midds

The closer its getting the more confidence I'm getting. Just seen their likely starting XI and there's fuck all on the park or the bench to be frightened of. Doesn't mean we're going to win but we can handle them.

My derby day record (born 76): P 36 W 14 D 16 L 6

Trying to drive the price down a bit. Could have saved us £15k had it worked.

Ironic seeing as you're clearly fucking hammered.

Don't get shirty.

He'd be a mint signing.

I think Pardew is the most important man for us tomorrow. He'll need to set us up right to make the most of the players he's got at his disposal, something he didn't do last week with Ba in particular. I just hope it's one of Pards more inspired days tactically rather than the odd brain fart match he's liable to produce every now and then. If he picks Shola and Ba as a front 2 and our tactics consist of pinging it up to them then we'll lose. The midfield won't be close enough to support them and Cattermole and Gardner will mop up and bring it straight back at us. Pack the midfield and try to play football rather than hoofball.

If we go 5 across the middle then we could/should have a bit more control of the middle of the park. We're going to need intelligent movement because if we lump it up to Shola for 90 minutes we'll lose. He is incapable of holding the ball up and bringing others into play. We're better off trying to play the ball into channels and get our midfield beyond Shola and into the box. Delivery from the wings has to be good too. We can win this but we need several players to have really good games. The main one being Shola.

Has anyone done any zany anagrams for him yet?

There will probably be a round of highly charged haggling going on. We'll probably thrash a deal out for £113,597.60 which keeps everyone happy.

How fucking ridiculous. They deserve all the pisstaking from other fans they get. They're a joke.

Bisto. He'll say whatever he thinks to try to deflect the blame from himself and his bosses. Pacify and squirm.

He doesn't play for us any more. He is probably right but he needs to stop talking about Newcastle fans and start trying to ingratiate himself to his new murdering public.

...or he knows exactly what the score is and is quite happy to go along with it.

"I'm smiling a Mike and he's smiling back at me. The problem is he's not giving me any fucking money"

This is what we're dealing with in 2011. Astonishing.

Will dance if they want to dance Please brother take a chance You know they're gonna go Which way they wanna go All we know is that we don't know What is gonna be Please brother let it be Life on the other hand won't let you understand Why we're all part of the masterplan...... and repeat. Just waiting for the 'prices were too high with it being so close to end window' and 'we won't be held to ransom' lines being trotted out. This is exactly what they wanted all along. Lies, lies, lies.

Don't get me wrong, I like this board but the feeling between the average poster and the average fan at SJP is often poles apart. Speaking to people at the Arsenal game, people are very fed up. Yep. 'real' people are losing patience just as much as folk on here are.

I think a few people are grossly underestimating the level of discontent amongst our fans. Lose the derby and the pressure will be cranked up another couple of notches.

Ladbrokes have got you 9/1 to be the next boss sacked. Clear your fucking desk.

52 seconds. Impressive.

I agree we've made a mess of the LB situation, but would they not have been slated if they'd sold Enrique cheap to Liverpool to get it done quickly? Had we bought his replacement before we sold then it wouldn't be as much of an issue. We sold him to maximise income and we now find ourselves in the same position so any benefit goes out of the window because clubs will put their prices up. Totally hypothetical but had we bought Pieters a month ago we may have got him for £5m. We could then have sold Enrique and been up on the deal. As it is, we've let him go for £6m but now PSV are pushing up the price to £6m and beyond because they know we've not got a LB and could end up costing us more? They've fucked it right up.

Their greed to get the maximum for Enrique has meant they've now painted themselves into a corner. They've got no-one to blame but themselves.

The underlying problems that the club currently has won't go away because of one result. Win, lose or draw the derby and the same questions will still need to be asked about the way the club is being run.

Bang goes his testimonial then.