Wullie

Having another defensively minded player in midfield can give more scope to Ben Arfa (and others) going forward. Means they can pay less attention to their defensive duties. What others?

How's that like? The club is raking in an absolute fortune.

He definitely started talking about the possibility of Cabaye leaving last summer before anyone else was, his motivation for that is debatable I suppose. Cabaye's wife tweeted about wanting a "nice" transfer in February last year. Maybe it was a joke, but the player and his entourage must have been looking for the next big payday. It's what footballers do. Doesn't explain why we hadn't seen any rumours in the press of Cabaye departing for months and months, then suddenly Pardew's prattling on about it in a press conference and things seemed to start happening. I'll accept the club is very willing to sell at the right price, but really cannot believe that no one was aware of Yohan Cabaye until Pardew put him up for sale in a press conference. FFs every decent player is on the radar of clubs that can afford to buy them, and every fucking agent is working behind the scenes to make sure those clubs know their player is available. We don't have to facilitate the sale so keenly though, do we? Less than a week after Pardew had started his latest sales pitch Arsenal had bid and the player was in a huff, refusing to play in a League game. My hunch is that Pardew is encouraged to do this as a big fee now and then funds steady squad investment with minimal money going in. Not to mention the manager telling the world in every interview what a tiny little club we are. Just what good players want to hear to make them want to stay where they are.

Pardew's got a ready made excuse for Saturday at least. That horrible shitbag must have been dancing a jig when he saw that fixture at the end of January. Fucking spineless little wankstain.

The only thing that keeps me going is that my age should mean I'll live to dance on the graves of Alan Pardew, Mike Ashley and Joe Kinnear. Fucking scum.

It's not the Greeks he's after, it's the Chinese.

Having a cup run is good fun and I love midweek matches so I envy them that, but I really don't give a flying fuck whether they win the Capital One cup or not. They've done nothing with style and just scraped along by default taking advantage of other club's shortcomings. The clubs who've featured in the final recently show that it's not something most clubs take seriously any more. That said, I did want them to get beaten last night for the very reason you mention. It was obvious that their bitterness about all things Newcastle would take precedent over any sense of achievement they may have felt. It really doesn't show that at all.

I agree about Long but your last sentence is preposterous.

You've just described Craig Bellamy before he signed for us I was never a Bellamy fan, even back when he played for us. However i can't deny what a huge impact he had on us, was a perfect fold for Shearer. Saying this Long is nowhere near as good as Bellamy. How could you not be a Bellamy fan? He transformed our team from mid-table to one of the best in the country. Best signing we've made in the past 15 years. Bellamy and Dyer in 2001/02 Don't get me wrong i appreciated what a huge player he was in our side and how much he aided Shearer. I was just never fan of his overall ability. He used to miss chance and chance, his finishing really pissed me off but the amount of goals Shearer scored on the back of Bellamy's pace was brilliant. Was an excellent partnership. What mainly got me more was the fact I loved Robert the most in our side whilst my mate I went with hated Robert but then Bellamy was he favourite. So we used to always wind each other up over Robert/Bellamy. Fantastic side, great memories. Bet the people of your two villages loved matchdays when the idiots went off together and gave them some respite.

You've just described Craig Bellamy before he signed for us I was never a Bellamy fan, even back when he played for us. FFS

This season's FA Cup was by far the worst betrayal so far in his tenure. He'd got us in a position where safety is virtually assured by January with a huge gap to 10th place and was still too fearful to put the real team out at home to Cardiff.

Breaking news on the BBC, Stan Collymore quits Twitter. Stories about Twitter or stories about forgotten footballers from the 90s, difficult to know which are less newsworthy. Tomorrow's big news will presumably be that Paul Warhurst has posted a funny cat video on Facebook.

You can tell TCD doesn't like cricket. Athleticism ffs.

Yeah but the costs we've saved from the catering make up for all that.

The away goals rule was brought in when travelling away in Europe was a massive disadvantage which is not the case anymore. It was nowt to do with trying to encourage positive football. It's a bit of an anachronism and shouldn't really have been used domestically in the first place.

Aye and it starts from the top. Moyes and his backroom staff that replaced meuleensten etc etc are clearly not up to it. People can talk about players all they like. But its not going to change much, when you have a manager who has never won a trophy and Phil f*cking Neville as part of the coaching staff. Don't forget Steve Round, Allardyce's number one man when he was here. He's been with McClaren, Allardyce and Moyes, can't understand why Man Utd play negative football now.

What did he say? Fair play for still being able to watch.

That second half of extra time is the worst Man Utd performance since the inception of the Premier League. They looked like an Alan Pardew parody act.

They'll be lucky to win another game in the next five years if Rooney doesn't get his arse back. They're absolutely rotten, incomprehensibly shit tonight.

er, no. Not unless they beat Man City. Which they wont. Ahh, maybe I'm living in the past. Thought since Man City will be in the Champions League the Europa League spot goes to cup runners up? Or am I being totally retarded? Totally retarded. If the League Cup winners are already in Europe, the Europa spot goes to the team that finishes 6th in the league instead. Hope the mackems win that final, would be a fucking disaster if we finish 6th and they send us into Europe.

They'll win the derby (they've got our number), win the final (they've got City's number) and stop up. Joke's on them if we come 8th though.

Man United are absolutely rancid.

Except the players that make up one of the better teams we've had in recent decades. That must be why their cup record is so good.

The finances are the only good thing he's done. We're now so comfortable financially that we can't afford to buy any players.