Our 21-year-old local lad Sean Longstaff is certainly starting to make a name for himself, and he had yet another excellent game in the Newcastle engine room at Wembley.
Sean seems to stroll through these games and never seems to be hurried which is always the sign of an excellent player.
Sean could keep his place when Shelvey and Ki are fit again, and he deserves to stay in the starting eleven on merit.
And the England selectors are looking at him for a possible England U21 call up.
He’s the find of the season for Newcastle and reflects well on our U21 coaches.
And second in the voting is one of our very best players since he came in for the second half of the 1-0 first win of the season at home to Watford.
Sean Longstaff signing a new four-year deal in December
Schar is turning out to be an absolute bargain buy at only £3M from Deportivo.
His incredible clearance off the line in the second half yesterday was something to behold.
He’s an excellent player, and it looks like he’s now a regular starter for Rafa.
The lads did very well yesterday, and we were unlucky to lose to a late goal.
Comments welcome.
117 comments so far
bettyswallocks
Feb 3, 2019 at 10:46 PM
Comment #81Club policy apologists are obviously regrouping to plan their next strategy.
toon22
Feb 3, 2019 at 10:54 PM
Comment #82If MA was selling the PR would be gone
They obviously arnt
bettyswallocks
Feb 3, 2019 at 10:56 PM
Comment #83Aye you might be right froggy.
jordijohnty
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:03 PM
Comment #84Seeing as how Almiron was targetted back in november, I can understand rafas frustration with the running of this club. He wont be eligible to play until the 11th february. Defend that incompetence
RobLeenio
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:29 PM
Comment #85ben.g, thanks for the posts re Atlanta’s poor behaviour over the Almiron transfer. Very interesting. Looks like the hold-up was more at the selling end than at the buying end. I remember before Christmas the sale price in the papers jumped massively and we thought it was just rumour, maybe it was accurate and Atlanta were the ones guilty of moving the goal posts.
If Atlanta thought they could squeeze more money out of Ashley, they obviously hadn’t done their homework very well.
In the end, there was about four days between Atlanta announcing the signing of Pity Martinez and Almiron getting on a plane to the UK, so it moved fairly swiftly once Atlanta started to play ball.
RobLeenio
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:35 PM
Comment #86“He wont be eligible to play until the 11th february”
Or, to put it another way, he’ll be eligible to play in our next match.
Sheesh, glass half empty much?
NY Mag
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:36 PM
Comment #87Rob,
I remember Darren Eales not so long ago saying that they wouldn’t even entertain a discusssion for Almiron unless the starting price was above $30M – it’s all part and parcel of negotiating
RobLeenio
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:40 PM
Comment #88NY Mag, evening fella. Agreed, although you’d have thought we would have had a valuation conversation before Atlanta gave us permission to speak to Miggy.
Generally at least a loose agreement of value has to happen first, which suggests Eales was trying to pull a fast one.
martoon
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:47 PM
Comment #89Jimiley it never ceases to amaze me how you come on here and spout absolute rubbish.
First the signing of Almiron has not softened fans towards Ashley – at the Man City game which was just after the announcement there were more “get out of our club” chants than I can remember for quite a while.
Secondly gate money goes towards running of the club and staff wages not into Ashley’s pocket.
Thirdly Ashley may well have taken money out the club to repay his loan (nobody knows for sure) but it is SD who have bought the likes of HOF not Ashley himself!
NY Mag
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:49 PM
Comment #90Rob,
I find the whole ‘transfer’ business in football fascinating……there’s no ‘formula’ you can apply to it….so it really is a bid / counter bid, bluff / counter bluff going on.
The only deals that seem to happen quickly are when the top teams are involved with lesser teams (meaning when one of the big guys wants to take the star player from the lesser guys).
Which probably means they are overpaying.
In fact it’s in the interest of the top teams to push prices up – essentially pricing other teams out of the market
RobLeenio
Feb 3, 2019 at 11:59 PM
Comment #91‘fascinating’ or a complete mess?
😉
toon22
Feb 4, 2019 at 12:04 AM
Comment #92Yes Martoon
MA is our financial saviour
Nobody believes that anywhere
toon22
Feb 4, 2019 at 12:05 AM
Comment #93It’s less believeable than the once a year sale lie
NY Mag
Feb 4, 2019 at 12:24 AM
Comment #94Fascinating from an outsiders point of view – probably complete mess if you’re involved in it 😀
NY Mag
Feb 4, 2019 at 12:28 AM
Comment #95martoon,
That’s a far too sesnsible thing to post – it’s the shill list for you matey 🙂
toon22
Feb 4, 2019 at 12:33 AM
Comment #96In the last 11 years we have had our fill of missing money and lies
NY Mag
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:00 AM
Comment #97Toon22,
It’s ok that you don’t understand the club finances……’we’ forgive you
Just a fan
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:03 AM
Comment #98New England are winning.looks like jib called it right
Nicky the ball tosser
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:14 AM
Comment #99I think the first thing you’ll get from these two is increased competition. That’s what Rafa will be banking on. You would expect they’ll push the two that now have the shirt and then usurp them, as I see it Atsu and Ritchie.
We all have high hopes for Almiron, but it’s true that 20 million guarantees very little for an attacker nowadays. However he plays in a position we needed strengthening and he has pace and an eye for goal, which we have lacked.
Similarly, Barreca brings pace, and is a specialist wing back with a decent pedigree. It’s taken a while, but this looks a group with a bit of depth and quality. Now we are here, we must, of course, continue to strengthen each window.
toon22
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:16 AM
Comment #100We’re not stupid
We’re sick of being made a mug of
toon22
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:19 AM
Comment #101What’s that net spend at now over the last 11 years ?
Like I said HMRC is our best hope
toon22
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:23 AM
Comment #102Like I said
That’s our club now
Missing money and lies
toon22
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:34 AM
Comment #103You think MA might buy Sears
You’ve heard of that ain’t you NYMag
Just a fan
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:35 AM
Comment #104Toon 22
Do frogs ever hibinate lol
NY Mag
Feb 4, 2019 at 2:02 AM
Comment #105toon22,
Your mask is slipping……you need to get some new one liners
Toonces
Feb 4, 2019 at 2:04 AM
Comment #106NY Mag @ 90
The “top” clubs indeed have created a transfer market that no one else can play in. Look what happened when the new PL tv deal with sky kicked in? A star player would have been 30M and then they bumped that to 60M overnight. Everton and West Ham tried to crash their party and Everton almost did when they bought Lukaku for ~25M. But the ruling class ended that quick to make sure that level of player won’t be affordable enough for midtable to intrude on the top six’s party. It isn’t sustainable and the transfer market will implode at some point. The midtable clubs need to get smart, refuse to pay these bloated fees for average players, and realize they need to build properly with their academies and not just buy established talent. Almiron shouldn’t have been a £21M player. Murphy shouldnt have been £12M. But they are in this new market. Who knows how it will go in the longterm? Hopefully it will correct itself and come back to something sensible.
one fine day
Feb 4, 2019 at 2:27 AM
Comment #107toonces,
agree .
The bit that sickens me is when the likes of Chelsea/ citeh simply hoover up all the young talent and either let them rot or immediately send them on loan .
The top teams no longer need to have academy.They simply buy up any kid decent and reap the benefits after a lower placed team has put the work in at grass roots.
And of course the compensation paid to a team should one of their own make it big with a glamour team is laughable in comparison .
said it before here but there is a lot going for a salary cap , works well in aus and its very rare in the two major codes you will a team winning the league back to back.
seems uefa will do very little as we head to a euro super league anyway ….wonder how that will work when brexit kicks in 🙂
Toonces
Feb 4, 2019 at 4:09 AM
Comment #108And also the wages must be mentioned. Sanchez on 400k per wk at Man U. Batshuayi on 160k per wk at Chelsea. They had to go 50/50 with palace so palace could afford him in their wage structure. The overall wagebill is still the best correlation to where teams finish in the table. The top clubs dont want the lower clubs crashing their party and are pricing them out despite all the sky money
Jib
Feb 4, 2019 at 6:28 AM
Comment #109After loaning Batshuayi to Crystal Palace, Chelsea
now have 42 players out on loan worth over £250m.
That’s the equivalent of two more full squads.
Jib
Feb 4, 2019 at 6:39 AM
Comment #110I don’t know if it’s significant but
the large set of Almiron fotos and
those of Barreca , hardly have any
SD propaganda in them – and those
that do – it’s very peripheral and could
easily be cropped.
martoon
Feb 4, 2019 at 7:53 AM
Comment #111Toon22 – If you read my posts I’m no Ashley supporter, in fact I despise the man for what he’s done to our club. However, saying that, I can’t let a post go that is an absolute distortion of the truth even if it looks like I’m pro Ashley!
martoon
Feb 4, 2019 at 7:57 AM
Comment #112Jib @110 – Good spot but I don’t know how significant that is unless there’s some we love PK signs in the background 😉
Jib
Feb 4, 2019 at 7:58 AM
Comment #113Well if the Superbowl is the greatest sporting show
on earth – give me cricket every time.
3 – 3 with four minutes to go
Yawn
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Jib
Feb 4, 2019 at 8:00 AM
Comment #114I’m now going to get told by Chico that
I don’t appreciate the subtly and finesse
of such a fine sport
😛
Jib
Feb 4, 2019 at 8:02 AM
Comment #115martoon
there’s no point addressing a remark
to toon 22 on a Monday morning
It’s a schoolday !!!!
😀
Jib
Feb 4, 2019 at 8:30 AM
Comment #116Super Bowl announced attendance was 70,081.
MLS Cup attendance in December was 73,019.
Jib
Feb 4, 2019 at 8:35 AM
Comment #117Jesmond Dene at the weekend