Dan Gleebals

What planet is Rob Lee om "pardew a stickler for organisation and they didn't let that many goals in last season"??

This is what happens when you fail to replace an utterly shit defense. No pressure on Taylor/Colo what so ever.

Looking forward to city!!!

Looks like we got off the flight from NZ this morning.

No De Jong at the tournament. How long is he out for?

I was referring to attitude over ability but agree based on the amount we are prepared to spend, £8.5M for him is good value if his head is in the right place. I am not sure it is.

Really dont want him back, it would clearly be a last option for him and we can do better than that. Rather stick with what we have as he will only cause issues further down the line.

Seems he might have a future here? Played in all the friendlies so far - if Pardew dislikes him that much surely he would be giving others a chance to impress?

The pot...

Irrespective of formation, our defence is what needs the most attention now. With the exception of Debuchy, our defence has not had any changes or significant competition for some time now and YMB has not made the impact yet. I do not need to go into each player but to concede 59 (GD -16) and 68 (GD -23) in the last two seasons is shocking and must be addressed. We might have added a few goals and more attaching threat (without a c.20 goals a season striker) and that should in theory see us finish about Stoke, Southampton (8th) based on last season but nothing more than that IMO. Not that I believe a word he says, but for Pardew to mention Newcastle and Champions League in the same sentence (or conversation even), we need to be achieving at least a 25+ GD and 70+ points to even get close. Absolutely no chance with the current defence IMO as we will never score enough at the other end to make this happen. If we keep the current defence, bottlejob will have to cover that by playing Colback and Tiote to protect them, which will result in one less outlet and attacking threat. If 3-5-2 is he preferred tactic or even 4-2-3-1, we are fucked with the current defence.

For Liverpool to pass on him, its more serious that a medium term muscle injury! Stuck at QPR now then...?

Surely got to be in the mix to go down next season. Arse well and truly ripped out of the team! We thought selling Cabaye / Carroll was unambitious!! Got to feel for the fans.

I can't imagine anything worse than being on a table next to those two!!!

Yeah, it's more about the system you play and the personnel you have to fit it. We don't even have a system to begin with. So true. We have a 11 v 11 policy except it ends up more often than not being 1-9-1 with fuck all options. I'm not worries though as we are challenging for top 4 now with our brilliant defence apparently.

They should pay all the wages or fuck off. He should not even be going on loan anyway. Either sell him or give him a chance. Loan helps no one as his value is unlikely to rise above what we paid now anyway.

They way they will see it (irrespective of the actual investment/net cost in terms of previous income) is that we have spent £30M on six players and therefore have shown some ambition and probably enough to get us to 8th. Not sure they will see a further £20-30m investment as beneficial as it is unlikely to push us much further up the league.

Very much doubt we will go for another striker, as much as we need one. Not a Central defender either, which is just as essential.

It is the other way round, he has asked him to say it (to which he agreed) to boost season ticket sales.

Its what this tour is all about after all.

With the new players we have (including RB), I think he has to start over Dummet as he offers a lot more going forward and better pace to recover. Interesting to see if Pardew has the balls to use LB/RB more creatively/aggressively. With two holding players it should be the case (4-2-3-1).

For the benefit of those who want to donate, could links to the SMB and Kevin Moore (http://www.gofundme.com/bs0qeg) donation pages be added to the beginning of this thread?

Put that on a banner sharpish!!

Want to compete in the CL...

Potential to be better than Debuchy IMO. Just hope Pardew lets him get forward as he will add a lot in the final third.