RoverKyle

Centre mid. Seems to be highly rated.

If we can get a few quid for him, thank him for his efforts and move him on. You'd imagine that would be a decent wage saving if you replaced him with Wharton.

Yeah I agree with that. He does tend to be out a fair bit of the season. We probably wouldn't be worse off if we got a small amount of money to play with and have Wharton step in as a back up CB.

I think he's better than most people give him credit for. I think as a back up, he's a decent option.

During the Prem years I went to most of our away games in Newcastle from 2004 and the crowd certainly wasn't as loud/vocal as they're made out to be. I also went to quite a few Newcastle games during university (2008-2011) & through the years and have been disappointed in the crowd/atmosphere if anything. They tended to get vocal when things weren't going their way, as opposed to genuine support for the team.

I can definitely see where you're coming from in terms of his quotes, but given that the club site (when the retained list was released) and several LET articles & tweets refer to him being offered a deal, I think it's safe to assume he has been. It may well be the case that given the current circumstances (COVID & the budget limitations we appear to have) we've offered him a deal on terms lower than he was anticipating, so he's keeping his options open. I'm taking Mowbray's comments that Downing may still sign that deal - but they aren't necessarily expecting him to - and if they get to a stage where they've done their business in defence, they could look to offer him improved terms should he still be available and we have the budget to do so.

It states that he has been offered a deal.

I could swear I counted him offside at least 3 or 4 times, which is a lot for one half of football. I wouldn't want to watch it back and check though. Not the easiest half to watch.

He was caught offside countless times and his pressing was lacklustre. He didn't create or do anything of note, so I'd personally class that as awful. The penalty miss was to be expected. He was walking away from it before he was told to take it. The lad isn't a goalscorer. Would love it if he proved me wrong. In the same token, you could say that we don't need Dack as we looked really good without him. Fair enough if you don't like Gallagher, but I don't see why he should be written off before he's kicked a ball this season.

Agree with everything up to the last paragraph. Seems needless to dig out Gallagher. He deserves as much chance as the rest of them to show what he can do before the season starts. If anything, you could argue we could've done with him in the first half as Brereton was awful. He certainly wouldn't have been any worse than him.

I'm not enamoured by him but he is neat and tidy with the ball. I also like that he's quite good at knicking the ball back. It's not a trait you tend to see from a more attacking midfielder.

Thought both Chapman and Wharton came out of that half with a lot of credit.

6ft3 apparently.

Did we pay that for Robinson when Friedel departed?

The problem isn't having Bennett as a back up RB option. It's that Mowbray can't resist playing him there every now and then even when Nyambe is fit. As a back up you'd only expect him to play the odd couple of games to cover for Nyambe's injuries or suspensions. Bennett has shown on occasion that he can fill in reasonably well when it's the odd game, but he should never be considered as a starting option when Nyambe is fit.

I think given where we are in terms of finances and where we need to strengthen, a back up RB could wait until next season. We could do worse than Bennett as back up at RB, but I agree that he needs to be replaced in the squad. I doubt Liverpool would loan Williams as cover and he wouldn't be ours beyond this season anyway.

Yeah plays on the right. He's the sort of player we'd realistically get from Liverpool though. The likes of Curtis Jones & Rhian Brewster - who would both improve our starting XI considerably - are potentially out of our reach given their successes in the first team and out on loan.

He'd probably do OK in the Championship, but whenever I've seen him play, he's struggled. Also wouldn't really want him taking Nyambe's place at RB.

Yes, 100%.

Nice round up Joe. Not particularly bothered about 'missing out' on the players mentioned. Think we'd be missing a trick not going in for Phillips though given our goalkeeping situation and his situation at Charlton. Should be an affordable solution to our main issue.

Yeah sorry, not that recent at all. Danny Graham! Armstrong is a cracking example though too.

? we wish!

One of our better signings of recent years signed up permanently after a loan spell. It can work if you go for the right players.

Well it would be 5 players in a match day squad. Let's not fall into semantics. The point is that if a team full of loans (5 in a match day squad) had the quality for us to challenge, who cares if we don't own the whole team. Our recruitment in general is poor and we haven't got the best out of the loan market. It's definitely something we can improve on.

And if you actually read my post, you'll notice that I never mentioned anything about loan players we've had before. I quite clearly stated that if we were to sign a team of loan players that were good enough to challenge at the top, I'd be happy with that despite the club not owning them. I agree with your point that the loan players we've had haven't been good enough for us to challenge at the top. Our recruitment is way off the mark. We have of course had exceptions over the last couple of seasons, but those were in isolation alongside poor permanent signings.