Wullie

In hindsight, putting such a fresh back 4/5 out there has been a huge mistake. Defending more than anything is about coaching and consistency and doing things as a unit. Having a back five on Saturday, four of whom made not just their Newcastle debuts but their Premier League in the last four months, was a recipe for disaster. To then set up to invite pressure onto them was fucking insanity. Having Simpson and Colo back should help us massively. For all Simpson's failings, and I have always said this, he is a solid defender in a cohesive unit because he knows where to stand. He's unlikely to be caught in a botched offside trap. He's been standing next to Colo and Taylor for four years, this will help keep us solid if nothing else.

Was no leadership on the pitch when we got dicked 7-3 by Arsenal, either - with him on the pitch with his head down. Colo's important only because he's part of our best CB partnership. Need to buy some leadership in the summer. This is the problem, you can't just buy leadership, even the best leaders need a couple of years at a club before they can really be able to get a grip of things. This is what annoys me about Steven Taylor. He's about 27 now. At that age, Carragher, Terry, Rio had all grown out of their early idiocy and were real leaders. What's Taylor doing? Still twatting about in front of the goalkeeper, flouting the rules by getting on the floor to head it back to Krul and still holding his gut when he handles the ball. Grow the fuck up man. He'll never be as good a player as any of them but that's even more reason to stop acting the twat and start acting like one of the club's senior professionals.

Definitely agree about Coloccini. If you look at the teams we've been putting out lately, apart from Taylor and Jonas, they've almost been thrown together in the last year. The complete fuck up of the season is down to Pardew but the complete lack of heart we've seen in the last two home games is a different issue. They've been like lost children out there and that can definitely come from not having a leader on the pitch. Some people think Colo's not a leader, I disagree.

This is the truth. Add man utd to the list. Alex Ferguson would laugh in your face if you told him that having a stable player base was unimportant. You think he keeps Ryan Giggs and Darren Fletcher around because they're both still better than he could buy elsewhere?

Chelsea aren't a good example either. Terry and Lampard are the heart and soul of that team and have been for ten years. Mourinho knew that too. Sewelly's right though, signing a load of Englishmen will no more solve such a problem. I consider Krul, Colo and Jonas just as much a part of the club's spine as Taylor or Shola. If there is a problem with the French players, it stems only from them being here such a short amount of time but in substantial numbers more than their nationality. Cultural stereotypes help nobody. The point is that they went out and filled their squad with a load of talent who had never played on these shores and still won the league. Far more of a mix-up than what we've done. Saying "ah they had Terry and Lampard though" is just convenient to your argument. Rubbish, that team was very well stocked with English players playing regularly. Terry, Lampard, Johnson, Bridge and Joe Cole, as well as the likes of Gudjohnsen who had been there years. As I've said, the issue is more to do with player turnover which only links in to nationality. Very few of our regulars have been here more than two years. There is also the primary issue that Pardew simply does not know how to manage a squad of international footballers. I'm not defending that cunt.

Chelsea aren't a good example either. Terry and Lampard are the heart and soul of that team and have been for ten years. Mourinho knew that too. Sewelly's right though, signing a load of Englishmen will no more solve such a problem. I consider Krul, Colo and Jonas just as much a part of the club's spine as Taylor or Shola. If there is a problem with the French players, it stems only from them being here such a short amount of time but in substantial numbers more than their nationality - it's almost like having a load of loanees in that sense. Cultural stereotypes help nobody.

Wenger, being the very successful manager is right. He has always said you have to have players from the academy (hence why he spent the Anelka money on it), or at least players that have been at the club a long time. That is a totally different thing to attributing attributes to a nationality and thinking buying that nationality is a solution. Organically building a team slowly with an engrained style of play, is certainly something that is beneficial. That is the reason he is turning to British players now as he said recently he thinks he has a better chance of holding onto them long-term instead of losing key players every season in their current run on the ladder. Pires the flair player who has yet to coach or manage has less of a clue. To say they should just buy some English players and expect it to fix all their problems is moronic. Indeed, our problem is less with nationality and more to do with a massively high turnover of players (which links into developing your own and keeping them). This team is unrecognisable from the one that got promoted. Some people think that's a good thing, I don't, particularly.

Lewandowski's Polish isn't he?

We don't need an English spine to the team at all, we need a manager who can get the best out of the players we have, that's all we're missing. It's not coincidence that nearly every successful club has that national spine to them, in fact they're nearly always local too. This is particularly obvious in those clubs that sustain such success. It's not coincidence I agree, but our problems have nothing to do with the nationality of our spine. I do think that the levels of success achievable by having a spine (often local having grown up together locally) come through together probably outstrips the potential of individuals brought in to play together. That is definitely I something the club should work towards, but that is a long-term project - and is a pipedream at present with Pardew trying to make his mark at a grassroots level () - I wish that was even close to being one of my main troubles with the club [/iMO] I agree, it's a long term issue, but I always thought that we were too fast to tear out the heart of the team in the summer of 2011. It looked ok last year but the cracks have appeared this time round. Of a typical recent starting XI, only Jonas and Taylor have been at the club more than two years - that's a dangerous game to play because it's built on sand. You can't buy a backbone to a team, it's something that has to develop.

We don't need an English spine to the team at all, we need a manager who can get the best out of the players we have, that's all we're missing. It's not coincidence that nearly every successful club has that national spine to them, in fact they're nearly always local too. This is particularly obvious in those clubs that sustain such success. Arsenal? never been outside the top 4 during Wenger's time and they have hardly had a english spine the majority of the time. Has f*ck all to do with it. Last time they had the title was with Cole, Keown, Campbell, Parlour with Seaman leaving at the start of that season. The likes of Vieria, Bergkamp & Henry were instrumental but they'd all been their a minimum of 5 years, understood the league, settled and spoke very good english. Called having a mix and balance, something we lack. Aye. It's funny how it's always the big fans of European football who will argue vehemently that having an entire team of foreigners makes no odds when the majority of huge European clubs go completely against that way of thinking and make damn sure that they have a squad with a high percentage of players from the same country. Same people who will fawn endlessly over Barcelona's sometimes near Catalan XI will tell you that having no local spine makes no difference. Bizarre.

We don't need an English spine to the team at all, we need a manager who can get the best out of the players we have, that's all we're missing. It's not coincidence that nearly every successful club has that national spine to them, in fact they're nearly always local too. This is particularly obvious in those clubs that sustain such success.

I agree with TT and Gary Neville and have argued that point many times before. Talk of xenophobia is simply nonsense.

Only Arsenal, Spurs, Everton and Liverpool have won at Upton Park.

Swap the wingers surely?

I'd be a lot more confident if one of those games was away. Just can't see them not beating either Stoke or Saints.

Sylla completely bossed the midfield for Villa - they just bought him from Ligue 2. Meanwhile we've got two of France's regular starting midfielders. Honestly man.

Piss off.

By far and away. Absolutely fucking detest the twat.

Pull the plug now or we're completely finished.

Chalk and cheese, our approach to the game compared to theirs. Soul-crushing to watch, that.

Over two years since we scored 5 at home, Leon Best treble against West Ham.

Not a chance.

Just made things a lot more interesting.

We're dead and buried.

Villa's attacking football is light years ahead of ours. So is Wigan's for that matter.