Well, here we are ladies and gentleman. The week that will probably define our season as we go head to head with the three teams that are somehow below us in the table, starting with everyone's favourite petrodollar sports washers Newcastle United. A few years back, an article in their local press caused some consternation amongst our fanbase when the writer referred to this game as "Pygmies vs Giants", despite us being on a run of regularly beating the hapless Geordies. Now we are fishing in different ponds, as we scrabble around the Pozzo bargain basement trying to patch up our defence, and the newly anointed richest club in the world cast their limitless net all across Europe. At the time of writing, they've only dashed £12m on a 32 year old Kieran Trippier but they will expect to have further reinforcements in place by the time we square off, as they flutter their human rights abusing eyelids at various players that really believe in "the project" (££££££). Newcastle fans hated their previous owner, Mike Ashley, despite him overseeing their longest period of success since they last won a domestic trophy 65 odd years ago. But that wasn't enough for the Toon Army, who always demanded more, as though history dictated they should be feasting at the top table rather than being one of the many teams that have never won a trophy in most fans' living memories. But then along came Mohammed Bin Salman, the chairman of the Saudi Public Investment Fund who fancied a bit of sports washing after some unpleasant publicity in the wake of his agents butchering a journalist who had the temerity to criticise his regime. The takeover looked to have stalled but ultimately the Premier League is never a beast that will turn down billions so they waved it through to nauseating scenes of celebration outside St James Park. The Geordies had previously styled themselves as "some of the best fans in the country" and argued that they needed Ashley out to get their club back. But as soon as they saw the riches on offer from the Saudis, they were like true Magpies, desperate to have their shiny baubles regardless of their provenance. Howay, man! Staying classy Just to add an extra bit of frisson to this game, Newcastle thought that the ideal manager to take them up a level was Eddie Howe. He immediately brought in his yapping mahogany chihuahua Jason Tindell, presumably as they thought that imbuing a culture of cheating and gamesmanship throughout the whole club might give them a different type of edge to the financial one. Howe has already obliged by creating a ludicrous "dossier" of decisions that have gone against them. "I'll tell Wilson when to dive and you immediately yap in the fourth official's ear, Jase" Team news: well we'd better pray that Dennis is fit, the new defenders are a serious upgrade and that Newcastle allow Howe full control of the budget and he blows it all on overpriced tat like he did at Bournemouth. Wilson is out but would expect them to have bought someone to replace him as he won't play for eight weeks. Realistically, the pygmy-giant comparison will come to pass and over the next few years Newcastle will accelerate away from us at a rate of knots. But it would be incredibly satisfying to finish above this amoral lot and help send them down to slightly delay the inevitable. And of course, this would also have the side benefit of annoying the Premier League Powers That Be as we continue to stink out its lower half. It's been a hard season to love this squad but all of the ducking of long balls, brainless penalties conceded and overweight players will be forgiven if we beat this lot on Saturday. COYH!
The start of a massive ******* week. A week that will go a long way in defining what league we will be in next season. 3 points or less. We’re down. 4-6 points. Just keeping our heads above water. 7+ points. Might drag others in to the fight To be honest, I suspect we need 9 Good write up by the way
Huge week. If the 3 new players don’t start because they are “getting up to speed” then I will give up before kick off. The useless cowards that infest the first XI must be dropped immediately.
Three things must happen: Cathcart must not start. Foster has to play. Kamara must start. Those things will give us a fighting chance from kick-off. I’m just praying somehow for a few more signings (ones to actually get genuinely excited about rather than the standard ‘meh’ ones)
Cathcart starts. 4-0 Newcastle. ASM hat trick and some player they sign in the week. Popular comments on Twitter and WFCForums after the game: We go again in the next do or die game. Beat Burnley and we’ll be right back on track. We’ll be fine. Season starts on Friday. Minutes in the legs of the new boys At least we didn’t get lots of injuries New starters need to get up to speed and quick We got to see lots of youth team players! Newcastle have bought their way out of trouble! The bedwetters have got their wish! Xisco Munoz was our best manager on paper ever! Tune into the ‘ten minute take’ live from a cupboard in San Francisco! Poddy goes live in thirty!
Hopefully they won't have any significant new signings. We need 7 points from our next 3 games and this is massive. We have a good opportunity in this one. I mean Newcastle have just got beaten by Cambridge United of league two (I think) or did they get promoted? Either way they lost to lower league opposition with their first team out and their shiney new signing starting. I am praying we sign another central defender and Foster is fit.
My big worry is that although we have signed what will hopefully be three or more upgrades for the team these three games could well be to early for us as none of them will have a chance to play a single match for the team before being thrown into what could be a season defining six days from hell. We all know that these three games are what are known as SIX POINTERS and that we will probably be going into them with what will be a basically experimental team, so may god be with us as I think we are going to need him
I want to ignore the next three games as much as possible. It only makes me angry to watch us needlessly implode at the first opportunity. (Ps, as stated elsewhere - it’s three games in 7 days, not 6. Thank you)
Foster(if fit) Ngakia Sierralta Samir Kamara Sissoko Cleverley Pedro Dennis King Cucho Newcastle are poor we should attack them. I'd rather have Pedro as a 10 than Kucka, Kayembe or Tufan.
The sort of game that’s so monumental that you assume we’ll play well, until we inevitably play like we did against West Ham in our last relegation season.
We’ll lose this one. I’m starting to really lose the will to watch us leak goals every week. We’ve conceded an average of 2.86 goals per game over these 7 defeats. Bachmann saves I would say 1 in 3 shots and isn’t helped out by the defence at all. 3-1 Newcastle.
Newcastle is generally a fixture we do pretty well in in past seasons. However. I must admit it has to be down to CR70 to express what a massive week this is. It really is season defining, and IF we by some miracle, picked up a maximum nine points, we can probably forget all these heavy losses and build from a shiny tally of 22 points. That is over half way to survival with half the season left to play. Looking at what I have just written, it makes me even more terrified at the prospect that the same old mistakes will happen again, and we will be back at port HMPTL next season sooner than we expected. Give the new lads a a rundown on what is required, get the rubbish out of the side (even if we have to play Gosling in midfield over Tufan, do it) - anyone who isn't willing to pull the shirt on at 14.00 and fight for the survival can warm the subs bench. Having Dennis available will be huge, so let's hope he can take part. Cleverley is a mixed bag, but he is fighter. Let's go for it on Saturday, baton down the hatches and grab three out of nine points. Newcastle 2 Watford 0
Bachmann, Cathcart, Cleverley, Kucka et al will start. Sema will also come off the bench in the second half Geordies will win by 1 or 2 goals, leapfrog us and the composition of the bottom 3 won’t change again this season
Aren't there age limits for joining the Scouting movement and I'm not sure if they do a "Goalkeeper's Badge".
I think we all accept this is highly likely to be the case. Will be interesting to see if they throw our 2 new defensive signings in for debuts. Not a risk with forwards but defenders need to work as a team with good understanding of each other and any mistake can result in conceding a goal.
Exactly. We can't just put people into our slickly drilled defensive unit, what if it leads to errors?
Yes I know . Is it better to bring in 2 new defenders who should be better than those they are replacing but are unfamiliar with their fellow defenders or stick with an established poor unit ? I guess WTE and Masina will need replacing anyway so gotta use the new guys and hope they all gel at the back in a massive game for us and our opponents.
Get everyone behind the ball and try and frustrate them seems our only option. If we open up and try and outplay teams we will get smashed.
What would be the difference? Our new signings might as well be the ones making the errors instead of our current waste of space defenders. However, maybe just maybe our new guys won't make those errors because hopefully they are better players who will overcome the fact they have not played together and hold our defence together.
We need to rely on our pace on the break rather than pushing forward and allowing them to catch us on the break.
Really good point there... FaCup third round and the lower teams always play up and make a fist of it. It's so psychological it's ridiculous, but even in the prem and champ there are managers that get more out of their players. Our guys never show any in comparison.? Maybe the multi cultural multi lingual aspect of our players prevents a real team spirit, coz I just don't see any...
I never thought I'd see any team match Liverpools persecution complex but watching and listening to Newcastle fans and team lately since the takeover has been absolutely nauseating. "FFP is against us" "VAR is against us" "Referees are against us" "Talk of not allowing our new players to play in rearranged fixtures because everyone is against us" Geez it's been so tiresome it's actually making me dislike them.
