Five Toon Players In The England Squad

Aaron Ramsdale, Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall, Dan Burn and Anthony Gordon are all in Thomas Tuchel's squad.

Ramsdale the surprise

Aaron has now not only been preferred recently over Nick Pope by Eddie Howe, but now by England manager Thomas Tuchel.

It's not a surprise that Pope isn't in the squad, but Ramsdale's inclusion is.

He has done OK since coming to Newcastle but hasn't convinced most fans that he is the upgrade on Pope that most think we need.

Plus, whilst he has better distribution than Pope, is he a better shot stopper?

Nick has made mistakes that have cost him his place but his extra height on Ramsdale, and ability to anticipate shots, arguably make him the better shot stopper.

Irrespective of whether he makes the Word Cup squad, I don't think he will, another surprise would be if Eddie decides to sign Ramsdale on a permanent deal in the summer.

The other four Toon players in the squad, Tino, Hall, Burn and Gordon weren't a surprise, but Harvey Barnes gamble on turning Scotland down hasn't paid off.

Unless Tuchel has a big change of mind Barnes won't realise his dream of playing in the World Cup.

Eddie brushes off Bruno nonsense

Media reports that negotiation between Man U and Bruno are 'proceeding well' was rightly rubbished by Eddie Howe in his press conference.

The quoted fee of £69M just puts the icing on an early April Fool's cake,

Bruno is at least £80M+ all day long.

Having said that the vultures are circling round our elite players; Tino, Hall, Tonali, Gordon and Bruno.

No CL next year will get some of those players, if not all, wondering if it is time to leave a project and move on to the finished article.

A huge summer of transfer decision lies ahead - out and in - for NUFC.

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