They also had a net spend north of £90m in the season they got relegated. Ashley was wildly inconsistent: he'd cry that they couldn't possibly fix glaring roster holes for financial reasons one year, and then blow a bunch of cash the next. Toon fans have plenty of grounds to complain that they were mismanaged, because dear baby Jesus were they ever, but the complaints that they club wouldn't spend really are a decade out of date. Chris Hughton could rightly feel aggrieved that he had no backing, Pardew could complain that he frequently had the rug pulled out from under him by Ashley miming attempts to sign players only to never have it come to pass. After that, they just spent badly.
Isn’t it absolutely ridiculous that things like the Manquillo suspension are going to contribute to this game likely being postponed? The whole point of a suspension is as a punishment, not to help them wriggle out of a commitment. How on Earth can they not put out 13 players when their reserves will be a squad of 18-25 players? I understand if the training ground has been closed for a week or whatever but that’s just not the case here.
I would have a rule that any players signed after the date the game was originally supposed to have been played are ineligible when the game eventually goes ahead.
I'd forgotten just how good Hassan Kachloul was for us and what about that volley from Mark Hughes!...
I'm not sure if there are any rules about how late Newcastle could leave it, before requesting a postponement of our game, but it strikes me that if Newcastle wanted to postpone, they would have done so by now. As the game is at St Marys, any 'last-minute' decision will affect the Toon Army rather more than Saints fans, so it seems likely (to me, anyway) that the game will be on, just because no word has come out, that the game is off. Having said that, if players/staff,etc are taking daily Lateral Flow/PCR tests, then an outbreak is still possible. Could a decision be made at, say, 1:45 on Sunday, for a 2:00 kick off? OK, that's probably far too late, as the crowd will be in the ground/stuck in queues outside, but there must be a cut off, so what is it?
Apparently, the EFL have banned match day Lateral Flow tests to prevent games being called off on the day, with fans having already set off. Will the Premier League follow?
Surely they need to fly down tomorrow if the game is happening? They were doing tests today so there could well be a request coming this afternoon after the admin is done. I hope not
please log in to view this image Craig Hope @CraigHope_DM Still no word from NUFC but understand first-team trained this morning in preparation for the Southampton game & some of those injured earlier in week were involved. Eddie Howe still scheduled to speak in an hour & could be that numbers are back above threshold.
