Brilliant OP and a great summary of Newcastle as a club and Bruce as a manager. He's such a massive step down for them and they deserve far better than him and Cashley in charge.
I'm not sure I've ever read such a perfect description of how money has changed the game than this:
Off the field, the old owners are all but gone – no more Walkers, Halls or Moores. In their place are a mixture of international investment consortia, career asset-strippers who leverage debt to skim profits, with even reputation-laundering oligarchs rapidly being displaced by reputation-laundering countries seeking to use oil wealth to not only lubricate public perceptions but also to add trophies in the world’s biggest sport to their achievements in perhaps the plutocracy’s favourite past time of all: extravagantly worthless dick-measuring.
Or the gulf in class between two managers put so brutally but so eloquently
Even Rafa got turned over here, and Bruce is to Rafa what an amoeba is to the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra.
We should have way too much for them and for Bruce's limited tactical brain. Its a huge head, but the brain must be tiny like a T-Rex. He'll do his usual trick of parking several kebab vans in front of their goal and playing a physical game and hope to nick a draw. We're in really good shape after the international break with several key players rested so I think we should go strong. Perhaps Origi or Shaqiri come in, with Fabinho or Bobby rested, and possibly Gomez to get more minutes under his belt. Milner and Wijnaldum against their old club could be interesting.
Adrian, Robertson, Gomez, Virgil, Trent, Milner, Wijnaldum, AoC, Mane, Origi, Salah.
That's a strong side plus strong players on the bench, and I can see us winning comfortably with the form and mindset we're in lately.
I've lost so much interest in the national game that when my mate told me after 5-a-side last night that England were 5-1 up, I had to ask him who against (and whether it was a friendly
). Good to have proper football back again.
