George Bailey

Good luck to the lad. One of our better players in recent times. PSG have got themselves a snip imo, worth at least a further few millions. Sad to see him go and a little surprised at the timing, though truly little surprises anymore in football. Not sure the 'selling' club tag means much now, we are simply one of those clubs that will see better players leave to acheive their ambitions in the holy grail of the CL and to win things. We are by no means alone in that category and simply can't compete at that level consistently, barring huge and some may say ridiculous levels of investment. That isn't Pardews fault (much is) and to some extent it isn't Ashley's either (much is).....imo How we compete at the level we are at, how we utilise the resources we have, how we go about attracting players wanting to raise their profiles in maybe a more prominent league, or get young players to the club are all within their remit. Going forward we have to hope they get more right than wrong.

I liked it

Excellent posts Sewelly. The effect on the likes of Portugueses, Dutch sides etc was one thing I hadn't even considered tbh, which makes me feel rather insular looking...

Cracking post as normal. Just goes to show how much actually needs looking at, in almost every aspect of the game. Whats the priorities? The restructuring of the game and leagues, European cups? Money and its effect on the game? TV and its over influence? Corruption and cheating? The games position in society and comunities? The game is at a crossroads for me. Massive questions and solutions needed imo to ensure its survival as we know it...Or is that it? maybe its just no longer footbal (as we have known it)l and its evolved or evolving into its next stage of being?

Not for me mate. The CL would just become the 'particiaptors league' in all effect. Scrap the CL for me. devalue the fuck out of it. Go back to European competitions having meaning. Champions and maybe, maybe 2nd placed sides play each other in knock out comp. 2nd,3rd and 4th placed sides play in knock out UEFA cup. Bring back the Cup winners cup. TV and the amount of money sloshing about needs addressing as a priority. Not a fan of every fucking game being 'live'...Oh great its Kidderminster v Cleethorpes tonight..whoop the fuck eeee. Ive passed mysaturation point. Football is not a sport that people should ONLY watch on TV. k Kids from Hull, Dunfermline and Skegness scratching about in bloody barca and Real tops. Get football back to its roots of local teams for communities. Pay needs sorting too. its far too disproportional. No person on the planet, is worth £100, 150,200, 250k a week, ludicrous. All in all 'modern'football is largely shit imo. Certainly wont be around to celebrate clubs second centeniaries if the centralised, elitist model continues..thing is it appears the governing bodies couldnt give a shit. We and clubs like us are simply an irrelevant annoyance to them. 12-20 teams in Europe. The great Real v Bayern every 2nd weekend. Man U v Benfica ad infinitum. Franchise football here we come. Once capitalism got really interested it was writing on the wall time....

Dear god as if January isn't a depressing enough month already without this thought...

And not only that, you have the issue of owners who are prepared to sink infinite money into transfers. Basically this is the key issue underlying everything for me, and why I don't necessarily blame NUFC for these departures. The traditional competition in football has been rendered obsolete by money. We can only climb so far without infinite investment, and at the moment our ceiling is probably only a couple of places above where we are. In that situation, players will sometimes leave to go to richer clubs. It's inevitable, I can't bring myself to complain about it (although I find the whole situation regrettable). Agree. 100%. For once I don't really see this as being mad Mikes fault or even Pardpoos. (The 'hawking' around of our talented players by them is in their control mind, and some of the implied stuff in Pardews pressers and article quotes leave a very sour taste)..... Its as inevitable as the sun rising and a fight in the Bigg market on a saturday night. Talented players will be seeking the money and prestige of the CL, the rest of us will be 'feeder' clubs to one extent or another. We can simply hope to enjoy the likes of Cabaye for a limited time, and hope these players can lift us ever closer to the top 4 whilst they are with us. Then with some investment................aah fuck it!

Not a fan of his beard.

The whole nub of the issue imo. I will be sad to see such a good player, one of few we have, leave us. it looks like, and I am giving the club some credit here, that we have a 'replacement' lined up. (If the Cabella rumours are true obvs). Of course as many have said, replacing a settled and performing player with the 'potential' of one is another matter. No guarantees for any side/team or manager on that tbh (of course better managers probably mean more chance of replacements being a success, I would imagine). The bigger issue is one of what clubs like us (Villa, Everton, Spurs to an extent) can expect. The holy grail of the CL is an all consuming driver nowadays and unless UEFA sort it out, then the elitist blue print we have for football will only get worse imo. Can any of us expect to develop a team/squad without regular CL football? Quite why they cant put some real value back into the UEFA cup to restore some balance boils my piss. I genuinley despise the CL format and the ramifications it is having on the game.

Sums up Pardew and his ilk of manager perfectly. Far too negative and over concerned trying to overcome the oppostion tactics by actually doing the opposite of what they should be doing. They're like a boxer who allows himself to be pulled into a slugfest and goes toe to toe with a lesser talented boxer. Rather than keeping to their own plan and nullify the oppositon that way. Its his limitations as a manager perfectly exposed.

Went to the game yesterday. Wanted to see if he can change my opinion. He played well. Fair play to the lad, seems to be playing with the right attitude and commitment. Hard to judge longer term in this standard though. Still if he keeps this up it can only be good for us, even if it is to increase any fee.

POTY summed the current NUFC up perfectly in one wee diagram

oh dear

Should be well up for this in the second half now. Pardew will get praise, and rightly so, if he can channel our anger into a performance. All commentators on radio (talkshite) saying its an injustice. Poor, poor officials again. the standard is woedul at times.

Offside!!!! bollocks

well there are 8 optimistic souls who seem to think we will ....bless em.

Les by a short nose.

if thats true that is one staggering fact! Must be the nation with the least amount of 'native/indigenous' population? 85 % immigants?? Farage would be frothing at the mouth

Should have said books imo, then he would have been spot on.

If you mean they shouldn't feel pressured into it then I definitely agree with you, however I'd say that it's also important for (especially younger) people who might be struggling with their sexuality or being bullied about it etc. to have high profile people coming out and having pride in who they are and showing that it's normal, so those people might feel some responsibility to come out for that reason. Also it's good for them to have representation in society and the media and that. Agree with this. in an ideal world it shouldnt matter what anyones sexual orientation is, but its defo a postive for 'minorities' to have role models or icons leading the way in understanding and to combat bigotry etc. May be of help/comfort to some youngsters and that can only be a good thing.

May well not concern any of the 'home nations' anyway lets be honest..... Complete shambolic and ill advised decisions by FIFA in the 1st place mind

I expect a much improved perfomance, more motivation from our lads...and to lose by 2 goals. We may even score....

Deeply saddened by the news and thoughts go to all his family, friends, Benfica and Portuguese football in general. The loss of a legend and a gent by all accounts too. RIP.

Well TT what can I say. as usual you resort to attacks, personal insults and nothing but vitriol. True to form sadly. I was merely suggesting that imo our youth set up, academy whatever you want to call it has been failing for some time. We dont seem to develop youngsters to the level or standard that we require, or the level we should certainly be aiming for. Consistently failing imo. Maybe we, and clubs like us, at our status/level aren't the best places for these kids to actually develop? maybe a progressive development via lower league set ups would lead to youngsters having progressive rather than regressive career developments.? Are other clubs as unsuccessful as us in developing young talent? Maybe Niel, brum or Zolton can shed light? or do we and others just not 'get rid' of non developing players in a timeous manner, imo we seem to have kids at 16/17 who are still the same player at 22/23 an awful lot... I have never said we should scrap our youth developmnet programme, rather I want it to be better and actually work. imo at the moment it is poor in terms of its results. As for young Adam. I thnik the lad will have a very succesful career in football. There is no shame in being a pro footballer operating at league 1,2, championship or in the SPL etc. I personally do not see anything in the lad that suggests he is or will be a player who can make an impact with us or at the level we are allegedly aiming for. If im a lunatic for having this belief then thats your opinion TT. I would call it a diffence of opinion and would hope not to belittle you by personal insults. I aint a WUM, or seeking attention either, merely trying to concerse with N.O posters whos views and opinions I respect and enjoy, on the most part, reading. Bimpy..I have a variety of hats, including an authentic Soviet style guards hat, rabbit fur, complete with glorious hammer and sycle badge..may be nice with some salt and chilli sauce. We can judge wheter I will be eating it sometime around 2016/17 I would imagine

People referring to the English premier league as The premier league. Its the EPL.. Like calling Manchester United, United. imo.tbf.