HawK

Well, on the first point it depends on the context. The perceived 'size' of the club arguably does increase the likelihood of getting bigger names, management or players, through the door, than a smaller club, all things being equal. For example, I doubt Rafa Benitez would have gone to a club like Crystal Palace for example, when Pardew was sacked. Also I believe there's a sense that the 'bigger' the club, the more likely that there is that success can be brought there. As to whether how true or not I'll leave to statisticians but I'll wager that there's not many clubs with gates of less than 15-20k winning things very often in comparison to those with gates regularly over 35k. You could argue that one causes the other, but here are we, and Leeds, and some other clubs that still get high gates despite limited or no success. Because the word 'big' is so vague, I think it really does come down to the context. When it's just lobbied around in the fashion of 'X are a big club', I always interpret that to be the size of the support, mostly locally within a country, and the average gates, but that's my own interpretation of the term. And yeah on success I don't disagree at all.

I'm not embarrassed at all, it's a perfectly valid viewpoint. Are you denying that Newcastle United is arguably one of the top 10 'biggest' clubs in England?

I like to keep is simple and think only about the size of the fanbase, average home attendance when looking at the subjective question of how 'big' a club is. In the Leicester comparison above, I'd say we're a much bigger club. They've been more successful.

My birthday was on January the 18th, my parents didn't know Andy Cole had signed for Man Utd when they bought me it. They found out and still gave it to me anyway. Fuckers.

Somebody paid us money when Owen got injured for England when he did his knee in. Can't remember if it was FIFA or insurance or a combination.

That's what his wife must see when he is on top. Steve McDonkeycock then

Love the Maldini stipulations, imagine that in 100 years when a distant third cousin of a nephew of one of his descendants wants it

NBA are nuts for retiring shirts. They'll need to default to triple-digits with leading zeroes at some point.

Better be his, proper welcome.

http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/connor-mcbride/DNOSG1yZEeOzMAAmVebBJg/default.htm Would fit right in a Pardew 11.

I think that goal shows exactly why he hasn't done that well since coming to England. The amount of space he was given to take that shot was criminal. The standard of defences in Belgium and some teams internationally is atrocious. I can imagine Shearer taking the same shot while holding off 2 defenders who are trying to pull him down at the same time. Mitrovic isn't clever enough to use his strength anywhere as nearly as effectively as he needs to if that's what his whole game is going to be about. He had some good, unusual attributes for a lad of his age so we took a gamble and it just hasn't come off yet. Might come good, but the lad seems thick as mince.

I think there's more good players in the Championship than I thought coming into this season that on merit should be able to make a stab of it at any of the mid-lower table PL clubs.

If all a defender has to be measured on is not making many mistakes then yes he's done well, but players like Shelvey, Gayle and Ritchie have won us the points that have seen us top the table. God without Shelvey we'd be probably be mid-table, with nothing at all in the middle. It's harder to do it up the other end of the pitch imo. A defender has to be pretty imperious and have a lot more about him to be considered a MOTM let alone POTS. Taking to the extreme, but Ramos for me is a team-defining centre-back and shines alongside Bale and Ronaldo, for different but equally important reasons imo. The fact that Elliott got POTS last year says it all about the entire squad last year.

Railio Arcjob

Is the website good enough to understand that not every single team below them can win every single one of their remaining matches? Not sure.

Tbh I disagree with him not fitting the style of play. We need someone further forward than Shelvey who can actually receive the ball and do something like pass it off to someone else. Diame and Perez can't do this, Mitrovic's hold up play is good but not good enough in any way to justify starting him over Gayle. We've got a team of runners and a quarterback, that's our only tactic right now and with De Jong, it lets us try something different when teams put 11 behind the ball. Point is moot as he's never fit though.

I have an awful feeling about Leeds, I work around Leeds and speak to a lot of colleagues who are Leeds fans. They've been formidable under Gary Monk. Can see them getting into the top two at the expense of either us or Brighton based on current form.

Second goal was great. All about shooting unexpectedly or it's the keeper's all the way.

Remember, remember, Chancel Mbemba He used to play in central defence Rafa turned up, Chancel did not Now he lives in past tense

I've heard Stephen Hawking is a canny centre mid. If he ever gets out of his chair he'd be a good player for us.

This was Huddersfield's chance and they know they've blown it. I can still see a team like Brighton perhaps falling off the pace, but I think we'll be OK now. We've got Gayle back (albeit not looking the best yet) and a good run-in.

Snowflake

Lovely little scoop pass by Colback? wtf? 'Interception by Reid', yeah, that's what happens to any 'lovely' passes by Colback.

Only ever one outcome to that.

He dead then?