Big Geordie

More to be with persistent standing, as with last season I bet. The club needs to look at what they are doing because they are missing a trick. As someone who was up in there for a few games last season, the vocal support was first class.

He took Richard Dunne apart today and he's no mug when he comes to centre-backs. Watched the match again tonight, and Carroll's overall performance was as good 2nd time around. Keep playing like that and an England call up won't be far off because simply there is no other young English forward like him at the moment. He's a real throwback to the classic old centre-forward. Love it.

On until 730pm BBC Newcastle podcast is online. Don't know if it's been posted yet; http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/nufc

The lad was unplayable today - as good a performance from a centre forward that I've as I've seen in black and white since a Mr Alan Shearer. Reminds me very much of a young Duncan Ferguson (which I've noted before) He's great in the air, strong, good left foot, good touch and a bit of pace. Still plenty of work for the lad to do - he needs to keep working hard and not get into bother off the pitch. Do all those things and I think we might have found the latest answer to the great no.9 question.

What goes around comes around. *smug* No need for the racist comment above either.

Carroll on his own up front? I hope not.....

He's got the one by Marvin Gaye which is pretty good, dunno of any others.

Keef has a good record when it comes to the grapevine then?

It's sad to think that £5million is a helluva deal for the quality of the lad. Is this how far we have come - choosing to look a gift horse in the mouth?

If Ashley has some sort of masterplan to rebuild the club, then I'd love to know what the hell it is. He just seems intent on letting us run on petrol fumes and hope that we stay up, whilst raking in the TV/sponsorship/season ticket/merchandising cash. Another thing I don't understand, were his motives on letting Hughton bring in Williamson, Routledge and Best. Why spend cash in January, only to practically spend nout in the summer bar the minimal amount on Perch?

Am I OK to give this a bump after a year? Got a couple of users on another board who are accusing me of having an agenda against Mike Ashley. Am not denying it, because it's spot on. I've not gone soft on him just because we've made it back to the PL. The club won't fulfill it's potential until the man sells the club and until that time comes (and he's got his cash back) we'll at best become another West Brom, or sink back to the lower reaches of the Championship as with the early 90's. Just wondered if there are still any of the pro-Ashley brigade on here and if so, what are the reasons for their stance?

Aye - I was wondering as well. Has it been binned or moved to the HoF?

If he's not prepared to stick his hand in his pocket for the benefit of the team, he shouldn't be the owner of a football club. He has done wrong in doing nothing to address problems that are 2-3 seasons old. he made his position clear that he wasnt going to put his hand in his pocket This season aye. What happened to the Milner money and Given dosh that was promised to go back into the team? 20m a season kitty was also promised? went to cover wages that were paid to players, the clubs made large losses last few years and the money to pay that had to come from somewhere The wages are covered through the general income the club makes, so that's a load of bollocks tbf the club had for several years spent considerably more than it had coming in. the catch 22 comes when needing to invest to try to make money to pay it off or what to do when it doesn't work. Mainly due to blowing massive transfer fees on s**** for so many years and selling players for next to nowt, the wages however would be covered by general income. we were spending close to 70% of the entire turnover on wages. thats not sustainable. ashley has been at the club 3 years, if that isn't enough time to sort the payroll, then he shouldn't be managing any business tbh And - he handed out many of these bumper deals that the likes of Barton, Smith, Colo and Nolan are on.

So does that mean we can now add Ben Arfa to the list of quality players we've missed out on under Ashley? Deco Modric Pablo Aimar Ben Arfa?

It's very disappointing if he goes to Germany. Highlights that Mike Ashley is hoping somehow that we'll stay up on the cheap, whilst he rakes in the TV, season ticket and merchandising cash. It's going to be a very long season.

I guess Marseilles will let him leave to it's up to us to match their terms. They'll be after a permanent transfer rather than a loan deal with an option to buy. Ball is in Ashley's court now.

There was no-one near Scholes all game, which is why I believe Hughton didn't put anyone on him. If he did, whoever that was wants shot for not getting within 5 yards of him. Not good enough! Worry is for me that if Hughton's blue eyed boys don't cut it (and quickly) will he be tough and get them out of the side? I'm not so sure.

Went as expected tonight. We looked pretty solid as a unit without really offering any threat bar Carroll (who I thought did very well on his own) Can't understand as to why Hughton didn't put anyone on Scholes because he ran the game. Naive on Hughton's part perhaps? Kevin Nolan turned in another invisible man performance. He has to realize that he has to contribute more as him hiding will become more evident in this league than the Championship. All in all, I'm not disappointed. One of the hardest away trips is out of the way now and we can look forward to getting a win against Villa on Sunday (another very tough game I might add)

Smith starting? Can only hope he chooses to have a blinder against his old club. Still a worrying lack of pace in the middle of the park as well. Owen will be nailed on to score tonight, as well as Rooney. However I think we'll turn in a reasonable performance and lose 2-0. We aren't the soft touch we were the last time we were in the PL. This team is together and it counts for something.

Cantona was a loony-toon and look at the effect he had on the Mancs. Not saying Ben Arfa will do the same for us, but he may well turn out to be the difference.

Some interesting quotes there. Still hoping it comes off!

Holloway's interview good value on 5Live. Refreshingly honest and no BS.

Mackems booed off or not?

Didn't Wigan batter Hull at home at the start of last season, or was it the season before?

Birmingham