HawK

The squads' age is close to the Milan's oldies of recent, but without the individual technical ability to compensate for the decreasing athleticism.

I think some of these people forget that we were sitting a league below in dire straits only two years ago and were sitting in the bottom half when the man took the helm. They forget that he had to sell his most high profile player two or three weeks into his career here. Anything above seventh for this club, is a great result and it is ridiculous to act like Pardew had no part in this. I am not a supporter of some of the negative football he has employed, but at the same time, he completely changed the formation earlier in the season to give Ben Arfa room to operate. I think he is learning and adjusting and it is good to give him time in which to do so. As this is a thread on Pardew, I won't go into the fact that our progress in no circumstances whatsoever should be measured by how far we've come since we got promoted back. It should be measured from when MA took over, almost 5 years ago in May 2007. Our progress under Pardew is better than Hughton, that I won't argue with, less romantic performances and results but a more pragmatic and effective way to grind out results. But the evidence on the pitch in the previous few months shows a manager who doesn't grasp the fundamentals, today a prime example. At the end of the day, what the hell are you smoking? You are quite daft if you do not think players like Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Cisse, Ba, Coloccini and Krul wouldn't be pushing for starting births for most of the top 4-5 clubs in the country, bar City. To argue that every player has to be of this class, is pedantic. You could pick apart any of those sides for weaknesses in certain positions. The point I was making, is with players of this ilk, a better manager than Pardew would be achieving more, because it's not for want of a better starting XI.

So to everyone who argued against this, do you believe that Pardew is getting the most out of this squad? With the right players in the right positions, with the right gameplan? If he is, well good on you. If you believe, like me, that he is not, then of course we are underachieving. It's not rocket science. How many second balls did we win today? I couldn't see any. How many headers did Ba or Cisse control as Krul punted the ball upfield did we win then? I couldn't see any. Who agreed with Ba pleading with Krul and Colo to keep it on the deck, but wouldn't as they had to follow the grand plan? Why has he not done the absolutely, blindingly obvious things, such as drop Simpson for being consistently poor, and putting Raylor in his place who can at least do a job in the position? Or not put our best player, by a country mile, in the starting lineup regularly? He's limited, and being carried by the strength of our players. What I wouldn't give to have a manager like Redknapp, who's made players like Dawson and Ekotto with 90 year old Friedel in goal, into a top-3 side. Ashley would never hire the type of manager we need to take the club further, because such a manager couldn't work with Ashley. That said, Ashley, recently, has set up some fantastic infrastructure around the squad and the team, with absolute top quality scouting and recruiting. But a manager like Pardew's only going to take that infrastructure so far, and it isn't top 4. Man-for-man, that's where we should be aiming with these players now. You would have thought, with top half fairly guarenteed, he would have at least tried to figure out how to play his best players in a system to get us ready for next season while the pressure's off - instead we're still playing like we're still chasing a 40 points target come gameweek 35. My frustration is that, I'm pretty much realizing now, is that this is the best this club is ever going to be for the next 5-10 years. I suppose I can settle, but when it's so blindingly obvious what needs to be done, it's a mighty hard pill to swallow.

At the end of the day, if you were to compare our players, man to man, with the best of the PL, we should and would be up there. The only reason we're not is due to the manager. One thing's for sure as far as I'm concerned, if Bobby were here, Hatem would have played the full 90 minutes of every single game he's been fit and available for. He's meeting Ashley's criteria, so he's safe for now. But there's no reason to accept where we are, we should be aiming for better with what we have. Whether there is a manager available to do this right now, is another question entirely. It doesn't mean I don't have the right to pass opinion on the fact that Pardew is clearly out of his depth at this level.

Cisse and Ba will score goals when we get some quality out wide. And yes, Cabaye and Tiote just don't do it. One of them will have to make way in the summer. We can definitely play with 2 holding midfielders, you know that. But Pardew can't, that's the problem.

lol

Mackemslayer to the rescue =D

Still outclassed with 10 men What are you watching? Don't know about you, but I'm watching a group of players that is individually up there as top 5 quality lose to a 10-men mid-table side, at home. We haven't one a single header off Krul's long balls and we haven't won a single second ball either. We are not being outclassed in this half. We have been better but honestly thats only due to the red card. We have been better, due to the red card, but still not as good as Sunderland were when they were 11v11 against us. We've been outclassed today, by poor tactics and poor team selection. Again.

Still outclassed with 10 men What are you watching? Don't know about you, but I'm watching a group of players that is individually up there as top 5 quality lose to a 10-men mid-table side, at home. We haven't won a single header off Krul's long balls and we haven't won a single second ball either.

A lot of people have been saying this for 3 months. Individually our team is top 4 quality with a good manager. We don't have one.

Well tbh he has changed the club he's modelling it on at least twice, i thought the most recent was Aston Villa

lol

':mackems:'

http://i.imgur.com/lgKho.gif I too find that funny lol.

The man deserves nothing but praise. Got more balls than the lot of you combined so you sit behind your keyboards and make fun of him. Is this RTG or newcastle-online? Should be people making him into a hero, not this shite. And they call us the best fans in the land, and we can't even support our own.

It would had been his own fault completely. If you don't do due diligence then you deserve to lose x amount of money. absolutely agree neesy. I was more thinking If he ahdnt bought and we stuck with fat fred, would we have ended up like Rangers? The old cliche, but more like Leeds to be honest. With a swish of Portsmouth thrown in for good measure, and a sprinkling of Plymouth Argyle.

A handsome, self-made billionaire having a great (albeit drunken) time. What's the point? Exactly that, he just doesn't give a f***. Edit: And he knows no-one can be bothered to stop him.

<-------- see avatar

Very good =)

Bellamy/Kluivert

It's a good change to see players decline after they leave, it's still ingrained into me to have seen the likes of Ginola, Ferdinand, Speed (RIP), Bellamy off the top of my head go on to still be successful elsewhere after the board were supposedly 'cashing in'. These kind of transfers have gladly stopped now, for whatever reason, whether it be luck or good common sense. I agree Duff is where he was when he left - a s*** player who has completely lost his game. Milner, none of us can disagree that 10m was a very good price for the lad, and for him to succeed on the back of us making good money on him, I am not bitter. There was no way of us knowing he was going to develop the way he did. Obviously Keegan saw something and tried to stand in the way of it happening but that's another story for another thread. I think the fee we got for N'Zogbia was good under the circumstances, in that because of JFK he was never going to play for us again, and I feel a bit relieved he hasn't gone on to be a world beater, but who's to say he couldn't have gone on to emulate Milner's development to some degree. /Ramble Beye was great for us and the last good RB we've had for a long time.

Can't agree with the entirety, but you do make some valid points. It was a big risk and we've been lucky with how well the team has gelled, although you could say that's down to Mr Carr's fantastic player profiling. I don't have any ill-feeling towards Barton, when he had the shirt you couldn't discount his performances, he was pivotal in our first season back and for that I'll always be thankful. However, I don't wish him back, as I've believe we've developed beyond what he offers on the pitch and obviously unsettles the club.

dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner BATMAN demba demba demba demba demba demba demba demba demba demba CISSE demba demba demba demba demba demba demba demba demba demba BA (randomly change last word)

Na, Pardew has come out and said quite openly he's a player he wants to fulfill a role in the team. He'll walk into the side.