BottledDog

Kids can go for a fiver. /plus other ticketing bits and bobs. http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20131210/ticket-alert-saints-seats-from-a-fiver_2281670_3570815?

Mitchell innit.

Good Coloccini Obertan / Let nothing you dismay. Remember, Christ, Ben Arfa / Was born on Mitchell day.

Fallible.

Fat Hatem winding up Moyes innit? Gold star for the Dr.

They spent 153 million on transfers in the past five years, or nearly 50 mill net, putting them 8th in the nett spend table. His decision making is there to be questioned, but they cannot complain they haven't been royally backed by their owner. We were heavily backed financially by Shepherd and the board over many years, during and after SBR era. Throwing money at the problem alone, clearly is not the way to go, especially for clubs spending well above their means. And we challenged for top honours and got into the Champions League. Whilst mindlessly throwing money at a problem will not solve it, neither will stopping to spend money. As I said, the can have no complaints about the way Short has backed them, and every managerial appointment they have done has been greeted with a nod of approval, even their DoF/Udinese model was. Their problem is they are just a nothing club with a culture of failure deeply ingrained in them, and long may it continue. The day Short has had enough is the day the will slump down the leagues never to be heard of again. backing alone isn't in any way to judge someone its decision making and shorts decision making has been mighty rubbish If you think that I wonder how you rate Fat Mike's..? all over the place. Some ideas and theorys I can get and understand but they're followed up with awful execution. Others are just plain bad ideas. Examples, having a director of football to focus on the transfer negotiation and strategy and also be a backer of the manager with an experienced football man giving advise to the suits and ashley-good idea thinking Denis Wise or JFK is that man-horrible execution. Having the club financially stable and be able to support itself without large amounts of cash injected to cover losses-good idea, doing so soley by focusing on keeping costs down instead of trying to grow commercial income (the one area of income that is solely the boards responsibility) -horrible execution. Overall then, who do you reckon has been the better owner?

I'd be staggered... Wait... We're not in the top six?

Whey if there were, agreed, more fool them. There were a hundred and one factors that led to our joke of a season last year but (then, as now) I'm surprised at anyone that felt those players bore more responsibility for it than the bloke charged with managing them. Have to say though, I don't think the squad have much more in them than they have showed sporadically already this season. Hope I'm wrong, because it would surprise me to see us invest in the the significant sums it would take to take another step up.

It's a bit unusual, I think, that we haven't got more draws lately - as I don't feel our performances have been especially polarised (extremely good or bad), but we've been pretty good at hanging on to leads lately, partly due to luck or factors outside of hand yes, but also because of a lot of discipline and hard work. Equally, I can see the Swansea game being repeated throughout the season too. thats us all over, when we get beat we get beat bad, even though for me the performance wasn't as bad as that, frustrating as it was. next few games could easily see us beat southampton, palace and stoke, narrow defeat to arsenal then go down by 4 at west brom. it's the way we roll. Seems every team at the minute is inconsistant as hell. Absolutely loving it, but can't shake a mental idea that some monster betting scandal is about to be uncovered.

A fantastic run, a win at ManU, yet still peoples feel the need to write essays on how Pardew could/should be better and somewhat ironically bang on about him being a perennially negative wanker. Fair play to yers, I'm sure you feel the concerns need a constant airing, but sod that shit; What a fucking great day.

Just imagine, with all your senses intact (cos your God wont even allow you a can of Top Deck shandy), being dragged along by Taylor to have a crack at the talent down the Pig and Whistle. "I went into the club, turned my head from left to right and said to them: 'That's it, I'm off.'” Fair play bonny lad. Would have done the same.

The bit in bold is absolute bollocks by the way. Is it? They've said they don't want to be in the Europa League. They've said they don't prioritise the domestic cups. Pardew has played down Champions League aspirations so that whilst it's an alleged 'goal', it's not exactly a priority. The bolded part is 100% correct. It's all Ashley's bothered about. EDIT: Unless you're referring to the other top priorities, like brand exposure for Sports Direct, for example. The bolded part is not 100% correct. Your sentence "They've said they don't prioritise the domestic cups." makes a mockery of it for a start. Just because a cup run isn't the main priority (staying in the league, and rightly so), it doesn't mean that they are not one of the clubs priorities. Pardew has at most semi seriously joked that he was glad he wasn't in Europe. I'm sure he'd be delighted to be in Europe if he was backed with a big enough squad, and it certainly wont affect how the team plays on the last game of the season if a win means we get in there. Ditto for the Champions League. Pardew has played down our chances of getting there (and also said he'd like to be in it with Cabaye which you seem to have forgotten), but to say the club wouldn't want to be in it needs some serious evidence from you. Frankly I think everyone from the accountant up, down, and sideways would be delighted to be part of it.

That's because it's extremely doubtful that's the case. What the post did do was remind or possibly clarify that Pardew knew well in advance of Hughton getting sacked that he was getting the job. It's there because i think that over time people have remembered it differently by bringing in the idea of a rumoured friendship playing a key role. Fair enough. Was just looking for some clarification from Mr Mojo to back up his own 'established' fact after having a go at Ian. Your right, it seems dubious and probably needs clearing up.

The bit in bold is absolute bollocks by the way.

So at the very least, 5th? I agree that it's something we should always aim for (though by the same token, I don't see why we shouldn't aim for the title), but I'd be staggered if we finish above Tottenham, or Man United, or the current top 4 in many seasons, especially considering the financial disparity between us.

You not spoke to anyone p*ssed off about the away ticket situation? Being forced to pay for a membership or to move from their seats? None of the above is "shafting" tbh Not many of those I know go away (in fact only about 5% of match-going fans do) the seat move stuff has happened before, membership cost is more than covered by lower prices at home for those games, taking your seat away would be shafting, moving you isn't. You may not like it but you still get in. So it literally has to be an example of Ashley anally raping a fan? You what?

I think you've missed the point, then. I don't see anyone truly demanding that, but it would be nice to be comfortable for 90 minutes, especially when the opportunity presents itself like it has in the last two games (and the Mackems) (and countless others in the past couple of years). Take a blanket.

Kinnear has done an astonishing job.

England job?

ian, i suppose the "absolute worst" is in fact that out of work pardew used his influence as a mate of llamblias to plant seeds in the guys mind that he could do a better job than hughton etc. etc. not saying this happened by the way but it's far from the realms of possibility, much in the same way that people "believe" kinnear was getting pissed in the pub with ashley and talked himself back into a role at the club, and believed his undermining of pardew and return to the managers seat was inevitable Well it's possible I suppose, but it's a big leap to just assume that it's what happened. Anyway, everyone uses their connections to try and get work. It's up to the regime who they give the jobs to. similar leap to assume didn't, no? Well I don't think so, but like I said, it doesn't really matter either way. If he used his connections to get a job then fair enough, that's what you're supposed to do in life. If he actually personally attacked and belittled Hughton then that's obviously bad behaviour, but there's another level of assumption again. You both seem to accept that Pardew and Llambias were friends from before their time here. You're probably right, but can't find out when it was this established? Got an interview or something I can look at. Cheers.

On probably being told that some people, even players like Cabaye and Remy, are now seeing this team as good enough to get into the Champions League. This - “This is Newcastle, we like to raise our expectations, way beyond the realism of where we are at times. It is great at the moment though and I hope our fans are enjoying this, I’m sure they are.” Has caused this. Fucking hell. Amazing. :lol:

Thoughts? He only said last week that we had enough players to field 2 teams. Also, last season we did change most of the team between games more often than not so what difference would a day make. Especially when he complained that players who were dropped for the UEFA were rusty for a league game. Edit. He's full of shit. Bollocks. He has only had two arguements against the Euro league, otherwise he has taken it seriously and despite the toss spaffed on here would clearly be chuffed to see success enough to make it there again. 1. The extended league format is bullshit for the clubs who struggle hard to get there. 2. Our squad was clearly not strong enough to comfortably deal with the added games (hint hint Mr Ashley, though the rewards financially are admittedly fuck all incentive for a chairmal to gamble significantly). Despite much gnashing of teeth, I still haven't found a reasonable argument against either point.