I like Murphy! Works hard and has now started chipping in with goals & assists. Would love a Rodri calibre player but we're gonna have to do what Brighton do and unearth an unknown for that as no way can we afford that right now
I actually like the way they've gone about business. Genuinely building for the future with a young talented squad. Too many times in the past when clubs have had a big cash injection they spunk it all on big name players at the end of their careers, in the hope it will have an instant impact. Only to have to replace them again 2 years later, without getting anything in return. The signings we've made under the new ownershio have largely been to develop a squad for future years, with a couple of more experienced signings thrown in. If nothing else, they will at least have a resale value and if works out well, we won't need/want to sell them.
I have to say it looks like you were spot on Roland although Howe is yet to play the new signings together. Livramento at cb and Hall at left back would be better than Burn and targett imo.. both have pace and its a huge issue in this 11. Willocks pace and ability to keep the ball is a huge miss in midfield... unfortunately he's out another 2 months. Howe's got to reinvent the side and I think last season has fooled him , the club and the fans into thinking Burn , Schar, longstaff, Pope and Almiron are good enough. All that said I think FFP simply caught up with Newcastle and has successfully done it's job in halting Newcastles advances in the top 6.
You improve a squad by upgrading your first XI. The youth policy should have been held back for the future, we needed two or three Tonali players. Plus we overspent in areas we had players in. We’ve got four right backs and four left backs. Smacks of naivety and Howe thinking the players he has are much better than they are.
To be fair, this seems to be kinda common knowledge and it's why the recruitment was so strange. But, as I said, this blip was inevitable. We over-achieved last season (massively) but what's clear is qualifying for the CL doesn't mean you can instantly get revenue, nor use it for FFP reasons - I have no doubt whatsoever Eales, Al-Rummayan, Staveley know everything there is to know on the matter, nor do I doubt that the PL are deliberately trying ot squash us. It's just really disappointing, but for everything a reason. Is Howe good enough to manage us out of this? Maybe. He did last season, but didn't at Bournemouth. Will the team improve? Definitely, with the return of Willock, introduction of Hall and a better system/identity. It's going to be interesting - but that doesn't mean it's not, at times, going to be desperately frustrating.
The sad thing is that of Newcastle don't beat Bournemouth he'll be one of the favourites to get sacked. That's just the way it is, but he should get thrle full season he's earned that and a new manager can't turn Burn , longstaff and targett into genuinely top 4 quality players.
But what we don't know is how complicit he is in the transfer window shambles, right? Has he been briefed and said he's happy with Burn, Schar, Miggy, etc.? Was his priority list the same as ours? I find it really difficult to believe he's gone to the board/Ashworth and said "please get me a left back and a right winger", then they've gone "here you go - Livramento, Hall and Barnes". Is he blind to it - he has history of blind faith in certain players when at Bournemouth. As I've said before, we're going to go through cycles just like City did. Under Hughes they spent big and were disappointing. Hughes went, Pellegrini came in, they build. He went, Mancini came in to work with a solid foundation of Aguero, Dzeko, Kompany, etc. and the rest is history. This Summer we were linked with Szoboszlai, Diaby and Maddison. All three have been significantly better than those we decided to buy.
I'd get rid of Howe end of the season regardless of how well we do unless it's top 6... like you say they will need a manager that attracts better players at some point and who isn't afraid to bring them in and manage them.
Take this season for example they're out the champions league and the league cup without starting it and the leagues gone already. Newcastle are miles away and they only got to Wembley via a lucky draw every single round.they
