Wullie

Surely that's more down to the lack of talent in the academy, can't think of any that have "made it" at Newcastle, most will end up being sold/released because they are not good enough, this is a common problem at NUFC, our academy has been poor for the last decade. Aarons is this years Adam Armstrong who was Adam Campbell the season before that, players that get a bit of hype, look ok in pre season but turn out to really not be as good as people think and drops off the radar. Can't think of anyone who I'm confident will become a regular at Newcastle from the development squad. The problem we have with Sammy Ameobi, Mehdi Abeid, Gael Bigirimana, Paul Dummett, Shane Ferguson & Haris Vuckic are that they are over 21 (i.e born after 1.1.93) so we have to register them in the 25 man squad to be able to play them in the Premier League, where previous seasons we didn't need too. Considering we already have 23 players we have to register to play in the Premier League (6 of those are home grown from a possible 8) we can only register 2 from the above list of 6 and we can't actually add any foreign based players unless we sell another foreign based player first. From the weekend game, Dummett started & Abeid was on the bench so looks like them two will fill the final spaces. TLDR version - we are going to have to sell/loan Ameobi, Bigirimana, Ferguson & Vuckic or let them rot in the development squad all season with the odd cup game in the first team Footballers don't improve in a non-competitive environment, and the Northumberland Senior Cup doesn't count. It's a vicious circle. Are the players not playing because they're not good enough or are they not good enough because they're not playing enough football? Probably a bit of both in there but it seems to me that during the absolutely critical stage of a footballer's development, late teens, most of our players seem to just rot in the reserves for years, either that or go on loan in League One and rarely see the field. I know one thing, there were very few Newcastle fans who saw anything in Andy Carroll, even right up until around January of the Championship season. Then suddenly he scored a brace against WBA in the cup and he was off, unstoppable, from a value of next to nowt to £35m in the space of almost exactly 12 months. At that age, the potential effects of playing regular and competitive professional football cannot be understated. I don't know the ins and outs of how these things are dealt with elsewhere in terms of picking the right places for players to go on loan, integrating them into the first team etc etc - but I do know we're not doing it properly. We just hoy them all on in the cup then blame them for going out and use it as an excuse not to play them again. I say 'we', I mean the cunt. Going slightly off topic for a rant, for all the talk of HBA being mistreated, the way Bigirimana has been cast aside since being dragged off at half time against Benfica having been hung out to dry on the wing is one of the most pathetic and disgraceful things I've ever seen from NUFC. Absolutely shameful. Nobody will care when he ends up back at a lower level than we got him from, that's just football, nobody gives a shit about some kid who "didn't make it" but when possible, I'd like my football club to be respectful and professional, not just put human beings on the scrapheap because some arsehole window fitter gets a lip on (Ben Arfa), or because they were daft enough to link a contract extension to appearances (Jonas), or because the coaching staff are too fucking thick to know what to do with them (Bigi).

Pray for Pardew.

Pure guesswork? I'd have cashed that fucker out like.

Tragedy is that a great many of our fans now have as much ambition as the club do.

What did you have on Wilson?

Absolutely no idea what Wenger was thinking when he knocked back his first refusal.

About what?

He'll get massive kudos from all and sundry if we win a couple of upcoming games, when a) history suggests that he always has a bounce after we've bought a load of new players and b) once again, he's had his bacon saved by Graham Carr because he's been proven totally unable to do his job properly.

Jutkiewicz was absolute toss for Boro. Fuck knows how they've got Premier League clubs to pay for him and Emnes. EDIT: should put a fiver on him anytime now I've said that.

We didn't roll over, I suppose that's something if you are looking for positives. Never looked remotely like scoring either, but you need numbers in the box for that and it's not the Pardew way. It's completely untrue to say we never looked like scoring but I felt that if we'd scored, unless we'd equalised in the dying seconds, they could have cranked it up and won it again without too much stress.

He's scored twice.

One thing Ashley has done superbly. The diminishing of expectations over the last seven years has worked to utter perfection.

Treating each game individually is a fairly ridiculous concept tbf.

What did Barton say?

Yeah, but Pardew's mentality is graft and defend, at the expense of everything else, which shouldn't be acceptable really. I'm suggesting that those people with that sort of mentality towards football loved the graft in Keegan's team before the flair. Ah, right! Of course. Never even thought of it like that. Precisely what it would have been, yes. I'm not sure that's true, it was more that the team was playing well and winning at the same time. Also, it was generally a quite direct, pacey kind of flair rather than tricky and risky. It was definitely flair done in a traditional English way, plenty of pace down the wings and crosses. Appealed to both camps really.

I love passion like, I think we all do. Obviously the problem is when some people think that that means sliding tackles, getting stuck in and shouting 'come on' I've seen a few people say that nutting David Meyler showed great passion. I think it's a really interesting discussion about football fans, what they like compared to what actually works. Unfortunately I never get past much more of a conclusion than most of them are idiots.

English people fucking love passion.

Thoroughly bizarre post. How's that? Loads of our fans seem to think that saying "oh well, it was Man City so we had no chance realistically" makes it acceptable to get rolled over every single time.

Teams that have got points against Man City since December 2010: Chelsea x5 Liverpool x5 Everton x5 Arsenal x4 sunderland x4 Man Utd x3 Stoke x3 Southampton x2 Norwich x2 Swansea x2 Fulham x2 Aston Villa x2 Cardiff Birmingham West Ham QPR Spurs WBA Still, another defeat to be proud of.

I can.

First half exactly the same as most games at the arse end of last season. Get to 40 minutes with nowt happening (and everyone saying "wow, we look alright" even though we've offered sod all), concede just before half time - happened vs Southampton, Man Utd, Stoke and Swansea. Usual drill is to fold like a pack of cards in the second.

Love a rare Rich jibe.

For the record, I hope they kick the living shit out of us.

1-0 Leeds, Billy Sharp