please log in to view this image Tuesday 2nd December 8.15pm Premier League St James' Park Dragusin, Kulusevski, Maddison, Bissouma and Solanke are all long-term injured. Romero returns from his ban and neither side has any suspensions. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Vicario; Porro, Danso, van de Ven, Udogie; Bergvall, Palhinha, Gray; Kudus, Kolo Muani, Richarlison. Subs: Kinsky, Spence, Davies, Bentancur, Sarr, Johnson, Odobert, Simons, Tel. League form: LWLDLL. Newcastle: Ramsdale; Livramento, Thiaw, Burn, Hall; Miley, Guimaraes, Joelinton; Elanga, Woltemade, Barnes. Subs: Ruddy, Schar, A. Murphy, Tonali, Ramsey, J. Murphy, Willock, Gordon, Neave. League form: LWLLWW. Ref: Thomas Bramall. VAR: Paul ****ing Tierney. TV: Sky Sports. How would you like to line up for this one and how do you think we actually will line up?
There’s no way we’re getting anything from this one tonight. St James’ Park is a tough place to go for anyone, then there’s Tottenham who have struggled there constantly in recent years. Not even our slightly better away form is saving us this evening. Once again, there’s growing toxicity and I can only see it getting worse tonight.
I don’t even think anyone’s got the strength or will to argue with you at the moment. If Newcastle have a fast start then could get ugly very early. Think most of us are expecting our usual drubbing up there.
I can't see beyond us being on the end of an absolute drubbing. Added to the malaise hanging over the club, following on from Saturday night's no show, things are going to get a lot worse before they start getting any better. Time for some oeople to start earning their salaries and persuade a very pissed off fan base that change is in hand and will be meaningful. The club's been rotten and on the decline for nearly a decade, it isn’t a 5 minute job to turn that around.
I fear you are right. Things will get a lot worse before they start improving. It's looking increasingly unlikely we'll see Solanke and Kulu back in action in any meaningful way before the end of the year. Their returns will provide something of a boost, at least for the fans. That and a necessarily strong January window are essential. I can see us going on a winless league run until the West Ham and Burnley fixtures in mid January. Hopefully a strong win against Slavia Prague in Europe and a kind draw in the FA Cup will keep the fan base from going nuclear. Levy's single most harmful fault (among many) was his tendency to throw the towel in at the first sign of unrest. He panicked far too easily, which is jarring considering his off-field projects were often the most painstaking and carefully laid plans spanning decades, reaching fruition through sheer patience and tenacity. Bizarrely, we saw none of those qualities on the pitch for most of his tenure. I hope Vinai is mindful of the list RCL posted the other day. Something like 4 managers since ENIC took over have actually managed to complete two seasons, and a shockingly high number were never even given one full season. Enough chopping and changing. The squad is a mid table squad. We could put Guardiola, Flick, Enrique, Simone, whoever in charge of it, the improvement would be minimal and short lived. January will reveal a lot about the new exec's intentions.
