morpeth mag

As good as we can expect right now and better than we have (jury out on Ba). When I've seen him he has patches of real quality and then patches where it all goes wrong. I think he'd benefit from being No 9 here.

Like the idea that everything has to go through him. The back to front football we played for the last two seasons can be effective but I agree with AP that you lose control if you cannot play through the midfield and retain possession.

From my East Stand seat against fiore it was noticable that the players were screaming at enrique a couple ot times to play the ball inside to Yohan rathen than knock the ball long.

on a more serious note we haven't seen or heard much of Tamas Kadar recently when I've always thought he's done OK in the past.

we already have Raylor and Perch so I'm not sure LB is a priority

I pay their wages (partially).

The medics know every NUFC signing has a serious injury flaw and have spent the last ten hours trying to find out what's really wrong with Oberton. No news yet but the search goes on.

Not getting any players in is an immediate concern for all. Not buying the right players is a problem for later in the season or possibly next. I'd be totally worried if anyone thought our squad was big enough. Whereas I'm happy to give any manager some time to bring his squad together. Would I have chosen Oberton? Probably not. But as a supporter I have to give him a chance and hope Pardew and gang get more right than wrong. Also for £3m it doesn't seem the worst gamble in the world.

He's not Joey's replacement as Joey is going to stay!

                  Krul

Simpson Saylor Colo Enrique

Barton Tiote Cabaye Jonas

          Shola Ba

I think that is the team AP wants to pick though he was having a good look at Vuckic today.

Excellent today - some players were playing a friendly but not Cabaye. He played like a leader.

Supurb today - one save that was unbelievable - one using his long reach. Commanded the area well and judged well when to catch and when to punch. Still work to be done with his kicking. Real prospect of being a top top keeper.

Krul, Cabaye and Colo were class, Lovenkrands was again out of his depth - metaphorically and literally. The rest played OK. Enrique was a real mixture. More than his usual quota of mis-placed passes but a couple of moments of real class. Clearly not happy. Shola and Ba had a much stronger feel to them in the 20 mins we saw in the second half. RW slot was held by Lovenkrands and Raylor so lets hope something happens with Barton and/or Oberton.

Other thing to note is that we played 4411 / 442 and not the much anticipated 433.

not sad enough to have seen him too often but typical things were the penalty he gave away at SJP. Happy to be corrected though by someone ITK.

Despite poor season at safc I'd be happy with a young player who can cover rb & cb

Entire family going so attendance will be higher than you think - mostly kids so bring some ear plugs if you don't like high noises.

Hope he comes in - we need some pace and we need a squad. Give him a chance and figure that at £3m we can afford to take a calculated gamble. also we need someone who can play wide right if necessary. Still need a striker and a LB minimum.

Of course MA will be furious too as the only reason he wasn't playing against WBA and securing 10th place was so he was available for these next two games.

It's now clear that the USA tour was deliberatly arranged to leave Joey and Nile on the outside of the new set-up. And you thought it was just a series of cock-ups.

I think Pardew did a good job in the second part of the season - essentially with the same team minus AC. I thought the home draws against Man U , Arsenal and spurs together with the home win agains Liverpool were all decent. I think he is working in a very difficult situation where he is expected to refresh the squad with a next to zero budget. If MA wants to make a big call as says that Joey has to go then I hope he finds the £6m for Barnetta otherwise we and Mr Pardew are in trouble as the squad is wat too thin.

Replacing Llambias solves nothing. You get either another puppet or else someone who can't work with Ashley. MA watches most games and it is really up to him what standard of football he and the rest of us are going to watch. Hard not to get the opinion that we are at the blleeding edge of getting some financial sanity back into football whilst tackling player/agent power at the same time. Not sure it's a fight one club can win on its own and not sure I trust MA to lead that fight.

he's going to sign then score at SoL! Think positive.

United take a Bridging Loan

Happy 50th Adam

East Stand to be correctly renamed as 'The New East Stand'.

The club has to draw up a business plan and make income assumptions. I think they are saying that finishing below 10th will impact these plans - anything higher is a bonus on the pitch and in the accounts.