to claim people, players or teams as MLFs?

This is it for me, Bruce's defenders love to bring up Benitez, because it paints us as unreasonable. Purely looking at how Bruce's Newcastle has performed over the last two season shows a team that can't defend or attack well, that doesn't hold onto the ball, nor put in much effort to get it back. Bruce has arguably the best squad since our relegation in 2016. He inherited a top half defence, and a top class 'keeper. Yes he 'lost' Rondon and Perez, but built upon that solid defence could have been a counter attack side with the pace of Almiron, Saint-Maximin and the passing range possessed by Shelvey, and to a lesser degree Schar, Lejeune, S.Longstaff etc. Now he's got an actual fit-for-purpose striker, more options on the flanks and yet we're still a nothing side. We're still too easy to play through, still too easy to defend against, still don't keep or press the ball and still too often aimless during games. That's all on him and something we've seen reported of his teams at previous clubs. But Edwards and his ilk told us we were unreasonable to greet his announcement with groans and negativity. Now we're supposed to be happy that we are a shit PL side that's one game away from a cup semi-final. On that, how fucking lucky has he been with the draws? Rochdale, Oxford, WBA in the FA Cup last season and Blackburn, Morecambe, Newport, and Brentford in the EFL Cup this time around. Safe bet that the minute we're drawn against a Premier League side we'll go out.

Sadie the bra lady

More than welcome as long as you don't act like an arsehole. Hell, we've tolerated Ugly Mackems and he's a right prick. Bruce's subs won us the game and fair play. But I'm not really sure it was some inspired tactical choice, felt more an act of desperation.

*Record Scratch* *Freeze Frame* Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation

Vendetta is ok, but the 3 I mentioned tend not to be thought of as "comic book movies" because they're not about analogues in spandex.