Cronky

It's going to get worse before it gets better too. A bog standard XI fucking schooled us today, wait til Hazard, Willian and Oscar start running at us. They're not a bog standard XI. They're better than their league position suggests. Di Canio made a complete mess of things. Today, they looked relaxed and we looked nervous and under pressure. The expectation seemed to get to our players a bit, but it was always going to be a close game. 3-0 isn't a close game. Not my point. It was always going to be competitive. They seemed in a better frame of mind for it than we did. We looked a bit frantic at times.

It's going to get worse before it gets better too. A bog standard XI fucking schooled us today, wait til Hazard, Willian and Oscar start running at us. They're not a bog standard XI. They're better than their league position suggests. Di Canio made a complete mess of things. Today, they looked relaxed and we looked nervous and under pressure. The expectation seemed to get to our players a bit, but it was always going to be a close game.

Yeah, Krul was fuming. Never seen him as mad as that before Krul often bawls out his defenders. I wish he'd cut it out, and concentrate more on his own game, which has slipped a bit.

Who would have thought we would have missed our best striker quite a bit? My mind is f***ing blown from reading your post I don't know why everyone's getting their knickers in a twist. I was just pointing out that the difference between today's performance and Tuesday's was Remy, which isn't a point I've seen made. And it wasn't just his finishing but his movement that was missed today.

His defending often looks tentative to me, and the second goal was another example of that.

I think we missed Remy quite a bit. Shola, as usual, doesn't deserve half the stick he gets, but he doesn't have Remy's movement and we really needed that for our formation to work the way it did against Norwich.

I think he'll need to play with more aggression if he's going to succeed in this league. Whether he's got it in him - I've got my doubts.

I'm pleased that he's been prepared to give the Norwich midfield another go, despite it being a high-pressure game. In the second half of the season, there should be no excuse for not going for it. We're not going to be relegated, we'll not make the top four, and we don't want the crappy Europa league. We should give the young players some experience.

It's still an utterly ridiculous sentence. I think he realised that the minute he said it, and then tried to correct the impression. Often Pardew is his own worst enemy when a microphone is stuck in front of him. I think what he wanted to put across is that supporters shouldn't actually complain about us being 8th, given the teams above us. He should either come out and say that, or say nothing.

It's well worth reading the entirety of what he said, and putting the quote in context. Not specifically addressed at you, Ian.

I hope so. My fear was that because of the pressure of the derby, and the discontent about Cabaye leaving, Pardew was going to be excessively worried about losing and then end up taking a conservative approach. The team did well against Norwich, with the bold choice of playing Benny and Sammy together paying off. Pardew should hold his nerve.

I don't believe that Kinnear's role is anything like as significant as that. It seems to me that he's Ashley's personal adviser and little else.

Not being sarcy or anything but is the club generating lots of cash for him? Or to put it another way has he got his money back yet? Again: Add to that the third biggest ground in the country, which is always pretty much full. Now we've raked in £33 million more than the second bottom club, £85m more than the club in 10th. I VERY much doubt that every club ablve 15th place is making tens of millions of pounds worth of loss every year, I find that impossible to believe. And many of these are smaller clubs with less earning potental, smaller grounds and no European football. Therefore the way I see it there are 2 possibilities here: 1) Newcastle United are generating vast amounts of money for Mike Ashley or 2) The people in charge of the finances are such incompetent retards that they need locking up. One of those simply has to be true. Given that Ashley is an acknowledged astute businessman who runs a tight ship, that helps us discount point 2). Therefore if the club claim they're not making a profit, I'd suggest they're lying. Maybe he's not got all his money back, but there's a hell of a lot he can help himself to if he wants. Are you saying that Ashley has pocketed £45m for himself over the last 5 years?

You haven't lived very long.

Really? Seems pretty obvious to me. We've clearly offered too little for him, both in terms of fee and wages. Am I getting this wrong but I got the impression he means he doesn't want the pressure of succeeding cabaye? Surely a fee is between two clubs and shouldn't affect a players ego! Might be wrong but I got feeling he bottled it. Mind club should've known all about this before Christmas let alone cabaye bid coming in. It sounds like the player just wants to see what his options are at the end of the season. Whether Lyon are back on the up or whether a CL club comes sniffing around. That's understandable. If it was Chelsea or Man U in for him I'm quite sure he wouldn't be bothered about the transfer fee or who he was replacing.

A decent player, but we don't need another midfield anchorman and there's no way West Ham would sell, in their current position.

Technically speaking, I can see where the FA are coming from, because it was the meeting of heads that turned it from a yellow card incident to a red, and in that respect it was Remy that made contact. Johnson started it and so IMO is at least equally to blame. A bit annoying, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

I suspect that his agent has advised him that bigger, CL-type clubs may be interested and he should wait till the summer. Aubemayang scenario again. Players that can really improve us are likely to be in demand elsewhere.

The scary thing with Man City was that Spurs were pressuring their time and space on the ball quite well, but it didn't make any difference. They were still able to pass the ball through them.

Remy's defence would be that although he planted his head on Johnson's, it wasn't actually a butt. I can't imagine the FA will set a precedent by saying that's okay.

Well, I believe you. Yeah. Call me Mr Sad, but that's given me some hope.

Yeah, think so.

I'm hopeful of this one. An attacking central midfield player would suit us better than a playmaker like Cabaye. I know Cabaye played further forward recently, but I don't think that was his optimum position.

You, his mum, dad, useless brother and nobody else would be my guess. Looks like he surprised quite a few people other than the ones you mentioned. Might even have surprised you a little in the first half particularly, but even if he did, you wouldn't come out and admit it, would you? He did OK at times. It's still beyond an embarrassment that he's starting games for us in the PL. This one is not going to swing your way, mate. The lad is class.

It's a shame we won't see the Remy-Benny-Sammy trio for another three games at least, because they really carved them open. They're definitely worth another go. Still not sure the balance is right with the three behind them. I'd rather see Anita or Tiote but not both. As for the sending off, on another day it could have been a yellow, but if you make contact head to head you can't really complain.