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Craig!!! Please ask Howe this question, pleeeeeease!!! & if the medical procedures/staff are changing

Bruno, Botman, Isak.... i think big Jo is our biggest player who has the most influence on the team

Great video Craig...the most poignant youve done all season. Is big Jo the catlyst for this? In laymans terms,, does big Jo make all the other players harder??

Craig are you going to Melbourne for the matches?

The dark arts were used to cover up the technical deficiencies in the team. Most fans know that and I certainly did. It’s not sustainable.

Eddie, are you listening?

My worry about our defending corners in particular. We need Pope back but I wonder if EH has to be brave enough to change some coaching staff. We’ve conceded far too many chances. Without the ball we are very disorganised.

Dead on Craig! I would use the word intensity, where has it gone? Too many games, too many injuries? Definitely need more quality as well however we need to nasty up once again, get back the intensity.

If Dubs, Trippier and Longstaff play , we lose.

we've gone from shithousery to just plain shithouse.

Joelinton missing that is all

We need to play better football . Nothing else ...

Craig , we know you want to get your passport out this autumn, travelling to all those unknown Eastern Europe destinations you’ve never been to, but do Newcastle really want to playing Thursdays and Sundays next season, I’m a life long fan and winning a domestic cup would be better for the team than winning that 3rd rate conference cup , then we can go full throttle for a top 4 place next season.

Beer Garden all day long Craig 😂😂

Could it be that the problem is we are no longer underdogs? When we are, we play well but those games are getting fewer. We're expected to beat Man U away these days, Brighton at home was almost a given. I think Eddie is a great lad but he's not managed a top club before and it shows.

Necessary evil says craig hope to colonise around the world with the parasitic premier league, hope the locals boycott the games and support their local teams,

Not saying I want him sacked, but is there a chance the manager loses his job if we miss out on Europe? Feel like PIF might be the ones to bring the ruthlessness.

We shouldn’t have to resort to that, I despise the way Arsenal carry on at times especially against us last season, I’d rather be the bigger man and improve technically and mentality wise to play with courage and confidence.

Seems to coincide with the time mad dog wasn’t allowed to manage/shout by the technical area to me

It's not just the dark arts we need more technical players in our team that are comfortable in possession. So many players need moving on.

Sean only shadows players with the ball ,never seen a hard tackle put in from him to frighten opposition.

Why did Gordon not appeal? Show his sock etc...re. non penalty.

Great piece with many home (or should be away) truths!

Everybody hated Man U but look at their trophy 🏆 cabinet…let’s get back to it as who cares as long as we win 🥇

You can't timewaste if you're losing. Pope and Joelinton to start, hopefully. Performance exec can also look at injuries.

Great prog as usual, are you also off to Aus with the family or not? Have a great summer. J. O.

Media.... Know all about the dark arts!! They practice lying and manipulation everyday of the week..... Plenty of witches at the BBC.... They like to project onto others what they themselves are.... It's called deflecting.... In a normal person it's called being "Streetwise" " nothing more... It's the devil's in the media who were smearing us.... Even now they try to insinuate that Gordon is a diver... Liars!!! Media and government know all about witchcraft and sorcery... But they don't know" Jesus Christ..... Who is truth.... The truth is far from them... Christ is King!!

The Willock of last season was a baller and that Willock is a bigger miss than Joelinton

I do enjoy your insights, Craig - as a supporter living several hundred miles from the North East (in the far South West of England) it is really good to be able to access a balanced view of the team's performance (to view alongside the more partisan observations of some other blogs!) I will be rooting for the club on Sunday and look forward to your post-match comments.

Craig, everything but the truth! You cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear, end of story. Newcastle are the classic case of a "Flash In the Pan", we had a great season due to that underdog story plus some of the other clubs being in transition. It comes as no surprise to me that Chelsea have leapfrogged Newcastle into 6th because of the quality they possess in their squad. We don't have this with a lot of Championship standard toilers still playing for us. We have a few fringe world class operators in our side who are being let down by some truly awful players who need moving on so we can upgrade on them. Why is there this constant need to back up a lame duck manager in Eddie Howe who was all in last season, never mind this campaign? He's like a poker player who has a low stack of chips who is taking his chance on the turn of the river card by putting them all into the middle. How many points were thrown away at home last season due to the inability of his team to break down and put lesser lights to the sword? We nearly did the same thing at the end of last season against Leicester in the final minute of the match which would have meant a very nervy final day at Stamford Bridge. All the warning signs of what was to come this season were there in the last campaign and they have regressed further as a result. Howe thought his squad were much better than they actually are with his remiss approach to last summer's window. Nowhere near enough was done for a side about to embark upon their first UCL campaign in 20 years, they couldn't have been less prepared if they tried. I think Newcastle Utd are at a dangerous crossroads where the wrong route to choose will be the one where Howe keeps his job. Carry on with him and next season will be more of the same leading to him being sacked within the first few months. Howe could set our project back years and is already on the verge of doing it this season. Craig, do you honestly think being out of Europe is going to benefit the club in its quest to keep hold of our better players? It will probably benefit Howe due to his lack of being able to handle a European campaign along with domestic duties! People like Bruno are not going to hang around playing with Championship stagers like Murphy, Richie etc I am sorry, Eddie Howe is not the answer going forward for Newcastle and this hero worship of a bang average operator is becoming tedious. There is not one flicker of evidence that would suggest Howe is the next legacy manager in the vein of a Pep, the reality is quite the opposite. Howe has been found out along with his team for some strange reason though our fan base are backing this fella with all the delusion of the Emperor's New Clothes!

Spot on .. we need to start being disliked again .. Next season is going to be a totally different proposition with Tonali back

Would love to see big Joe dominate a player like that should be the captain

That was gone straight from week 2. I think it was due to the style change the manager implemented. We seem to want the ball more and want to hold on to it. Turns out, we are levels below City in that aspect and ended up putting in a wank performance, confidence was gone since that game. In addition, the rules change, and the incessant question about it might have scared off the team from the perceived "negative reputation".

I think the injuries have definitely impacted our ability to shithouse. A lot of the players that have had a lot of minutes this season are soft. I don’t just mean in terms of tackling (although that’s definitely part of it) but you look at Isak, Murphy, Longstaff, Miley to name a few. None of them are particularly aggressive and are easily shoved off the ball and wave their arms in the air looking for a foul. I’d like to see this aspect addressed in the summers recruitment. A bit more physical dynamism but also players who are up for the fight. It’s easy to play to crowd at home when things are going well but on the road you need leaders and tone setters. I think we have been without a lot of ours this season and will be better next season but I still would categorise a lot of this squad as soft. And that’s mentality more than physical attributes.

Hope they go for Mamardashvili instead of Ramsdale. We should not be aiding other premier league clubs by buying there players who are on the bench. Why aren’t we targeting top talent from across the European leagues.

Too many bookings with s housry, this season too many injurys to manage with the amount of bookings. Hopefulyl will a fully fit squad next season well see some s housery.

True You and Lee Ryder eye the set up and wonder why they fear not getting calls our way then Look at the VAR of studs up Gordons whole achilleic. Are officials afeared of that Home crowd in Calling a Pen?. Dangerous play is just that.. I mean was it Hayden chargin a player gettign a RED from behind leavin the feet or not reckless disregard is it because Tony is thought tobe a diver?

Football games are won in the opposition penalty area and lost in your own penalty area, no use playing pretty football between both boxes, but then going home pointless due to poor decision making in the opposition box , and poor defending in your own box, its really as simple as that, the decision making in front of goal needs to improve, and two new defenders are needed, Burn and Schar are not top 6 players I'm afraid, neither is Longstaff in midfield. You heard it here first, fail to qualify for Europe, then a bad start next season, and or outside of the top 8 and League Cup come November, and Howe gets the push.

We would have taken top 8 a couple of months ago. It does however feel like a case of cracking under big game pressure. We have been a much better team than Man United for two years now but they still have a big game mentality, that's why we lost on Wednesday and at Wembley last year too.

Great point you raised with Eddie questioning lack of killer instinct. Shame your journalist colleagues don’t challenge the manager - and stick to soft convoluted poorly articulated questions designed to retain a chummy bond with the club.

Anger is an energy

Explaining about not caring about not being liked to the fans of other clubs is quite interesting. They usually accept my point. They wouldn’t mind their team doing it. They accept we were sick off being seen as the cap touching north east gents who roll over and die with nice footie. Nice footie and losing. Not any more. Be happy to see us annoy the living shite out of the oppo.

I like your toon too Craig, one day you’ll admit you’re a fan

Why don’t you ask harder questions to Howe? Like why Wilson is a complete liability

Send trippier home he has cost us more than any other player I can remember. 🫣

Everything Craig mentions all falls on Howe. We can't put 5 accurate passes together going forward everything depends on Gordon running at the defenses.

I said last year .ok buy up new talent...but we also need some older champions league players ...some strong character's ..they font have to be superstars just player's who've been there done that

I've said this a few times. It's almost as if they believe they are a great footballing side and forget what made them great in the first place.

Our experienced, more aggressive players are not available. Simple. And it needs numbers to do the things you are saying. The handful of players to be on the pitch at the same time, to “bully”

Craig, is it true that Freedman wants to work from home or is that just newspaper trash talk ?