toontownman

Agent Bruce is cutting it a bit fine here, he did read the mandate right,can he read? He wasn't supposed to make them implode and get relegated until after January when he clearly couldnt get adequately replaced. Cometh the hour cometh the Souness. Mark Hughes will be there in a shot I reckon, if his ego will let him.

Barton is playing to his strengths, he is clever player and does what is necessary. He is no-where near as knacked as Nolan but Ronaldo's right that he is on the downward curve. Thats not a problem if you manage a team around that e.g. Shearer. But I don't think the board thought he was worth the value/wages Barton and Mckay had demanded. Given his mental fragility and age he wasn't worth the outlay and possible risk when they thought they could easily replace him with someone younger that would play to the teams strengths not vice versa. Still madness to let him go for nothing and thats the boards pride and ego that has lost us at least 3m that Q.P.R. would have bust our door down with.

Aye, was going to mention, but I didnt want to stir a hornets nest.

The mere footprint of his boot on hallowed St.James Park turf @ Sports Directs turf is an insult to all things sacred. That man is the Devil.

Wow, wasn't expecting that, more the full four years than anything else. Puts a new light on the Barton/Nolan antics as there was clearly way more than age taken into consideration. Almost looks like a middle finger from the club to our departed. Jonas must have been asking for considerably less than both Nolan and Barton and causes less headaches for the guys upstairs. Overall fantastic news, tie Colo down immediately and I will be over the moon.

Like I said I'm not trying to discredit the hard work we have put in, we have clearly had a good solid start. What I resent is the way the press were hyping us up when clearly the hardest fixtures are yet to come. I'm not complaining about the decently written deserved praise, but the trash designed to build up expectations, so they can gleefully stick the knife in later when we go on our inevitable hard spell and loss of form. My other basic point was that the fixtures have helped the positive feeling towards Pardew. When the inevitable harder games come and we pick up a run of losses Pardew will be given alot more sympathy. Had we played Manure or Man City and lost one or twice within the first few games people would have been straight on his back, straight on the players backs and general mayhem and negativity would rule. As it stands we have had a relatively nice set of fixtures that have afforded the team time to Gel, which will hopefully set us up nicely for the rest of the season. Just a general buzzkill post from a "could be worse" standpoint.. when I should be enjoying a hard earned start, apologies.

I'm not trying to discredit the hard work we have put in, but we could have had a more difficult start, Arsenal were at their weakest, at Sunderland we came away with a great result but as you seem to be going of previous form we have recently always done well there. Fulham were there for the taking, the hardest game we have had this year was against QPR. We did well at villa but they were also there for the taking especially in the second half, same goes for Blackburn. Yes, every game in the premiership is a hard one, so by that logic you are right. I stick by my original post though, that we could have had harder fixtures. Luck in the form of the opposition has helped and in the case of QPR hindered too. Both factors have put us in good stead by giving us time for the new players and team to gel.

I hope he's paying us. Soz if you've already commented but what are your thoughts on his performance yesterday? I have already commented. Thought he was f***ing awful in the first half, embarrassing at times, 2nd half he was more than respectable, bordering on me saying he had a good 2nd half, but I won't say that about him. I feel exactly the same way about your post. I must have been watching a different game, thought he was easily one of our best players in the first half, absolutely everything was comi g down the right. I can understand frustration due to his lacking final ball and taking on players, It's clearly a confidence issue as he is already leaps and bounds better than his first game. His short passing and link up play was very crisp and he looked eager to make things happen. Can certainly improve but as someone said frightening potential if he works out some of the kinks. The right was certainly working better than the left. Santon should rectify that.

Have to bear in mind we have had a luxury of fixtures to open the season, which has given us some much needed time to gel as a team. The ease of our fixtures has also led to the great press hype of our rise, although they will be the first to put the boot in and write about implosions when we hit our run of fixtures against he top four. I think we are in good stead, again without the luck of the fixtures we could have a a different story and set of views on pardew. He is building a nice freeflowing attacking side which will only get better. I'm still surprised people doubted that given his sides at westham and charlton. We are seeing his reluctance to rush people back from injuries or throw people into the premiership until they are ready. Which can work both ways as it will pay dividends here while we are still picking up points but ultimately failed for him at west ham. Frustrating as he'll though given k want marveaux, hatem and santon in the team. Bigger tests lie ahead but great start for him, his staff and players. We still need to sharpen up in defence attack and possession (mainly tiote, Simpson and raylor) but the squad is shaping up nicely. If we can maintain top 6 somehow until January we have a huge chance to attract players to push us on even further.

3 points closer to saftey! Thats what counts. Didnt get to see all of the game so I will hold off on ratings until later. Some sexy stuff in the making though. Huge boost for Ba to build upon. Hatem seemed to be trying too hard to do everything himself to impress us when a simple pass could have put people straight through or better built attacks, but great to see him back. Raylor did better than I expected, actually made tackles. But did give away the goal we conceeded.

What about the 25m we get for Santon, Colo and Saylor?

Like the guy. He has been fantastic for us, far surpassing my expectations but both he and Shola have to be moved on and replaced next summer. I have no doubt he former will. Shola we are lumbered with until retirement.

Fuck that, we better be replacing in January. Thats replacing not getting rid. Competition will do him the world of good. I would probably prefer to see us buy a LB (Cissokho preferably) and switch Santon over to the right.

Not been so excited about the potential of our team for a very long time. We have some very talented players and if we can take our momentum through to our upcoming fixtures and pick up the points we could find ourselves still looking pretty come January 1st. Granted we wont finish top 6, maybe not top 8 or 10 but the fixture list has been kind in a way that we can potentially still be in the top 8 come January, which will give us a fantastic opportunity to strengthen the team and really try and sustain our position. Players will see the potential and our league position and that would be a huge pull. Whether we invest of course is a completely different matter. We could certainly have the chance to do that though thinking positively! A high quality Striker and RB would be fantastic. LB, CB and DM cover wouldnt go a miss either. On a downer, just imagine how we would be looking had we kept Enrique, Carroll and Barton. As mentioned i think we are surviving and flourishing quite well without all three and Nolan. The danger is reading the press hype building us up without looking at the fixtures that we have had. In all honesty we have done well to be where we are but I would also expect us to be in the same place. The worst is still to come fixture wise and the press have predictably built us up so when our tough patch hits we will go into meltdown.

Wasnt expecting him to get a start here, thought he might come of the bench. Very pleased he not only stayed on the pitch the entire game but gave a good account of himself. Interesting to see what we do with him from now on. Wonder if we do see him potentially filling in for Tiote after christmas, should he continue to improve of course.

Get in.. last 16. Home draw please avoiding the top 4!

CAPTAIN COLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Fucking SHOLA. Should never wear a black and white shirt again. All he can do is give the ball away.

Be lucky to hang on until penalties to be fair. We will completely shit the bed from now until the end of the game.

For fucks sake. Well thats that. Never fucking winning on penalties.

Wow sounds like Ferguson is making Raylor look like Stuart Pearce.

Get in Simpson you lucky lucky bugger!

Amazing how conditioned we have become to the luxury of tv coverage at our fingertips. Remember living off a combination of ceefax updates and listening to the radio awaiting the updates around the grounds during their main coverage game. In a way its a surprise all the games arent screened for the Carling cup. Im sure they will in time. Live in hope the individual teams websites can get the rights down the line. Its madness we dont use our website to screen reserve team and youth games live or even repeated in full. I would definately sign back up if they did that.

Aye since he signed a new contract , he looked lazy like a mule... You mean he has been something other than that before? In all seriousness I don't think he has been any good since that purple patch enduced by Kinnear... and even that was short lived due to injury. I think I am fully exhausted berating/hoping he fulfils that flashes of talent he had and resigned to keep the goofy, lethargic enigma until he retires. He shouldnt be anywhere near that first team, but he is still here due to many reasons. - No one wants to take him off our hands and he is happy to get paid here. - Given our depth I don't think we had much choice but to keep him around. - He doesnt kick up much of a fuss if he is benched. - He has always trained well (apparently), so is a good role model, - Being around will help Sammy through is another reason he got another contract. All that said its shocking he should ever start ahead of Ba or Best tbh and he looks even slower, clumsy and demotivated than normal this season.

Still surprised if Ben Arfa starts. Gutted if Gosling is out. Think we will go strong: Elliot Simpson. Saylor Colo. Ferguson Loven Guthrie. Gosling. Marveaux Ba. Ben Arfa/shola