BottledDog

Mbiwa and Anita are both down as £6.7m on nufc.com. At the time though, there were plenty of reports putting Anita down as £8m.

Petty my arse. The press profit from us like any other media organisation. This isn't going to stop anyone writing shit about us, you just have to look at the Journals posturing to see that. Seems like you're just getting in a tiz over it because you don't enjoy the idea of us trying to increase revenues (without hitting us supporters in the pocket I might add) as long as you see it as an Ashley backed initiative. All power to his elbow.

Seems a bargain compared to Debuchy and Krul. Will lob in a bid.

You what? The press can still write as much as they want, but if they would like interviews outside of scheduled press conferences etc, then pay for club employees time, as I suspect the tv companies do as part of their contracts. Also, if this is even implemented, I'd be amazed if we were the only club doing it. Just seems like an extra revenue stream that avoids hitting the rest of us in the pocket.

Urrrgh. The last prediction I made was Swansea 3 - Newcastle 0. Going to have to see if I've become a bona fide mystic and predict... Newcastle 9 - Southhampton 1 (o.g)

What? Danny Mills, Luke Varney and Matt Holland... Colossus of the game. It's colossi.

Who knew that one of Pardews actual nicknames is ‘Mr Motivator’. Well acording to The Metro website. That said, a quick spin on Alta Vista came up with a fair bit to back it up, sometimes by people in the know. Matt Holland "He is a strong character... I enjoyed working under him... He is a very good man-manager." Bob Moncur "... He is a very good motivator of men." Luke Varney "He isn't a ranter and raver by any stretch of the imagination, but his man-management skills are superb." Danny Mills "He is very much an all-rounder and I haven't worked with much better. I thoroughly enjoyed playing under Alan on loan because his man-management was good, he was tactically very aware and his coaching was decent." "He was good with the collective but also very good when it came to dealing with us as individuals." "He understands players and he understands what players go through. It's great for a player to have someone like Alan around because you have someone who'll listen and talk to you." Anyway, doesn't strike me as much of an issue really. His players past and present rarely have a bad word to say about him in that respect, and even through the worst times last year, the one thing you could hold onto was the continued feeling that he still had the respect of the dressing room. Previously it has always been his tactics being held up for ridicule. Now that that view has taken a bit of a knock, the one thing held up as a rare good point is being questioned. Not saying it's not shit when the team look about as interested in a game as the tories are in the latest Clegg brainwave. It makes no sense to most of us when that happens, but I suspect it's more complex than Pardew failing to gee them up with a pep talk 9 out 0f 10 times.

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.