Newcastle United 2019 / 2020

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Current Squad
GK's
Martin Dubravka
Karl Darlow
Robbie Elliott

Defenders
Ciaran Clark
Javi Manquillo
Paul Dummett
Jamaal Lascelles
Fabian Schar
DeAndre Yedlin
Federico Fernandez
Florian Lejeune
Jetro Willems
Emil Krafth

Midfielders
Sean Longstaff
Matt Ritchie
Jonjo Shelvey
Isaac Hayden
Miguel Almiron
Rolando Aarons
Jacob Murphy
Ki Seung-Yueng
Henri Saivet
Christian Atsu
Matthew Longstaff

Forwards
Dwight Gayle
Yoshinori Muto
Joelinton
Allan Saint Maximin

As expected, Ashley unwilling to pay anywhere near £5m for Bruce, so it’s stalled.

Joselu finally going to Alaves for £1.7m.

Bruce and his 2 assistants have reportedly resigned. Being reported by Paul Joyce of The Guardian.

Ashley was never going to pay up, so it’s led to this. Bruce to be confirmed this week.

Not a fan of Bruce the manager, or the bloke, but it is, what it is.

I should imagine Sheff Weds will consider taking out an injunction against Bruce, similar to what Palace did when Bruce resigned to take the Birmingham job in 2001. At least until compensation is agreed

Newcastle have offered compensation though.

I’d imagine that will be the original £1m still on the table.

He's not worth £5m. So I have no sympathy for them.

I do find it funny that he's getting "loyalty" pelters on Twitter. It's a bigger job, a dream job, it's in pre-season, he took the Wednesday job on the proviso of conditions around his family and they agreed to that not because they're good people, but because they wanted their man. Managers get shown very little loyalty, Bruce knows that better than anyone; why miss an opportunity like this when he'd only get shafted eventually there anyway?

Christ, imagine being this desperate to get Steve Bruce, a man in the managerial game for 20 years and who has achieved sod all.

Luke Edwards reporting that Newcastle have a deal in place for Joelinton of Hoffenheim, subject to Newcastle appointing a manager. Expect there's a fair bit of substance to that one, and would smash the Almiron fee.

its 4m up front for Bruce and his staff, which with them all resigning this morning I imagine will be accepted so everyone can get on with their lives

Joselu has completed his move to Alaves.

Not overly bothered about the £4m, the Joselu deal pays for half of that. Agreed, hope we can move on now, because ultimately, it’s a crap appointment, and just a return to the cycle of puppet managers at the club, who are just happy to be in employment.

Can't do anything other than get behind him. We've got a month to get players through the door. Granted, Bruce has to be able to do something with them, but, until that window closes, we don't know how it's going to look.

I don't care that he's a yes man. We could've gambled with the likes of Arteta/Viera etc and ended up in the mire. £4m is probably fair game, even if he's not worth it. Dyche was around £15m I believe.

Steve Bruce has been named Newcastle United Head Coach on a three-year deal

What great news.

Odds on him seeing out the full term of that three year deal...1,000,000/1.

Newcastle 0-1 Wolves

Bruce out.

0-3 HT

Absolute car crash of a season ahead

See where we are at the end of the transfer window, but yeah.

Joelinton for £35m. Only 22, but a pretty dismal goal scoring record, not only for Hoffenheim, but for Rapid Vienna too. Big gamble, but we need Rondon’s replacement.

That is a lot of money, but the potential for a big sale is there. I suppose a concern when you're spending that much money on one player and you're Newcastle is will there be much more money to spend?

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:That is a lot of money, but the potential for a big sale is there. I suppose a concern when you're spending that much money on one player and you're Newcastle is will there be much more money to spend?

It’s the Ayoze Perez money, which is separate from the original summer budget. Club state Bruce will be backed further, and targeting full backs, and two midfielders. Ashley has spent £55m recently on Almiron, and Joelinton?, so we’ll see how much more he’s truly willing to invest.

Shelvey and Darlow also involved in fight outside a pizza shop, pre going on the China tour. The club that keeps on giving.

I understand the logic, but it's Ashley. So the original budget could be a number or an empty cupboard

I see we had Matty and Sean Longstaff in the midifeld at one point today. Lots of young academy lads getting plenty of gametime.

Its good to see.

I thought Matty was being released. But yes, great to see.

Did you see Shelvey's comments on Rafa? Thought they were quite telling.

No i havent seen that...what did he say?

Just read it all...very interesting...

Not surprising. Shelvey was an outcast under Rafa, and preferred Diame, Hayden, Longstaff, and Ki. Inevitable he was going to come out with comments like this, and start brown-nosing, Bruce. Rafa was right to sideline Shelvey, because in a relegation dogfight, Shelvey proved himself to be a liability.

Still waiting on Joelinton. Rumours of Dwight McNeil too from Burnley, but I can’t see that happening.

There's also a link with Allain Saint-Maximin from Nice as they've lowered their price.

Always a bloody hold up with us.

Colback made the same comments, i find it interesting that for all his positives, Rafa was quick to freeze players out?

Signed Kyle Scott from Chelsea. Apparently, working on a deal for Jarrod Bowen, who has impressed me. We’ve also entered talks with Stanley N’Soki from PSG at left back.

Not totally convinced on Saint-Maximin, looks all tricks, and no end product. Most worrying, would be Vieira claiming he’s a bad egg, not something we’d want in the dressing room

Im quite happy with the signing of Scott and if we can get Bowen that would be very good.

Decent win v Hibs. Apparently a decent performance.

——————-Joelinton——————
Almiron————————Saint-Maximin
——————————————————-
————Longstaff—-Shelvey—————
Willems———————————-Yedlin
——-Schar—-Lascelles—Lejeune——-
——————-Dubravka———————-

Starting to take shape. Some serious pace in wide areas. Decent squad in behind with Ritchie, Hayden, Fernandez, Atsu, Ki, Muto, Scott, Darlow, Dummett, Gayle, Murphy & Colback. Expect there might be some departures this week, from that list of players.

All in all, Ashley has barely spent anything, probably £25m, once you take into account the sale of Perez.

Very true.

Whats your thoughts on young Matty Longstaff...

Unsurprisingly, we look terrible against Arsenal. Even more worrying, is it’s against Arsenal B. Could tell Longstaff wasn’t fit enough from the get-go. I fear, Almiron, is going to be a huge flop, all pace, and just no end product. Been a really poor performance, the second half was a shambles, and the formation looked a mess. Joelinton looked decent, but not sure where the goals are going to come from, if he gets no service.

I see Rafa has broken his silence...

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/after-three-years-of-unfulfilled-promises-i-didnt-trust-them-rafa-benitez-goes-on-the-attack-against-newcastles-hierarchy-and-claims-he-turned-down-mega-money-offers-to-stay-in-the-north-east/ar-AAFJJSy?ocid=ientp

Just John wrote:Absolute car crash of a season ahead

It’s happening

I think you have to wait until Mike Ashley goes.  Newcastle seem such an investable club - but for some reason it is not attracting a big investor.  In the summer there was rumour that Newcastle had supposably more or less been sold to an Arab Sheik from the Arab Emirates or Dubai.

GeordieFalcon wrote:I see Rafa has broken his silence...

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/after-three-years-of-unfulfilled-promises-i-didnt-trust-them-rafa-benitez-goes-on-the-attack-against-newcastles-hierarchy-and-claims-he-turned-down-mega-money-offers-to-stay-in-the-north-east/ar-AAFJJSy?ocid=ientp

Have to laugh at the bit about Rafa's, "shock resignation" - like he hadn't been making his dissatisfaction pretty clear for some time.

Quite the scumbag move on Ashley / Charnley's part, painting a pretty bleak picture as far as transfer policy went...then blowing £40m on Joelinton after Rafa's departure. Not that any one player is going to solve the team's problems. Could end up being a white elephant of a deal.

Biggest mistake though, by a mile, was appointing Steve Bruce - a manager who's been sacked, or resigned from god knows how many clubs. Can't cut it in the PL and only an average record in the Championship. Expect he will either be sacked around Christmas / New Year, or else Newcastle will be playing 2nd tier football next season.

Makes me sad as a Boro fan who grew to like Newcastle and Rafa (actually liked Benitez since he was Liverpool manager).

Spurs 0-1 Toon

No idea where that has comes from

Just John wrote:Spurs 0-1 Toon

No idea where that has comes from

Sit deep, defend for your lives and hope to get lucky on the counter?

From what they said on MOTD and reading the match report, Spurs had a huge amount of possession but struggled to break Newcastle down.

Spurs can blow hot & cold and do have odd results like this. Think Toon will be found wanting against better teams, but it could be Bruce has found a formula that works...enough for relegation not to be a major worry anyway.

Seems a long time ago, since we saw Benitez’ tactical masterclass over Rodgers. Car crash of a season. It’s just how long Ashley waits until he removes Bruce.

We are going down I’m afraid to say.
No forward threat to speak of. We have been taken apart by Leicester who have been miles ahead in every department. Bruce was a joke of an appointment and the fans will soon enough tell him exactly how they feel. Expect lots of empty seats in the coming home games. It’s an embarrassment and I’ve never felt this disillusioned as a Newcastle fan.

That looked painful!

And with Man Utd (even as poor as they are), Chelsea and West Ham in your next few fixtures, there's no relief in sight.

Incompetent chairman, a hopeless manager and players who are either out of their depth or just don't care. Any one of those you could just about deal with. All three though and you have a worryingly dysfunctional club.

Hope I'm wrong, but I reckon Ashley will only act when its too late...or if there are mass demonstrations by the fans, to the point they start throwing stuff at his car, or something. He seems so pig-headed, I think it would take something like that for him to get the message.

newballs wrote:We are going down I’m afraid to say.

Signs of Bruce beginning to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his squad now. Seems to of found a formation and style of play, that is bringing, or maximising, the most out the players at his disposal. No fan of Bruce, but he deserves some credit recently, and back-to-back wins in the PL, are huge for clubs in the bottom half of the PL.

Currently have 15 points and only two points off fifth place. Incredible really, given the supposed crisis and depressing picture, most of us were painting a short time ago. Keep it up, Bruce

Next a trip back to one of his old stomping grounds.
Hopefully 3 points for the villa.

As you say fair play to Bruce. Doing better at this stage than many thought.

Sounds like you should have won by more today.

Migggggyyyyy!!!

Bruce revolution continues

Looks like the deal is done and Ashley is gone.

Yep, although we have to wait, until it’s officially confirmed. 2-3 weeks for paperwork and background owner checks.

Seems the financial situation of Ashley’s other ventures during this crisis, and with Debenhams tanking, has finally put pressure on him to sell up. As for the Saudi investment, I’m sure some are not overly keen, given their tarnished image, and human rights record, but will happily turn a blind eye, just for the sake of finally ending Ashley’s ownership.

Not expecting this to be any kind of Man City copy cat job, or lead to the success they’ve enjoyed. I’d expect there will be sizeable investment into the squad & training facilities, but not to anywhere near the level seen at the Etihad. Doubtful to see any real change for three or four windows, once normality returns, and I would expect Bruce’s days are numbered too, given this new ownership.

John,
I was talking to my pals last night about this.

Im happy for there to be players brought in, but i really hope we can mirror the Keegan times when there was a good core of local / british players. Beresford, Clark, Watson, Elliot etc etc.
At the moment only the Longstaffs have come through and are starters...we need more.

For that to happen, your bang on...there needs to be huge investment in the accademy and training facilities.

Football is a religon in this area, and its crazy the lack of players being brought through.

Yes i would say Bruce will be on his way. Benitez back?

I suspect Mike Ashley may be looking at trying to invest in retail like he did in 2008 but will need the money to do it, hence selling Newcastle. I think he's accepted that Newcastle aren't going to increase in value any time soon.