Wullie

"I'm certainly not going to argue with the French contingent we've got. They've been absolutely brilliant. This is a world market. We have made our point within the club that we don't really want to buy any players from abroad." Has there ever been a more contradictory statement?

Charming. Sorry, easy target.

Some of Newcastle Online's worst ever posts over the last three pages. Neesy celebrates as he slips out of the top ten.

Good little discussion that, albeit brief. Tony Evans is a bit of a tit but I do like listening to him whenever the discussion is about fans and local pride.

Generally I agree but numbers like that make me feel queasy. I'm canny tight but if I was earning that much, I'd be going down the homeless shelter every night and handing out £50 notes. My conscience wouldn't allow me to just stuff it in a bank account away from society.

Lambert will know full well that if they score first, we will crumble.

So you're happy for the mackems to take an easy six points every year and regularly go on runs of form (such as the current home one) that rival the worst in the entire history of the club because Ashley's a cunt? And the manager takes absolutely no responsibility for it at all and you're giving him an indefinite free pass for results to get worse?

Make the negativity worse by sacking him?! It'll be like a black cloud lifting from the entire city when he fucks off.

Any dreary 0-0 at half time between good teams being described, usually by ITV, as "fascinating" or "intriguing".

I don't believe he'd be any better with the latter. His gameplan here has always been to keep it tight and bank on the talent having "magic" in their boots. Take away the magic and what's left? Literally can't think of anything worse than buying players Alan Pardew wants and I include genocide in that.

I'm convinced, we'll just depend on Tiote, Gouffran and Anita to set the goals up.

Aye hopefully we'll snap up a French international title winning captain.

Brett was right behind Gullit when he withdrew Robert Lee's squad number and sent him off with the kids. Manager knows best. Good grief.

Not really, I didn't want Chris Hughton either but over the course of a season and a half, he turned me right round. Over three years, Pardew has made me detest him more than anyone in football.

I've defended him against daft, unfair criticisms. Like I said though, you won't find any posts where I praise the fucker. You advocated going into the most recent derby, and the one before that, and the one before that with him at the helm because you said he didn't deserve to be sacked. Then you moan when Alan Pardew gets pissed on by them again when anybody with a single ounce of footballing sense knows that is what Alan Pardew does. You'll be back waving his flag next time your stats say you should. Advocating and flying the flag? So quote me. When people have said he's playing hoofball I've pulled them up on the basis we were moving away from hoofball. When people have suggested Ben Arfa should be forgiven by Pardew for any lazy, lacklustre, greedy, ineffective, dangerous performance I've argued against that because it seems to me Pardew has got more end product from that particular player than he's produced for previous managers. I've always been happy to see Pardew replaced by a better manager if Ashley can reverse the trend he's made with making a mistake in every managerial (and backroom and boardroom) appointment he's made. I have little faith in him being able to do that though, so as long as Pardew is winning manager of the month and dragging his team to about the peak of the clubs ambition I'm willing to live with him. Obviously the task of finding a popular replacement becomes easier for Ashley whenever Pardew goes on a downward spiral of defeats that rival the worst runs in the history of the club and we hit proper relegation form. Like he did last christmas as well. Sacking someone like Keegan just as everyone is feeling positive brings the whole club down. Pardew's in no way comparable to Keegan, but there's a similar protocol to follow, whatever the ability of the manager. You sack him when he's bringing everything crashing down so the new man walks into a club where everyone is happy to see him and he has the best possible chance. You don't sack him while we're 5th and half the fans are nonplussed that you've brought in the likes of Gerry Francis as if he could do a better job. Quote you on what, the endless hours you've spent arguing against people who said he was doing a shit job and wasn't good enough to manage Newcastle? You seem to make decisions based entirely on statistical analysis of certain runs of form. My stance is and always has been that he's not good enough for Newcastle and that any good run of form will always eventually end very badly on the basis that he's Alan Pardew. You turn on a sixpence based on how many shots on target we have in a particular match. If the stats are good before the next derby, you'll be all for him being in charge for it, you'll not want him sacked because of current form then you'll be surprised when Poyet has him bleaching his arsehole for him live on Sky.

Apart from the club and the manager.

Well I guess you're right in that if you could reliably beat the teams outside the top four, you'd get a CL place regardless of how badly you do against the top four. But football, like life isn't like that. In any case, it would only work if the top four aren't going to do as well against the other teams as you are. The bigger flaw is underestimating the capacity of the likes of Hull to raise their game and give much better sides than us a run for their money on the day. There's no question that we've seen, over a number of years, that it's very difficult for clubs to break into that top four that was established in the very early days of the CL. It's been a self-perpetuating elite. Only Man City appear to have broken through, and that's only because they've spent obsene amounts of money. The likes of us, Everton and Spurs have had their moments, but not established themselves. But the idea that I really baulk at is 'fifth isn't good enough', especially when you hark back to Sir Bob's era. Getting rid of Sir Bob was a terrible mistake and a wasted opportunity, and it came about because of pressure brought about by the so-called failure of finishing fifth. And no-one can blame outsiders here, because the movement against Sir Bob came from local supporters, a local press, a local Chairman and a local captain. IMO we have to accept that if we do make a breakthrough, it'll need a longer term plan, and a bit of luck. I never said it would be easy. That's why it's elite sport. The point remains that if Newcastle beat the teams they should be beating, they will be very close to a points tally that is typically enough to qualify, regardless of how much money other teams have. If that points tally isn't enough, bad luck, try again next year - not "Hull might raise their game and God, Man City are rich aren't they? Better not bother our arse, 8th is top of our league."

We should be trying to be above all of them. The best way to try and be above any of them is to be a complete flat-track bully. The preposterous myth that has grown up during the Premier League era is that the clubs that can't compete financially with the top one or two, can't therefore compete for places. How does Man City's money stop Newcastle beating Swansea or Hull or sunderland? It doesn't but clubs like ours want the fans to think that it does so they don't have to spend any money, or hire anyone more than a League One reject to be the manager, and a significant proportion of the crowd lap it up, go home and take photos of the league table if we're 7th on goal difference. The facts are that Arsenal's record against the clubs around them (other than Spurs, who they ritually humiliate the way we used to do to the mackems before Alan Pardew rocked up) is horrendous, relatively speaking. So was Bobby Robson's, with some notable exceptions - shit at Anfield, shit at Old Trafford, shit at Stamford Bridge and we generally got turned over at home by better sides too but most of the sides in the bottom half who came to SJP were disdainfully swatted away like an errant fly. That will get you far more points over a season than spending most of the year patting yourself on the back for being the latest in a long line to get one over David Moyes whilst Steve Bruce and Gus Poyet come to Newcastle and get Alan Pardew to wipe their arse and carry their bags to the bus. You generally need about 70 points on average to take 4th place and most teams who get 4th win around 19-21 games and draws make up the rest. If you win your home games against the rubbish, as a Newcastle team (and certainly this team, as it was three weeks ago) always should, and have half decent away form, you should be there or thereabouts without even needing to get a single point against Man City or Chelsea or Arsenal. 13 home wins, 3 draws, 4 defeats 8 away wins, 5 draws, 7 defeats That would be Champions League form. Really not too much to ask for over the course of a season if you concentrate on blowing away the utter dross that makes up the majority of the league table at home, as Arsenal do and have done for years, no matter how many times they get turned over at Old Trafford. Make up a blip or two with the odd bonus against a better side and you're there. Even if you fall short, there is never an excuse for not trying. Don't know where this chronic lack of ambition came from amongst our support considering what it was like ten years ago when 5th was rightly called out as not being good enough but it's really harming us. Even if you think Ashley's a cunt, that doesn't mean you don't have the right to demand better from the mug in charge of the team. Demand better all the time, make his life a fucking misery for serving up this shit. Vast swathes of people have bought into the club propaganda machine that because Man City have loads of money, Newcastle can't turn West Ham and Hull over at home so just let him off with it. It's embarrassing. Grow some fucking bollocks ffs.

I've defended him against daft, unfair criticisms. Like I said though, you won't find any posts where I praise the fucker. You advocated going into the most recent derby, and the one before that, and the one before that with him at the helm because you said he didn't deserve to be sacked. Then you moan when Alan Pardew gets pissed on by them again when anybody with a single ounce of footballing sense knows that is what Alan Pardew does. You'll be back waving his flag next time your stats say you should.

Happy Face now denying being one of Pardew's staunchest defenders. Fuck me.

Ian W trying to tell people that the main concern should be that the team wins. Err yeah Ian. We know. Ultimate irony. This from the bloke who said he was comfortable with the club playing Danny Simpson for six months to save a million on Debuchy.

The question is clearly worded. And Pardew will never get another derby point as long he is here. They have him on a string.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to cheer a Villa goal any more than I would enjoy the pain on my hypothetical child's face as I watch them take a vaccination needle. Doesn't stop both of them being good things long term - unless you've got your superfan high horse all saddled up. Personally I think anyone who would take a win against Villa in order to have him keep his job and give the mackems another easy six points would be betraying the club far more.