Beren

Could Parker be argued too? as much as it makes me filled with He didn't deserve that PFA Writers' award (I think it was that, anyway), but his overall play at West Ham was much better than what he served up here, or IMO at Spurs so far. Carr tripled his pace/stamina at Birmingham then won the League Cup (as did Obafemi), and Duff continues to raise his game beyond the outermost reaches of its natural limits and torment us every time we face the piss-faced twat. Oh well.

Duff and Carr both did better at their new clubs than while they were here too. Aneurysm-inducing-annoyingly.

Not set the league alight, but Milner probably.

His career is coming to an end badly. Is there a player that's left us and went to do well/better? Only one I can think of from Premier League years would be Ginola. Andy Cole.

Did someone mention Norwich?! Ronaldo in 5, 4, 3, 2...

I hope so, but don't hold your breath.

Not sure about how quickly we'll lose Cabaye, but good post.

Honestly, if it is McLeish, I will ejaculate my head clean off my shoulders. Are you calling yourself a dickhead?

That's a fair point Yorkie. My parting shot opinion: I'd rather twist and (figuratively!) go bust, than stick with (what is IMO) near-certain mediocrity or worse. Circling the drain with Pardew (the drain being either relegation, or the loss of Cabaye, HBA, Krul, Sissoko over time...).

We've had consistently shite football with a six-game anomaly. I don't want to re-live arguments from last season, but I don't think that's fair at all and is to do with why I think he should have till Christmas. Last season was an excellent managerial performance on the whole; this season has been a poor managerial performance on the whole. Fair enough, me neither - it's been done to death The main point of my post was the long-term prospect of Pardew as manager. If you, or anyone else, can see him having the coaching ability to ever get us playing attractive football and dictating games on even a semi-regular basis then I envy your faith and wish I had some myself.

I don't get the 'mixed bag' argument, myself. We've had a mixed bag of results across the two seasons. We've had consistently shite football with a six-game anomaly. This season is more excusable given the severe disruption to our team because of injuries but, even so, you'd expect to see some progress in helping us reach a footballing identity that isn't "smash it to Cisse". I haven't seen anything of the sort. Pardew-believers and the wait-and-see-stance doesn't make sense to me, because I have seen nothing to suggest Pardew can be a long-term success. Not even glimmers of hope, really. Delaying getting rid is just delaying any chance we have of further success with this good group of individuals (which is all they are atm to be quite frank, individuals). Sewelly's post in Pardew's thread is a sobering, but true, analysis of how we play and what we can/can't do. Ashley is Ashley though, so all this is just forum rhetoric of course.

Agree - would be awful if they had a likeable manager. SBR/CH must have been awful to deal with for them.

http://img.skysports.com/10/08/800x600/Birmingham-v-Blackburn-Alex-Mcleish-celeb-sec_2492949.jpg Oh, please.

:lol:

Had hoped he'd get one more transfer window's worth of money to spunk, but can't quibble too much.

He leaves this squad behind: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/sunderland-afc/kader/verein_289.html Not all his signings, but the highlights: Cattermole until 2016 33 year-old Wes Brown until 2015 N'Diaye until 2016 (looks shite so far)

Shit! I was going to jokingly change the Sunderland thread poll to "Will MO'N survive the season?"

Any update on his return?

Newcastle don't really have bankers, I now realise. There's no game you could point to and say "easy two goal minimum" win. I thought we had that against Reading, QPR and Stoke at home - and of those games which we won (not all of them!) we made hard work of them all. Motoring away to three points in games has rarely been a luxury we can enjoy this season.

Think we'll be okay, but league table looks proper shite, and a freak result vs Fulham/Sunderland would be absolutely fucking horrifying. Praying for no daft red cards/penalties/sitting on narrow leads/massive injury days for those matchdays.

My thoughts on Pardew at this point are abundantly clear () but watching his BBC interview, he seemed very laissez-faire as though nothing he could have done would have changed today. At this point, perhaps I see what I want to see, but he doesn't seem hurt about such a shitty loss or as though he'd have any improvement on his gameplan if we had a re-match with Man City in 7 days with the same players. Never see any footballing/coaching passion in his interviews, and given how much he talks/loves to give interviews, I'd have thought at least some would be in evidence. Love listening to an enthused manager who loves football talk about tactics/strategy. You know their obsessive-nature keeps them awake at night and annoys their wives over breakfast and during sex. It's very obvious which managers know their stuff/care like an obsessive fan. Anyway

You bloody magician.

Couldn't watch the game today but by all accounts a pasting with a scoreline which flattered us? In context, we've probably dropped no more points today than we would have, had we played well with the players at our disposal, but it's another embarrassing blotch on our thoroughly shit-stained season. I lament how banal and unremarkable it is for us to be dry-humped so spectacularly. For all our weeks of four-out-of-five training sessions being focused on defence, we rarely show the discipline or organisation you see elsewhere in the league, and you always feel we're never too far away from the cusp of being absolutely twatted by a side that shows up with their finishing boots. I'd be curious as to how our goals conceded column compares with previous years. Again, not having seen the performance today I won't say it was necessarily the case that we lacked organisation/shape, but I have seen this in evidence in other parts of the season. Given our missing players, I sort of understand that we came here to grind for a draw, but I would have been in favour of slogging it out with Man City in a mental 5-3 defeat, because I know we're not great at just defending for 90 minutes (despite our recent European defensive heroics). Would give the crowd something to cheer about, anyway. It's a meaningless fixture provided we stay up this season, and we've got bigger games, but it's just bloody depressing being the whipping boys. And I didn't even have to watch it like the rest of you. Roll on the Europa League, and next season. If we're passive or tentative away against Benfica, I do fear for the worst, I really do.

Following on BBC live text at work, sounds like a fucking horrific watch!