Benwell Lad

Class. Just a signature away from being a legend.

An enigmatic legend. Goal was almost as good as his second versus the macums. Love the guy.

Great perfomance today, much like he has been all season. Will never really be a left back or a first choice midfielder but good bloke and a great squad player.

Bruce MUST stay.

I see it looks like a north east team will be playing to a packed house this weekend despite the kick off time being changed, the game being televised and charging top whack for tickets. Must be positive times in north eastern football !

Cattermole is a thug and a disgrace to his profession. The fact that Sunderland see fit to make someone banned from every pub in his home town their club captain says a lot about them. His manager and now he himself attempt to inhibit referees claiming that he is victimised by them. Truth is he is an odious cheat of a player who regularly attempts to injure fellow professionals. I can't remember a game I have seen Catteremole play in where he should have been on the pitch at the end, instead of being victimised he normally gets away with his first 3 yellow card tackles because of weak refereeing and survives the 3 post yellow card offfences for the same reason. Bruce manager,Cattermole club captain, free tickets for registering at South Shields college or putting a ten pound bet on. Joke of a club - no wonder their stadium is starting to look like the Riverside.

Divvent fret lads. HBA is starting this one.

The expression "puppet" is such a silly one. Pardew is an astute football person who is smart enough and respectful enough to be diplomatic when discussing matters relating to the club he works for and the people who employ him. If Pardew could be termed a "puppet" then there are 90 other puppets in the Football league (I except Ferguson who's age, longevity in the job, success and wealth probably make him bigger than his employers) as well as just about every other person who is employed anywhere.

The job he has done is nothing short of remakable and to achieve it under pressure and towards the end of last season with a threadbare squad makes it even more so. Additionally he has managed to change the way we play, a task which would have some managers still making excuses two years down the road. If anyone votes less than good they need to give their heed a shake.

Lies,damned lies and magistics.

Under Alan Pardew, Newcastle's success this season isn't based on anything particularly complicated - they are brilliantly organised at the back and defend, if you'll excuse the pundit's cliché, as 'a unit', they have arguably the best central midfield outside the top six and are quick on the counter. It's basics, but basics executed beautifully. Excellent overview. Liked the bit above, it's a simple game but you need very good players to make it look simple.

This would be laughable even if he didn't support a club who have players facing repeated rape and drug possession charges and made public videos of themselves gang banging a young girl; a chairman who is a convicted drink driver; a club captain who is a thug and banned from licenced premises near his home and fans who regularly invade the pitch to attack opposition players. Oh aye, and their team's shyte as well. Always have the last laugh,is he fecking sane ??

"Someone" would have funded the club - good to know that. I too have seen some horrendous balance sheets and yes some of these businesses survived. I have never said the club would have gone into any sort of insolvency, but it was technically insolvent and had borrowed against every asset and revenue source. Ashley had to guarantee to fund it to ensure its going concern status - it was in REAL difficulty. So Shepherd said things weren't as bad as made out, he is is of course the man who said the club made a profit every year he was there. Numbers with brackets around them obviously don't count as losses in his world. We needed someone with proper cash resources to come in and fund it. One or two potential buyers had a look and we got Ashley who could fund it but was clueless as to how to run it. And no other f*cker wanted it. Whether you choose to go to games or not is, as you say, your call. Ashley owns it, he runs it how he likes and if you don't like it then you can stay away. For me I know what Ashley is like, I think he's a spiv but there again I don't like the look of quite a few football club owners. I'm more bothered about what happens on the pitch than taking umbrage at what he does. Just about all of us on here have supported the club even when it has been in absolute turmoil. It feels like a life sentence at times. But if the club puts some good entertaining players out there I want to see them play and want them to do well. Each to their own....

Tough one to call - they have some very decent players who can be a handfull on their day. In past season's I'd have called a home win but our squad looks excellent at the moment and you get the feeling they'll be chomping at the bit to get back out on the pitch. I reckon we'll get a result.

In fairness that's not too bad a record. Bear in mind he hasn't spent much and has only had a full close season and nearly 2 months of the season to find his best formation and get a team to gel. I'm not sure any other top manager could have done better under the circumstances. He's doing his best and deserves to be fully supported. Can't understand why Quinn doesn't extend his contract even further myself.

Their obsession with our superior support is just plain comical, surprised he hasn't also thrown in the socio-economic, political and historical factors to explain why their stadium is looking increasingly like the Riverside on match days. By the way did you notice after our below par performance at QPR our manager said words along the lines of we were poor, didn't deserve more and admitted to getting it wrong tactically. Compare that to the excuse making idiot they've got in charge.

How would you define an Ashley Apologist? Anyone who doesn't instantly and automatically rubbish anything and everything the club has done and is doing? Those that are prepared to give him a chance will do so out of a sense of realism about the club's financial situation, and also can see that some of the initiatives and changes in structure, personnel and strategy may actually have a chance of working. They may even lead to something better than we had when he took over, in fact they may already have led to something better than we had before he took over. But I don't think there are too many people who would try and defend some of his more catastrophic manoeuvres or are blind to some of the crap that still goes on. So yeah by that criteria I'll own up to being gay and out Having inherited such a dire financial mess when he bought the club there have been some tough measures to implement and making bad decisions along the way has made it even harder. It may or may not be that the relative optimism and good feeling we're presently experiencing is justified, but what I am 100% certain of, is that in the next 10 years or so well supported clubs who are self sufficient and debt free will be at the top of the game, while debt laden clubs will be out of it and artificially ran clubs will live under the constant shadow of only being an Arab/Russian/American hissy fit away from oblivion. Well said. It would be interesting to see where we would have been this season if Man City or Chelsea hadn't been flush with cash from foreign owners. The danger for any club which spends daft money trying to break into the top four is your calculations can be blown out of the water by a club being bought by a rich owner. Arsenal and Liverpool looked unassailable a few years ago, now they are struggling to match Man City. Four CL places isn't much when two (probably 3 if you count Man U) of the them can spend whatever they like to buy the best players around the globe. Teams outside of the top 4 have to build sensibly even if it's painful in the short term. The mega rich club owners treat their clubs like prostitutes and will discard them with zero emotional attachment when they get bored. Our previous chairman claimed to be a fan, which he probably is, but his desire for popularity and to be seen as the man who bought us success, overtook any interest in the clubs longer term stability. He mortgaged everything he could get his hands on to buy overpriced fading superstars, gambling against the clubs very future and failed miserably. The present system may be boring in comparison but probably has a better chance of ultimately succeeding.

Ah'd have had that off the wall, framed and above my fireplace by now like.

How would you define an Ashley Apologist? Anyone who doesn't instantly and automatically rubbish anything and everything the club has done and is doing? Those that are prepared to give him a chance will do so out of a sense of realism about the club's financial situation, and also can see that some of the initiatives and changes in structure, personnel and strategy may actually have a chance of working. They may even lead to something better than we had when he took over, in fact they may already have led to something better than we had before he took over. But I don't think there are too many people who would try and defend some of his more catastrophic manoeuvres or are blind to some of the crap that still goes on. So yeah by that criteria I'll own up to being gay and out Having inherited such a dire financial mess when he bought the club there have been some tough measures to implement and making bad decisions along the way has made it even harder. It may or may not be that the relative optimism and good feeling we're presently experiencing is justified, but what I am 100% certain of, is that in the next 10 years or so well supported clubs who are self sufficient and debt free will be at the top of the game, while debt laden clubs will be out of it and artificially ran clubs will live under the constant shadow of only being an Arab/Russian/American hissy fit away from oblivion.

I'm not sure about the centre half point, full backs concern me more. We have 3 good CH's in Colo,Taylor and Williamson. Not many clubs can afford more than that on the payroll and like us would have to make do with a lesser standard 4th choice or a player out of position in the unlikely event of 2 being out.

Bruce is the new McMenemy, thing is McMenemy was found out a lot more quickly and wasn't allowed to bankrupt the club before he went. Quinn handing him a new lucrative contract was genius. At least they can sack Bruce - they're stuck with the mega deals they handed to Brown and O'Shea. No wonder Gyan fancied the Abu Dhabi Sunday League in preference.

Did a very good TV interview yesterday when he was in a school encouraging foreign languages. Came across as a decent and intelligent guy in perfect English.

I don't think anyone questions the ability or pedigree of O'Shea and Brown, it's been more about the wages and length of contracts such injury prone aging players have been given. Insane I reckon but there again Brucie knows best and they are old mates of his.

When he weighs up his options, if money is the deciding factor, then it's unlikely he will leave England as hardly anyone in Spain, Italy or Germany could pay him more than us. I'm sure any contract we offer will be on reduced wages but it may be that he figures scraping along on £2M a year or so and cementing legendary Newcastle status for life suits him. It's not only Newcastle cutting their cloth accordingly nowadays so it's probably only Man City or Chelsea who would pay him more (unlikely) or maybe a West Ham/QPR Nolan/Barton type deal from somebody with money to burn.

Saturday was the best football we've played for years. We've had some great results during the last couple of seasons but never displayed the pace and precision in our game like we did on Saturday. When there is such a "team" ethic about the play it's difficult to praise individuals but some deserve a particular mention. Krul had little to do really but looks so alert and competent when called on. Steven Taylor now looks like a top centre half. Coloccini is just becoming a legend. Ryan Taylor though not a left back is a good squad player to have around. Cabaye could become as important a player for us as Colo already is. Demba Ba looked like the player he has been at previous clubs - not just a hat trick but excellent link up play throughout. I have always doubted Leon Best despite his excellent scoring ratio. He looked like a very good player on Saturday despite not scoring - his best ever performance for us imo. Hatem Ben Arfa despite only playing for 15 minutes allayed some of my concerns regarding his mental and physical fitness. Alert and involved from the minute he came on he oozed quality and has a "Beardsley-esque" appearance of extra time on the ball which great players seem to have. We also have a decent looking bench and some academy players coming through - could be a very enjoyable season.