Rich

Makes you wonder what he wanted that we weren't prepared to pay, like. Didn't he chose city Bc he could play CB and not LB? The rumours at the time were that he wanted wages similar to what Robert was on, I think, but again you never know what to believe. Think the the CB/LB thing could have been an issue as well, definitely. Surely he would had played at CB since Bramble was the backup for that deal? He spent most of his time here at LB, I think, which he was never too happy with. I think that was more to do with Elliott being poor and Bernard emerging though. The fact Bernard started left-back regularly 2002-3 suggests that Distin would have been used in the centre that season. So he was a greedy bastard then?

Makes you wonder what he wanted that we weren't prepared to pay, like. Didn't he chose city Bc he could play CB and not LB? The rumours at the time were that he wanted wages similar to what Robert was on, I think, but again you never know what to believe. Think the the CB/LB thing could have been an issue as well, definitely. Surely he would had played at CB since Bramble was the backup for that deal? He spent most of his time here at LB, I think, which he was never too happy with.

Makes you wonder what he wanted that we weren't prepared to pay, like. Didn't he chose city Bc he could play CB and not LB? The rumours at the time were that he wanted wages similar to what Robert was on, I think, but again you never know what to believe. Think the the CB/LB thing could have been an issue as well, definitely.

Fucking tremendous.

Ah super, the groundwork is being laid for Jonas' triumphant return.

Think one of the fullbacks will get the chop too, probably Santon. Dummett coming in.

Saw Juventus for the first time last weekend and couldn't get over how good they were. The amount of depth in the midfield and defence beggars belief.

I think keepers distribution is overrated a little at times tbh. Elliot is probably the best I can remember, Given's was pretty abysmal but he was an outstanding keeper. I wouldn't say there are many out there who are great, that's why the play in goal Aye it's a very difficult thing to quantify, but at the basic level having a 'keeper with excellent distribution can be a superb weapon for counter attacks while providing a base for a possession-based tactic too. Typically you'll see the bigger sides placing a high value on this sort of GK. I'd suggest having a good shot stopper is obviously more important if you tend to be a side who allow more attempts on goal, or one who has little interest in using the 'keeper in an attacking sense. In terms of NUFC: the difference to us would probably be as minimal as you suggest, given that we're not the most tactically astute side by a long chalk and we don't really have any set style of playing anyway. Interestingly (or not) I just watched Napoli this weekend and Reina was huge for them in this regard, while Genoa built much of their defensive gameplan around stopping him from being effective. They positioned themselves high up the field to cut off his short routes into the defenders and tried to force him to kick long out of his hands wherever possible, though this obviously left more space for Napoli's midfielders and attackers further up the pitch as a knock-on effect. He still managed to create a chance on goal by claiming a set piece and then quickly bombing a kick forward for Insigne, IIRC.

r u avin a giggle m8

I only like Everton these days because Neil is such a legend, was not at all keen on them back in the day.

People spouting shit on Twitter, what the fuck is this world coming to?

3 bonus points for Super John Terry.

Super goal for Morgan Amalfitano, Man Utd losing.

He's got 40 points this season with potential bonus coming later on too. My principles go out the window for that sort of return.

God bless John Terry.

Happy Face's point was that Pardew was doing "what he was tasked with" for 10 games, when in reality it was 1.

Happy face claimed "When we were in the top half, before the awful pre Christmas run? If you won't accept top half standard then he's got no hope." Is it not acceptable that people should educate him? He seems a pretty well educated bloke, to be honest. I'm sure he's well aware of our results and performances from last season, but he may have seen them in a slightly less negative light. I don't know, he'll manage, I think. Top half is the target the club have set Pardew. http://www.statto.com/football/img/progress/ACBAOEALNn For 10 games he was doing what he'd been tasked with, in terms of results. Only losing to Chelsea and Man U. Then it went to shit for 13 games I thought we played canny shit football as we finished 5th. But in no hate filled anti-pardew mind could it ever be construed as worthy of the sack. The target was definitely top eight last season, fwiw:

Just saw this on NewsNow, made me chuckle.

Yep, will be interesting to see what team Pardew picks. Hopefully he will go with a strong team and hoy two fingers up at the ambitionless c***s in charge of our club. . . . . Or he will bend over hoy his pants down ready for the puppet masters fist and play the bairns. He said a very similar line to the quote from the directors in the NUST report during his pre-match press conference re: using the cups to look at his whole squad. Almost word for word.

Talk to Google mate.

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Think in general you're spot on Lotus, the start of the game was particularly good and we did play a lot of very good football in spells. For me our failings were similar to those which were evident against Wigan in the humping two seasons ago and which were brought about by overconfidence as much as anything. Just to offer one other observation in relation to your #2: the main thing I kept commenting on while watching was that Ben Arfa and Remy were too high up the pitch in the anticipation that we'd simply win the ball back and feed them for the counter attack, which ultimately led to our fullbacks being overloaded. Neither of them tracked back well enough, which they had both done at Villa. I'm not sure whether it was tactical instruction or just laxness on their part, but it meant that we looked very susceptible down the flanks. However, if Ben Arfa played anywhere near the level he has of late then it probably wouldn't have been an issue. As it was, Remy was the only one of the front three to turn up. Still, I hope that rather than changing the personnel and shape it's seen as something that can be remedied on the training ground.

He keeps fooling me into thinking he's improving by the way, like at Villa, then we pull that shit out of the bag against Hull and it's back to square one. My main issues with him there were the collective attitude of the side - which he is ultimately responsible for - and for his changes that sent us back to the good old 4-4-2 and totally robbed us of any creativity in the middle for the final part of the game and let Huddlestone run things unchallenged.

That's fair enough like HF, but you're coming in very late in the day here! I'm fairly sure the reason you're not getting what you're looking for is more because a lot of people who have made lucid comments re: Pardew and his failings in the past simply can't be arsed to persist with posting them over and over and over and over again. There have been many excellent points raised about his and our collective failings over the past months/years on here and elsewhere and for me personally some of the concerns raised are still plain as day to see all too often during 90 minutes of watching Newcastle play. I definitely agree that a lot of nonsense gets set in anger and that we have far too many who, at this stage, are very entrenched in their view regarding the manager, but you're never going to change anyone's mind man

Why do you keep posting on the subject? Why does anyone? The lines have been drawn for about 2 years.