Cricket protocol:
Batsman wearing a protective helmet gets brushed on the head by a ball .
Result: The game stops, doctor on for tests, helmet changed.
Boxing protocol:
Boxer actually gets knocked out
Result: interviewer - “so what went wrong aj”. And the world judges what he says. Crazy...
Pedro will go next summer, if he has a good season.
Verbruggen and JPVH to go end in 2026.
Baleba is a tough one to call due to his rapid progress. He could go next Summer too.
There was a lot of bad but last night we saw signs of the old Ferguson for the first time in a while.
Quick feet to beat defenders and the almost goal (classic Ferguson) which Minteh finished.
He needs one of those to go in, then we’ll see.
“Desperately would want an injury to Baleba and/or JPVH.” 🤨
To answer your question - Yeah, upper midtable is about right.
Which doesn’t sound too sexy, but to put it into context , upper midtable would potentially mean finishing below: ManCity, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U, Spurs...
Possibly a case of he knows what he should be doing, knows what he wants to do, but can’t physically do it.
I really thought we were looking at a burgeoning world class player a year or so ago.
Hopefully the minutes will help get him back there.
It‘s a good job we’ve got points on the board cos we are pretty easy to break down and seem to like doing stupid things in dangerous places.
We‘ve got an absolute battering coming our way at some point soon.
Mid/long term we are heading in the right direction.
He is a class act. Sadly Ferguson looked like the 33 year old tonight. I really hope he gets his edge/pace back. At least some of the deft touches were in evidence.
I’m surprised how well he has done since coming back from injury. Even at peak form he had the odd poor game, mostly because teams double up on him. The pace is still there. It is not a Lamptey situation.
It was a lot to pay for a player with no track record in a top league, and only a season in a league of any kind of standard (having cost Newcastle a pittance a year ago).
Which is not to say I’ve written him off, just that he will have to go some for it to be a bad deal for Newcastle.
Unlike ...
He arrived with no prem experience and one full season in the Dutch league.
Look at it like that and he’s doing ok .
It’s not his fault that we overpaid