If we go a bit further back, it’s not that much of a “shift” from Bellingham and Sancho going to Dortmund, is it? But everything has to be written in absolutes nowadays, so yes Olise has completely changed the way all PL players view the Bundesliga. Seismic.
And to think some of the terminally-online were touting a conspiracy theory where he did that in return for a big-money move to Saudi!
Haha! Can’t say the same for your front lawn, mind.
For a moment there I thought you were doling out fashion tips while wearing a really tight pair of orange trousers.
Ossie Ardiles at Newcastle United’s Benwell training ground in an episode of the BBC’s Spender.
Jimmy Nail on the volley.
One-nil to the TV detective.
Also remembered @camsell59.bsky.social wasn’t the only celebrity visitor to Benwell that year.
Catching up on the @wsc.co.uk ‘s pods and there’s a wonderful section on @camsell59.bsky.social’s 1991 visit to #NUFC’s Benwell training ground, where “We don’t practise set pieces cos Ossie (Ardiles) says if you know how to kick a football then you know how to take a corner”.
Perhaps Jesmond’s Dubstar from now until May. “Is it asking too much to be given time?”
Sad, isn’t it? There’s a moment for every manager when a break seems best. I do wonder if he’ll call it a day and take a year out. People would be wise not to kid themselves that him leaving solves every problem at the club, though. Could be just as likely to exacerbate many of them.
Egg bowling’s Friday nights.
Haha! They both had a way with words.
A hotel garden with palm trees and Canadian balconies
Haven’t watched any football today, but did have a coffee with the lovely Mr Chris Nagle, who produced or sound engineered about half the music I grew up listening to, and the only song I ended up talking to him about was Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (it’s a long story).
Fair point to an extent. Social media is unrepresentative of the wider fanbase and the fanbase is nowhere near as militant as I’d like it to be. Easy for people to mock boycotts and walk-outs, but sustained protest might have been a better option than the silent resignation of ST holders.
Yes, gets the hope out of the way early. My second game was my birthday the following year. We won 4-1 versus Sheffield Wednesday. Always a club of extremes.
I remember the cloying smell of stale beer, fried onions and the Gallowgate bogs, the creeping pain of sitting on a pebbledash crash barrier, dad making us leave early, and overhearing a bloke calling me “a shitey kid” for reading the programme in the second half. Not quite the SBR quote, I know.
Programme for Newcastle United v Coventry City Apr 17 1985.
Still have this somewhere in a box, along with faded memories of watching Gary Megson, Malcolm Brown and Pat Heard in black and white.
Nice bit of personal symmetry that Coventry City were promoted back to the Premier League on April 17th - 41 years to the day since I saw them play at SJP in my first ever #NUFC game. We lost 1-0. Of course we did.
Marc Hottiger celebrating a screamer at Ewood Park.
He was quite good in January 1995.
Tony Hadley on why he voted for Brexit.
Absolutely.
I wonder how many more managers this particular squad will get sacked?
But, if either happens, people should also remember he’ll be carrying the can for other people’s mistakes and not just his own. There’s no guaranteed fix in changing the manager, and a lot of people’s expectations seem to be based on the cash and not the competence our owners have.
The movement to the exit feels semi-irreversible. Football’s a short-term industry and when results are bad the manager is almost always the one to go. That’s just reality. If the next six games go badly, there’ll be a lot of clamour to make a change. I can also see Howe taking a break.
I think we can’t definitively say if he is or isn’t better at smart squad management in the context of CL/PL as, unlike Emery, we’ve lacked a settled recruitment policy for 2-3 years. But plenty of Villa fans criticising Emery too a few weeks ago. “Nobody willing to listen”? Or just don’t agree?
“We’ll do ok.” You mean like winning a major trophy and qualifying for the CL! If I was him, I’d leave in the summer and take some time out, but I think some of our fans need to take a bit of a reality check at the same time.
We’d also have to ignore the data of what happened above him in the two seasons since then, right? Unless you’re putting all of that solely on him.
As for not being able to manage CL and PL, he clearly couldn’t the first time. But I’d suggest that might also be a lot harder than it looks - unless, as with this 2030 stuff, we manage to find a few hundred million quid where that dead pigeon used to be in the Gallowgate.
So people say he can’t make players elite. Then you say Isak arrived unproven. We all then saw his goals and his transfer fee - clearly he was second only Haaland for two seasons. So Howe can do it, right? If you want another 11 like that, you might need a bit more than 4 years, though.
Who says he’s untouchable? I’m just countering that particular point. As for stated ambition and 2030, I wouldn’t bother thinking about that at all.
The problem with arguments like the one you’re making is they always ignore inconvenient data. Tonali has been awful this season? Not consistently and he did have a serious illness which knocked form and fitness for a long time.
