midds

Really like the look of this lad. Mobile, disciplined, has an eye for a pass AND the ability to play it, good engine and has slotted in well. Already looks like a Premier League player despite being very young. If he can keep progressing he'll be fucking dynamite in a couple of years.

Draw with lashings of horrific injuries and red cards please.

Only a matter of time before Benitez is back there imo.

What bongles my head is that surely it makes sense - if you're constantly struggling to beat the first man - to put someone there in a NUFC shirt? To try and flick it on, have a shot directly on goal, even just to try and put the defender off. There must be some outstanding reason why we don't do this. About 77 minutes in today we got a corner. One of them had to go off for an injury. They pulled every single player back into their box. When it came in we only had 4 bodies compared to their 10. We deliberately left 4 men out of the box despite having no-one to mark. 2 of them were on the halfway line. Clueless.

The amount of corners that get cleared by the first man is getting ridiculous. 80% don't even get past the near post. Fucking infuriating to watch it happen time after time after time.

Sounds daft but that block was worth a goal.

Wank. Disjointed, lethargic, unbalanced and disorganised. How many more performances like that is it going to take for Pardew to change things? Why wait for it to fail before changing things around? The team comes first and if that means upsetting Ba by asking him to play wider then so be it. Awful performance and quite lucky to get a point tbph.

Bingo. How much longer will they hang around while we twiddle our fingers and count the pennies while other clubs, with a fraction of our income, speculate and have a bit of a go? Not asking for Ashley to break the bank and go for broke but a bit of investment/ambition would be nice to see. We've had players in our sights but haven't closed the deal because of a few hundred grand. You reap what you sow.

Hugely disappointing would have been if 2 or 3 had left and we hadn't replaced them. I'm frustrated we've not built on the squad but at least no-one has left. I'm not happy at the lack of investment but it could have been worse.

He needs to learn when to just shut the fuck up. Got no problem with him thinking it or dealing with it in-house but to come out with quotes like that just stoke the fires. Just play it with a flat bat ffs.

8th.

Eh, explain? An exception to the transfer rules I wasn't aware of. If you lose one of your players because he triggers a release clause or buys up his contract (like Javi Martínez did) in the last week of the window, La Liga gives you a 30 day dispensation to sign players since you couldn't have possibly planned losing that player. I'm not sure if it works in other leagues (like the PL), though. I think France has a "Joker" window where they can sign one after the deadline, or at least I think that's how FM works. Works if you play as Spurs too.

Ripped to fucking bits.

It's obviously gutting for Taylor and I hope he's back sooner rather than later but injuries are part and parcel of the game. There's no point whinging about losing him because all teams will lose players during the course of the season. We knew this was the risk of competing in 4 competitions and often playing every 3 or 4 days for long periods of the season. Him being out is a blow but it gives someone else a chance to come in and get games. Just got to get on with it.

Monaco.

It's started already! There's going to be ructions on here tonight.

Didn't they reject an £80 million bid for him because they wanted £85m? WHO THE HELL IS RUNNING PORTO?! Jez Moxey.

Put up with about 5 or 6 scopes for the first half and moved seats at HT. Complete f***ing bellends. [/snob] 3 blokes behind me said "eh? Who?" when the names of Bigirimana, Vuckic and Tavernier were read out. Not expecting them to know their shoe size and favourite flavour of munch bunch but all you've got to do to have a rough idea is pick up a Chronicle ffs. From the bloke to my left, 25 mins in - "who's the little black lad there mate? Number 20?"........ "Bigirimana"......"Oh, is that him?" I just fucking hate the general public.

Put up with about 5 or 6 scopes for the first half and moved seats at HT. Complete fucking bellends. [/snob]

Maybe, but it won't be in the Premier League. Look a million miles away. Seen precisely fuck all from him to convince me he's even playing in the right division.

Bleurgh. What a heap of shit that was. Never able to stamp our authority on the game and it should have been put to bed after 30 mins. Not got a problem with playing a few of the squad to rest a few of the first choice XI but we were taking liberties tbh. It shouldn't have been that close. But we're through so I suppose it's job done. I'd like to think we'll take it a bit more seriously when the group games come around though.

Think he'll do well there as his lack of real technical ability won't be exposed like it has been at Liverpool. Takes an excellent corner too.

The ultra, ultra, ULTRA cynical side of me thinks that's exactly what Ashley wants.

It's not the best signal of intent to the likes of Krul, Ben Arfa, Cisse etc either. I'm sure they were signed in the knowledge they were signing for a club with a vision and an ambition to make a mark at the top of the Premier League. They played out of their skin all season, achieved European football qualification, the bloke who managed the team got voted Manager of the Year, full houses every home game, new sponsors.... ...and we've spent about £3m (net) to supplement things and push on a bit. Wouldn't begrudge them for feeling a bit disillusioned at what's (not) happened since May. Really underwhelming summer for all concerned. Not in favour of just going mad and lashing out £25m on a couple of players purely to get them in but the penny-pinching has been frustrating. Genuinely good players (Debuchy) who would make a massive difference to the way the team play haven't come in despite (relatively) low pricetags. Got no desire to see us go back to the Shepherd way of splashing the cash and paying over the odds but there needs to be a bit of flexibility when quality players are available and publically state they want to play for us. There has to be a happy medium and we're facing the prospect of going into the season a couple of players short in a few positions. There's nothing we can do about it as fans but it's frustrating after such an encouraging platform to build on after last season.