He won us something like 15 or 16 points if you base it on taking his goals out of his games.

VAR cant give second yellows, so out of its remit. The first one maybe was a red by itself but the second one was the clear one and it was in plain sight for the ref. Been a drab game.

But we wasnt offered that sort of fee so its a case of either accepting still a very high sum or allowing him to run down his deal. Many attackers score in bursts, you cant argue with his numbers in the last 2 seasons.

Think its premature to say "a frankly remarkable upgrade on Diaz." To achieve that, he would need to score significantly more than 37 goals in the next 2 seasons if indeed he even stays that long. Very promising start though, the most eye catching of the signings on paper within a very difficult window and very promising on the pitch now he has got himself fit. Brereton left a huge gap in being the one player capable to get into goalscoring positions and not even as a central striker. Sigurdsson has shown signs of having that same knack and whilst not sharing the same speed, he seems a more technical player too.

Cairney has always been an attacking midfielder whereas Wharton is more of a player who sits deep and dictates a game. Im sure he would have thrived against an awful QPR side. I think him and Tronstad could work well, indeed him and Rankin Costello showed promise and even with Travis it would just need Tomasson to reign in instructing him to play so high up and he could help to reduce the load on him off the ball.

Well no as we wouldnt have got the 8m had we not spent money on him in the first place. It would have been a strange situation considering how long it took him to push on but it would have been a case of a player leaving for a (small) profit (would have shown as a considerable one over FFP considering the amortisation) having scored nearly 40 goals across 2 seasons. Reinvest a big chunk, keep a bit aside, sign a couple of new players. Thats the model Broughton and Mowbray before mentioned that the owners have always prevented us from using.

And thats Venkys for you. That sort of decision impacts us not only for one summer but for a few years as £8m of income is such a large amount for us.

Clearly nothing to talk about for him between transfer windows. Amazed that anyone pays to read his rubbish. He is not at the stage to be playing first team football for Newcastle.

We conceded 3 once and 4 twice in those games though, when that happens you can't put the main portion of blame on poor chance conversion.

He also played the majority of the Cardiff game where he looked out of his depth and I didnt see any attributes that stood out. Plus he also can barely get any minutes in a side that has had no fit strikers. I hate this idea that we can only judge a player based on a certain number of minutes, as if we should not discuss him before. Had he scored 2 in those minutes and/or really stood out those same people would naturally be judging him and waxing lyrical and rightly so. Lets judge as we go and we all hope he makes the massive step up.

People will cheer Telalovic if he scores goals, not sure how that is relevant. No one dismisses praise over Sigurdsson because its "too early." That argument only ever is made by the self appointed negativity police.

There is often a clamour to play Bellingham deeper to fit in another attacking midfielder but he has to play where he does for Real Madrid. Ideally with Foden from the left and Saka from the right. I see that Southgate has still stuck to his old favourites with his latest squad. Maguire, Phillips and Henderson are such stupid selections.

To be fair I would agree that we werent as gung ho in those first 4 games and we actually got 7 points in those, including a win at Watford playing tactics so different to how we played in the few games since. Hill playing at right back I think is a defensive move although he has still been bombing on quite a lot. Rankin Costello has also come in for Travis who was often so far forward pressing teams really high up. I wonder how much if any of it has comes down to the quality of opposition too, its not as if its been a total difference in tactics like we saw at Watford. QPR are appalling and did get to a certain point before their lack of quality saw attacks break down. Coventry had struggled to find a win for 6 games until they got one in the game before us too. Prior to that our naive approaches were against the likes of Ipswich, Leicester and Sunderland who did have the quality to see us off, and Plymouth (aided by goalkeeping incompetence) who have some good attacking players. Boro did create a lot but again they misfired.

One great result doesnt justify the tactics all season. We are still 17th. Although I have sensed a slight compromise in the last 2 games, but the question is whether many teams will still carve us apart.

I think its incredibly premature to base the verdict on today when we are 17th and off the back of 4 losses. Ultimately the biggest issue with the window was more what we couldnt do which is solely on the owners and the aggressive budget cuts. We werent allowed to bring in experience, more numbers especially another wide man or a goalscorer. Individually there are certainly clear bright spots but they are definitely in the main very fleeting mainly as they are only just breaking into the team. Sigurdsson is the main one just because he looks to have that intelligence to break into goalscoring positions and he has already scored 4 goals, its not a common knack so I am really excited to see him more. Moran looks a talent although the main issue is how to fit him into the team I would say but I like the look of him. Tronstad has started to settle in the last couple of games and Hill isnt a natural right back nor the experienced head we needed but he definitely has something about him. All 4 definitely have shown glimpses of being able to really add to our squad, not convinced by any means that all 4 will play week in week out (Sigurdsson perhaps excluded) but on such a tight budget we may have got 4 good additions there. Wahlstedt has conceded 1 in 2 League starts but has been rarely tested (as a result of being slightly less gung ho) and his continental approach to punch everything concerns me but I would certainly want him to stay in goal when Pears returns. The main issues are the questions around the striker we desperately needed but simply have not had the backing to make a serious go at finding. Ennis I have liked the look of but he cant stay fit, he didnt impress today but he isnt fit. And Telalovic is nowhere near it and wont make the squad shortly I suspect. It might turn into a very effective window considering the restrictions whilst still being underwhelming and not properly giving us what we need. Theres no way we could have got what we needed in full from the window with the cuts and the movement of the goalposts so that isnt on Broughton.

Wharton didnt play further up the field last year. Theres no reason why we couldnt have him and Tronstad deeper although if Travis does play, just dont instruct him to go so far forward.

I dont think it was the absence of Wharton that made a positive difference. Tronstad was good but is not the same class on the ball. A mixture of QPRs ineptness and in the last 2 games us not being quite as gung ho. Hopefully you wont wish serious injury on him.

Wahlstedt certainly hasnt made any mistakes leading to goals and I am much more comfortable with him in net. Barely anything to do today. I think its a bit of a red flag though that he actively keeps choosing to punch catchable crosses, a very continental style. The punches arent flaps that drop into the box but they often ended back in the box and caused further danger that didnt need to happen. We also scored 4 and the goals were all very well taken, so we were much more clinical than usual. But we got into attacking positions a number of times and made poor choices, sometimes just missing chances and sometimes not even creating a chance. We did throughout carry a threat though. Hill looks like he has a lot going for him and he hasnt let anyone down at right back but you can tell he isnt a natural there. With Carter our poorest performer today and with Brittain on the bench, I think I would move Hill inside. Against Chair he was beaten a few times in areas he naturally wont be strongest in.

Theyve won 1 home game in a year and 2 points in 10 home games. Some of the mistakes they made were not only hilariously bad but totally unenforced, like for the fourth, not us necessarily making them look bad. Their right back (who is actually a left back) was particularly woeful. Weve "played better" this season and not got results, we made plenty of unenforced errors ourselves and there are certainly aspects (Carters performance, the keeper flapping at every thing, Hill is not a right back) of the performance that will cause concerns. But football is and always has and will be a results game no matter what nonsense people like to spout. So to win 4 nil away from home is always a fantastic result and a great feeling going into the break. And of course there were plenty of positives. We did play well, you dont win 4 nil without playing well. But QPR made themselves look as bad as they keep proving they are at least as much as we made them look bad.

Excellent win and much needed. League table still doesnt look as great but a bit of distance between the bottom 3. Thankfully there are 3 terrible teams in this league so youd like to think we will be fine. I dont actually think we were that great performance wise, they were just laughably bad, constantly making terrible mistakes as evident by our fourth. We made a lot of errors and sloppy passes, Carter was all over the place at times and was bullied by Armstrong and Hill is not a right back, regularly beaten by Chair. Also, Wahlstedt never catching the ball will cause us issues, he keeps punching and it leads to the ball instantly coming back into the box. Any opposition quality and as we have seen, there are goals there for other teams, they should have had one or two. Sigurdsson is not the quickest but he seems to have a bit of quality above the rest, his second was a particularly good finish. Szmodics was nowhere near clinical enough but him and the improved Dolan also caused them all sorts of problems. Not sure what to make of Tronstad, in the main very effective but he always isnt far away from a sloppy pass but I thought he did well. Rankin Costello did well from midfield and was superb for the second goal. Pickering was good and Hyam was the main man responsible for us keeping the clean sheet, very good.

We clearly only signed him because we had no money, Longstaff would have likely cost a reasonable sum and we couldn't even afford a freebie or an extra loan. Why don't the owners take any blame?

Based on what was said on here, im not sure how much you took him to task as you backed him for ages. Its only recently for whatever reason that the penny has dropped.

He played deep when he impressed last season. Hes naturally a midfielder that sits deep and controls the game, his position isnt the issue, its the tactics and how those around him are being used that have left him so exposed.

By that very nature, you could dismiss any potential interest as speculation anyway.