Newcastle 0-1 Cambridge: Al-Rumayyan watches on in FA Cup shocker at SJP

Well, that was an absolute disaster and one of the most humiliating results we’ve seen at St James’ Park for some time, with Newcastle United dumped out of the FA Cup by League One strugglers Cambridge United.

Eddie Howe actually selected a strong side, with him not only handing a debut to Kieran Trippier barely 24 hours after his £12m move from Atletico Madrid, but also naming Dubravka, Schar, Shelvey, Joelinton and Saint-Maximin is his starting 11.

Yet, despite creating several decent chances, we never really looked like finding a way past Cambridge’s Dimitar Mitov; who put in a superb display but also benefited from some pretty tame finishing.

We had 23 shots to their seven, 12 corners to their one and almost 60% possession, yet no one could say we truly deserved to win that game and progress through to the fourth round.

In the end it was Joe Ironside – the man who idolised Alan Shearer as a kid and grew up watching games at St James’ – who won it for the U’s, with him pouncing on a mistake from Dubravka to score the ony goal of the game.

This was our chance to entertain a packed out SJP, fly into the fourth round and build confidence ahead of next weekend’s must-win clash with Watford, yet Cambridge wanted it more than us; which is inexcusable given all of the above.

STARTING 11: Dubravka – Trippier, Krafth, Schar, Ritchie (c) – Shelvey, S Longstaff – Murphy, Joelinton, Fraser – Saint-Maximin.

SUBS: Gillespie, Dummett, Manquillo*, Hendrick, Willock*, Anderson, White, Almiron*.

There were several missing – Callum Wilson (calf), Isaac Hayden (knee), Jamal Lewis (hamstring) Federico Fernandez (thigh), plus unexplained absences for Ciaran Clark, Jamaal Lascelles, Karl Darlow, Freddie Woodman and Dwight Gayle – however it was great to see Paul Dummett back on the bench for the first time this season, with U23 duo Elliot Anderson and Joe White also making the squad.

Trippier was stood out in the early stages, picking out a few lovely passes down the line, winning his duels and chasing down a ball brilliantly after a hopeful ball was pumped down the right-hand channel.

There was the odd good moment from us in the first half, as we created enough openings to have scored a couple of goals before the break, however a combination of feeble finishing and superb goalkeeping from Dimitar Mitov saw us go in at 0-0.

That said, we were very fortunate VAR didn’t award Cambridge a penalty on 35 minutes, with Matt Ritchie bringing down Harvey Knibbs after falling a sleep following a glancing header and showing a real lack of recovery pace as he attempted to catch up with the forward.

We got away with that one and also gifted the visitors a big chance on the 15-minute mark, as George Williams found himself free at the back post after a cleverly worked corner. It was awful marking, but thankfully his header was straight at Dubravka.

As for our chances, a lively Jacob Murphy forced Mitov into three good saves, with one coming from a clever cut back from Fraser, another being a curling shot across goal and the last being a thunderous strike that the Bulgarian somehow tipped onto the crossbar.

Spotted at St James’ Park was Newcastle United Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, sat alongside Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Majed Al Sorour; the CEO of Golf Saudi. They’ll know we need another striker following another injury to Callum Wilson, but this was more proof that we really struggle to finish our dinner when our top scorer and No 9 is absent.

The second half kicked off and Jacob Murphy had the ball in the back of the net just five minutes after the restart. He got in behind after latching onto a long ball from Schar, shifted it into his left and finished brilliantly to finally beat Mitov, however the offside flag went up just as the winger was celebrating what he and most of St James’ Park thought was the opening goal!

Moments later, another goal went in…only this time it was at the other end.

After we failed to stop the cross or deal with the second ball, Dubravka let slip and Joe Ironside – the man who idolised Alan Shearer growing up and once watched games at St James’ – put Cambridge in front after firing home on the turn.

VAR checked for a possible offside in the build up. It was tight, but the goal was given, sending 5,000 Cambridge fans wild up in the gods.

Dubravka was limping badly as the game restarted, yet it wasn’t him who was hauled off, with Howe reacting immediately by throwing on Joe Willock and Miguel Almiron for the poor Sean Longstaff and unfortunate Jacob Murphy – who had actually been one of our better players!

We were huffing and puffing, throwing balls into the box and keeping Cambridge pinned back in their own half, but we couldn’t seem to break down the yellow wall in front of us, continuing to look toothless without that clinical striker up top. There seemed to be no plan B and a lack of intensity to our pay, with some players visibly out of ideas and/or low on confidence.

Aside from a blocked Krafth shot and Joelinton effort that was superbly saved by Mitov at the death, we never really looked like scoring and Cambridge held on for a famous win.

New owners. Same old Newcastle United in cup competitions!

Next up, an absolute must-win clash with Watford next Saturday.

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

142 thoughts on “Newcastle 0-1 Cambridge: Al-Rumayyan watches on in FA Cup shocker at SJP

  1. If we manage to get Wood and another striker then we will have some decent depth up front with Wilson to come back from injury. Trouble is, we are weak all over the pitch.

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  2. Chris Wood is an Eddie Howe choice. He’s done it before when he was at Bournemouth and picked a friend of his to lead the line. They were at the bottom of the league. Literally, the bottom of the leahue – 92 of 92. They had a points deduction of 17 and Eddie got them out of it and promoted the next year. Watch the documentary MINUS 17.

    Eddie Howe is not Steve Bruce. He is not a serial loser.

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  3. That was a Covid nughtmare which hopfully ended. My brother went back to Newcastle to see me Mam and his 24 year old son. He lives in Thailand.

    Tested positive for Covid and had symptoms. Lived in my mother’s upstairs and then his girlfriend of 15 years also tested positive. They both lived in me Mam’s upstairs for 5 days.

    Finally got a clean bill of health and then my brother’s son got the Covid, so he couldnt even see him

    Tried to get on the plane to T-land but needed another test. Now in a hotel in Bankok waiting for results.

    That was his and me Mam’s Xmas. Plus her pride and joy dog had to have a cist removed from her @****. Happy Days. Fonzy)

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  4. Me Mam said it cost them 250 pounds a test to get on planes. So that is a Thousand pounds plus the other tests they had to take !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  5. Oh, ****.

    I was talking to me Mam today and she said she had everything planned for Xmas Day. My brother, his GF, Son and GF who my brother had never met but they are buying a house together. They werent even going to have turkey (dry), it was lamb. That’s now in the freezer!

    Covid!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  6. So, instead of a lamb roast, champagne and beer me Mam was taking them cheese sandwiches and cups of tea whilst dressed up as Florence Nightingale with a mask, headscarf and gloves on.

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  7. Eric – their Xmas didn’t go to plan, but they all made it through it, and it’s one to remember ??‍♂️.

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  8. Eric it’s a joke mate. In France you can’t go and get a cup of coffee without showing a vaccine pass yet yesterday they recorded 360,000 cases. In Wales and Scotland they have high case rates than England and have had mask and vaccine passports for 6 months. The problem is nobody is prepared to say they got it wrong and need to change. Thankfully it looks like finally our government have managed to do something right and not restrict us too much and coming out of lockdown in July which has given us a lot of immunity. Just the parties they have to cope with now…

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  9. The more I think on this Chris Wood signing, I have to be honest I get no more inspired – as in, I’m not seeing something I missed & think he’s going to be brilliant.
    But I do feel more comfortable with it. I get the £20m for a 30yr old argument – but if the lad scores the goals to keep us up, then £20m will be peanuts.

    I laugh when pundits say, yeah but Burnley will have £20m to spend now to upgrade on Woods – do they miss that WE had that same £20m and have been looking for the best option & Wood was it!!.
    No disrespect to Burnley, but if both they and us had £20m going for the same forward – are they picking the Newcastle project with the wages we can pay or Burnley?!.

    I know he only has 3 goals so far this season, but I reckon he hits double figures again this season – hopefully that’s enough to keep us up … AND there is still talk of another striker coming in too ??????

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  10. It’s time to get the CBs sorted now though. Without doubt some of the players we are interested in don’t want to come because of our league position – Martial, Digne. But that doesn’t seem the case with Botman & Carlos. Botman has been quite active on social media liking the idea of the move & I know we’ve been biding on him – our last offer of £29m knocked back. But it’s thought Lille would sell at £35m – so let’s not mess on anymore – get it done!!.

    Same with Carlos. If that’s the lad we want, get it done.

    I know the priority has been CF with Wilson out injured and no other forward option really in the club.
    But that’s almost done with Wood now so let’s at least get that Botman deal done.

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  11. Stuart79:
    Eric it’s a joke mate. In France you can’t go and get a cup of coffee without showing a vaccine pass yet yesterday they recorded 360,000 cases. In Wales and Scotland they have high case rates than England and have had mask and vaccine passports for 6 months. The problem is nobody is prepared to say they got it wrong and need to change. Thankfully it looks like finally our government have managed to do something right and not restrict us too much and coming out of lockdown in July which has given us a lot of immunity. Just the parties they have to cope with now…

    Stu – to think the Cummings debacle was going on the same week as this garden party. He was thrown under the bus big time. No wonder he sat back and said ‘yeah I’m the sh!thouse now, but wait and see..’

    I’m annoyed about the party, it’s a disgrace – but I’m not surprised. What I find worse is Boris stance on it now – there’s an ongoing enquiry & his chuckles about it yesterday.

    Forget criminal activity, rule breaks or whatever – there is no honesty or morality – we should all be demanding of that from them imo.

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  12. kimtoon:
    Sharpy, spot on about Boris there like. I just feel every time he opens his mouth a lie falls out.

    Kim – what scares me the most is that Boris is only the head of the snake. That email went to 100 people and around 40 attended – but not one leaked this at a time Cummings was facing public enemy #1 status. It’s not like that wasn’t a spotlight on how the public feel was at the time.

    They all either publicly defend Boris, or do it by keeping their traps shut & letting him do what he wants.

    He’s a sh!thouse, but so are all the rest for standing by and watching/letting it happen as far as I’m concerned.

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  13. What surprises me is that anybody is surprised by Boris, He has behaved like this his entire career, and despite the fact that is is demonstrably the most corrupt government since the 1790’s people still intend to vote Tory.

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  14. PremAndUp:
    What surprises me is that anybody is surprised by Boris, He has behaved like this his entire career, and despite the fact that is is demonstrably the most corrupt government since the 1790’s people still intend to vote Tory.

    Not me mate, never have and never will. Rather die than vote for them lot.

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  15. PremAndUp:
    What surprises me is that anybody is surprised by Boris, He has behaved like this his entire career, and despite the fact that is is demonstrably the most corrupt government since the 1790’s people still intend to vote Tory.

    Prem – that’s what I’m saying mate. I’m not surprised by him – disgusted but not surprised. But I am surprised at how many of his Tory cronies accept, condon and join in his immoralities.

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  16. I think the Wood signing is a bit of opportunism but also an admission that we cannot change the whole team in a January transfer window. I think we will get 1 centre back as teams dig their heals in on fees. Maybe at the end of the window Lille might have a change of mind.

    On Wood, we have tried to play out from the back and have made mistakes, some leading to goals and even sendings off like in the case of Clark against Norwich. Our goalies are used to playing hoofball, now they have someone to hoof it to.

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  17. Does anybody trust Lascelles. Clark, Fernandez or Dummett to play out from the back? I dont! I dont even trust Schar who is better farther up the pitch. He has a reputation as being a ball playing centre back but I am not sure that is true. Dummett is a good defender but he isnt Bobby Moore.

    I wouldnt trust a 25 year old Geogio Chielini to carry the ball out from our defense. That’s not what he does. Our current CBs are hoofers, that’s what they do. Best let them concentrate on defending which currently they cannot do – 42 goals in 19 games.

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  18. I wouldnt know Sven Botman if he walked by me in the street, but if Lille are hoping he will help them in the CL they are probably mistaken. They have drawn the holders Chelsea, who despite a bit of a blip are still a very good team.

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  19. In a massive shock to NO-ONE The Pledge is to be discontinued. I was never against the good intentions of this venture, I just didnt think it had any chance of succeeding. They have 200k to give to NE charities which is not a bad thing either, just it was a pipe dream to start with and I cant believe how many fell for it, including NUFC.com.

    Still, the result isnt that bad. Duped for a good cause is fine because most wouldnt have donated if The Pledge didnt exist. So, it wasnt a total waste of time, just a bit misleading.

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  20. I read NUFC blogs, even Ed Harrisons and I think me and Sharpy were the only ones that said The Pledge was a nonstarter. I think people are scared to criticise a good cause even though it was obvious it would fail. Can you imagine the Fat Man selling a share of NUFC to fans? Only if it benefited him financially and then he woulrdnot give up any power, so what was the point?

    The new consortium will not sell either.

    I am guessing that they will give fans a lot more say but not a financial involvement.

    As I said, despite being duped by a total nonstarter the end result will benefit NE charities so it was not a complete disaster.

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  21. What is that phrase? “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”! I am not saying The Pledge purveyors are going to hell, I am saying they were totally naive and anybody sending them money was equally naive. It was obviously going nowhere from the beginning. You just had to look at the numbers and who they were dealing with.

    I wrote on here that it would take 10 years to get one percent of NUFC at the rate of their donations and you could extrapolate that to 100 years to get any meaningful percentage. Their only hope was that we would end up with a Sunderland-like disaster and could be picked up on the cheap. Even then, 200k or even 1 million would only get you a small % of the club. It made no sense.

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  22. Sharpy mate, you and I were the only ones to talk about The Pledge on here. I am not gloating that I said it would fail – it was just so obvious.

    And still some act like it was some sort of charitable endevour from the get go (not on here). No it wasnt! That was how the founders gave themselves a get out clause. I would hate to think that they knew all along it was a failure of an idea but they strung along some fans for a lost cause.

    When I first talked about this I said the money would go to the SBR foundation, or Shearers or the Food Bank so why not just cut out the middle man (****).

    I dont like to be a smart @**** and be right about something that ended up benefitting a good cause, as I am sure it will.

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  23. I did some Dennis Wise-esque scouting on youtube and looked at Chris Wood’s goals. He scores some scruffy goals and some headers and seems to lurk on the edge of the 6 yard box so gets some rebounds.

    I am sure he misses his fair share because Youtube only show the good bits, but at least he seems to be in the right place.

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  24. i looked at the fixture list and compared it to when Wilson is due back. They said 8 weeks but it will probably be 10 until he is fully fit, and that is assuming the Drs have it right which is never a good idea at NUFC. Anyway that will have Callum back firing for the Spurs game on April 2. Including that, he would be available for the last 10 games.

    I have no idea how this will work out but I will say that without Wood we probably would have been down before Wilson’s return.

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  25. Eric+Sykes:
    I did some Dennis Wise-esque scouting on youtube and looked at Chris Wood’s goals. He scores some scruffy goals and some headers and seems to lurk on the edge of the 6 yard box so gets some rebounds.

    I am sure he misses his fair share because Youtube only show the good bits, but at least he seems to be in the rightplace.

    Eric – Wood score 41 in 83 games for Leeds before joining Burnley where he has 49 in 144 games for them.

    Leeds was obvious in the Championship so his 1 in 2 game ratio may be flattering. But 3 in 1 for a Burnley side who are often in relegation battles is impressive – however they are scored.

    I think he’ll have a lot more chances created for him at Newcastle as well. I’m not suggesting that will make him a 20 goal a season forward – but if it maintains his record of around 12-15 a season, then it’s a really good signing – especially as he’s only just turned 30 in December.

    We could easily get 3 or 4 seasons out of him if we’ve got Wilson and another good forward as options.

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  26. Eric+Sykes:
    Sharpy mate, you and I were the only ones to talk about The Pledge on here. I am not gloating that I said it would fail – it was just so obvious.

    And still some act like it was some sort of charitable endevour from the get go (not on here). No it wasnt! That was how the founders gave themselves a get out clause. I would hate to think that they knew all along it was a failure of an idea but they strung along some fans for a lost cause.

    When I first talked about this I said the money would go to the SBR foundation, or Shearers or the Food Bank so why not just cut out the middle man (****).

    I dont like to be a smart @**** and be right about something that ended up benefitting a good cause, as I am sure it will.

    Eric – if they didn’t know from the get go that it was a failing idea then they are/were delusional morons.

    It was never going to achieve what they claimed they were trying to – never in a million years!!.

    It was an act to raise their own profile & get their names in the papers – and you’re right, the donating to charities was the get out clause.

    I don’t think it was a fraudulent or deceitful act because anyone with their eyes open could see.

    I just think it was a pointless exercise.

    It was designed to be a show of strength to Ashley, that the fans were United and strong. But we could never do that with money – and certainly not to someone with as much money as Ashley!!.
    The man was trying to buy Debenhams at the time & alot of toon fans couldn’t afford to shop in Debenhams!!.

    It was a truly stupid plan.

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  27. So wood is confirmed, who’s next I wonder. Everyone we want the price keeps going up and up, a bit like my ex wife when I wanted to see my daughter.

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  28. Wood is only 2 months older than Wilson and I dont see many complaining about Callum’s age. I am not saying one is better than the other, they may actually compliment each other. When was the last time we had 2 goal scorers? Ba and Cisse and then Cisse went off the boil and decided he had never read the offside rule 🙂

    But back to Wood. He will probably play more games for us than Wilson will. And who was our backup last year? Carroll who didnt score a fcn goal in like 2 years and was crocked more than Gayle.

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  29. Gilly Toon:
    So wood is confirmed, who’s next I wonder. Everyone we want the price keeps going up and up, a bit like my ex wife when I wanted to see my daughter.

    Gilly – I don’t know why but I just get the feeling that the PL will bring in some BS rule that restricts our spending from the summer onwards.
    I don’t like the idea of spending big or being held to ransom – but I like the idea of having our legs done by the PL even less.

    So if we have to spend big now and pay £40m for Carlos, £50m for Botman and £30-50m for the CF we want – then so be it. If that results in us climbing the table, then maybe we can sign quality players like Dembele who are out of contract in the summer for free – then it doesn’t matter about the PL restrictions as much.

    I know that’s simplifying things a little coz there are still players who don’t want to come just now regardless how much we bid. But we know that Botman does want to come – that’s not the issue, the issue is Lille doesn’t want to sell. But every player has their price, find it & pay it & get the lad in then move on to the next.

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  30. I think Wood’s record in the PL is about the same as Wilson. I dont care how he scores goals, if they are scuffed or deflected, as long as he scores them. These people saying he has only scored 3 in 17 this season are not looking at the big picture. We have had many streaky players. I just menstioned one in Cisse but Ayoze Perez was the same and would get a brace or hattrick against bad teams and pad his stats. We got 30 mil for him.

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  31. I am not saying that Wood will do great at NUFC. To be perfectly honest they hardly show any Burnley games as the featured game in the US and I dont seek out their replays. When I have seen him though, he has been a handful and we dont have that type of player in the squad since Carroll left, but Wood gets a lot more goals than Carroll.

    What we do have at NUFC is plenty of wingers and wing backs but we had nobody who would get in the box. And then there is hoofball. I mentioned it before, but we cannot play out from the back whether it is goalies or centre halfs so it will be interesting to see what we do with a player that can hold the ball up.

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  32. I think we will sign the lad from Reims – though I have to admit, I know nothing about him at all ??‍♂️.

    I also think we have a strong chance of signing the young CB from Monaco – though again, I know nowt about him either ??‍♂️.

    We still have a slim chance with Botman and Carlos – 1 not both.

    Beyond that, I still see a midfielder and I could see us getting Bergwijn either bought or on loan.

    We could end up with as many as 8 by the end of the window.

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  33. Assuming we dont sign a centre back we will have to get by with Lascelles and Schar. Manquillo is suspended and I think Lewis is still injured. Could we see Dummett at left back? Please not Ritchie!!! Everybody gave Willock a hard time for his FA Cup performance but what other choices are there with Hayden out? Here’s my guess:

    Dubs

    Trippier Lascelles Schar Dummett

    Shelvey Willock Joelinton

    Fraser Wood ASM

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  34. We can beat Watford. Everybody says Man U was our best performance of the season, but I think it was Watford away. We need Willock to get his head on straight and perform like he did at the back end of last season.

    But that is not a terrible team barring the centre backs. Joelinton also needs to play like he did in the last 3 league games and we should be OK. I dont think we will lose.

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  35. What are the odds of ASM starting to limp on 70 mins and doing that finger rolling thing to the bench saying he needs to come off?

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  36. Ollys latest transfer rumour article suggests we are looking at Nat Phillips – he was my first choice before the window opened & remains so ahead of everyone we’ve been linked with for CB.
    The lad is exactly what we need in our defence and if we can get him for £15m or even a loan to buy then I’d jump all over it.

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  37. Sharpy17:
    Ollys latest transfer rumour article suggests we are looking at Nat Phillips – he was my first choice before the window opened & remains so ahead of everyone we’ve been linked with for CB.
    The lad is exactly what we need in our defence and if we can get him for £15m or even a loan to buy then I’d jump all over it.

    Sharpy: I have never seen any of these centre backs we are linked with. There is no French football in the US and the CL is limited to the name teams like Bayern and Barca. In fact they only show the group games in Spanish and I cannot remember seeing a French team apart from PSG. I am totally flying blind on any of these French links.

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  38. Eric+Sykes: Sharpy: I have never seen any of these centre backs we are linked with. There is no French football in the US and the CL is limited to the name teams like Bayern and Barca. In fact they only show the group games in Spanish and I cannot remember seeing a French team apart from PSG. I am totally flying blind on any of these French links.

    Eric – even if they did I’m not sure you’d take much notice of Reims or Monaco anyway to be fair.

    But I know Howe has spent time going round Europe and spending time with some managers and very likely keeping tabs on players. Howe had to box clever with signing at Bmth & hopefully that will serve him through this period until we can attach players because of our status rather than potential.

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  39. RCB looks possible with Nat Phillips as the back up to Diago Carlos, but LCB does not look good with Benoit Badiashile costing more than Botman. Cue Nathen Ake or Romagnoli from AC Milan or even Umtiti from Barca

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  40. PremAndUp:
    RCB looks possible with Nat Phillips as the back up to Diago Carlos,but LCB does not look good with Benoit Badiashile costing more than Botman. Cue Nathen Ake or Romagnoli from AC Milan or even Umtiti from Barca

    Prem – they seem to be pushing hard for Carlos. Don’t know much about him to be honest, but he’s playing at a high level with Seville.

    I actually think Phillips would be a better option with where we are right now, just with his PL experience, but either would certainly strengthen our back 4.

    I think Umtiti could well come on loan knowing his first team football will be limited with Barca – he’ll want to get match fit to try and force his way back into international contention I reckon.

    I’d be surprised if City let Ake go with the competition they are still in. They look likely to win the PL but will want to keep players fit for the CL – if nothing else Ake allows Pep to rest and rotate his squad.

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  41. Lloyd Kelly is the only other LCB that has been mentioned this window – but with Bmth pushing for automatic promotion & they’ve let Steve Cook go I think, I’d be surprised if they would let him go for anything less than the kinda money we are bidding for Botman & the Monaco lad

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  42. The only other one I can think of is John Brooks. American, plays for Wolfsburg, contract up in the summer, but I don’t know much about him

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  43. If this craic about us being offered Van der Beek on loan is true I’d rather that than buy Cantwell – I think VDB is a no brainer, especially if there is an option to buy in the deal.

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  44. I’ve absolutely lost count of the number of players we’ve been linked to and I can’t even remember the names there’s so many!

    Looks like only Wood before Watford which was the minimal we needed.

    Hopefully we win on Saturday and things can calm down a bit.

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  45. The Mail are doing their usual click baiting in the story of our interest in Amadou Haidara from Leipzig. They say he will cost 80 million. RUBBISH. They have included his wages in that figure. He has a 33 mil release clause in the summer so we could get him for probably 50 mil in real money (not the false number that includes wages).

    I wouldnt mind them adding wages if they did it for everybody, but they didnt for Wood.

    The problem you have is that 80 mil number will probably stick and be quoted on Blogs and Youtube when it is absolute b0ll0cks.

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  46. I have said this before but I think the same thing happened with JoeLinton. Some journo added wages to the fee and came up with 43 million and Charnley and Ashley were happy to go along with it. They have form for doing this and they would have wanted to have the highest fee possible quoted so they could say they were spending money.

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  47. It has started already!!! I just watched a preview of Watford on a Youtube channel call Toon Review. They quoted the 80 million for Haidara number. Very lazy of them as they only looked at the headline and mustnt have read the bit where The Daily Mail included his wages in that figure. I knew it would happen!

    This youtube channel were trying to justify 80 mil as a “statement signing”. But it is not 80 million FFS. Sorry to rant. It is just that this sort of misinformation once repeated becomes accepted. It is like Trump and Boris with their lies. They repeat the same cr@p so often that eventually a lot of people believe it. Boris is getting caught more often now, especially when there are picture of him in the Number 10 garden.

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  48. Some NUFC fans seem underwhelmed with Chris Wood. He only scores 1 goal every 3 games they say and he MUST be over the hill because he has only scored 3 this season. I am not saying he is going to be a world beater but let’s have a look and one of England’s and Man U’s golden boys. Marcus Rashford.

    He has scored 57 goals in 190 games. That is 1 in 3.

    He has scored 2 goals in 11 games this year.

    His salary is 10.4 million pounds a year.

    And you cant tell me that even with Man U in a slump he does not play with better players than Burnley. Man U finished 2nd last year if you recall.

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  49. BTW I have worked out what is wrong with Man U. Their mid-fielders never shoot and their forwards shoot on sight wherever they happen to be on the pitch. I think Pep would sub the lot of them if they played for him.

    The shoot on sight policy includes Rashford and obviously Ronaldo. But the others are almost as bad. Just watch Greenwood, Fernandez and Cavani as well.

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  50. I am glad Olly didnt fall into the trap of including Haidara’s wages in the fee we would have to pay. It is a total misrepresentation by The Mail. Think about it, Pogba cost Man U about 90 mil, if you included his wages it would have been close to 200 mil. It is just clickbaiting from The Mail to create a splashier headline and they know we have the money.

    Even The Chronic said the 80 million for Haidara included his wages. Still didnt stop certain NUFC Youtube sites from falling for this dirty trick by a Daily Mail hack.

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  51. How much do you think Chris Wood is getting a season? My guess is about 6 million, so on a 2 and half year deal that is 15 million. Using Daily Mail maths he cost us 40 million (25 fee + 15 wages)!!! But that is not the way they usually report transfer fees, is it!

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  52. Watford have only won 2 out of 11 games since Ranieri got the gig. Losing 7 on the bounce. We surely have a good chance?

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  53. I know it may be a bit of an imbalance at CB – but I’d take 2 RCBs in this window if it meant bringing 2 of Carlos, Sule and Phillips – I know we won’t get all 3 but 2 of those playing alongside each other would massively improve our defence.
    Personally I’d love 1 to be Phillips. I think his PL experience would be invaluable.

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  54. Stuart79:
    Watford have only won 2 out of 11 games since Ranieri got the gig. Losing 7 on the bounce. We surely have a good chance?

    Stu – I think Claudio could be for the chop if we beat them mate

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  55. Looks like Ritchie at left back again as the rest are unfit/suspended. We have to give him some protection but I am not sure how we do that of we play ASM mainly on his side. There are suggestions that ASM will be a number 10 in a 4-4-2 but I am not sure if that would work and who would be left midfield. Anyway, I am sure Olly can help me out coz I am a bit stuck with that side of the team.

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  56. Does anybody really believe what Howe is saying about Sean Longstaff having a future at the club? He is out of contract in the summer. Howe might need him tomorrow so I think it is a bit of psychology. I dont expect him to be even in the squad come February.

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