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New Season, New Opportunities
#1
These days, going into a new season, Newcastle United fans have reasons to be optimistic. This wasn’t always the case in the past, but lets not dwell on that – hopefully those days have been put behind us and we can look forward to a bright future.


We have a strong squad and some class individual players. Isak, Bruno, Flash Gordon, Joelinton, Pope spring readily to mind. Perhaps the old nickname of “The Entertainers” should be resurrected in recognition of the feedback from fans of other clubs that they’ve looked out for “the Toon on the telly” in the past few seasons as they found us good to watch?


It’s a new season tinged with sadness as we’ve lost our icon, Queen Amanda – who was the person who made all of this possible, pestering Mike Ashley for 3 years to sell the club, refusing to give up and bringing together the powerful consortium who are now our owners. She will never be forgotten by the grateful geordie fans.


I’m pretty optimistic going into this season and I have a specific reason for that. Anyone who’s had the misfortune to read my rubbish last year will know that I thought we went into the Champions League too early. I know not everyone agrees but my view at the time was that we didn’t have the squad to cope with it – either in numbers or in quality. And when the extra games took their toll in terms of injuries and tiredness, we began to lose ground mounting a domestic campaign for a return to the top four. At times, we were down to the bare bones and it didn’t work. Eddie and the boys struggled manfully on, but players already carrying injuries and basically knackered were having to turn out for every game as there was no alternative.


This season, the lack of european games will be a massive bonus. The teams we will hopefully be in competition with for a top four place will be involved in europe, playing at least two games a week, whilst we will just have our league and domestic cup games – hopefully with a strong squad, being fresh as daisies and picking up less injuries as a result. Good stuff!


One thing is very clear. If we don’t qualify for the Champions League this season, we will be in serious difficulty trying to hold onto our better players in next year’s summer transfer window.


At the time of writing this the summer transfer window is still open and we still need to import some quality at centre-half and on the right wing. We are reportedly trying to buy Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace but can’t pay their £65M asking price for the England defender. The very fact that “the richest club in the world” can’t pick up a player for what to them should just be loose change tells us a lot about the strangle hold the “Sky Big Six” have on the Premier League through their financial “PSR” rules that choke competition. Something has to change – and soon.


Top four is a must this season, and I’m sure Eddie and his coaches are well aware of that. Some silverware would be nice too, actually going to Wembley and winning for a change would be good!


Rant over! Lets hope United have a great season and it’s just one big joyride for us, the fans!
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#2
Good post Mick, and I agree, as much as it is going to be a real challenge, we have to be pushing for 3rd/4th. The top two will be your usual suspects, and then you have Man U, Liverpool, Villa and Spurs. Man U could be a laughable mess again, but they have made some decent signings which if they click, will make them a good shout for a top 4 finish. Liverpool are a complete unknown under Slot, but they obviously have the players available to battle for 3rd place. I feel Villa will end up similar to us last season, a squad struggling to compete on all fronts, and I expect the Champions League will impact their domestic form so a question mark hangs over them in this regard. I throw Spurs in there because it is stick or twist for Ange Ball. Defending on the half way line and pushing teams back worked for so long, then they dropped off massively, likewise they have players, like Maddison, who turn up for a percentage of the season and then you never see them again, once Ange Ball starts to fail, they will drop down the league.

A special mention for Chelsea, if Maresca is still the manager going into December, I will be stunned, can't see them anywhere near 4th place.
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#3
Chelsea have a 57 man squad and according to the London media are going to add Isak, Bruno and Flash Gordon to it.

So don't rule them out!

ROFL
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#4
Good post Mick and yeah there's a lot to be optimistic about this season. Opta super computer has us actually finishing 5th this year. I think we may be able to pull off 4 or 3 if we stay healthy
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