0:00

When it comes to sports betting, at

0:02

MGM is the standard. We

0:04

use them to dive in and get real time

0:06

betting on, enhance offers and tons

0:08

of different bedding options. Moneyline,

0:11

spread, parley's, futures,

0:13

it's all there. Sign

0:15

up today with bet MGM, the exclusive

0:17

betting

0:17

partner of the athletic and get a risk

0:19

free bet up to one thousand dollars

0:21

plus a free three month subscription

0:23

to the athletic. Just sign up and use our

0:25

pro a low code, the athletic to

0:28

take advantage of this special offer

0:30

from the king of sports sports. This event

0:32

MGM dot com for terms conditions must be twenty one plus

0:34

years of age or older equator, Arizona, Colorado Illinois,

0:36

Indiana, Iowa Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi,

0:38

Nevada New Jersey, New York Pennsylvania Puerto Rico, Tennessee,

0:40

Virginia, District of Columbia, West Virginia, worldwide,

0:42

nineteen plus years of major order in Ontario, new customer

0:44

offer all promotions or subject to qualification and eligibility

0:47

requirements for awards issued as a nominal draw for free

0:49

bets or sign credit. Free bets expire seven days for

0:51

issuance. Excludes Michigan and Associates, since, please

0:53

gamble responsibly. Gamble a problem called one

0:55

eight hundred next step in Arizona, one eight hundred

0:57

5224700 in Colorado,

0:59

Michigan Ombia, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Wyoming,

1:01

Virginia one eight hundred 2707117

1:04

for confidential help in Michigan, one eight hundred gambler

1:07

in Indiana, Maryland. New Jersey and West Virginia

1:09

one eight hundred Bets off in Iowa one eight hundred

1:11

9810023 in Puerto Rico

1:13

or call 8778 Hope

1:15

New York or text Hope New York 467369

1:19

Caller, Texas, Tennessee red line eight hundred 8899789

1:22

or call 1888779696

1:25

And this Sifty. Ontario, if you have questions or

1:27

concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please

1:29

contact Konex, Ontario at 18665312600

1:32

to speak to an adviser

1:34

where it's betting his void and joy Hawaii,

1:36

Ohio, and Utah, and other states

1:38

were prohibited. Promotional offers not

1:40

available in Nevada.

1:44

The athletic.

2:03

Hello,

2:04

and welcome to the Poll on the Tyne. You'll go

2:06

to New Castle United podcast from

2:08

the athletic. Coming up on

2:10

this week show.

2:19

blows off new castle to spud the

2:21

bees with bruno pulling the strings.

2:29

start attack, Kevin Lawson, on our domination

2:31

of the numbers game.

2:35

and another

2:37

big day in store for the women's team as

2:39

they return us in James Park.

2:51

Yes. Hello. This is Pompner Tyne. I

2:53

am Taylor Pinning, and it's just me and

2:55

me, Chris off, just the two of us.

2:57

You and yet again. You

3:00

are right? Well, I'm I I am alright other

3:02

than I mean, you say it's just two of us. And yet,

3:04

and we're now gonna get on this in a bit. And yet,

3:06

we think that we've got rid of George for the weekend. And

3:08

yet, his name still appears in

3:10

light he's just everywhere, isn't he?

3:12

Not man. But no, I am I am

3:14

good. Thank you. Still trying

3:17

to digest A51 Nicarcinade victory.

3:19

Still still fresh in a positive

3:21

mood. How are you? How are you doing, Taylor? I'm

3:23

alright. I'm a busy boy at the minute. I hurt me

3:25

back. The other day as well, which is one of those

3:28

getting all things, Chris, back

3:30

pain. Do you suffer from back pain, Chris?

3:32

Not just yet, no, but I am rightly

3:34

young. Well, it's common myth. Don't worry about that.

3:37

I'm a fully paired up member of the something

3:39

new hurts every morning club, and this

3:41

week gets the back. And and what what what

3:44

made you heard it? Was it just celebrate in

3:46

Bruno Gomarayas. I think I just stood up

3:48

too quick without giving myself an open notice the other

3:50

day. I think I'm sorry. I have to build up

3:52

do it. No. We'll go that age where I can't right.

3:54

Okay. I'm gonna get up in a minute Let's

3:56

just get ourselves settled. Right? Okay. Make

3:58

sure everything's working. Both feet on the floor.

3:59

There we go. Yeah. And Just

4:02

went for it too quickly and a little a little

4:04

twinge. Oh, dear. But, yeah, we'll get there.

4:06

We'll be alright. We'll be alright. Anyway,

4:08

let's crack on. Let's talk about our Bradford game

4:10

and absolutely brilliant display again in

4:12

this time against eleven men. And

4:15

let's start with that flag display

4:18

at the top, you know, celebrating a

4:20

year after the takeover. And guess

4:22

you've got his name all over it. That's

4:24

just I'm still angry. It's

4:26

absolutely furious. I was sitting there in

4:28

the stand room I lit a lot, and we were both

4:30

watching it. And I said, you gotta watch it properly that

4:32

did. special. It's gonna be a special one.

4:34

And he was like, oh, watching it. And I've just seen

4:36

the yellow banana and film at the bottom and it said,

4:38

culk and then I went, ah, no. he's

4:42

gonna be an insuffensible prick for the

4:44

rest of this week now, isn't he? Bless

4:46

him. But, yeah, it was it was incredible. Wasn't

4:48

it? It was like a big Sky Sports news

4:50

kind of thing with the tick I've gone along the bottom.

4:53

Yeah. And a massive surfer that

4:55

covered the entire Gallaudet end and a great

4:57

way to start off the day, wasn't it? Yeah. I

4:59

was very fortunate to I would I sort of had

5:01

an idea of what of what was coming. I'd

5:03

put in some people in around around the group

5:05

and then had this big idea of what they wanted

5:08

to try. and achieving. I thought it looked

5:10

absolutely wonderful. And, yeah, there

5:12

were a few digs at sort of other media

5:14

organizations for to do with the takeover

5:16

and then there were. But to see to see

5:18

the pictures basically a celebration of

5:21

the the past year, looking

5:24

at a few key Mormons, one of which was was

5:26

Eddie Howe being unveiled as manager and obviously

5:28

the new owners coming in. It had had listed

5:30

all of the new signings during that

5:32

time and mentioned, obviously, the Makashi was the

5:34

big one. who'd gone, which was which was the

5:36

key behind it. But, yeah, it was it was it was

5:38

great, and it was quite the contrast from before the

5:40

born with GameWare had been no

5:42

music beforehand. no

5:45

displays for for the obvious reasons

5:47

of it of it being still during the morning period

5:49

after Queen Elizabeth second's death. But this

5:51

was this was just intense

5:53

atmosphere, positivity, energy

5:56

as how and a lot of the players referred

5:58

to it as that really did a sort

6:00

of infiltrate under the pitch and and into

6:02

the player as well. Oh, we can't go any further

6:04

without hearing from the man of the hour.

6:06

Hi all. It's George checking in from

6:08

Portland, Oregon. I'm on a holiday over

6:10

here. My mom, my stepdad, my two brothers,

6:12

AJ and Tom, have lived here since I

6:14

was seventeen, so I'm a regular visitor.

6:17

And it's not turned out to be the happiest

6:19

of holidays this one because Henry, my lovely

6:21

step dad, had a fall and broke his hip,

6:23

not long after I got here. So

6:25

a lot of the time it has been sort of going to visit him

6:27

and looking after my mom and so on and so forth.

6:30

But got a huge boost on

6:32

Saturday when I sat down with AJ and my brother

6:34

who's a massive new castle fan of the year and

6:36

my two little nephews, and we sat

6:38

down to watching Benford much while brilliant what

6:40

brilliant game that was. Anyway, and then

6:42

at the start, I see the amazing

6:44

wall flags display and there's my name

6:46

on the corner of the screen scrolling

6:48

across the the gallery gate and

6:50

my phone started buzzing. my nephews

6:53

were jumping up and down in front of the TV

6:55

saying what's going on. AJ, I

6:57

think understood it was a tough tweet from

6:59

the takeover. a year ago,

7:01

but my god, what

7:03

family point that that's won me, and

7:05

just a fantastic boost

7:07

during a difficult moment. So I

7:09

just want to say thank you to to to more

7:12

flags for including my my

7:14

Duffed tweet on that beautiful display

7:16

and yeah, to use this as an excuse

7:18

to say that I love my family very

7:20

much and just to wish

7:22

you all lots and lots of love. Wish I've been there to

7:24

see the game in person but I'll

7:26

be back soon and miss you all.

7:29

And the other highlight, Chris, was watching that

7:31

game with voodoo doughnut

7:33

which are in a Portland institution. There's

7:35

always huge lines twenty four hours a day

7:37

at this great doughnut shop and I was

7:39

eating maple syrup and

7:41

bacon donuts. Love

7:43

you all. See you soon. Bye.

7:45

Oh,

7:45

there we go. He's when he's not here, he's still here,

7:48

isn't it? He's less than proportional. No.

7:50

No. No. And send a huge love to

7:52

to him and his family. Absolutely. It has it

7:54

has been difficult for them. But if he thinks

7:56

that that sending an emotional message is

7:58

gonna prevent us, from taking the mick out of

8:00

him, then he's very much mistaken. Yeah.

8:02

The execution the idea for the flag was

8:04

wonderful. Wasn't it? The execution left

8:06

ever saw slightly a little bit to be desired.

8:09

It got slightly twisted. Part of

8:11

it didn't go across the bottom of the

8:13

the standard where they wanted it to, and

8:15

it happened to be George's bit. That

8:19

didn't quite make it. But if anything, it

8:21

was sort of representative of him, you

8:23

know, like almost individualistic

8:26

determined that almost to keep his

8:28

name and lights for even longer. Yeah. It wasn't

8:30

quite that sort of, you know, he wanted that massive

8:32

rendition of his face to be on in

8:35

in a war flag at some stage, which may

8:37

still come. Please, God, don't let it. But it

8:39

may still come. This was more just Instead

8:41

he just gets his name there. He just gets his name

8:43

just stuck at the the bottom right hand corner of

8:45

the Gallagher end as he looked at it. But no, it was it was

8:47

a very ambitious display and it was. It

8:49

didn't quite work, but he quit. think my favorite bit of

8:51

it all was just when I just said hashtag comes,

8:53

just came across the bottom.

8:55

That was amazing. That was

8:57

so funny. It was likely went, well, we've

8:59

we've knocked that bit off. Let's just send that last bit

9:01

out. Get that get that out. We'll have to we can't

9:03

miss that. Yeah. I'm looking forward to

9:05

the flag Chris of your face and

9:07

just the quarter and then it's in. I don't think Magal Maran

9:09

should be starting the Premier League every week.

9:12

Did I have a say about

9:14

that? act at all, probably

9:16

something along the headlines. Anyway

9:19

Yes. Yes. Let's get alongside Jack

9:21

Reelish probably. Yes.

9:23

Absolutely. Chris, you wanted to give a shout

9:25

out to a couple of people as well, didn't you? I

9:27

did indeed saw a few weeks ago

9:29

I had a DM on

9:31

Twitter from Mark Murray, and I think that's how

9:33

he say his name on anyway.

9:35

But he's from Wahoo in

9:38

Nebraska -- Wow. -- and he

9:40

is he has become

9:42

a new cast oriented fan. It was his apparently,

9:44

his professor at college who was a

9:46

Newcastle van brought him into into

9:48

that. He started watching the games, and then he

9:50

met his fiancee who watched

9:52

the matches with him. And on their

9:54

honeymoon, they traveled across to Saint

9:56

James' Park, and they were there on

9:58

Saturday for the first ever

10:00

match. So quite the occasion for them to see

10:02

that display, to have the celebration of

10:04

five one victory, so, yeah, I just wanted to give a bit

10:06

of a shout out to them all the way. They're I

10:08

think I had in home now, but but what but what a

10:10

weekend they must have had. Oh, amazing. Congratulations.

10:12

And what a wedding present that is. Isn't it five

10:14

one win. Trippier. Twenty

10:16

five yards out swings in a great ball.

10:19

Bruno head out. He's

10:21

a brilliant goal. passed

10:24

by Ryan

10:26

Wilson's end. He squareded Jacob

10:29

Murphy.

10:30

Jacob Murphy. has made it

10:32

to for Newcastle,

10:34

penalty for Bradford. Tony

10:36

against pope, scores, and sends the

10:38

keep it the wrong way. Bruno's got

10:40

involved in Newcastle trying to win it

10:42

back, and they have won it back in its

10:44

Bruno with Murphy and Warwick to

10:46

the left. Bruno at the edge of the area

10:48

goes for gold. his

10:58

first ball down the left with Joelinton Wood

11:00

in the middle Anderson too. It's a

11:02

no no no. It's

11:04

good. When you is

11:05

only of the day, the best day in my

11:08

life. I'm playing number six. It's

11:10

difficult to score, and the score to goals, and it's

11:12

two beautiful goals. So it's nice.

11:14

think the goal was important for the game. What

11:17

is my goal? My goal? My

11:19

first goal this season as well. So I'm happy,

11:21

proud of the team. brother of the

11:23

geographer in the Minichiki

11:25

building. Incredible

11:26

stuff. We

11:28

have to say, Chris. Bruno

11:30

Gimrise. He just ran the shore,

11:32

didn't he? He was just the beaten heart

11:34

of everything that Newcastle did

11:36

and everything they did well.

11:38

Two Gauls A month and a much

11:40

performance, pinging the ball around the midfield,

11:42

winning it back. The

11:43

energy, the drive, the passion,

11:46

everything above the ladder is just brilliant,

11:48

isn't it? It is. And actually, weirdly, and this has

11:50

sort of been forgotten about, but he didn't actually start the

11:52

game particularly well. It took him a bit of time to

11:54

get into. He gave the ball away a little bit early

11:56

on and and it was sort of that

11:58

sort of summed up Newcastle in the first ten,

12:00

fifteen minutes where there were there seemed

12:02

to have all this energy but didn't quite

12:04

know how to find their rhythmming and getting to play. But

12:06

then as soon as as soon as he did

12:08

get into it, it was just he was

12:10

they just couldn't deal with him. I mean,

12:12

Bradford didn't play with with

12:14

really defensive midfielder, and and that was an

12:16

issue because it just meant that Bruno Gamairez had

12:18

so much space to ping balls

12:20

out left right and send them. I mean, he he spread the

12:22

one early on to Almirall when he

12:24

cut in and had that really

12:26

good shot. with his left foot from the edge area to

12:28

keep us safe. That came from a a spread

12:30

pass from Bruno. Obviously, they're very,

12:32

very well worked set piece for

12:34

his opening, which came at an important time.

12:36

The the thing about Bruno's two goals is not just

12:38

how good they both were. It was how

12:40

crucial they were in the context of the match. I needed the

12:42

first one. and they needed the third one then when that

12:44

came because Brentford had just scored and the

12:46

momentum could have potentially shifted. I

12:48

mean, I I do think the keep I should have saved

12:50

Bruno's first on, but taken that aside, take to

12:52

get the power on the head that he did and the ball

12:55

from Q1 tripping off. Tripping. Tripping as

12:57

amazing. Yeah. Absolutely one absolutely brilliant. And

12:59

it's being worked on. That's the detail that

13:01

Newcastle have now. They the attention to detail to have

13:03

in these environments and and yeah,

13:05

to to have it bounce off that

13:07

beautiful peroxide

13:09

blonde bonds. And can't

13:11

miss him and Julien? Now can you You cannot

13:14

Can you When he spoke to air

13:16

reports after the game actually, he was asked about it if it Bruno.

13:18

He said that his wife hates the

13:20

haircut, but because he scold whether he's gonna keep

13:22

it. So Yeah. So unfortunate

13:25

hair, but fortunate for the rest of us. And

13:27

of course, another goal for our

13:29

little Paraguayan friend, Chris,

13:31

you all made in mind, Miguel Almaron,

13:33

with another goal. And, I mean, it was a gift,

13:36

wasn't it? Let's be honest, an absolute gift

13:38

as a few of the Gauls were from

13:40

Brenfrençois point of view. but

13:42

hey, he keeps putting them in the net one. He

13:44

keeps scoring and he's and I thought he

13:46

actually, the Golar side, I thought his

13:48

performance was pretty decent as well. Well, I mean, you say

13:50

it was a gift, actually, and we'll get onto this one

13:52

when we chat the curve in the next section about the

13:54

pressing. But actually, I think it was it

13:56

was an they they were sort of unforced errors,

13:58

but with a degree even to castle forcing them

14:00

because of the way that they pressed and the

14:02

way that and Miguel and Ron was like

14:04

a one man press machine there. I actually

14:06

think Amarom was better on

14:08

Saturday than he had been even the previous Saturday. I

14:10

thought he was excellent. He looked he

14:12

looked confident. He took

14:14

the game to Brent for the key moments.

14:16

He so important off the ball.

14:18

But what he did on it, he was decisive.

14:21

He really did actually make

14:23

the right decisions all the time in in the final

14:25

third. He took that opportunity. brilliantly as

14:27

I see was unlucky with that shot beforehand.

14:29

And this is this is the Miguel Armor on I

14:31

I wanted to see and I'm so pleased that we

14:33

are seen and I'm so pleased I have to

14:36

eat another portion of that humble pie, and

14:38

I'm getting even fat now by the minute, just just

14:40

talking into it. But it was it

14:42

was just great to see because

14:44

he is he does inspire his teammates by

14:46

the way that he when he wins the ball and when they

14:48

do things of that. And I think that he benefits

14:50

so much from heaven,

14:52

Bruno, Gomorayash behind him because of the way

14:54

that that that that he can spread play in in the

14:56

decisions that he makes. And

14:58

also, Ki Bin Trippia really likes playing

15:01

with McAlmirall speaking to people inside the club

15:03

and they've seen if he could pick anyone to play on the right hand

15:05

side in front of him, it's Almirall because of

15:07

what he does off the ball. And that sort

15:09

of those three between them, the way that they

15:11

link up, I just think it's so key to the

15:13

Whitney Kosta plane at the minute. Absolutely. And

15:15

also after I haven't mentioned for Jacob Murphy as

15:17

well as first goal in, I think, something like

15:19

eighteen months. Isn't it the first time he scored for a

15:21

long time? Great work by Colm

15:23

Wilson again, a bit of a shock off from the Bradford

15:25

goalkeeper in defense, but com Wilson

15:27

watches on at that ball and and and squares it

15:29

for Murphy and and Murphy took it away and

15:31

he looks so happy with his with

15:33

his gall and his celebration and everything and

15:35

you forget you know, he's he's a he's a fan of the

15:37

club. He's a boyhood fan of the club.

15:40

And he's he's done well over the last couple of weeks.

15:42

Hasn't he came in for a bit of stick recently at

15:44

times, but I think he's done really well

15:46

when he's been coming in and playing instead of

15:48

officer Maximus. He he did do well. And and

15:50

this is it was testament

15:52

to anyhow for sticking with the Sam

15:54

eleven. It was controversial in

15:56

some ways because I

15:58

think a lot of people wanted to see

16:00

on St. Maximus in team. They wanted to

16:02

see Joe Linton back into the team, but Eddie

16:05

Howe persisted with the c m eleven.

16:07

He he he it's ironic and

16:09

one sense because we used to

16:11

sometimes criticize a deep boost he would

16:13

persist with an eleven if if they wanna match. But I

16:15

think that the difference really how is that there's all

16:17

it's all more saggy. I will I

16:19

will drop you if you don't then deliver what I want.

16:21

And there's always a reason behind why he sticks with it.

16:23

He thinks that you have. You've come in. You've

16:25

got made that shirt your own. And until

16:28

until someone else can come and improve. Otherwise,

16:30

you deserve to stay in that, and they'd really hard delivered at

16:32

full, I'm sure, long stuff had played well there as

16:34

well. And so he kept him in the side.

16:36

Dan Bernabe had well left back. He kept

16:38

him there as well and didn't make changes

16:40

for change in sex. But Jacob Murphy,

16:42

yes, looked delighted with the girl again.

16:44

He pressed for the keeper, though he was that he was

16:46

involved in the build up to

16:48

that goal as well. And he's had a couple of other

16:50

opportunities and other parts of the

16:52

game. And it what was interest on on Saturday

16:54

was that actually I

16:56

think Colin Wilson probably did not have his best game

16:58

and the ending Castle still scored five. He missed

17:00

a couple of chances. I also thought there were

17:02

large action to the match where he wasn't necessarily

17:04

central to the action of what

17:06

was going on, but I also think that that

17:09

just his mere presence on

17:11

the pitch. Attracts defenders, disrupts the

17:13

opposition, and kickassle profit because of that. He

17:15

allows those white players to get forward. Does he

17:17

he allows and brings them into the game?

17:19

And he you know, the the assist for the

17:21

Jacob Murphy call. He's put a lot of good work in

17:23

there before he gets the chance. And

17:25

obviously, as a striker, he's gonna be looking to try

17:27

and put that on the net himself. But when he

17:29

realizes the chances in there. He looks for his teammate and, you

17:31

know, that's that's all you can ask of him. He doesn't

17:33

if he's not scoring, at least he's setting up.

17:35

I would be more worried know it's

17:37

a bit of a cliche, but I'd be more worried if the chances weren't coming for

17:39

him. Oh, definitely. He might still be a little bit Ringworthy

17:41

as well because obviously he's had a bit of

17:44

time out we thought he looked a little bit rigorous. He had fallen when I

17:46

mean, he scored, but obviously, he missed us early

17:48

on and missed a couple of other chances. And then

17:50

obviously this week as well, it might just be taking

17:52

a bit of time. them to get back in the swing of things. The

17:54

path passing part of the reason why he did send

17:56

her to to Jacob Murphy was he had received

17:58

an absolute bollocking from from Jason

18:00

Tyndall on the touch lane when he hadn't fastened -- Yeah. --

18:02

a bit earlier on when he was through on the right hand side

18:04

of the box. And I think it was Murphy and might be Will

18:06

it be Will it will it? Yeah. Any any

18:09

any shot and and Newcastle ended up recovering

18:11

the ball again, but I think that I

18:13

think that he had Jason Tyndall

18:15

in his in his orange face just

18:17

to just just that vision in

18:19

it that he needed to to actually cross the

18:21

ball. The mahogany goblin.

18:24

Well, I mean, it was a limp shorn

18:26

from Bren wasn't it? He I mean, poor Ethan Pinnick, my god.

18:28

I bet he wished the ground would all been up and

18:30

swallow him. He'd give away the ball for the

18:32

Almirall call and then turn Joe Linton's cross

18:34

into his own net. was

18:36

it that we were great on the

18:38

day? I mean, we were good, but was it were

18:40

Brent were Brentford terrible? Or was

18:42

it a bit of both, do you think? it bit of

18:44

both, and I think part of the reason why

18:46

Brentford struggled was because Newcastle, as

18:48

I said earlier, forced them into making

18:50

mistakes with their with their present their intent

18:52

but didn't think it was actually Newcastle's best perform to

18:55

the seas, not not by a

18:57

long stretch. What you think is just out of

18:59

just out of interest. Which one more? Man

19:01

city, but equally. Right. I

19:03

I also think I also think that in

19:05

Italian sense, they were actually better against Crystal

19:07

Palace that just didn't take the chances.

19:09

So in so many ways, it was they

19:11

ruthlessly exploited Brent Fed's weaknesses,

19:13

which had been identified by the

19:15

coaching staff and and and they managed

19:17

to do that, but Bradford also contributed to to their

19:20

own downfall. And as I said, I think those

19:22

Bruno girls did come at crucial times

19:24

because The first one was

19:26

to break the deadlock, but Newcastle first tenants

19:28

have been sloppy, had conceded,

19:30

which was rightly then ruled out because

19:33

Ivan Tony was was in in an side

19:35

position even though he didn't touch the ball before

19:37

Embraer scored. But Newcastle had a

19:39

few difficult moments that almost

19:41

walked them up to a certain degree. And then

19:43

also Bruno getting that third one

19:45

just after what I thought was a

19:47

very harsh penalty. I I can see

19:49

and I I know he's our arms open, was gonna ask

19:51

you about this. I'm I'm not having it as AII

19:53

the buy them letter of the North if the US, but

19:55

then I was watching the after Liverpool

19:58

game. Yes. the other one. And it's like, how is that one not a penalty?

20:00

because he actually does have his arm and

20:02

burnage facing the other way. Space in the ball.

20:04

Burns facing the way. Yeah. I

20:06

had this conversation with somebody yesterday as well, and

20:08

I couldn't get me head around why one was

20:10

and why one wasn't. They either both are --

20:12

Yeah. -- or neither of them. Exactly. You know, it's

20:15

that's what you can't say. One isn't, one isn't because they're

20:17

essentially the same thing. And if

20:19

anything, Gabrielle's is more, well,

20:21

it's not intentional, but he's he's looking at the

20:23

ball as it's crossed. and he's put his hand. It burns

20:25

burns hand comes over after he

20:27

jumps. The ball hits it. It's a

20:29

weird stupid rule. And the one's called the other

20:31

way as well that were disallowed yesterday, the Rushford

20:33

one and then The Mick Cal Antonio won

20:35

that stood, but was exactly the same, and I don't I

20:37

just I can't get me uploaded. We need to go

20:39

back intentional and unintentional.

20:42

And that's it. Stop pissing about with the rules, man.

20:45

Wait. Right. Harish,

20:47

men are all troughed bound

20:50

on Sunday. Are we confident of getting

20:52

something to historically a pretty

20:54

awful place for us to go, isn't it? Let's be honest.

20:56

But who knows? The way things are,

20:58

the minute? Exactly. I mean, I touched upon this in

21:00

my piece from the weekend's games or

21:02

seeing that the the power of Saint James is at the

21:04

moment in the way that Newcastle are, the

21:06

form that that they've been in, The

21:08

fifth highest number of points accumulated by any

21:10

Premier League side in twenty twenty two and

21:12

beaten at home when he lost once all

21:15

season. the way that they are intimidating

21:17

opposition sides, you do wonder how

21:19

far can this Newcastle side go. And they

21:21

at the minute, you must think they they probably are

21:23

in that European question. They're in the top six of

21:25

the minute, six in the league months. Exactly. In the

21:28

league. What's going on? Next week, I think, is

21:30

a big we will find out a lot more about

21:32

when Newcastle on, how far they can go, because

21:34

got months United way. They've then got evident

21:36

at all midweek, and then the quarter spares

21:38

the following. So three games in eight days,

21:40

two of which are against so called

21:42

big six sides. And if that can come out of

21:44

that with so between four and six

21:47

points, I think that then you suddenly thinking,

21:49

yeah, that that could be up there, but that's a

21:51

money night is a real challenge of it because they they got an

21:53

important win at the weekend

21:55

against Evan that that struggled to

21:57

fall and behind and if Newcastle can can go

21:59

there and actually pick up a positive result of the

22:01

ground, which historically has been awful for

22:04

them, then I think that I think that

22:06

that will just just increase the confidence levels further in

22:08

a team which already looks like it's got so much self

22:10

belief. Brilliant. Right. We're

22:12

gonna be back in just a minute with Kevan awesome.

22:14

We're gonna look in-depth on some

22:16

of

22:16

those stats. But don't

22:18

forget,

22:19

you can subscribe to the athletic at a special

22:21

price of just one pound a month for

22:23

first six months. To clear that offer, go to the

22:26

athletic dot com forward slash

22:28

new castle pod and get access to all of

22:30

our great writing as well as add free

22:32

versions of the athletic. podcasts. That's the

22:34

athletic dot com forward slash new

22:36

castle pod. Sign up now.

23:08

part of the time is brought to you by Green

23:10

King, your home of pub sports with

23:13

over nine hundred sports clubs across

23:15

the country. Green King is the place

23:17

to be watching footy on

23:19

TV. Head down to your nearest pub

23:21

and you can enjoy every live sporting

23:23

event from BT and Sky Sports. on

23:25

top. It's been a long time since I watched

23:27

a match in the pub lads. I don't know

23:29

about you. During the euros, I think was the last time I

23:31

did that, and I'm sure you don't get to do it very

23:33

often with your jobs. Yeah. It has been it has

23:35

been quite well. There's nothing like being there with

23:37

friends in a lovely lovely paint. I love I

23:39

love a pendant of yellow of a tanker. sure

23:41

you do. Yeah. Or if like me, you don't have

23:44

any friends, there's nothing wrong with just

23:46

going to a pub drinking beer and sobbing

23:48

quietly in the corner, which is what do I like

23:50

to do? outstanding stuff with the

23:52

football. So if you wanna go and

23:54

sit and sob quietly in a corner on your

23:56

own or join friends and

23:58

family, download the Green King season

24:00

ticket up to receive a free drink when you register

24:02

and ten percent off a great range

24:04

of drinks one hour before,

24:06

during and after any much.

24:08

Head to Store search season ticket to

24:10

download the app. When registering type

24:12

in the promotion code on the time,

24:14

that's 0NTHETYNE

24:18

using all cuddles and also get

24:20

an additional five pound off when you

24:22

spend fifteen pound on drinks. That's like

24:24

free beer, George. that's brilliant.

24:26

A green king, it's where the fans go,

24:28

your horn of pub sport.

24:40

To quote Game

24:41

of Thrones, winter is coming and if you're looking

24:43

to beef up your immune system in a really

24:45

easy natural way, then let us point you in

24:48

the direct of athletic greens. Now it's worth

24:50

pointing out that we here at the athletic haven't

24:52

decided to branch out from football journalism to

24:54

take the plunge into the health food

24:56

game athletic greens is an entirely separate business and they're

24:58

all about easy, natural nutrition. All

25:00

you do is drop a single scoop of

25:02

athletic greens AG1 powder into a

25:04

cup of water you have a delicious convenient

25:07

drink that provides you with seventy five high

25:09

quality vitamins, minerals, and whole foods,

25:11

or super foods, probiotics and

25:13

more. It's gluten and dairy free

25:15

and contains less than one gram of sugar

25:17

with absolutely no nasty chemicals.

25:19

With athletic green there's no need for a million

25:21

different pills and supplements, it'll give you everything

25:23

you need in a simple convenient drink. And

25:26

because you listen to this podcast, athletic

25:28

Greens is going to give you one year supply of

25:30

a mean supporting vitamin d and five

25:32

travel packs for free with your first

25:34

purchase. All you have to do is visit

25:36

athletic greens dot com slash EPL

25:38

twenty two. That's athletic greens and

25:40

the offer code EPL twenty two to

25:42

take ownership over your health and pick up the

25:44

ultimate daily nutritional insurance.

25:55

So as the season

25:57

has progressed, we felt like the team was playing well,

25:59

but perhaps not getting their just rewards

26:02

in terms of points But after back to back

26:04

winds, is it possible we are now slightly

26:06

flattered by our points tally? Chris

26:08

probably thinks saw the miserable sod

26:10

There's only one way to get at the bottom of this.

26:12

Jelly wrestling. No.

26:16

Actually, it's to speak to somebody who

26:18

knows about how crunch

26:20

the numbers and fresh from being

26:22

published by the club's website recently.

26:24

It's a great pleasure to welcome Kevin Lawson

26:26

to the show. Hi, Kevin. How are you doing? Yeah. I'm really

26:28

well. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you for

26:30

inviting me on. I feel really privileged to be here as

26:32

a long time listening. So long

26:34

time listening. First time call. Thanks for

26:36

joining us. So,

26:38

Kev, so what have you been doing? What's what's

26:40

your background with this? You're you're heavily involved in

26:42

the stats and you run why I

26:44

scout as well on on Twitter. Is

26:46

that right? What what sort of

26:48

your background on this? And what sort of activities have you

26:50

been doing with regards to football data?

26:53

So I've been sort of dabbling in football

26:56

data for for years, really. It's sort

26:58

of crystallized at the

27:00

end of the last cruisey

27:02

season basically. So, like, this

27:04

time last year, I'd set up WaianaeScout

27:06

as a new brand facing the

27:08

wider public. And it was

27:10

kind of like a bit of a,

27:13

you know,

27:13

middle finger to Mike Ashley. At that point,

27:15

he wasn't really didn't really care about the club. So

27:17

I I was like, do you know what? Like, I

27:19

could go the other way and just, you know,

27:21

all of it be become apathetic

27:24

and and so forth like that. But

27:26

I just decided that, you know, the

27:28

club deserves people that care about it. And

27:30

so I I created the account. And then, you

27:33

know, after a few months

27:35

later, I managed to land a job at stats

27:37

bomb, who are one of the main

27:39

data collectors in the football industry.

27:42

And, yeah, it's sort of

27:44

all all snowballed from there. It's been

27:46

like a bit of a whirlwind twelve

27:48

months. Like, I found out I had the job at

27:50

stats bomb on a Monday, and then

27:52

new cars have got taken over, like, a

27:54

few days later. And then I was at, like, the stats

27:56

bomb conference the day after that.

27:58

And, yeah, it was very,

28:00

very, very, like, great

28:02

week.

28:02

It's like one of those, if Carlsberg,

28:04

big weeks, weeks, you know, Excellent

28:06

stuff. Well, Georgia won credit for Kev's appearance

28:08

because he had an interaction on on

28:10

social media last week, but but

28:13

actually Ali Opera News had already

28:15

suggested we get Kev on and I I speak to Kev

28:17

fairly regularly. We exchange messages and

28:19

he's very useful at pointing me in

28:21

the direction of data because it's not something

28:23

I want to tend is my strong point, although

28:25

we do like to to use I

28:27

mean, Kev, before we get into

28:30

too much of of the of the

28:32

specific data on sort of Newcastle season

28:34

and in general, when you when you look

28:36

back at the the end of the steep boost year

28:38

and you compare it to now and it let's

28:40

just stick with the statistics statistically

28:42

how different Army Castle now. I

28:45

mean, we are completely

28:47

different. It's like if Bruce

28:49

was the, you know, the bargeur on the

28:51

Suez Canal. How

28:53

is like a like, someone's just opened

28:55

the dam. It is legitimately

28:57

at one hundred and eighty from where we were

28:59

this time last season. Like,

29:02

the back end of last

29:03

season, when how, like, at flight

29:05

from of the end of December through to the

29:07

end of the season when you could see the players

29:09

finally getting fit and able to,

29:11

like, implement the press and everything that

29:13

Hal wanted to do. It was

29:15

mainly - everything was mainly driven by

29:17

how well we defended. We got

29:20

Chris Wood in and he was like the big

29:22

guy up front, but we were still,

29:24

you know, still sort of scraping around for

29:26

goals. This season is a completely, you

29:28

know, we're still good at defending. We've

29:30

liked really, really great at defending,

29:32

but Actually, it's our attacking metrics

29:34

that just look seriously,

29:36

seriously impressive. And I

29:38

think I put something out on social media

29:40

yesterday to say, Newcastle are legitimately in

29:43

the conversation for six and upwards now.

29:45

I'm not saying they're gonna be, you

29:47

know, in the top six,

29:49

but we're definitely in the conversation. Now

29:52

if you compare that to twelve months ago,

29:54

like, that's that feels feels wild

29:56

because even though we have spent two

29:58

hundred million on players, it does

30:00

feel like we're just one or two

30:02

injuries away from being back to

30:04

the group that, you know, that sort of kept us

30:06

going for the last like four or five seasons. The nucleus is

30:08

very much still the same as well, isn't it? The

30:10

the nucleus of the team and the group is still the

30:13

same sort of team is what Steve Bruce

30:15

had. essentially. And essentially, I think, like,

30:17

you can see, like, they've made

30:19

quality additions all the way down the spine of the

30:21

team, and that definitely helps. But it

30:23

doesn't hurt that how seems

30:25

to be have the bit of the mind as such of literally

30:28

improving every single one of those

30:30

players. Like, whereas under Bruce,

30:32

we were unstructured

30:34

mess to be quite frank and like I say

30:36

that with all due respect to

30:38

Steve's, you know, thousand games in

30:40

in football. But every

30:43

every little detail about the

30:45

way how how his team plays football especially

30:48

after the summer and he's, you know, had a chance

30:50

to really of drill absolutely

30:52

everything into them is

30:54

is really impressive. It's really impressive to

30:56

watch. I think, like, you can hear

30:58

that around the ground, like, the nerves

31:00

And the disbelief about, like, are

31:03

we really a good football

31:05

team

31:05

again? It takes a little

31:07

while for

31:07

that for those COGS to quite song

31:10

in. Yes. Yeah. It it certainly hasn't hasn't for me.

31:12

Like, someone much smarter than me

31:14

at Stratbourne said, Kev, I think

31:16

Newcastle legitimately legitimately

31:18

the top six team. And I was my I

31:21

was like, no. Top eight. Top eight. Like

31:23

like, there's there's parts of my brain that

31:26

still wants that So it's the

31:28

natural the natural pessimism of a Newcastle

31:30

farm, isn't it that kicks in at that point? That's what that

31:32

is. Yeah. You know, the natural order of the last

31:34

fourteen years is it's not gonna

31:36

last. Like, that's that's

31:38

quite quite frankly what it is.

31:40

And I'm not

31:40

sure I'm not sure that that can

31:42

continue now. I think we might all have

31:45

to accept and be a little bit bullish

31:47

and may be confident that we've got a

31:49

decent team again. Well, let's let's

31:51

drill down into some of those stats. We're looking remarkably

31:53

strong in especially the Italian start

31:55

side of things. In

31:58

the top five,

31:59

for all of these stats shots, crosses,

32:02

corners, taken, mountain times have

32:04

hit the wood where Gauls and Gauls smoke side

32:06

of the box. The the shots want

32:08

me is a big one because

32:10

I remember under Steve Bruce, we were like we

32:12

were like possibly the lowest club in the league for

32:14

the amount of shots we took. Newcastle

32:16

Right now, they're actually fourth

32:19

highest shots for shots per

32:21

ninety in the league, which is

32:23

we take sixteen shots a game and

32:25

anyone that's So it does follow me on social

32:27

media or no, all summer. I was

32:29

harping on about shot volume. Like,

32:31

just take more shots. You know, the goals

32:33

will come. And what's even

32:35

more more impressive is we're top of the

32:37

entire league for shots from

32:39

set pieces per ninety. And that's

32:41

just edging towards six. it's

32:43

just a sea change

32:45

when you look at like the shots we're

32:47

taking versus the shots we're giving

32:49

up and compare the expected

32:51

goal values of those two things.

32:53

And the difference between

32:55

them, a bit like gold difference. So this is

32:57

expected gold difference. is

32:59

the third highest in the league too, and that

33:01

is like zero point eight five, which

33:03

means we're close to a

33:05

goal ahead. her game than

33:07

our opponents in the the quality

33:09

of the chances we're creating.

33:11

And that's that's third in the

33:13

league right now.

33:16

our schedule hasn't been, like,

33:18

amazingly bad, but hasn't been kind either.

33:20

Right? So, like, We

33:23

are legit and

33:26

it's difficult to it's difficult

33:28

to process. I'm gonna be quite honest because

33:30

I didn't expect us to be quite so good, quite so

33:32

quickly. Kevin, you you mentioned the the

33:34

shot volume, and it is something we we spoke about.

33:36

I mean, you were saying going into someone in your castle need

33:38

to sign someone who just takes lots of

33:40

shots you would see, and that's exactly what

33:42

they need to do. And we've only seen

33:44

ESAC for for a couple of matches

33:47

I mean, you got it. You got a couple of calls, but isn't

33:49

necessarily that someone who takes all of those sorts

33:51

of stuff. How how do you think it has

33:53

translated into them taking more shots. You think it's because they

33:55

are higher with the pitch. They're pressing higher. That it

33:58

just it's just is that change of mentality?

34:00

How do you think someone transferred me

34:02

in there?

34:02

Yogan Club's got this famous quote

34:05

about like a good press being the best

34:07

playmaker. We get the ball

34:09

back so cheaply, so often. unlike

34:11

Brenford, most teams like don't try and play for us. They'd like

34:13

knock the ball long and hope for a knock down

34:15

or whatnot. And, you know, you saw

34:17

against Brenford like If

34:19

you're not good enough to do that, like we played

34:22

against Brighton and City and

34:24

Liverpool, and they all played through

34:26

the press. pretty well to be, you know, quite frank. But if

34:28

you've not got the quality of players to do

34:30

that, then that what

34:32

happens against Brentford

34:34

happens, you know, you

34:35

pick up some easy shots, some easy chances.

34:37

And suddenly, it, you know, it would

34:39

be all your your five one

34:41

up without actually having to create

34:43

a lot, like, from your own attacking.

34:46

It's just from mistakes.

34:48

It's a it's it's

34:50

it's seeing Newcastle be so organized in

34:52

that sort of way, picking up on

34:54

team's errors rather than being the

34:56

team making the error

34:58

is like I don't I I can't remember. I think we have to

35:00

go back to Kagan era nineties for that.

35:02

Right? Like, even under as soon as

35:04

we

35:04

have boonsong,

35:06

just leathering it to to to five yards to people

35:08

like outside his own box. So it's yeah.

35:11

It's not good. Kevin, you mentioned

35:13

that sort of change. instead

35:15

of play. I'm actually writing about this with with

35:17

our own data guys at the minute about about the press

35:19

and the fact that Newcastle gone from I

35:21

mean, under Steve Bruce, and

35:24

even underneath as previously, but under

35:26

Steve Bruce, they played such a low block and were

35:28

very passive, so passive, yeah,

35:30

passive defensively whereas now I mean, they've got highest

35:32

number of of of high turnovers, turnovers

35:34

in the final third in terms of winning the

35:36

ball. As you say, three of the

35:39

goals on on Saturday essentially came from turning the ball over

35:41

in the opposition half, one of which

35:44

was obviously the the terrible back pass

35:46

but forced by

35:48

Almirall pressing Hi.

35:50

Yeah. Jacob Murphy's call came from Jacob

35:52

Murphy Presson as well. from

35:54

Bruce. Bruce, second, there was five

35:56

Newcastle players basically

35:58

around whether Brentford players just inside their half. I mean, that change

35:59

I think it was the I think that one stage that

36:02

had the that were the most passive

36:04

team

36:04

for five years in the Premier League.

36:07

to now being this team of ultra aggressive

36:09

high press and to have done that in less than

36:11

a year under how how impressive is

36:13

that? It's super impressive. It's it's a bit

36:15

of like a microcosm over the last

36:17

twelve months. Right? Like, gone from, like, being the most inactive football

36:20

club in English Premier

36:22

League history. most

36:24

active, you know, like everything's

36:26

looking up and so forth like that. I

36:28

think, like, I think I I mentioned

36:30

before, like, In December,

36:32

you could see, like, the players just weren't fit

36:34

for those first two months at how they just

36:36

weren't fit enough to do this style of

36:38

play even though how wanted to implement

36:40

it and and so thoughts like

36:42

that. And once they

36:44

got there, you could see, actually,

36:46

we weren't given the ball

36:48

away quite so much. We're getting cheap possession back

36:50

a little bit more. And they go hand in hand, you know. If you're forcing

36:53

teams to kick it long to play, but poor

36:55

passes, you end up with the possession

36:58

more often. And that's something that's really changed the seasons. Newcastle were

37:00

having more of the book.

37:02

Even when you don't necessarily

37:04

have, like, have

37:06

a team at Bruno Gomarius is right.

37:08

But if we're getting cheap possession back

37:10

over and over and over

37:12

again, getting cheap turnovers high up

37:15

the build that's gonna make a big difference to

37:17

even the nucleus of those players that

37:19

we've, you know, that really do run and

37:21

work and that love the club.

37:23

So it's it's is

37:25

so impressive. And I'm gonna,

37:28

like like, be completely

37:30

transparent as well

37:32

based on his previous record at Bournemouth. I did not think Eddie Howe

37:34

had this level of performance in

37:36

his locker, especially defensively.

37:38

That's not what his teams were like

37:42

known for. Like, I think most of the seasons

37:44

he was up up up in the league on the ballmouth.

37:46

Like, they they conceded more than sixty

37:48

goals a season, which is a

37:50

lot. It's every season. Yeah. Every season. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's it's

37:52

a lot. Right? And I just didn't

37:55

couldn't couldn't see how

37:57

he could come in and fix the thing that

37:59

needed to be fixed so quickly.

38:02

But he one of

38:03

the good things about

38:06

Eddie. How that seems to have happened and we we now

38:08

rejoice about the fact is he seems to

38:10

be a manager that's able to

38:12

learn and that

38:14

is incredibly difficult to

38:16

find in the football football. I mean, we've seen

38:18

with Bruce and what's happened at at West

38:20

Braun, like, not wanting to

38:21

again to cast any dispersions,

38:24

but, like, you can see, managers do get stuck in their ways. And the ones that

38:26

don't, the ones that are involved

38:28

with the game are

38:30

rarer's

38:31

hand teeth. we've spoken about those attack

38:33

and starts a bit there and the turnover in the high press and everything. But one of

38:35

the things I didn't realize until when

38:38

I was

38:40

watching my there was that new custom now have one of the meanest defenses in the

38:42

league as well, which is it's

38:44

great. If you can get the balance of both of those

38:46

things, if you're attacking stats are great and

38:48

your defensive start to agree. We're now

38:50

tied with man sitting in brain as having the means of

38:52

defense in the league. I mean We've I

38:54

obviously put the bulk of our

38:56

investment into into

38:58

the defense. I think, like, although, you know, you see, like, Rolls

39:00

Royce performances from Bachman who, you

39:02

know, wins basically everything in the

39:03

air

39:04

plays lovely passes, but Nick Pope's

39:08

contribution really shouldn't be, you know, underestimated.

39:10

He's far more active than Nebraska

39:12

was off his line. He comes for

39:15

crosses. It like, especially

39:17

in that last five, ten minutes where maybe we've only

39:19

got a one goldbleed. You can just see me

39:21

just out straight off the line trying to trying

39:23

to grab claim the ball and just calm

39:25

everything down. And It's just instills confidence into the defense.

39:27

Doesn't it when you've got a goalkeeper who's prepared to come and

39:29

do that. It's yeah. That's huge. I

39:32

feel less nervous watching

39:34

Newcastle in

39:36

the last sort of ten minutes

39:38

or seeing out games now, which is like as a, you know, a season ticket

39:40

holder.

39:40

Like, that's not something that you're

39:42

used to do. Right? So it's like

39:46

for for years upon years, like, shaky Newcastle

39:48

at the back, you

39:49

know, Newcastle are gonna gonna give give one

39:52

up if you put them under

39:54

pressure. That It doesn't feel like

39:56

that anymore. And

39:57

that's that's not just like a change

39:59

from last season. That's so entirely like a

40:02

culture change. in the in a

40:04

club that's used to conceding goals all the

40:06

way back to the nineties. One

40:07

of the things that I wanted to ask you about

40:09

as well is your first feature article for New custody night as well

40:11

-- There we go. -- was was about Miguel Almirall,

40:14

wasn't it? And he's had a great a great start of

40:16

the season.

40:18

I wanna know if you're gonna be the one

40:20

who converts Chris Wharf into a into a believer, into

40:22

one of the biggie bunch because

40:26

I've been a fan of Miggies for a long time and I and I I always felt

40:28

that he he was harshly treated slightly. Chris

40:30

wasn't too sure at the start of the season that

40:32

he should be starting games, but I

40:35

think he's proven himself, hasn't he? I

40:37

think so.

40:38

Like, I we put this

40:40

together alongside the club.

40:42

We, you know, we sat down and had a conversation about,

40:44

like,

40:46

basically, we saw Albian an app a

40:48

Twitter account called Albian

40:50

Analytics, start putting stuff up on Brighten

40:52

Hove Albian's website, and

40:54

we thought I thought at the point,

40:56

well, this is a good opportunity to have a

40:58

conversation with Newcastle about whether this would

41:00

be something they'd be interested

41:02

in.

41:02

So we we we thought about like

41:04

what the first sort of the frame of the

41:06

first article could be and, you know,

41:08

Miguel Almirall is a player that

41:10

does divide opinion sort of quite

41:12

readily in Newcastle. And I think the legitimate like, he doesn't score

41:15

a lot of goals or hasn't previously scored

41:17

a lot of goals, but he obviously

41:19

works really hard and is,

41:22

like, the embodiment of the we don't demand a team

41:24

that wins. We demand a team that tries mantra.

41:26

Right? He's the, like, he's the

41:29

embodiment of that. we started to have

41:31

a look at the data, and you could see from the moment, he started to play

41:33

right wing towards the back end of

41:36

last season.

41:38

in that inside right forward position.

41:40

His stats, his his underlying statistics,

41:43

his exGs, started to

41:45

creep upwards. And then he

41:47

you know, really good goal against Palace. Everyone's like, oh,

41:50

wow. Why didn't we see that a bit more? And

41:52

then during pre season,

41:54

we see Almirall on the

41:56

gold machine. Right? We see I

41:58

think he scored, what's it? Six in preseason,

41:59

five or six in pre yeah. Six.

42:02

Yeah. And a few

42:04

assists as well and, like,

42:06

the the the question was, can can

42:08

he bring this into into the into the new

42:10

season? Get a really

42:12

scruffy one against Man City, which

42:14

was for him a bit

42:16

unusual because it came from inside the the

42:18

six yard box like most album

42:20

runs rarely actually there to just get the tap

42:22

ins and get the graphic ones. So,

42:24

like, immediately, when I saw that,

42:26

I saw actually he's starting

42:28

to really get the, you know, the fundamentals

42:30

of what it means to play in a position like

42:32

that. So we looked again and we could

42:34

see all of this stuff was incrementally

42:36

over that twenty game period,

42:39

just creeping towards

42:42

Almirall getting

42:44

into, like, per

42:44

ninety x t, sort of zero point

42:47

two five ish. And that means

42:49

like he should score

42:50

a goal. once every four games is effectively

42:53

what what what that means. But

42:55

where he's at now after the the

42:57

last couple of weekends, you know, scoring

42:59

two and and then school in

43:01

another at the against Brentford. He's actually higher than

43:03

he was in his last season at

43:06

MLS, which is, you know, he was a

43:08

regular regular

43:10

ghost for Atlanta. So

43:12

there's a good chance. Well,

43:13

Mickey's already matched his best ever

43:16

title in the

43:18

Premier League. and there's a

43:20

good chance that he goes on and and

43:22

gets maybe

43:22

twice the amount

43:23

or maybe eight

43:24

in

43:26

total. It depends on, obviously, what happens

43:28

in January and whether his place and the team

43:30

is under threat at any point. But He's

43:33

looking way better than Premier League average at

43:36

the moment, Chris. So

43:38

it's something -- Right. -- you apply Christmas. When

43:40

you went on the pod earlier, Kevin I after

43:42

he walks a ripple about Almirall on Saturday. I thought he's better than he was previous weekend.

43:44

And this is what I want this is what I've wanted to

43:46

see from, and I I will be delighted

43:48

if this continues and this trend does

43:50

continue. But

43:52

one, player who I don't think any of us are gonna disagree

43:54

about is Bruno Gomarius. Can you just

43:56

give us a little bit of

43:58

an insight into into his statistics?

44:02

because, really, he can do a bit of everything, can't he? I

44:04

think that's

44:05

kind of,

44:06

like, the big takeaway

44:10

is, like, If you look at, like, in sort of statistic

44:12

industry, when we're comparing players, we tend

44:14

to use, like, radars

44:16

that put a bunch of

44:18

metrics around the outside and then create like

44:20

this surface area and

44:22

the wider the surface area, the better the

44:24

player. when he came from

44:26

Lyon, his radar was

44:28

effectively hit all of the corners of,

44:30

like, all of the the upper limits of

44:32

all of the metrics. It was like a

44:34

a joy to see. He's not at,

44:36

as I say, quite as a dominant

44:39

team, and he's a new league. He's not

44:41

quite at that level, but statistically,

44:44

he's really basically not

44:46

bad at anything. And

44:48

I think even this season, like, you got to remember,

44:50

like, he's not really playing the role that

44:52

he was playing last season where he was like this

44:54

creative six burst into the box

44:56

and and and so forth like that. He's playing a bit

44:58

further back in that sort of the holding role

45:00

while Shelby's shelves

45:02

out. And I think, like,

45:04

it's no surprise. Like, he's in the top

45:06

ten percent of, like, the entire

45:08

league for Fault

45:10

one, which is weird. He's second of all

45:12

players in the Premier League per ninety for

45:14

tackles, which is again,

45:16

like, which is really really

45:18

good. And despite being that far back down the pitch, he's in the top ten

45:20

percent for expected assists. Yeah.

45:22

Like, it's an accumulation for him.

45:24

It's not like any one area if he's

45:26

getting, like,

45:28

sticks out like a sore thumb like with

45:30

dribbling, for example. He's just

45:32

no he's a no

45:34

weakness guy. and

45:36

you see a lot of chatter on social media about him being, you

45:38

know, the best midfielder that Newcastle have

45:41

ever had. I'm not

45:43

not suggesting that that's the

45:46

case. But there was a lot of

45:48

comparisons to him and

45:50

Kubei last

45:52

weekend and he

45:52

was winning that argument hands down for for most new cast of fans that

45:54

I I was reading. And I pretty much go

45:56

along with that myself

45:57

too. And what does the

45:59

data

45:59

say about peroxide blonde hair and how that helps you with the with the

46:02

performances. Finally enough,

46:04

I actually

46:05

had a question

46:08

about this like, IIII wish I was joking, but, I question

46:10

about, like, how how does how

46:12

does he play, you know, differ when he's

46:14

got blonde

46:15

hair versus non blonde hair.

46:18

And he's like, I mean, if someone can give me a

46:20

calendar of, like, the date the games he's

46:22

had blonde hair versus non blonde hair, we can do

46:24

something with that.

46:26

But, like, It's not something that's in stats pond's data

46:28

collection, like, state

46:30

of spec as it will. Amazing stuff. Well,

46:32

we've come in off a long way since

46:35

Chris' first mention of a double pivot on this

46:37

podcast to send everyone into Asterix.

46:40

Well, thanks, Kev, for joining us. It's

46:42

been brilliant interest in an

46:44

insightful stuff. genuinely. I mean, I don't often pay an

46:46

awful lot of attention to

46:48

statistics and data and stuff. And I think I'm going

46:50

to start

46:52

having a bit more of a look. It it's fascinating stuff.

46:54

Thank you so much for coming on. It's great great

46:56

to have you on there. It's a real pleasure

46:58

to be invited on and to

47:00

come on and to talk you guys.

47:02

And, like, I think the the thing that the key takeaway about all of

47:05

the advanced stats and the data and stuff like

47:07

that is, like, if you're not

47:10

interested, it doesn't really, like, add too much

47:12

to, like, the audience part of the part

47:14

of the game. If the only score that you're or

47:16

the only stat that you're interested in is the

47:18

one in the top right corner. That's

47:21

completely fine. I've got a mayor he rearped all of this stuff, and he he pulled me

47:23

last week and said, that's three weeks running you've mentioned

47:25

next year on the show. Stop

47:28

it. I get that all the time

47:30

too. It's like it's all it's all it's all

47:32

rubbish. So like like when, you

47:35

know, when you put up something

47:37

about like a player that's not scored a lot

47:39

of goals historically and say, look, actually,

47:41

his numbers are going the right

47:44

way. He he might do better than a and

47:46

then, you know, he ends up two weeks

47:48

later as he's Newcastle's top goalscorer

47:50

in in Almirall. You're like

47:52

you're like this is the reason why clubs

47:54

are so invested in it. It is it's not perfect, but it's the best

47:57

predictive measures that they

47:58

that we have

47:59

now. So

47:59

believe it

48:02

or not. It's

48:02

probably here to stay, you know.

48:12

Manscape told the leaders in

48:13

below the belt grooming, that's why six million

48:15

men around the world trust them to take care of the

48:17

most precious parts of

48:20

their anatomy. You can see what all

48:22

the fuss is about right now by heading tomanscape dot com and just by entering

48:24

the code EPL twenty, you'll get

48:26

twenty percent off and free shipping.

48:30

package four point o has everything you need

48:32

for your hygiene routine. There's the lawn

48:34

mower four point o trimmer with its advanced

48:36

skin safe

48:38

as well as the weed wacker ear and nose hair trimmer to keep everything

48:40

nice and tidy. There's the ultra premium

48:42

body wash in two in one shampoo and

48:45

conditioner that will leave your hair and body

48:47

feeling hydrated and feeling fresh. There's

48:49

also aluminum free diode for your pits and

48:51

the crop preservative toner for your balls plus a

48:53

super stylish travel bag to keep everything in place when you're on the go. Check

48:55

out the range for yourself at Manscape dot com

48:57

and get twenty

49:00

percent off and free shipping with the MANSCAPED

49:04

dot com and the code EPL

49:06

twenty. upgrade

49:08

your hygiene routine to platinum this winter with Matsgate. Now

49:11

a word from

49:13

our

49:13

sponsor, better help. mental

49:15

health becoming an even more important topic in

49:18

football and sports in general, but you don't

49:20

need to be a professional athlete to

49:22

benefit from looking after

49:24

your mind. Betterhelp provides affordable private online

49:26

therapy to help you with things like

49:28

stress, anxiety, depression, and

49:30

other mental

49:32

health problems. can have an impact

49:34

on your overall physical well-being. And it couldn't be simpler to get started. Just fill

49:36

out a brief survey at betterhelp

49:38

dot com and betterhelp will assess

49:42

your needs and match you with your

49:44

own licensed professional therapist. You can then log on to your account anytime and

49:46

schedule weekly video or telephone

49:50

sessions. Or if we prefer typing to talking, you

49:52

can send messages instead.

49:54

Therapy is one of the best ways to stay

49:56

in peak mental shape.

49:58

So when you're ready to feel at the top of your

50:00

mental health game, head to

50:02

betterhelp dot com slash

50:04

athletic football to get ten

50:06

percent off your first month. That's

50:08

b e double TERHELP

50:12

dot com slash athletic football. One last

50:14

time, better help dot com

50:16

slash athletic

50:18

football.

50:27

So Chris, we added a number this week

50:30

that Elaine is gonna be bringing her new

50:32

custody United women's

50:34

team back to St. James's park on November the twenty seventh of the

50:36

fifth, Broadfudge City. And he

50:38

said Broadfudge City there. You can't do that.

50:40

Can't you? You're not allowed to

50:42

do that. I'll

50:44

just take I'll just

50:46

ignore that to just answer what was the

50:48

initial point, shall I which was

50:50

which yes. So basically, that we that there

50:52

was gonna be at least well, there's meant to be at

50:54

least two games at Saint James as this

50:56

season for the women's team George and I had

50:58

written about this in

51:00

our big read last week. I looked into the yes, it's a takeover

51:02

seeing how it was going to be announced. Similarly, it was

51:04

a day after. It was

51:06

confirmed and

51:08

they got twenty no. Twenty three

51:10

thousand in May, the first ever match

51:12

at Saint James is for the women's

51:14

side. And given that

51:16

there isn't any

51:18

Premier League football or domestic

51:20

top level football in the

51:22

men's league during that time because the

51:24

World Cup will be on hopefully,

51:27

they can get AAA very

51:29

good crowd for that match as well

51:32

because I'm churning Castle Mountain and Braced

51:34

it. I know privately Amanda Stavely

51:36

and Mehta Caducia are talking about at some point.

51:38

Maybe it's not this occasion, but at some point they

51:40

would like to sort of break the

51:42

the the the w SL attendance record.

51:45

So that would be wonderful if they can get

51:47

any Something like forty seven thousand or something like

51:49

that. Yeah. It was in North London Derby earlier this

51:51

year, I think. So

51:54

but then you gotta remember that is the but that

51:56

is the WSL. This is this is the

51:58

fourth tier of women's football tournament

52:00

here and there's twenty three thousand went

52:02

to see it earlier this year. They're regularly getting crowds of

52:05

fifteen hundred, two and a half thousand

52:07

to Kingston Park for their fixtures

52:09

so far this year. and

52:11

then to get it to in James as if they can

52:13

get anything close to even what that had last time. But as

52:15

I say I imagine, they could well get more. That'll just

52:18

be that'll be brilliant. Turning the build up to

52:20

Christmas. It'll just be that sort fever sort of

52:22

atmosphere, I think. Suddenly the

52:23

route of the FAA WNL

52:25

Cup, but it sounded like

52:27

they dominated a game

52:30

against Durham stirier but couldn't break the deadlock and ended up

52:32

going out on penalties to shame that

52:34

one. But the the energy behind the

52:36

women's game at the minute and the the amount of

52:38

people who are wanting

52:40

to go And it's a great day out, isn't it Chris? You've been along with George.

52:42

And they're they're fantastic occasions. And if

52:44

new cast are not playing, then the men's team,

52:46

get along, take the family, take

52:48

the kids, it's a great deal.

52:50

Yeah. And the ambition is

52:52

there. The ambition that is

52:54

there for the for the men's side of football there for

52:56

the women's side as well. This is the club that

52:58

it's now part of

53:00

the

53:00

main body as we keep seeing. Bakken Langley

53:02

is full time again, full time in

53:04

the fourth tier of women's football.

53:06

and they are trying to they are ambitious. They they have this idea that they're gonna

53:08

get in the Champions League by twenty twenty seven. I

53:10

mean, this is it's even more

53:14

of will win transformation. They've gotten visioned for the for the men's side

53:16

in terms of of getting that false. So

53:18

that desire to frac issues.

53:21

But even so beyond that, as you say, it is it

53:24

is good down. It is Newcastle united.

53:26

This is a team which represents

53:28

the club

53:30

and they it is a wonderful atmosphere. It's really

53:32

really fun. Often now in the

53:34

last few weeks, they haven't actually clashed

53:37

with men's fixtures, which is good as well and has helped crowds

53:40

to improve. But it's in James' park for

53:42

those who haven't been before, this could be a

53:44

really good entry level it be an

53:46

opportunity to get inside Saint James' as well.

53:48

It's difficult to get to to

53:50

men's games because they're they're

53:52

almost all

53:54

sold out tickets are are are selling like like hot cakes,

53:56

but to to to say this, to have this big

53:58

occasion, I think, could be brilliant. Absolutely. I've

53:59

never had a hot cake. Have you had a hot cake

54:02

before, Chris? what

54:04

do you call it pudding? Do you call it pudding if it's

54:06

hot? I mean, I like I like any sort

54:08

of baked good

54:10

really. So I'm sure I probably

54:12

have, but Nolan immediately sprinkling the mind.

54:14

We

54:14

had turnafries hotcakes. Anyway,

54:17

before we go, thanks for all

54:19

the feedback on last show in the articles

54:21

by Matslida and Ollie Keay. As expected, there was

54:23

plenty of comments on both articles.

54:26

Any enduring thoughts, Chris,

54:28

after that will win week

54:30

of takeover nostalgia? Yes. I think that

54:32

it was a wonderful

54:34

celebration of everything Newcastleon aided

54:38

on Saturday, I thought it was a great way to

54:40

to mark the occasion. I thought in that

54:43

I thought the energy around

54:46

the place feeling of togetherness, the feeling of the club being

54:48

won again was wonderful, but it

54:50

was also a sort of moment for reflection. And

54:52

and I know some

54:54

people probably rule arrives at

54:56

this and we'll we'll want to hear it, but

54:58

Matt Slater's article and also Ollie Keay

55:00

is going to Saudi Arabia. I thought both

55:02

articles were very balanced. If you haven't

55:04

read them would recommend it because I think that it isn't just the

55:06

sort of just just

55:08

completely negative The absolutely

55:10

weren't hit jobs,

55:12

were they? No. They they they weren't. And and and and

55:14

and for months later, we're sort of

55:16

looking and trying to see how

55:18

far the Saudi in France does

55:20

infiltrate Newcastle. And it's it is it is a

55:22

legitimate question. They're only eighty percent of the the Saudi

55:24

Arabia public investment fund owns eighty

55:26

percent of the club. And basically, his conclusion

55:28

was almost that

55:30

in some ways it's been similar to how they run

55:32

their their investments in other companies and

55:34

that they have have put the money there

55:36

and they they are the ultimate decision makers on

55:38

the big decisions, but what they've actually done

55:40

is they've been smart and they've put people in positions

55:42

who are better placed to run the football

55:44

club. It's been a hands off approach. in

55:47

that sense. And the questions of sportswashing won't go

55:49

away and or should they go away and that that that's

55:51

a keep as we

55:54

keep reiterating. sports

55:56

washing only succeeds if if if

55:58

you don't talk about it, and some people don't

56:00

like the term, but there is there were

56:02

there were accusations of it. And clearly,

56:04

that is at least the

56:06

allegations that the likes of amnesty and national

56:08

make about but but why PIF or one

56:10

of the reasons why PIF have got involved

56:12

in the Cassianite. So I I think it showed it brought those

56:15

questions back into focus as they will

56:17

do regular occasion occasions, but also

56:19

I thought that it

56:21

it did show the very best of

56:23

nicotinated. And what was interesting was that we also got to

56:26

hear for only the

56:28

second time from Remind,

56:30

Newcastle's chairman governor of the PIF.

56:32

It was a it was

56:34

very important, I think, internally, the club because

56:36

it's taken a a lot of

56:38

putting together to get there's there's a lot to we talk about the

56:40

bureaucracy involved in PIAF to get the statement

56:42

signed off. I think took a lot of

56:45

energy from people inside the club. I don't think it actually said

56:47

that much. It just sort of reiterated the ambitions of

56:50

previously. And what I would like to see now, and

56:52

this is not just from Yasoro

56:54

Remind, but also from Don

56:55

Ashworth, the sport director and from

56:58

Darnell's CEO going forward is is is

57:00

greater communication to hear

57:02

we are now a year into

57:04

this project for one of a better term. And where

57:06

do Newcastle go next? What

57:09

are the exact lines

57:11

of power. What what is

57:14

the vision? And we I would like to hear

57:16

more from the owners going forward. Yes. There

57:18

were the there were the interviews on the club

57:20

website, which would would far more

57:22

than you got under Mike Ashley previously,

57:24

but still to actually have journalists

57:26

being able to go there, question them,

57:28

and find out I would like to see more of that

57:30

going forward. Absolutely.

57:30

Right then, let's let's finish off one more thing before we

57:33

go. The Eurovision song contest was awarded

57:35

to Liverpool and not

57:38

Newcastle. Chris, obviously, they got a leaked tip of you singing

57:40

on that. We are the Jordi song and

57:42

thought we can't possibly it

57:46

that

57:46

would allow somebody to have a voice like

57:48

that. I just thought that that's the best audio they've ever

57:50

heard. How are they gonna bet on that if they come

57:52

to? you keep telling yourself that.

57:54

On a slightly different note, I just wanna make one

57:56

other shout out to John Gallant on

57:58

Twitter who tweeted this

57:59

earlier to to basically say listen the podcast,

58:02

but also that He's been doing some runs for

58:04

charity for the British half foundation and prostate

58:06

cancer. He did the Great North run, and he completed the

58:08

Chicago marathon

58:11

Yesterday, he's doing the New York

58:13

marathon on the sixth of November. He said he listened

58:15

to the podcast for the last six miles

58:17

of of the marathon team to help

58:19

him get through. So just a huge shout out to him for that. As if

58:21

it wasn't enough, as

58:25

if there wasn't enough of a task yet, I listened to us

58:27

as well while he was doing it. Amazing.

58:30

Exactly. You just wanted to make sure you had

58:32

tears like like Vulcan just before

58:34

I get to the the the finish line. So you needed you needed crying

58:36

just thinking, I want this to stop, not the

58:38

marathon, just just us speaking to him. Absolutely.

58:42

Right? And let's wrap things up. Cheers Chris, Greg from

58:44

the day, and Cheers to Kevin Lawson for coming on

58:46

as well. Fantastic, insightful.

58:49

Data based chat Don't forget

58:52

our special podcast offering.

58:54

Go to the athletic dot com forward

58:56

slash newcastle pod where you can sign

58:58

up to the athletic and pair just one

59:00

pound a month for your first six

59:02

months. Go and get that deal right now. If that's

59:04

not value, Chris, I don't wanna know

59:06

what is. Wonderful stuff. Cheers, Chris. Nice to Cheers, and I

59:08

have a lovely week, and

59:10

Cocker will be back next week. I don't know if that's

59:12

a good or bad thing, but he will be.

59:14

Cocker returns. I'll be the

59:16

worst the worst film ever. George II,

59:18

Colton

59:20

Returns. Brilliant

59:20

stuff. Right? Thanks very

59:23

much everyone for listening. we'll speak to

59:25

you very soon. Take care and have a good week from everyone upon the time.

59:27

Thanks a lot. Bye

59:30

bye.

59:47

The

59:52

athletic.

59:56

When

59:57

it comes to sports betting,

59:59

at MGM is the standard. We

1:00:01

use them to dive in and get real

1:00:03

time betting on enhanced offers and tons of different

1:00:05

bedding options. Moneyline, spread, parley's

1:00:08

futures, it's

1:00:10

all there. Sign

1:00:12

up today with Bet MGM the exclusive betting partner of the

1:00:14

athletic and get a risk free bet

1:00:16

up to one thousand dollars. plus

1:00:19

a free three month subscription to

1:00:21

the athletic. Just sign up and use our

1:00:23

promo code, the athletic, to

1:00:26

take advantage of

1:00:26

this special offer from the king of sports sports. This event MGM

1:00:28

dot com for terms and conditions must be twenty one plus years

1:00:30

of age or older equator, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois,

1:00:32

Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan.

1:00:35

This a lot of new hires York Pennsylvania Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Virginia, District

1:00:37

of Columbia, West Virginia, Oregon, nineteen plus years

1:00:40

of age holder, and Ontario new customer offer all

1:00:42

promotions are subject

1:00:44

to qualification unability requirements for awards issued as a national drawable free bets or

1:00:46

sign credit, free bets expire seven days from

1:00:48

issuance. Excludes Michigan's associated persons,

1:00:50

please gamble responsibly. You have a

1:00:52

problem called one eight hundred next step in

1:00:54

Arizona, one eight hundred 5224700

1:00:56

in Colorado, District of Columbia, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada,

1:00:58

Wyoming, Virginia one eight hundred 2707117

1:01:01

for confidential help in Michigan, one eight hundred

1:01:04

gambler in Indiana, Maryland, New

1:01:05

Jersey, and West Virginia, one eight hundred bets off

1:01:07

in Iowa one eight hundred 9810023

1:01:09

in Puerto Rico or call 8778

1:01:11

Hope New York or text Hope New York 467369

1:01:15

Caller, Texas, Tennessee red line eight hundred 8899789

1:01:20

or call 18887779696 in

1:01:22

Mississippi and Ontario. If you have questions or concerns

1:01:24

about your gambling or someone close to you, please

1:01:26

contact Connex, Ontario at 18665312600

1:01:30

to speak to an advisor who's betting his void in

1:01:32

Georgia, Hawaii, Ohio, and Utah, and

1:01:34

other states were prohibited. Promotional offers

1:01:37

not available in

1:01:38

Nevada.