David Kelly

I'm in Germany this weekend so I'll be cheering him on against Ireland on Sunday.

For all it looks like Spurs transfer window was good, and their first two games were impressive, they were unbelievably bad against Bournemouth. I know it's only one game and you could certainly point to Bournemouth running over us up here last season, but it still strikes me that Spurs are still not close to stop being spurs. I do expect them to do much better than last season though, probably closer to what they looked like the season before.

Surely Hall is our first choice leftback? I think it's more likely that Wissa is ready to start up top at first as he only has to get used to us not the league. But I'm hopeful Woltemade ends up is first choice fairly quickly. Although I don't think it's necessarily about first choice any more with the exception of our midfield as can't see much likelihood of anyone other than those three regularly starting games as a tactical decision.

Think that needs to be moved to the rat thread so we can all ignore it.

I really don't see JSL as being a better option even if he was available. His record is one in over 3.5 whereas Wissa is close to on in two. And he's played a significant portion of his career on the wing. Yes JSL is younger and he may improve (doubt it myself) but really we're only likely to have someone worth more at the end of 4 years. Financially that may be of benefit but I don't see that he is likely to be a better option on the pitch.

Some of the spanish release clauses are absolutely massive. I'm sure even in the relative positions of both us and him, a release clause of over £100m wouldn't have been out of the question at all. Whether or not it would have got to £130m or £150m I'm not so sure, but I think you're underselling it.

Yeah I agree that we've overpaid on Wissa. Actually he is probably the deal we could have done early if we'd got in there before they sold Kinder Bueno to Man U. If we'd went in for him then we could have probably saved ourselves £15m or more. By the time we'd got to him that ship had sailed. I've been extremely down on the situation we're because of PSR rules designed to protect the elite but the fact is, if we were better set up we'd have a much better chance of circumventing them (at least to an extent). Our situation over the last two summers has resulted in us losing our two most promising young players and then over paying on Wissa (and possibly losing out on a good deal to sell Osula). It's certainly something that we need to address and hopefully we have a new CEO coming in very shortly who will in turn result in a successful new sporting director in place before January so by then we're in a position to quickly act if we need to. The sale of the rat should allow us to be much more flexible in the next couple of windows if we need to be so having that setup behind the scenes is essential.

Woltemade was heading to Bayern all summer and only didn't because they wouldn't pay what Stutgart wanted. There wasn't a deal there to be done for less. Personally I see nothing in JSL to suggest he would be a better bet for us than Wissa. Neither look like a player who I see a big improvement coming from and the only benefit to him would be his age. Wissa is overpriced with a year left on his contract but that's of no concern now. We didn't have things lined up at the start of the window and our senior management has been a mess, I don't think anyone would argue against that, but what we have ended up with makes me about as happy as I could be. I won't consider a window that resulted in us starting the season without a striker as a good one, but we've ended positively.

He's mine. Murphy has shown some worth in the last two seasons. Wilock has done fuck all since that pass against Spurs.

I'm honestly quite happy with our replacements. Wissa is certainly an improvement on the Wilson we've seen for the last 18 months. He who shall no longer be discussed was always going to be impossible to replace completely given where we currently are in the project. There are no like for like replacements so the options are players who are premiership ready but you can't see ever getting close to his standard or younger players from outside of the premier league who have the potential get up and around that level. I'm not saying Woltemade will get up to that level, but he was one of very few players out there (Sesko, Aghowa, Ekitike) who look to have that sort of potential and also ready to play a part in the league and champions league this year. The hype around Sesko is the highest but what I've seen of him internationally and so far for Man U, he seems like he's still a long way off fulfilling it. I can see our two new strikers scoring more combined this season (even after missing the first three games) than our two scored last year so I don't think we are in a worse position. We may actually be in better one as it was clear we had to play the cunt last season regardless of whether he was fully fit or interested. We know these two want to be here and is one is jaded we can play the other and their profiles give us more in the way of options to play one or the other against different teams, or play both together. My only concern from this summer is (excluding the fact we didn't have a full team to start the season) the midfield. We all know that the starting three of Bruno, Tonali and Joelinton can match up to anyone. But I'm not convinced in losing Longstaff and just bringing in Ramsey, we have given ourselves much more in the way of options to allow us to rotate those three and keep them fresh. I like what I've seen so far from Ramsey but I'm not sure he's someone who I can see Howe wanting to start in place of any of the others.

Willock

Newcastle Signing of the season: Voldermorte Top goalscorer: Wissa Most assists: Elanga Biggest surprise: Ramsdale Best Young player: Miley Player of the season: Sandro PL finish: 5th Trophies? No League Champions: Liverpool Rest of the top 4: Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City Bottom 3: Brentford, Leeds, Burnley Top scorer: Harland First Manager Sacked: Potter

I think it's time to just forget about the cunt and use our energy on the players who are here.

I think another midfielder would be a very good move. Willock isn't good enough and we still don't know if Miley is yet either. There's still a weakness in our options there for me. I can't see Howe ever picking anyone but Bruno, Tonali and Joelinton if they're all fit. We should be looking for someone who could change things.

Ornstien saying a 25% sell on fee but I don't suppose that ends up being massively relevant at his age (although fuck knows how much the going rate will be for a striker in 3 years time) and paying 50% this year and 50% next.

4 years I read.

Still don't think it can be considered a good window which has left us 7 points behind because we started the season without any strikers. That being said, whilst I wouldn't say that Voldermort and Wissa is currently better than Isak and Wilson, them two combines with the other signings gives us a stronger squad than we started, and finished, last season with.

Again I can't be arsed to learn AI (until the hunter killers arrive) so I apologise fwiw.

Well only in the sense that all players are cunts as they all think that. Fortunately they don't all go on like he has as well. Mind you're still getting reporters on sky sports news saying it's hypocritical saying what he's done so far is any worse than what goes on all the time in transfers. Nowt like encouraging players to be cunts more than they are already. Of course I've no doubt this wouldn't be their opinion if it was a player at one of their precious big 6 doing what Isak has done.

Apologies for the shit formatting but I can't be arsed to learn to do this shit properly.

Gianluca Di Marzio @DiMarzio Translated from Italian by Grok Il@NUFC returns strongly on Davide Frattesi: proposed to @Inter a loan with obligation to buy but on non-obvious terms. The Nerazzurri want greater guarantees and possible closure in a short time @skysport Rate this translation:

They all think that though. Not saying he's not a cunt but I don't think you can really cite this a strong example of it.

I think the most likely outcome is as soon as we confirm the Eric, the scouse cunts will come in with a bit of around £120m + add ons. Hopefully we knock that back as unacceptable but if the add ons take it close to £130m I think we'll eventually accept. Maybe we can get Isak to put in the transfer request and that seals the deal.

That's exactly what my Leeds supporting mate is thinking.

Howe just said he doesn't think it will be possible to have him registered in time to play.