Stu

Funny you should say that...

Didn't think it was an argument in the first place...SanToon and Felipao took my comment completely the wrong way and were egged on by Michael. the internet can be a funny mesh of personas. The comment that started it still hasn't been explained, even though he's posted since.

Didn't think it was an argument in the first place...SanToon and Felipao took my comment completely the wrong way and were egged on by Michael. the internet can be a funny mesh of personas.

Crikey...the poll at the top of this page was used by someone as an indication of Pardew's level of support with the fans. That was rebuked by several posters, with the reason given that N-O isn't indicative of the general feeling amongst Newcastle United supporters (and the wider football audience). Twitter was then brought up as another barometer of Pardew's support - I queried how many 'Pardew-neutral' supporters would go onto an internet medium to express their feelings. You're now arguing whether there's more/less support for Pardew on Twitter - I'm saying that the views expressed on there aren't necessarily reflective of the wider fan base.

can't see it being many, he hasn't been that good well played, sir.

I'd say he has that from the majority, already. Look at the top of this page. N-O is in no way representative. He's not majorly backed on twitter I'd say 50/50 split. How often do people go on to the internet to exclaim how non-plussed they are about a product or a company? You only ever get the extremes: people promoting and people complaining. The split is overwhelmingly in favour of the latter. Disagree with that completely, its a forum of discussion so you will see both sides of the coin. people are expressing thoughts, not jsut negative ones. There is s*** loads of praise on there. Not sure I understand what you mean by this? My point was that you will see people take to Twitter to specifically praise something, its not overwhelmingly in favour of negative viewpoint. You're "reaching" to put it kindly I'm not reaching at all; tell me how many people are saying "wow, that Pardew...he's doing an average job #standard"?

I realized that he was t***. :lol: Didn't even write me a 'Dear John' letter...

I'd say he has that from the majority, already. Look at the top of this page. N-O is in no way representative. He's not majorly backed on twitter I'd say 50/50 split. How often do people go on to the internet to exclaim how non-plussed they are about a product or a company? You only ever get the extremes: people promoting and people complaining. The split is overwhelmingly in favour of the latter. Disagree with that completely, its a forum of discussion so you will see both sides of the coin. people are expressing thoughts, not jsut negative ones. There is shit loads of praise on there.

Don't ask him to answer a specific question, he spends all of his time posturing and pontificating to deflect from his inability to do so.

especially the bit in bold; we've got a better squad and about 10 less games to cater for (presuming we do take the cups semi-seriously).

I'd say he has that from the majority, already. Look at the top of this page. N-O is in no way representative. He's not majorly backed on twitter I'd say 50/50 split. How often do people go on to the internet to exclaim how non-plussed they are about a product or a company? You only ever get the extremes: people promoting and people complaining. The split is overwhelmingly in favour of the latter.

Semtex, like Skeletor said there's no point in talking about it anymore, some just don't agree with our mindset. My fear is we'll see exactly the same tactics adopted in the weekend... I would be surprised and disappointed in AP if this was the case.

Why is this? Are you expecting a sudden increase in managerial retirements? Are they expanding the number of Premiership teams?

Who has been saying this? They're a very good team with some exceptional players. Ask SAF.

If this bit is true then I'm just thinking how much they would have been shitting themselves at the prospect of being got at for a period longer than 30 mins. It's so infuriating to watch us play like we did in that 'purple' period of the match compared with the first half. It's like two different teams. To take 40 mins to have our first shot on goal is inexcusable in my eyes. If we had scored 1 or god forbid (letting my mind run wild now) 2 goals in the first half the crowd would have been a fucking bear pit and they'd be passing the andrex round in the second half. Point is the crowd played a big part last night but only when we decided to try and attack them, could have got the crowd factor involved a lot sooner. They expected us to go for them in the first half, that's partly why the first half was so turgid as they sat back expecting pressure. If we'd gone a goal or two up, they would have brought Cardozo on a lot sooner and gone back to their 'normal' style of play. Whether this would have been enough to get an away goal (or two, or three) is debatable but not beyond the realms of probabilities.

He looked like he'd picked up a knock at the end on Sunday (along with Cabaye) and there was talk in one of the threads that he's not able to handle multiple games in a week. Not sure if that's related to his current knock or just a product of missing such a long time with his muscle injuries but it would stand to reason, rather than Pardew deliberately starting a teenager who hasn't been on the pitch for a while.

had been screaming out for a break since November...looked absolutely drained and mentally shot. Gets 14 games to get back into training mode, away from the spotlight and he's back to his old 'fairly reliable' self.

not me, totally the right tactic as i said but seemingly the balance wasn't right in the first half at all as from what i understand if they could finish the tie should have been over before 70 mins arrived Probably rode our luck/allowed them a few too many clear chances for a team trying to kill a game off for an hour but, lets be honest, if we could finish then the away tie would have been 2-0/3-1 before Santon's lapse. We're playing in the quarter finals of a European competition. For many of our players, this was the first (and possibly the last) time they've reached this stage - the experience will do the squad the world of good and give them a taste of what they're playing for next season. Felipao suggested playing Marveaux for Bigi in the starting XI but the inference is that Marveaux wasn't fit enough to start (or at least play a full half) - how would we have set up otherwise?

Tricky season to judge him on, since we have had our best XI in 1 or 2 games (if at all?) We began the season with a seriously under-strength squad which wasn't his fault and by the time he got the players in the season was gone. The new players also didn't have a pre-season yet some expect them to be playing their best football right away. There are so many examples of top players who took a while to get going after a January transfer, yet people blame this all on Pardew "making them worse" which seems equally childish to me. Much of the criticism for our problems should be directed at the board, who completely f*cked up last summer. I think any manager would have struggled to some extent with that squad, with that many fixtures, and that many injuries. Last season was incredible, with a good slice of luck, and that perhaps landed more praise at his door than was due. But this season has gone the other way; much of it has not been his fault, and I'm not sure all of the criticism is deserved. One excellent season and one terrible one. The jury is still out in my mind. Honestly though, changing manager is a major gamble. Could we do better? Yes. Could we do worse? Definitely. There are loads of iffy managers out there like Souness, Allardyce etc who would be lining up for the post. How many in that line would really be able to take us forwards? Keeping in mind they will be working with the same board who in my view are to blame for most of the current mess. Long story short I think he's worth another season based on his track record, but I am not blind to his shortcomings (negative tactics etc). I just don't think sacking him is worth the gamble, having seen some of the managers we've had in the last 10 years.

Obviously not reading the same threads as me. There were several people whining before the match about Pardew's comments of "keeping it tight until 70mins", apparently this was his "cowardly" way of giving up the tie before we'd even kicked off... Benfica seemed to be set up to try and hit us on the counter (perhaps expecting us to do the 'British' tactic of pouring men forward at home to get level on the tie), they only introduced the 'better' offensive minded players once we'd scored (Cardozo, etc) so who is to say that if we had pushed to score earlier in the game, they wouldn't have brought out the 'big guns' sooner and made our task even more difficult? (either working harder to contain better players from scoring or working harder to score another goal or two if they score) For all of the faults Pardew has, he's done reasonably well in these two legs and in the latter stages of the competition. Lets pick the bones from his carcass when he does things like Brighton (a) x2, rather than when he does a decent job.

I've got no desire to feel less or more superior than anyone else, so I'm not sure how you've gleamed that from my guff; I'm surprised that someone like yourself would have an issue with people being different from each other. It'd make for a very grey board if we were all sheep. I'd love for us to play exciting, attacking, vibrant football that wins us trophies and plaudits. However, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. If we're going to have a period of cutting our cloth accordingly, I don't see why we need to make a song and dance about it every time we don't play cutting edge football.

We did some things better than usual, I was quite impressed with some of our passing and attacking. We actually looked as if we'd done some work on both. before the introduction of ben arfa/marveaux?