AKCJ

I would be happy to go into the season with Daka/Ayew if if it means we can afford to keep El Khannouss and Hermansen.

We were relegated 85 days ago.

Is there any danger of this getting done this week?

Test cricket is just so good.

The questions that get asked of this Stokes side are the same that have been asked pretty much throughout his leadership. Crawley, Pope and Bashir are not test quality players. I think Pope has an argument at number 5 but arguably the strength of this team is the middle order. I think they cross that line of self-confidence to arrogance. They back their own (mediocre) ability over common sense and that costs them far too many test matches. Good vibes over good cricket will always see them lose more than they will win.

Is this still going hahahah

The temptation to move Stokes up to 7th and bring Smith down to 6th must be massive. I get Stokes batting lower down the order when he's not bowling or bowling much less but he's bowled 61 overs in the first two tests. I would much rather see Smith bat with Root and Brook and let Stokes bat with Woakes and Carse.

Bumrah is something else.

There will be Leicester fans that actually believe this.

Done a bit of a dive into Pope's stats to see how often he went beyond his average of 35. I make it 29 in 103 innings. Very much feast or famine.

Watching Maresca's rise must help. Shows that obliterating the Championship and playing football in that style will open doors for you.

I think that's 11 out of 13 tests in England in which Stokes has won the toss.

The Marti Cifuentes Penitentiary.

No.

Many would argue this is a race he lost.

No doubt a tweet explaining how this deal is too complicated and that we've moved on to Paul Jewell who we are "long term admirers" of.

Any more movement on this today?

Shits all over Wilder and O'Neil.

You what DavieG?

Leuven not sponsored by KP anymore?

Yeah I was sure I saw something about them not offering general sale.

Does the club even do general sale these days? I suspect the opening few games will sell out just for the novelty of a new season/manager/league etc as much as anything else.

It's the usual sledgehammer to crack a walnut approach though isn't it. Guarantee an elderly Newcastle fan that has been a season ticket holder for years will fall ill for a couple of months and have their season ticket revoked with no emotion shown from NUFC.

Feel awful for the lad.

Gary O'Neil is so much worse than I could have imagined.