Theregulars

Sweet. Reminds me I need a 5-pack of Donnay socks and last year's away goalie strip for a £15.99.

I'll judge the team selection once the result comes through - if we lose I reserve the right to bleat about why those 3 (Ba, Marveaux and Santon) are on the bench, if we win I reserve the right to praise Pardew for not feeling like he has to hoy all the new players in for the sake of it when the team as it stands is undefeated. Lawyer

It's too broad a question though, who knows? I'm not aware of anyone who hasn't criticised a lot of what Ashley has done. You could equally put it the other way round - what would Ashley have to do to make you think he was doing some things right? Buy one of the most exciting attacking midfielders in Europe? Sign a French league winner and one of the best defensive midfielders in the league? Get a promising young Italian international fullback from Inter Milan? Bounce back from a relegation, finish the season well and start the following season with some good results? Put our finances on a sounder footing? But I wouldn't ask it like that because I know it's not black and white. I'm not trying to speak up on Ashley's behalf, I'm trying to highlight that the situation at the club isn't as dire as some people think, and everything we do isn't bad or part of some evil plan to punish Geordies. If people think he's on a plan to ruin us, they're probably not worth debating with. For me, to show he was doing something right, we could show some modicum of ambition to get us on a slow and steady path of progress and development from lower mid table to mid, then upper mid, then towards 7th/8th and then challenging for Europa League, within 5 years, whilst maintaining a sensible and sound financial strategy and rightly limiting wages and transfer fees. I am all for balancing the books and sorting out our debt situation, but a football club isn't a normal business, so if he could do the above while actually genuinely trying to improve the squad that would be enough for me. Furthermore, showing ambition and getting us somewhere in the long run would actually improve his product - attract more fans, attract less criticism from professionals and fans alike, make more players inclined to play for us (i reckon some who turn us down do so as they don't want to play for those two, which I also believe is why we make no effort to recruit from England as foreigners likely haven't seen evidence of their untrustworthy behaviour) and make us win more, which ultimately brings in more money, via, for instance, gate receipts and more television coverage.

His opinion is a valid one. You may not like what he has to say but he's been closer to the regime than anyone on this board which gives his views some gravitas. I know his opinion is a valid one, I just don't agree with it. And whether he's close to the regime or not is irrelevant to my criticism, Barton should keep his mouth shut whether he's right or wrong. Where has keeping your mouth shut ever got you? I proudly participated in chants of SOUNESS OUT repeatedly at SJP and I'd like to think that helped to get him sacked. You're a fan of NUFC, that's fine. Barton is a professional footballer who plays for QPR. There's a lot of distance between those two. I'd disagree, I think Barton is a fan of NUFC too. Firstly, I still believe that players, while loyalty is dead, feel some sentiment for clubs they play for and probably want them to succeed if they aren't f***ed over by them. Secondly, I believe him when he says that he felt an affinity for the place, not least as he has become less of a volatile, crime-happy vagabond at NUFC, and likely (or so I would hope) appreciates our patience with him. If he appreciates our patience with him then why is he giving us a hard time? The same people who chose not to sack him when he went to prison are the people he's having a go at now. Anyway, pointless discussion really, I just think Barton is now a QPR player and should show some professionalism and mind his own business. Whether he has any affection for NUFC is beside the point. They never chose not to sack him, they've made previous attempts to flog him and done so in an overtly public manner, they just couldn't shift him, primarily as due to his past mistakes nobody say him as a risk worth taking, especially as he was basically still in/fresh out of jail. As soon as they finally found a willing bidder he was off. I opine that had any club come in with a serious bid in a window before this one it would have been made very clear to him that he was not wanted here. There's nothing unprofessional about what he's doing. He's a professional footballer, ergo perfectly entitled to criticise an unjust issue within his profession, that profession being football, especially about a professional football club for whom he exercised his professional skills. Sorry, that's nonsense, it's not professional to air your grievances in public. On the sacking thing I don't know, I'm pretty sure we could have terminated his contract if we had wanted. Anyway, that wasn't my argument, I was just responding to you saying we had shown patience with him, which we have. I take your point but I don't think you can attribute the same meaning of "unprofessional" to our job you or I may do to professional football. If you and I are treated like shit at work, we can't really make it public, as nobody would care. But it would be in our interests, and in the best interests of our employer and other employees, to make clear to somebody who matters that something gravely unjust is going on. To attempt a clumsy analogy, if you and I worked for a financial services firm, and we knew a director was embezzling company funds, I believe it would be unprofessional not to air grievances, as we would have a duty to co-employees, investors, shareholders and the industry we worked on to shed light on the wrongdoing. Following these lines, it is entirely professional of Barton, bearing in mind the amount of people interested in NUFC, the game itself AND his (now former) colleagues at all levels of the club, to point out how his employer is treating the people who work for it/put money into it like absolute turd. It's not the most erudite analogy but I trust you can understand the point I'm making. Furthermore, I don't think there should be an issue about Barton being dishonest or self-interested - we have enough evidence even despite the Ashley/Llambias media and communication blackout to see and understand that what Barton and other players accuse them of is most likely, if not definitely, true.

His opinion is a valid one. You may not like what he has to say but he's been closer to the regime than anyone on this board which gives his views some gravitas. I know his opinion is a valid one, I just don't agree with it. And whether he's close to the regime or not is irrelevant to my criticism, Barton should keep his mouth shut whether he's right or wrong. Where has keeping your mouth shut ever got you? I proudly participated in chants of SOUNESS OUT repeatedly at SJP and I'd like to think that helped to get him sacked. You're a fan of NUFC, that's fine. Barton is a professional footballer who plays for QPR. There's a lot of distance between those two. I'd disagree, I think Barton is a fan of NUFC too. Firstly, I still believe that players, while loyalty is dead, feel some sentiment for clubs they play for and probably want them to succeed if they aren't f***ed over by them. Secondly, I believe him when he says that he felt an affinity for the place, not least as he has become less of a volatile, crime-happy vagabond at NUFC, and likely (or so I would hope) appreciates our patience with him. If he appreciates our patience with him then why is he giving us a hard time? The same people who chose not to sack him when he went to prison are the people he's having a go at now. Anyway, pointless discussion really, I just think Barton is now a QPR player and should show some professionalism and mind his own business. Whether he has any affection for NUFC is beside the point. he is maybe giving "us"(by us i mean the board) a hard time because he doesn't like fans being lied too and also didn't Mike Ashely want to sack Barton but Keegan wanted to keep him ? And personally i am glad that Barton is highlighting these things the truth needs to be known, the only thing i would say is that if i was Q.P.R fan i would be dissapointed to see Barton fawning over another club. Any QPR fan with a shred of intelligence understands that if our club wasn't rotten from the core a player of his caliber wouldn't be lining up for them. I'm sure they'll deal with the media spotlight that it brings instead of watching a less talented player in their side.

His opinion is a valid one. You may not like what he has to say but he's been closer to the regime than anyone on this board which gives his views some gravitas. I know his opinion is a valid one, I just don't agree with it. And whether he's close to the regime or not is irrelevant to my criticism, Barton should keep his mouth shut whether he's right or wrong. Where has keeping your mouth shut ever got you? I proudly participated in chants of SOUNESS OUT repeatedly at SJP and I'd like to think that helped to get him sacked. You're a fan of NUFC, that's fine. Barton is a professional footballer who plays for QPR. There's a lot of distance between those two. I'd disagree, I think Barton is a fan of NUFC too. Firstly, I still believe that players, while loyalty is dead, feel some sentiment for clubs they play for and probably want them to succeed if they aren't f***ed over by them. Secondly, I believe him when he says that he felt an affinity for the place, not least as he has become less of a volatile, crime-happy vagabond at NUFC, and likely (or so I would hope) appreciates our patience with him. Keep believing that, but IMO you're 100% wrong. Footballers are all twats that do what is best for themselves. So you believe no footballer ever has sentimental attachment to clubs they've played for? See the line up on soccer saturday for proof of why you're wrong. These days, no. When football used to be football, absolutely. I would disagree, there are still players out there (absolutely less so than in the past, you are correct) who support their clubs and feel sentiment towards them. When we went down, Steven Taylor made it very clear that he wanted to stay and help out immediately. Gerrard at Liverpool is another, Giggs and Scholes at United...

His opinion is a valid one. You may not like what he has to say but he's been closer to the regime than anyone on this board which gives his views some gravitas. I know his opinion is a valid one, I just don't agree with it. And whether he's close to the regime or not is irrelevant to my criticism, Barton should keep his mouth shut whether he's right or wrong. Where has keeping your mouth shut ever got you? I proudly participated in chants of SOUNESS OUT repeatedly at SJP and I'd like to think that helped to get him sacked. You're a fan of NUFC, that's fine. Barton is a professional footballer who plays for QPR. There's a lot of distance between those two. I'd disagree, I think Barton is a fan of NUFC too. Firstly, I still believe that players, while loyalty is dead, feel some sentiment for clubs they play for and probably want them to succeed if they aren't f***ed over by them. Secondly, I believe him when he says that he felt an affinity for the place, not least as he has become less of a volatile, crime-happy vagabond at NUFC, and likely (or so I would hope) appreciates our patience with him. If he appreciates our patience with him then why is he giving us a hard time? The same people who chose not to sack him when he went to prison are the people he's having a go at now. Anyway, pointless discussion really, I just think Barton is now a QPR player and should show some professionalism and mind his own business. Whether he has any affection for NUFC is beside the point. They never chose not to sack him, they've made previous attempts to flog him and done so in an overtly public manner, they just couldn't shift him, primarily as due to his past mistakes nobody say him as a risk worth taking, especially as he was basically still in/fresh out of jail. As soon as they finally found a willing bidder he was off. I opine that had any club come in with a serious bid in a window before this one it would have been made very clear to him that he was not wanted here. There's nothing unprofessional about what he's doing. He's a professional footballer, ergo perfectly entitled to criticise an unjust issue within his profession, that profession being football, especially about a professional football club for whom he exercised his professional skills.

To add to that, Shearmagic, the opinion "footballers are all twats" is a shade too general don't you think? I wouldn't even attribute twat status to half of our squad.

His opinion is a valid one. You may not like what he has to say but he's been closer to the regime than anyone on this board which gives his views some gravitas. I know his opinion is a valid one, I just don't agree with it. And whether he's close to the regime or not is irrelevant to my criticism, Barton should keep his mouth shut whether he's right or wrong. Where has keeping your mouth shut ever got you? I proudly participated in chants of SOUNESS OUT repeatedly at SJP and I'd like to think that helped to get him sacked. You're a fan of NUFC, that's fine. Barton is a professional footballer who plays for QPR. There's a lot of distance between those two. I'd disagree, I think Barton is a fan of NUFC too. Firstly, I still believe that players, while loyalty is dead, feel some sentiment for clubs they play for and probably want them to succeed if they aren't f***ed over by them. Secondly, I believe him when he says that he felt an affinity for the place, not least as he has become less of a volatile, crime-happy vagabond at NUFC, and likely (or so I would hope) appreciates our patience with him. Keep believing that, but IMO you're 100% wrong. Footballers are all twats that do what is best for themselves. So you believe no footballer ever has sentimental attachment to clubs they've played for? See the line up on soccer saturday for proof of why you're wrong.

Spot on. I think, to further your point, we all appreciate the need for stability and understand that the debt we'd accrued under the previous regime needed to be remedied, and our transfer policy was potentially fatally flawed. But, it being a football club, we'd like this to be done whilst still showing at least a pretence of ambition, or with a genuine (if restrained and sensible) attempt to make us as competitive as possible within sound financial parameters. There's a difference between that and exploiting OUR club as his latest cash cow, and that's what makes him insufferable.

His opinion is a valid one. You may not like what he has to say but he's been closer to the regime than anyone on this board which gives his views some gravitas. I know his opinion is a valid one, I just don't agree with it. And whether he's close to the regime or not is irrelevant to my criticism, Barton should keep his mouth shut whether he's right or wrong. Where has keeping your mouth shut ever got you? I proudly participated in chants of SOUNESS OUT repeatedly at SJP and I'd like to think that helped to get him sacked. You're a fan of NUFC, that's fine. Barton is a professional footballer who plays for QPR. There's a lot of distance between those two. I'd disagree, I think Barton is a fan of NUFC too. Firstly, I still believe that players, while loyalty is dead, feel some sentiment for clubs they play for and probably want them to succeed if they aren't fucked over by them. Secondly, I believe him when he says that he felt an affinity for the place, not least as he has become less of a volatile, crime-happy vagabond at NUFC, and likely (or so I would hope) appreciates our patience with him.

"if we didn't sell anyone but didn't buy anyone he would have been perfectly happy to stay here the rest of his career." That's complete and utter conjecture. Anyone who knows about him can envisage Barton pointing out that the Carroll money wasn't spent in that situation, and pointing out the lack of ambition. You can't just attribute your analysis of the potential outcome of a hypothetical situation to factual reality and then assign it as an argument to denigrate the man's character.

His opinion is a valid one. You may not like what he has to say but he's been closer to the regime than anyone on this board which gives his views some gravitas. I know his opinion is a valid one, I just don't agree with it. And whether he's close to the regime or not is irrelevant to my criticism, Barton should keep his mouth shut whether he's right or wrong. Where has keeping your mouth shut ever got you? I proudly participated in chants of SOUNESS OUT repeatedly at SJP and I'd like to think that helped to get him sacked.

And furthermore if any of you can honestly say you'd take Obertan/R. Taylor/Marveaux on right wing without the media circus or Barton on the right wing with the media circus, then in my opinion you don't have the club's best interests at heart, because winning games is ultimately more in the club's best interests than having our shambolic ownership situation challenged in the public eye. Gabriel fucking Obertan.

I'll gladly call myself a Barton fanboy, in that he was really good last year, one of our best 5 (I say him, Carroll, Nolan, Enrique and Coloccini), and we didn't even NEED to sell him. I'm even trying to be understanding - Carroll I understand, the money was ludicrous (BUT let's not get started on how that £35m won't score us the goals to kick on), Nolan being replaced by Cabaye whilst saving money is great business, Enrique wanted out and we couldn't pay him what a guy of his talent required so Santon SHOULD be an adequate replacement IF he plays to his potential. So I would give us 1.5/2 out of 3 for those 3 moves. But there was no need to sell Barton, Ashley did it because he didn't like being criticised and having the lies, hypocrisy, corruption and his generally appalling nature highlighted in public, as well as wanting his wages off the book (which were, to be fair, probably bloated). That's the point from me - if you want to sell these people to get wages off the books, or because they demand contracts that don't fit in with our financial planning, or because you get ludicrous offers for them (all valid reasons in modern football), at the very least replace them with somebody on lower wages, with some portion of what you get for them/other players you've sold, and make a point. If Ashley buys us a talented RW, on less money than Barton, less prone to media embarrassment than Barton, then job done. But instead we have Gabriel fucking Obertan, Ryan Taylor or possibly the mystery man Marveaux instead. That's just cutting your nose off to spite your face. Furthermore, I find it refreshing that one person actually speaks up against those club-ruining parasites with words, as opposed to just walking out. If I were in his position I'd so the same. When someone is treated something you care about badly (he clearly cared about Newcastle United), say something and try and bring it to the attention of others. Long may Joey's criticism of the pair continue, because they're shits.

Unless Hitler was a fan, yes.

Wish he still played for us. Love the thought of Obertan setting up all our goals this year. FML

Fuck Pardew. This is nothing to do with Pardew, he's a complete nobody. Not one Toon fan wants this man as our manager. He's just an average, silver-haired nobody who, like anybody else who has to deal with the mongs upstairs, ends up bewildered, confused, disappointed and frustrated and looking an idiot for it. I don't care about anything he does/says. He'll be gone within a year or two anyway, like all of them.

nufc.com reporting that "they gather" we are trying to get two more in, whatever that means.

Llambias' casino deputy manager, was canny in sunday league.

What percentage of our goals did Nolan, Barton and Carroll count for last year (assists included)?

Barnsley

Is it immature to just think, fuck him? Everyone knows what our transfer policy is like, everybody knows what our owner is like - including all the other players, the manager, the fans - what we've done well in the past two seasons is to galvanise, get together and keep moving on in spite of Mike Ashley and his unarguably crappy tenure over our club. This kind of teenage outburst does nothing for that progress - we get it Jose, you're frustrated that the team sells our best players when we are getting close to potentially achieving. Beileve me, I've had an in interest in Newcastle United long before you have. We understand you're a talented lad, and if you want to play at a team which doesn't have an owner content to hold us back as a competitive entity for his own profit then, while we'd be gutted because you've been a canny player these last 2 years, then it's fair enough. But maybe try and have an ounce of respect for what we fans and other players, and Pardew to be fair, are trying to do - not complain about it, work with what we have got and try and push on, slowly but surely, to achieve something despite the massive Jabba the Hut-shaped handicap we have.

Especially given how many Hammers fans come from that utopian, cultural and intellectually-advanced peace-den that is Essex.

Yes it would have to be europe wide... They managed this in the NHL as the canadian teams counldn't match the US teams. So brought in a rule to balance out the currency difference. And also because the NHL owns the franchises in both America and Canada as one whole entity. It's easier as they don't have a number of disparate leagues under control of private national bodies. That doesn't mean it's not feasible, just much more complicated.