Rich

On a rare plus: Arsene Wenger loves the Toon. Nice comments about us in the press and caught him looking around SJP in wonder prior to the kick-off. Head in the clouds time, but I'd love that man managing our club... even if he doesn't "see" half of what goes on in every game he watches. It might happen someday... His attitude towards us shows that we still have standing, impact in the national game. That, more than anything, is why it is imperative that we don't go down and become another Leeds or Nottingham Forest. As we stand, the potential is still there at the forefront, ready to be unlocked. Relegation all but extinguishes that. It's basically all we have left as a club (along with the support, which will also go if we go) as well because the money is gone, the owner is crap, the management "team" is an aberration and the players are perennial let-downs. Terrifying situation at the moment and absolutely gut-wrenching to lose that game after the quickfire equaliser from Martins. Positives on the playing side come from Harper (in regards to shot-stopping, not much else), S. Taylor (in regards to attitude and leading by example with his blocks, but not in regards to assaulting Arshavin), Enrique (who still put in a decent performance when all around him lost their heads), Duff (who still lacks pace but looked pretty good considering he hasn't played for weeks), Lovenkrands (who I've called "average" but again who has the pace and invention at times to trouble the best defenders), Butt (who wasn't too bad at all, generally, and who seemed to be trying to drive us forwards in the first half particularly) and Martins (who was still frustrating, especially with the penalty, but who still represents our best chance of survival). The less said about the performance of Coloccini the better... and the lack of Jonas... and Ameobi getting on the pitch AGAIN... and Hughton's general dallying when S. Taylor was off the pitch... and how a professional football team can totally implode with the loss of two players in their early twenties. Bah.

He was truly terrible yesterday - in terms of performance and attitude unfortunately. At this point in time looks another expensive central defender unsuited to the Premier League and with the weight of a massive price tag making him look even worse than he is. Hopefully he can sort it out and turn it around because he's not the first foreign import to look appalling in his debut campaign. Hangelaand is the immediate current example I can pluck. Looked a right carthorse when I saw him in his opening season at Fulham but seems to have got to grips with the league now and has adapted his performances to suit. He's been outstanding for Fulham this campaign. Suppose it helps that he's about 7 inches taller than Fabricio like...

Christ almighty. I was worried he'd leave Jonas out to be honest, but wouldn't have expected such big changes with Smith going out as well. Looks like he's going with the Man Utd (h) set-up... only without the pace from the left-flank. Off to watch it now, not impressed with that team. Urgh.

Everton appalling again, yet still only 4 points off the CL places... 7 I suppose after tonight like. Fucking horror of a team, as always.

After reading that I'm going to assume: Harper S. Taylor Coloccini Bassong Enrique Lovenkrands Nolan Butt Smith Jonas Martins Bench: Krul, Beye, R. Taylor, Geremi/Guthrie, Duff, Owen, Ameobi. Can't see Beye getting straight back in after Taylor scored last weekend and aside from that I'd expect Hughton's major dilemma will be whether to go with Lovenkrands or Duff on the opposite side to Jonas (or in the hole behind Oba with Smith pulling wide.)

Caulkin reporting it in The Times, too, usually fairly reliable when it comes to NUFC - despite the fact the title reads "Hughton drops Owen for trip to Arsenal" Reckons we're going 4-5-1 with Nolan, Smith and Butt in the centre of the park... Lovenkrands and Jonas either side with Martins up top for a similar set-up to Man Utd (h)?

His interview (and Oba's) are brilliant watches/listens: Butt: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/football_focus/7943614.stm Oba: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/7948411.stm As much as they both frustrate me at times I'm delighted they're both in our colours. Could do with a few more like them (certainly as pertains attitudes.)

He reminds me of me when I play centre midfield in 11-a-side. Huff and puff, put a few tackles in, get amongst them, with the very occasional bit of football thrown in. Not good enough, basically.

Basically, brain tells me we are in the shit in a big, big way - but blind faith/heart tells me that the likes of Martins and Owen will stay fit and fire us to safety. 60% chance of relegation in the current situation with our fixture list sounds about right, albeit a little on the pessimistic side.

So you think we'll stay up, but still vote a 6 (which to me would indicate a 60% chance of going down)

6. I'm worried, but still believe (hope) we have the quality in the areas that matter to see us right again.

its hull.............you cant trash hull.nobody would realise its been trashed.

I agree it is regarding the stance the likes of Happy Face has taken on it, but that's not the issue I was discussing.

The whole of the club's website is piss-poor, though, not just the survey, and that is nothing new. Doesn't make it acceptable, though. While I do think .co.uk has improved a fair bit since Craig Hope was brought in and since the re-design, as you say it still leaves an awful lot to be desired in certain areas. I just find it embarrassing that a club of our size can be so inept in so many departments. I had hoped Ashley coming in would change that around a bit, feeling perhaps the former lot had just allowed things to go a little bit stale/take their foot off the gas a bit, but any progress (much like on the park) hasn't been immediately forthcoming. Probably a small-fry concern when you look at what has gone on this season, but in the bigger picture it's just another thing to be disappointed in NUFC about. All talk and no trousers.

For what it's worth, I think the timing isn't an issue on this one.

It's done very, very poorly like. This sort of stuff does have a place at football clubs for those clubs that WANT to do right by their fans as best they can (captive audience and all that), but the way it's been structured/delivered leaves a fucking shedload to be desired. Ran by monkeys from top-to-bottom. Still.

IF Llambias and Ashley are genuine about not taking anything out AND putting £10m a season in, then I still have cause to be optimistic if we manage to stay up again. As others have mentioned the main thing is that we get those who can be classed as a "drain on resources" (don't offer anything back for their income) off the wage-bill and that the money freed is available immediately for reinvestment as transfers on players who may not get paid as much but who will hopefully offer a lot more to the team. Mark Viduka and Claudio Cacapa are the two main culprits on this score, as an educated guess, and I'd also expect to see David Edgar leave as well (although I appreciate he probably gets paid relative peanuts and I wouldn't be too upset if he stayed). Michael Owen is the real contentious issue though. As the poster above says he probably earns more than he's worth, mainly due to his injury record, but losing him again leaves the club open to massive criticism and is again seen as a major lack of ambition. From a personal perspective I wouldn't be too upset to see him go, especially if a decent enough replacement was brought in (surely the club could do something with an extra £5.2m+ per season?) Llambias and Co. will need thick skin again, like. Then you move onto the likes of Smith, Geremi and Ameobi, who I suppose a lot of us would be happy to see go if any decent offers came in. You'd bet that those three would be responsible for £100k p/w easily between them as far as wages go and even if you bring in a couple of players who are quality and don't take up as much of the budget then you'd be moving forwards as none of them are good enough/involved enough to be genuinely missed. The other contentious one who fits in here, for me, is Damien Duff. While he has shown signs of improvement and appears to be one of Kinnear's favoured players, he must be one of the highest earners in the squad and for many he wouldn't be in a first choice XI. The decision there is whether we can afford to pay someone who isn't an automatic choice such a massive wage, especially when he doesn't even offer much when he is on the park. I DO have enough faith in the "recruitment" team to replace these players adequately (especially with the wiggle-room they'd get on the wage front) and I don't think they would be too difficult to replace if all of them went, to be honest, as you've only got to look at appearances between them/form between them to see just exactly what we'd be missing for the £15m+ per year or so they'll be taking out of the club. As long as the money saved is spent on transfers (in installments!) and a big enough chunk is allowed for wages (say £10m of the suggest £15m for wages with the extra £5m p/y used as installments in transfers as a crude example) then I think we'd see things moving onwards and upwards. I'm not overly confident we'll even stay up though and even then everything I've said is "ideal scenario". My faith in the current regime certainly doesn't extend to believing that they are capable of doing things "ideally".

I turned up with extra large pockets in fairness. I never gave myself top billing! Was just trying to scare cp40, it clearly didn't work. Your pockets clearly did have a small hole in, cos I did manage to score a blatantly not offside goal. Was that when we had 2 at the back against your 8 strikers?

I turned up with extra large pockets in fairness.

Can't see it making any difference to be honest. In general, people are cunts and will continue to act like cunts until they pop their clogs. This place has a few shining examples of instances like this making no difference at all to people's behaviour/posts! My real issue was the fact that BooBoo had already retracted his opinion somewhat, or at least admitted he'd overreacted, didn't see the need for anything else after that.

Funny no one thought Man U were "there for the taking" before the game. Now we are making excuses for those fuckers for playing extra time before this game, with a massive squad of world class players at their disposal. Shearer could have made excuses on our behalf as well you know? We had players missing as well although he failed to mention it. Suppose we'll just have to disagree. We did well, Man Utd looked jaded and underperformed would be my take on it, which lends itself to exploring the reasons for why this was so. We deserve credit, but they deserve some sympathy for the time that we played them, they simply were not on their game. Just gutted we didn't even get a point, personally.

Never said that. My last comment was not a intended to a blanket statement. They know who they are Came across that way like. They might know who they are but I bet they don't alter their stance at all Coming to think of it, it's not even funny really.

Was he wrong? I personally thought we had a shout because we were playing them at a decent time. I don't know how anyone can argue with that? They fielded an exceptionally strong team but in the midst of their busiest period so far (and most important) and I think it showed. While they had their big guns out there and we played better than we have done for a long time, you surely can't tell me that ANY of their players where anywhere near top form. Now I know some of that (a lot, perhaps?) is down to the way we harried them and got at them, but I think it's fair to say they looked a bit "hungover" in general, especially defensively and were out of sorts. They probably came up here expecting a stroll as well and got a shock when we were at it from the first whistle. I think we deserve a lot of credit for the performance, but at the end of the day we still lost and Man Utd didn't have to get out of 2nd gear to beat us (in my opinion). I don't think people should go OTT though, which is what Shearer may have been trying to avoid. Aye it was a good marker for future games, but we got nowt from it and if we go to Hull and perform ineptly again and lose then it means absolutely nothing and we will literally have zero to show from it. I genuinely think you've over-analysed things/underestimated the potential effects of playing right after an extra-time/penalties cup final win (even if they didn't all play). I do think you're right to defend our performance though and I feel we deserved at least a point. To me, that Man Utd side looked wobbly and there for the taking, and we STILL didn't have enough about us to do it, which is a worry, although we obviously improved.

Not by everyone though, which is the key.

Nowt like stringing up fellow fans though, is there?