Beren

Largely dependent on the respect the board shows the club over the summer.

Thinking about it more, we're a bit of a Confidence Club really, aren't we? String a few wins together next year and should we get promoted I think we can ride that wave into the top half on our first season back. Conversely, you get the impression we'd have just stagnated had we stayed up. Maybe I'm just consoling myself, but I look at what happened when we got promoted 16 years ago - times are different, yes, but confidence does wonders for our club - more than at others anyway.

If he is, I'm really going to struggle with watching us. I'd be disgusted. This. I haven't been so adamant a player shouldn't play for us since Peter Ramage.

The focus has to be on young athletic players IMO. We must do everything in our power to ensure we don't have that slow, old man midfield if we have any chance of escaping the Championship.

I recognise the positives of it. I'll enjoy being out of the Premiership Laughing Stock spotlight for a few months [and maybe years].

Fucking hope not. I wasn't really mad at the final whistle, I just wanted most of those players to take the NUFC shirt off. [not like that ] I realise [with more lucidity, anyway] that teams in the Premiership have been improving for many years and the quality of your mid-table club has increased dramatically and without investment there's no way we had a chance this season. The players we've signed have been dogshit bargain basement signs that would have struggled to cut it three years ago.

I hate him. Off-field mismanagement aside, on the playing side of things, he epitomises why we went down.

Gaining 34 points with no midfield is quite the achievement. You win some, you lose some.

C'Mon Shola!!

Throw on Jonas for Duff or Butt. Both look perfectly lazy.

Totally not over yet. It's not like they comprehensively played us off the park and we didn't have chances. Chin up people!

Need to spread the play, use more space.

Settle down, keep some possession.

Duff against their right side has me worried.

bottled it again, has he? Like against Boro, right?

That's very smart. Bookies will award for joint top scorer, non? thats what i'm gonna check. also i want to make sure anelka will start. edit. apparently if for example i had £20 on aronaldo to be top scorer and it is a tie with one other player then it's classed that £10 went on the wining bet and £10 on the loser. (thats betfair rules) Weird. Wonder what other book maker policies are - for example, Will Hill has Anelka at 1/2, Ron at 6/4 and Stevie at 16/1. If ties aren't accepted there, then Ronaldo shouldn't be available given his exclusion from the Manure Squad. It's not the same scheme you were working but 1/2 odds on Gerrard not scoring a hat-trick seems like something one might be willing to lump on. You can always hedge it with a Gerrard win too. That's provided they don't have a similar policy to Betfair.

That's very smart. Bookies will award for joint top scorer, non?

Like: Shola, Martins, Loven, Taylor or Harper Expect: Martins, Taylor, Loven, Shola [all of them ]

That seems to be a common assumption. Can anyone remind me how many points we've gained from home games against other dross like Hull, Blackburn, Stoke and the mackems that gives cause for such optimism? I actually think as few as 36 points will be enough this season. Which is fortunate as I really can't see us getting to the magical 40 point barrier. Darth Toon wins Highest midiclorian count ftw.

Quite like that.

Probably should have created a new thread given the very tenuous link to this one, buuuut: Can anyone think of a sport other than football where cheating not only goes unpunished, but is pretty much accepted and tolerated as part of the modern game? I'm not talking about fielding weakened teams obviously, but given the ridiculous amount of diving going on - there is no honour to be found in any dressing room, in any club (including Newcastle - e.g Duff, Owen ) - how is it that blatant dives aren't retrospectively punished? It's insane. Is there really any need to wait until three swandives in the World Cup final give England a victory over Switzerland in front of a horrified Sepp Blatter before serious measures are taken to stamp it out? Along with the shambolic[/almost purposefully cruel] running of NUFC, it's making football a very unattractive prospect of late. I'm not sure if I'm being tongue-in-cheek here, but would one-year bans on crystal clear dives stop all offenders from even trying? Just take out Tim Cahill and C.Ronaldo and diving would begin to die worldwide. That's the dream anyway. I just refuse to believe it's something irremediable that can't be stamped out of the game.

I assume this is done now, what did you go for ? Crumpy got the final say, and it must be in production by now - my guess is 'No more papering over the cracks, Ashley! Get to F***'

I'd stick someone attacking in instead of Smith personally.

Bribe the Villa goalie and don't get caught.

Disagree with that in particular. Such rigid application of the rules is not consistent otherwise corners would be a non-contact issue when it clearly isn't. Just my opinion though. It's the same way that I personally thought the foul on Shearer for a penalty in the home Dynamo Kiev match was quite harsh.