The College Dropout

The famous one in all white is a laugh. Always a crisis around the corner, liable to get battered. Except the win trophies. Always had a soft spot for Valencia and Sevilla.

Pardew's very streaky as a manager. He can sometimes get a team on to a good thing through motivation, confidence and team spirit. His lack of a plan going forward can be a benefit to someone like HBA if he does a job the other way. When he had us "front foot" we would often get battered because he can't coach it. Keep it tight at the back, then when we get the ball give it to YoCabs, Ba, HBA, Cisse etc. That's how we won most of our big games. Swansea the best example. Kept it tight and defensive and just killed them with quality and confidence in attack. Once the confidence goes, Pardew has no idea. Bruce is a bit of a Pardew in that sense. But I don't see him getting enough confidence in the players and the players don't suit his style. Bruce would do better than SMC mind.

People complained a lot but it was better than it's given credit for. We were a counter-attacking team. We let teams come on to us. We worked hard, had talented players that kept teams at arms length - often through determination, bravery and hard work rather than excellent coaching but the players were motivated and up for it. And the lads had quality and belief in themselves to get us enough goals to win matches 1-0. Man United 3-0 was an excellent example of that. The team worked tremendously hard, battled away, won their individual battles through determination and skill. Then we scored 2 worldies to secure the win. A 25-yard freekick in off the bar iirc and another from a long ball to Shola beating Evans, then Ba beating Ferdinand for pace and strength and topping it off with an excellent finish. Ba was tremendous at scoring goals from minimal chances. We played better stuff in the second half of the season with Ba, HBA, Cisse and Cabaye all together. Again, on the counter, through quality of individuals rather than coaching but oh well. Kind of like when Burnley finished 7th but with better quality. It depended too much on thin margins, team spirit, bodies on the line to be sustainable with a small squad and a few more matches.

Nothing to do with his body, he's just not a predator in the box like a Ronaldo or even a Mane or Salah who have movement like strikers. Obviously, he's not as gifted as Messi. But he's still one of the worlds best players. He gets on the ball a lot, nice dribbler, excellent passer, he'll look good at Real imo. He may not score tons of goals but I feeel the fans will like him. In terms of goals he may not score as many or have the ratio of Bale. But he'll be fit longer and impress more in general play. A wide player getting 15 goals - maybe 20 in all comps and the same in assists is fine providing you have a striker that can get you 25-30 which Benzema did last season. If Zidane can get a tune out of most of Hazard, Benzema, Jovic, Bale and James they'll have enough goals to be fine.

The fact Mike Ashley is British billionaire who made his money and has his influence in the UK is a major factor. He's not some east Asian retailer with limited influence in the UK and its media. Rio Ferdinand has business with Ashley, that type of thing cannot be ignored. His businesses buy-up media advertising for the rags. I still say, we don't make a big enough deal of it as fans. The media didn't make a big song and dance of his troubles with Rangers but Rangers ran him out of town anyway.

No way in a month of Sundays we are finishing 5th again, not unless Joelinton turns out to be far better than his stats would suggest - and if that is the case we will have to eat humble pie and give credit to our scouting team. That season we finished 5th we had a front three of Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa, that would frighten a lot of teams tbh. I think the pundits are right, survival will be all we are looking for, whether that means finishing 12th or 17th doesn't really matter. Sorry to be pedantic but I can't let Pardew get away with this. We actually kept a fully fit Ben Arfa on the bench until the second half of the season. Alan preferred Obertan. Later, Sammy Ameobi would render both Frenchmen defunct. That 5th finish came about due to a tremendous team spirit and fabulous performances from Krul, Colo, Taylor, Cabaye, Tiote, Ba, Cisse and HBA. We scored so many screamers and great goals that season. We caught teams by surprise

The Chinese thing doesn’t have anything to do with what happened between him and Ashley’s club.

Delph can't replace Gueye.

His personal business interests are woven into the fabric of the club. I think the best we can hope for is that he maintains PL status for long enough to demonstrate to a prospective buyer that they can profit from the deal he is prepared to offer. Not good enough for me. Best case is the club drops to league 1 and the club haemorrhages money

Overrated and spends half the game diving. A record of 1 goal in 7 9 and 10 goals the last 2 seasons. He's an exciting player who is getting better and better.

His passing is over-rated. He's good at a certain type of pass. A penetrative one that comes off a few times a game, that often goes out of play or to the opposition many more times than it helps us. Great passers, don't lose the ball as often as he does. He wouldn't be better in a slower league because his passing is direct. He doesn't control games with patient passing, waiting for the right incisive ball. He plays too deep to make the most of the type of passing he can pull off.

I think that is why. And also, we are getting bigger fees from transfers. This is Perez money + Perez wages I assume. How much more?

Posters defending Ashley and the club sound like Russian bots. Haven’t seen them around here before. Football fans in general are absolute idiots. We have many. People are sitting on their laptops computers and phones to compare us to Brighton FC. BRIGHTON. But let me entertain this. Tony Bloom is a life long Brighton fan. Born and raised in Brighton. Had family involved with the club. I’m sure his interest in the club is a marriage between love and business but all the fans know there is genuine love for the club there. From the outside looking in, he’s attempting to maximise that clubs potential on the field. He’s been Owner for 10 years. In that time they have built a new stadium and have continued to expand it. You know growth. Something that costs money and is a risk. He’s also taken them from a league 1 club, to perennial championship promotion contenders, to 3 seasons in the PL. Growth. Since being in charge the club has come on leaps and bounds. Can’t bemoan their achievements. These will be seen as glory years by their fans. Certainly the best in living memory. If you support a football club or anything for that matter without regard for what you’re actually supporting, you’re an idiot. A man is using the club as a promotional vehicle for his business while doing the bare minimum to maintain the club. Look at every club in this division and their owners. It’s probably only us and Arsenal that have people running the club that have owners with less ambition than the previous owners and are happy for the club to move backwards. And at least Arsenal have the excuse of 2 clubs bankrolled by oil money messing with their clubs potential. Anyone putting money towards this club is a complete idiot I’m sorry. Definition of pissing on you and telling you it’s rain. A better club wouldn’t stand for it. Rangers would have run him out of town, they already did. This wouldn’t fly at Liverpool, Man U. Incompetence is one issue and that’s even fine. But not trying is unacceptable. Most football clubs have owners that try. Most are incompetent but they try. We are Newcastle United. We are a giant football club. We should compete in the higher echelons of English football. European football is our level. To not be there is fine. But to not try is unacceptable. It’s not as if we are entirely powerless. If we stopped turning up, Ashley would eventually leave.

McArthur’s a decent player.

Senegal all the way. Mane ballon d’or. Let it happen.

Feel like Mane should be in the running for Ballon D'or if Senegal win AFCON. Golden Boot in PL. Major part of CL winning team although he didn't score many. I'd always favour attackers over defenders for the competition if poss.

And ruin his career? Nah, he's better off somewhere else. Precisely. If I was a serious football professional (coach, physio, player, whatever) i'd look to leave NUFC. Not interested in improving at all

Don’t care.

Kovacic was a disappointment last season but I was impressed by him in EL final. Real Madrid tend to get excellent transfer fees. Hazard fee basically covered by Llorente and Kovacic fees. They’ve somehow messed up with James Rodriguez though. Seems like Carlo wants to take him again.

Hope he goes. Good on the lad. From the little we saw of him he looked a real player.

Agree All the foundations now being ripped apart with Rafa, Rondon, Perez, Longstaff likely leaving. Mike Ashley sending the club back years this Summer. Been sending the club backwards since he stepped through the door. Get the cunt out

I felt the opposite. Pardew was a distraction someone to hate and blame. Rafa just made the ineptitude of how this club is run even more obvious than it ever was before because he had actual ambition. While performing well on the pitch he's made it much harder for Ashley. All of the other cronies ineptitude makes us concentrate on that. I felt this was inevitable unless something substantial changed and it didn't.

Just confirms what I’ve known deep down the entire time. This football club is dead. Rafa was a flicker, an Amber of hope. It’s gone. Good bye Spanish rose, May you ever grow in our hearts. Thank you.

Empty. This was inevitable. Let’s stop going to the damn games.

Name a manager with as little experience as Frank Lampard that has succeeded in the PL, let alone at one of the top clubs. That's probably why! Not the Premier League but Zidane and Pep had only Spanish B team experience behind them before nailing the Real Madrid and Barcelona jobs - a single season in Guardiola's case. tbh, when you see what is happening in Germany, maybe clubs in England need to be a bit more adventurous with their manager hires. I would say this. Both inherited teams that won the CL 18 months before. And both seem to be generational talents as managers. Pep certainly so. I also think managing Real requires a certain type of manager and Zidane is it. Chelsea's squad is as weak as it's ever been since Abramovic has been there. Best players: Kante Azpi maybe? Willian RLC Luiz Most exciting is RLC and he's made of glass.