How far away from the Hill Dickinson are you, Sam?

It's an hour.

It, it's an easy in.

Uh, I love it as a ground.

It's not the easiest-- Well, it's easy to get to within two miles of it, then it's a bit like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where actually, um, finding somewhere to park is a bit of a nightmare.

But I-- any chance to go to Everton or Liverpool I love because, uh, the stewards, the, the friendliness of the stewards at both of those ground is just on a different level.

I always love visiting them.

They blew you away.

Of course

... uh, y- if anyone who says that phrase in August or even September should be automatically dropped into a gunk tank, you know, wherever they may be.

'Cause you just don't know.

Like, there, there's no way of knowing in August, September who has won the transfer window 'cause you don't know how any of these signings are gonna work out.

Uh, and we have this supporter mentality of like, spend lots of money equals good, not spend lots of money equals bad.

Now, that does- that rarely is how it works out.

But it's a complete sidetrack.

But Solis sort of looks like he's got all of that and then a bit more.

It's very hard to know.

Yeah, I think you look at the managerial appointment and obviously see that there's links because he's managing Saudi Arabia, and you wonder is that, that the reason they've signed him or is it the job that he did previously i, in Austria? Were they taken by that and that's the reason that they've brought him to Newcastle? If you look at what the manager has done, it's the kind of appointment that if Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth make it, you probably think, "Oh, a lot's gone into that." You-- It's interesting, like Brighton, for example, have that list of managers that, that, that they worked on that have been keeping track of him for, for a long time.

It's different with, with Newcastle.

I think they're-- it's a different type of club.

I think there's a lot going on at, at Newcastle at the moment.

I think Sam's right that there's kind of blaming in all, or portions of blaming in all different corners of, of the football club.

I think Eddie Howe was visibly struggling at the end, end of the season.

That is quite a lot of players.

Ty, did you wanna come in?

Yeah.

Well, I was just thinking it was kind of, there's a romantic element to the fact that the journey sort of began and ended at Bournemouth, if you will.

Like, um, Arteta's first game was against Bournemouth, um, ended one-all as well actually.

And it took me back to the era.

One of the people I bumped into yesterday was a friend of mine who'd made me watch All or Nothing, uh, which I refused to watch.

In the time that Sam's kind of talking about, I was just like, I didn't want anything.

It, you know, you peel back the curtain, it's not as happy at Roots Hall.

Go on, then

...

when, when Shearer was saying it, I am thinking-... like, he, I, he needs to get forward a little bit, and he needs to, you know, he, this is his chance to get a couple of goals.

Yeah, but he's playing basically on the left-hand side of a three-man field, midfield.

So he is actually playing tactically where he has been instructed to play.

It's one of the things-- we'd gone back a couple of weeks ago, Newcastle lost at home to Brentford.

There was this big, like, crisis was overblown, um, and there were these, these two narratives, this sort of Eddie Howe in, Eddie Howe out, and as ever, there was no room for nuance, and we, we've gone down this road before.

Yeah

I think, was it on Monday's pod that Barney was talking about Kevin at Fulham and saying how almost every team in the Premier League now has a player who is actually properly quality and might have been competing for a title in the 1990s? And I, and I agree, almost every team, with the exception of Burnley, and I-

I-... they're just not quite there in terms of being at Premier League level.

I saw them twice.

I saw them against Newcastle, against Man United, and they had moments in the game, but there was- both times, every time they got i- in those promising areas, they just had that lack of quality.

And Ward-Prowse obviously is being brought in for set-piece quality, but as Barry said, he can't play, um...

Yeah, they, they do have to win it, right? It cl- it closes the gap.

It's the old six-pointer.

Uh, Newcastle, Brentford, Sam, how do you see that?

[laughing]

I just, I just thought was fantastic.

And he just knew the right things to say.

There was a guy called Jack McMillan, who has played every minute for Exeter pretty much this season.

He got injured in training midweek, so he wasn't out of it.

So just, uh, 10 seconds of his pre-game speech was about, like, "If you're gonna do it for anyone, do it for Jack." So he just made everyone feel part of it then.

And at the end, um, like, he just basically said, "Look, you guys are not gonna be defined by this, and i- if you learn from this, it'll be a good experience." And then he talked about how simple.

They were all short run-ups.

(laughs)

Yeah, I think, I, I think that is, is fair.

It's, it's a very fair point.

But look, the, that was the only way we, uh, these strict arrangements because of the way Marseille fans are, uh, is the only way you can get tickets.

And I sort of, I say I sort of feel, I feel very strongly, i- if your support base is that idiotic, that that is the only way away fans can visit your ground, then I'm not sure you should have the privilege of being in UEFA competitions.

Uh, but that's just my view.

Look, th- uh, as early as we were, that was boredom, right? It was, I was bored, but I was safe.

Like you can't do that all the time.

It was sort of incredible finish, I thought.

Yeah, the athleticism.

Uh, Arteta had spoken before about magic moments and he was asked afterwards like, "I- is that the kind of magic moment y- you were after?" And he said, "Yeah, very much so.

That's why we signed him." And look, naturally the spotlight was on Eze because of the history.

Uh, Arteta said... was asked about whether it impacted him.

He said, "No, he's just very... he's a relaxed character.

It doesn't..." He wasn't very good in the game before that and look, Arsenal weren't very good.

Realizing we have time can be a mistake if we don't change things around quickly." So there, he literally said it, Sam, they need to change all the things.

In the end, not a- not a bad result, even if a, you know, a late equalizer means Ange is still looking for his first win, but you'd probably take a point, wouldn't you?

Uh, yeah, it sounds cliché.

Uh, naturally they'd have taken a point before the game, but I think they were pretty disappointed.

You could see that at the end.

Uh, they were absolutely brilliant in that first half.

They really were.

Yeah, I know they went behind quite early, and there was a bit of talk beforehand about Chris Wood not playing.

What is the, what is the sentiment at the moment at St. James'?

We've es- we've established that but that is interesting because he's sort of known as this unbelievable shot stopper but not, not great with his feet.

Yeah, and, and I wondered the unsettling effect that might have on James Trafford because e- by all accounts he was basically set to go to Newcastle.

Like, people around him were saying that's where he's going and they had a bid accepted and Manchester City basically had this right to match and, and they came in and took him back and he'd said, like, he's not short of confidence, James Trafford, he straddles that line between confidence and arrogance really well.

Uh, he is loved.

I spent some time talking to people around him, like, he's not the biggest for a goalkeeper, um, but he, he always wants to play, right? At 16 he texts the manager of Curzon Ashton when he was on the city's academy and said, "Can I come and play for you?" And the Curzon Ashton manager went, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll ring you back shortly." Never rang him back so they've missed out on that and he's only 22.

Jordan Pickford didn't play his first Premier League season till he's 22 a- and he's come back from adversity a lot, James Trafford.

He was dropped by Accrington Stanley when he was out on loan after a few mistakes, so spent time on the bench there.

You wanted to say something about Pedro as well, Sam.