BottledDog

If that's true, wahay! Pardew said there was something in place, but it was complicated. Hopefully that just means complicated as in 'as long as he's not a rapist', complicated.

He constantly and deliberately tells us we can't compete and has now said we shouldn't even aspire to. He wants us all to shut up and accept mediocrity so his job is safe and easy and some are buying it. Look at Swansea? He wants to win a cup? "Fank god we was not in Europe again". Almost tin foil hat thread worthy. He only really says we can't compete on the money side. That we cannot currently under Ashley compete with the richer clubs whether that be to acquire/retain players, or afford a team that can break into the top 4. It is up to you whether you agree with that. We generally spend well but do not show enough ambition to get us a squad more than an injury or two away from being bang average, so I'm inclined to agree with him in that sense. He has not said we shouldn't demand more for the club, or that we can't win a cup, or that staying up is some sort of praiseworthy achievement for the current team. We've seen glimpses of good play, but the team should be doing better that it is, that is down to Pardew. Every time the team goes out looking like it has spent the week in training staring at their shoes. That is down to Pardew. Getting the feeling the best we can hope for is mediocrity? That is down to Ashley... and the possible lack of any decent rich benefactor waiting in the wings wanting to buy us.

No mention of embracing anything. He wants us to be completely apathetic about our club so his job is easier. The cunt. Well, no mention in your quote, no. For some reason, you seem to have missed out this bit - "You gotta love it... you can't get away from what it is. But if you can't, if that doesn't drive you, then nothing is going to drive you in this game. I try and feed off it as best I can. The Geordies are a fun loving city, they love their football. I've tried to put on the pitch this year a more entertaining team. Paid the price at one or two games, but we are going to continue to do that because that is what we and the fans want." Is he wanting us to be completely apathetic about our club so his job is easier? No, of course not. Saying last year we can't be proud of what we did but this year if we can get consistency we're not far away from the team that finished 5th, we now have a stronger squad and the resources to compete in both cups. Is that dampening expectation for this season? Doesn't sound like it. When asked about the priority for the club not to be in the cups, he said that may be what the accountants want, but not what he wants. "Silverware is the priority". When challenged to look at what happened to Wigan after winning a cup, he said no, look at Swansea. Is that being negative. No.

Where are you getting this from? He didn't say Newcastle fans expect us to be competing with man City and Man u. He said we hope to compete with them (I do, if you don't, fair enough), but unless Ashley sticks his hand in his pocket or sells, we can't compete at the moment. He's right. He wasn't having a go at anyone really, bar Ashley or possibly Lamberts waistline. The closest he came was saying the passion and the highs and lows can make things tougher, but he didn't say he wanted to change this, rather to learn to embrace it. A bit wanky, but fair enough. Pardew has put out so many shit performances on the pitch, it's mad that a benign chat on a sofa is worthy of such dissection after being stuck in quotes. Fuck International breaks.

Not sure he was saying that to be fair. Having just replayed that bit, to me it came across as him saying we sent out awful teams to play when we were knocked out of the domestic cups, but that it wasn't a policy. We would have played more first teamers, but they (not the reserve lads) were just not fit enough/carrying knocks.

Because he clearly doesn't think Pardew is doing a good job... he sacks someone else?

He came across well. I know there will always be those willing to tear into him, but still surprised at the reaction on here after watching my Sky plus of it. Barring criticising his boss to an extent, humorously but fairly closely to the bone, nothing was even remotely controversial or idiotic in context.

Heavy drinker?

I disagree, and I'm willing to waffle on ad infinitum, page after page, until you agree, or the knacker gets the sack. /actually, scratch that, I'll be dogged in my opinion long after he's gone, and will very likely bring up his name after every defeat under Samuel Ameobi until his sacking midway through the 2044/45 season.

Absolutely mental. "In the summer Alisher Apsalyamov was on work experience painting the walls of Cardiff City Stadium, watching their promotion games on his laptop. "Now he's the acting head of recruitment at the age of 23, responsible for the January transfer window that could determine whether Cardiff stay in the Premier League."

Bullshit. Ashley hates Newcastle supporters.

Yup. Guess it's just down to familiarity breeding contempt when it comes to most managers, bar the odd few deemed exceptional.

Bullshit. Ashley hates Newcastle supporters.

Newcastle in the early 2000s were a big brand with turnover to match. As the decade wore on we kept trying to spend our way to the top but our performance didn't match. Ashley bought a top brand that was struggling financially. Like he does with all struggling brands he buys, he does not try to restore their former glory. Rather he applies his own cheap methods to drive costs down while retaining the name that can sell. Every season that Ashley keeps hold of the club, the brand is chepened more. It is not the brand it was when he bought it. The club as it is could not attract Sir Bobby Robson, it can't attract top sponsors or players or sell it's corporate boxes. We have the cheapest tickets in the country, just to keep stadium approaching the capacity it could have doubled a decade ago. If I went on a diet and used a bit of moisturiser i could be an oil painting. Newcastle could be too, but it will never be while Ashley is running the show. But I've never argued that we should go back to spending like a big club if we can't do it right. We paid for doing it wrong under Shepherd, and that's why he was forced into selling out. My view is we can get a better manager on the cheap who will make better use of the players we have already. I don't mind Ashley being tight-fisted, it's his money after all. But just stop appointing idiots who are out of their depth. Use some nous and hire coaches with promise rather than clapped out managers from 20 years ago. Bit harsh on KK that.

Looks like 'TOOTHY' to me. Give Teethgirl a call.

Fucks sake man, this 'I've got a secret' shit ain't exactly helping, you might as well just spit it out now it's obvious you have an axe to grind. It's not like it'll affect your departure in Jan or at the end of the season.

If that's your view of his level then aye, it's hard to argue against that point of view. If you think any randomly-selected manager would be better than I guess you can't lose. I don't like his off the pitch negativity or his occasional cowardice on it and I'd be delighted to see someone better come in and single handedly drag us up to the top table, though question just how realistic that is. I certainly find it difficult to agree that Pardew is worse than shit and almost anyone is an automatic upgrade. He's proved he's good enough to keep the players happy, get us top 8 without much backing, and may even be even capable of getting himself to another cup final. That's not the worst I've seen from a manager for us, and he has this season to prove that last season was an aberration. If he can't do that, he's gone, and he should be gone by the new year if we are near the bottom and out of the cups. I can't imagine even Ashley's patience would last longer than that, never mind the rest of us. That said, whatever he does, the state of this thread will not improve. It'll drag on and on in a death spiral until the fucker is binned and the next poor sap takes over. Rinse and repeat.

It's not really that much of a gamble. So he's got no premiership experience, but he has shown that he can organise a side. I can think of a few managers with premiership experience who struggle with that. I agree though that he's not likely to work out long term, wrong man for the wrong club. Not only does he have no experience at the highest level as a manager, he has also never been in a relegation fight with a poor squad of players bereft of confidence. He's been reasonably succesfull in the lower leagues and he could be a real find, but to me it sounds like a mighty gamble considering he needs to hit the ground running. If he doesn't get anything out of his first few fixtures (mainly at home against us), they could be in real trouble without a new manager bounce effect to save their sorry arses to look forward to. I don't see how you could see it as anything but a huge gamble on their part. It's better to gamble on what looks to be an astute manager than appoint a thicko with lots of premier league experience. Maybe. I think as a Premiership club they still have a reasonable draw and they could have got a better, more experienced manager, be it British or foreign. That would have required them to be creative and willing to spend some money of course. So any ideas who they could have appointed instead with more experience? http://mibundesliga.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hitzfeld01_345x468.jpg Even has the right colour tie!

Right, well, that's proper taken the edge off. I'll be out trying to find solace in a pint or five. Have a cracking weekend lads!

Same reason HBA was dropped. So we'd win.

Great defensive header too. Wrong end like. That was horrific like. He did alright at a push, but really doesn't excite me seeing him out on the pitch again.

http://static2.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/Im+ok+with+that+good+day+sir+_fceda5c90f171830f57fdc4ab222c7d9.jpg

Fkn love him. /please don't be injured, please don't be injured, please don't be injured, please don't be injured.

Yay! You may well be right, but that just earned me a whisky. Oh, and there is no way you can argue we sat back when we came out for the second half. That's just nonsense. We ended up sitting back once they scored though, and we did it really badly. They were charging through our midfield without much resistance and swinging in crosses without much pressure either. Luckily none of them looked like they knew where the goal was so we weren't really punished. They got their peckers up and we lost our composure. It's not great, I agree, but my point was we didn't come out looking to be defensive in the second half. We were trying to score again and if we got the 3rd rather than them it could have been hella different.

Love him, want him to play (as I do Anita), but I'm far from convinced that that would have been the case. Far. From. Convinced.