ToonTastic

Which Hughton won't play away from home, he'll play 4-5-1 with a strong tackling midfield. I'm not saying he's right I'm saying that's what'll happen he's more or less said it already and did it last year. Conspicuous by their absense at Old Trafford. Ben Arfa could easily have replaced Nolan in that match for all he gave us. Please don't begin to think I'm defending any of them, if we had my way I'd have got shot of Smith, Nolan, Guthrie and Barton in a heartbeat. All am saying is this is how or manager sees the team and plays them. Away from home he will play the likes of Smith and Nolan or Barton and Nolan nearly every game. At home Guthrie will get more of a chance. If Ben Arfa came then he would be taking over from Guthrie at home. Which yes is an improvement but I just see other positions more of a problem. Scares the crap out of me how piss poor our right back is, any manager with any sense will attack that every game.

I've seen him play full games and think he's the type of player our team is crying out for. To be honest a midfielder, attacking or not, wouldn't be top of my list of players we need replacements for. That worries me more than whether Ben Arfa signs or not. He's a player who would no doubt play well at home and poor away so in a sense a luxury player which is possibly the last thing we need right now. A good central midfielder, attacking or not is number one for me on the list, Nolan will offer nothing against the top 15 teams in the league, Smith is terrible, Guthrire and Barton blow hot and cold, mostly cold and are both injury prone. All in all a terrible central midfield. A close second would be RB/Striker equally. Nolan will play most if not all games after being handed the captaincy, of this I have no doubt. I'm not saying we don't need a new midfield, we do, but we also need someone who can put the ball into the net more often and a defence that can run after someone.

Which Hughton won't play away from home, he'll play 4-5-1 with a strong tackling midfield. I'm not saying he's right I'm saying that's what'll happen he's more or less said it already and did it last year. We're going to be relying on our home games for the points to keep us up anyway! So would it not be helpful if we had a defence who could then stop teams scoring ?

Which Hughton won't play away from home, he'll play 4-5-1 with a strong tackling midfield. I'm not saying he's right I'm saying that's what'll happen he's more or less said it already and did it last year.

It's true though there has been 257 pages of arguing about a player probably 80% of the people on this thread have never seen play even once. It's crazy lol He's a young player rated at a price we could ordinarily never dream of paying that plays in a position we seriously need to fill, and through good fortune he's unsettled, cheaper, available on some sort of loan on the right terms and seems keen to come and play for us. Considering that on past form the alternative will be a final day signing of an underwhelming and over-priced player from the lower leagues who favours a position we've already got covered, I don't think it's surprising that people thing we should grab the opportunity instead of f***ing around. If the club has limited funds to spend of players which it does, and this would remove 5-8m worth of funds from the club plus add another top earner is that what the club needs right now ? And that doesn't mean to say I want the other option to be the crap final day purchases we've had of past. If I thought the club would go out and buy players of a good quality for the other more important positions then fair enough but I know after being out this "big fee" that they won't.

I've seen him play full games and think he's the type of player our team is crying out for. To be honest a midfielder, attacking or not, wouldn't be top of my list of players we need replacements for. That worries me more than whether Ben Arfa signs or not. He's a player who would no doubt play well at home and poor away so in a sense a luxury player which is possibly the last thing we need right now.

It's true though there has been 257 pages of arguing about a player probably 80% of the people on this thread have never seen play even once. It's crazy lol

I think most would just be delighted to sign Ben Arfa regardless of contract details. The details of the contract are only being talked about because they are preventing us from signing him. To be even more honest most have never seen the lad play, have seen a few clips of him on youtube or heard he's good on football manager and think we have to sign him now and should spent every penny on him straight away.

Wouldn't that then be more change ?

True, but you need to spend something to attract the right man. Even then we wouldn't have been relegated if he got one of the 5000 better than Kinnear, wouldn't have lost 40m in TV money and could release/sell the high earners now after a stable season. Instead we're shitting ourselves about another relegation and Hughton is still here because Ashley has done naff all since we went down and he doesn't complain, not because of some f***ing masterplan. True, to a point, alot of clubs have found good manager with little cash in the pot, Fulham, Everton, Blacburn, even our own club was in a tight spot when SBR took over, its where i think the majority of critiscm aimed at the club should be focused, our failing to employ a credible manager. I guess thats my only point. My Messi/O'Neill analogy is a prime example of how i feel about, id much rather have a pretty ordinary manager with a decent reputation who would guide us so far leaving us in a better place like he did Leicester aloowing us to attract a better class of manager from there on in to having one of the best players of all time, in my opinion, becasue its my belief thatt he quality of the playing staff can only get you so far yet the quality of a manager can get you even further. Ridicule away. We kinda had that with fat sam but kinda messed it up by giving him pots of cash which he f***ed up. We had an alright manager in Keegan as well only the board did manage to f*** that up, like i said my main critiscm is the largely held view that the most important thing a board should do is spend money, it isnt, it's to appoint the right man. Not spending money in January isnt what got us relegated, it was having that f***ing loon in charge yet you read it over and over again that it was Ashleys lack of expenditure that get us binned. It's horseshit. The thing is that its bound to get twisted, I'm not saying we should spend no money and keep our powder dry until we're debt free, what im saying is that spending money isn;t the definitive affirmative answer on making the club successful, I'm just sick of hearing this "signing Ben /arfa/2 is the difference between getting us relegated and finsinihing mid table. /thats bullshit, and no ones pointing it out, if we signed Ben arfa and had Jim smith in charge we'd still be relegated. All very good points.

Debt, but we're heading off topic here.

True, but you need to spend something to attract the right man. Even then we wouldn't have been relegated if he got one of the 5000 better than Kinnear, wouldn't have lost 40m in TV money and could release/sell the high earners now after a stable season. Instead we're shitting ourselves about another relegation and Hughton is still here because Ashley has done naff all since we went down and he doesn't complain, not because of some f***ing masterplan. True, to a point, alot of clubs have found good manager with little cash in the pot, Fulham, Everton, Blacburn, even our own club was in a tight spot when SBR took over, its where i think the majority of critiscm aimed at the club should be focused, our failing to employ a credible manager. I guess thats my only point. My Messi/O'Neill analogy is a prime example of how i feel about, id much rather have a pretty ordinary manager with a decent reputation who would guide us so far leaving us in a better place like he did Leicester aloowing us to attract a better class of manager from there on in to having one of the best players of all time, in my opinion, becasue its my belief thatt he quality of the playing staff can only get you so far yet the quality of a manager can get you even further. Ridicule away. We kinda had that with fat sam but kinda messed it up by giving him pots of cash which he fucked up.

All that is true though lol

Source ? no source - it's fact Because you say so ?? Every season on this board before the start of the season people panic about purchases and that happened before Ashley joined us. I'm not stating anything else other than we did have late signings with the previous board, many of whom were shite.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/7949277/Newcastle-United-midfielder-Joey-Barton-survives-close-shave-with-referees-notebook.html True incite from a Mr Mark Ogden here. Watch this space, I predict great things for this chap. What claiming we were awful against a team like Man U. Hardly a fantastic or well thought out article. The fact Barton was late was very much a none story. Following that with claiming we're relegation bound after one game against Man U makes him as bad as the rest really.

It's in a sticky at the top of the page

Source ?

Sorry think that was me locking it

Back down the snake to page 2 for you where those questions were first asked

Does this guy think we're someone else ?? Not used to players doing this to join us, leave us yes but not join us lol

Not off back to Sunderland ?

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but apparently we're in for Kevin Prince Boateng, he's expected to go to Italy though.

Loads of people suffer whenever this happens, football isn't a special case. All the staff at Garlands and Freedom Direct in this region who lost their jobs weren't to blame either. Yes it is. Neither of the above have the social or cultural significance of a football club. It’s hard to say if HMRC have decided to make an example out of Pompy, or if Portsmouth have been taking the piss. I’d guess it’s the later but the supporters aren’t to blame and the community needs its football club. If it ceases to exist the people who have f***ed up won’t be the ones who pay the price. Even if the ruling goes against Portsmouth I doubt they’ll be liquidated, it just sounds like a threat intended to put pressure on the court. The best result for football would be for the HMRC to win their case and a criminal investigation by the police. HMRC used to get their cash first when it came to debts with football clubs, that rule was changed and they were lumped in with everyone else in terms of debts, that's why there are alot more clubs ending up in court now cause HMRC has to fight harder to get some cash.

Nope