Cronky

We were looking vulnerable before the sending off. Looks worse now.

Defence looks a bit hesitant, as though they're leaving things for one another. Tiote being a bit too smart in trying to pass the ball out of defence. He's got a lot of pride but sometimes you just need to hoof it where you're facing.

Looks from that like he's made the difference between staying up and going down again.

Tbh I suspect he's just milking the attention that all this will-I-won't-I stuff is bringing him. He loves the spotlight and he seems to be giving a new interview every day.

It is not. This club, or rather this owner, is unusually bold when it comes to giving out contracts. We've seen quite a few 5 year + contracts being given out, and also contracts to players who were injured at the time (Gosling, Ben Arfa) Ashley is a gambler, and I think he's balancing the risks. The risk of putting a young player on a shorter contract is that they may leave for nothing or a reduced fee at an earlier date. The risk of giving him a longer contract is that he may turn out to be not good enough or unfit and yet remain on the payroll. Presumably in this case, Ashley feels that the player is more likely to be willing to be sold rather than hang around without playing. Who knows, Ashley's calculation may be the right one, and other clubs have got it wrong.

Old Trafford, 1968. A 6-0 defeat. George Best ripping us to shreds. I've known happier times.

Yeah, I agree with this. It's more about building a consistent foundation by having players that (a) come through regularly enough to provide enough players and (b) have enough attachment to the club to stick around and care about how the club performs. Man Utd a brilliant example as you say, and Inter (and possibly Chelsea) an example of how success that is only built through mercenaries can be fleeting. SAF has always said that it's important for a club to have a regular supply of young players coming through the ranks. Why exactly it's important I don't know, but it's probably one of those intangibles like team spirit. The stars may need reminding where they came from, and mixing with hungry young players helps to maintain their own hunger and desire for self-improvement. It's interesting to compare Man U and Chelsea now. Man U are top of the league with a side that's very much in a transitional phase and ought to be there for the taking. Chelsea have a more talented squad, but they seem to have run out of energy.

If Jose won't extend his contract in the summer, then £8 million will be a decent offer which I'm sure Ashley would accept. If a player is on the point of seeing out the last year of his contract, his transfer value plummets.

Bellamy's winning goal against Feyenoord. The nearest I've come to complete hysteria in my adult life.

With the timing of Harper's comments, it sounds like he's worried that Pardew might play Taylor ahead of Williamson like he did last time. I didn't think that Williamson deserved to lose his place before, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of his team mates felt the same. Williamson has played a big part in our progress this last year.

I don't rate Cisse. He's a good athlete, but clumsy on the ball. I think he's ended up in the Greek league for a reason.

It’s an interesting point. A difficulty is that players who come to the end of their contract might seek a rise that’s above the norm, because a potential buying club might be prepared to give them a big rise or a big signing on fee, because they won’t have to pay a transfer fee. It’s a common source of wage inflation IMO. With our situation, if I’m reading it right, we might be expecting players like Barton or Enrique to not just forego a rise, but to take some sort of a cut in order to conform to our new salaries policy. Maybe they get round it with all sorts of performance-related bonuses, or a re-signing on fee, I don’t know. It’s why the financial fair play rules are so necessary, because sugardaddies like Abramovich have artificially inflated the wage market, although he’s not the only one. It can’t be right that, within a team game, some players command huge salaries when their contribution isn’t that much greater than the others. That’s bound to create resentment and competition, so from that point of view I think Ashley is on the right lines. The trouble is, other clubs are taking a more short-term view, and we’re not operating in isolation. It’s a matter of holding our nerve, and Ashley’s approach may well prove to the best one in the longer term. Ultimately, the big problem that needs addressing is the huge gaps in income between the Champions League clubs and the rest of the Premiership, and between the Premiership and the Championship. But that’s another story. Sorry, long post.

What can be a bit frustrating is when people ignore the general point you’re making and seize on particular words or sentences to attack. I think that’s what’s happened here.

£10m is just a newspaper figure plucked from thin air. The actual figure will depend on what competition there is for his signature, and where he himself wants to go. I imagine West Ham will have to settle for around £5 million.

Cole can produce moments of skill - like with his goal against Birmingham in the League Cup semi - that put him in a class above your average target man. Hence the international recognition. The natural progression of his career got disrupted by the Abramovich revolution at Chelsea. I don't think he got the right chances at the right time, and then ended up being farmed out on loan here and there. His temperament was also a bit wayward. We could be the chance he's been waiting for, at the right time, so I'd be happy to see him sign.

I'd say it's normal for fans of other clubs to be impatient, for young players to be judged too early and for the owner to be asked to get out his cheque book as the only way forward. I'd agree with Ian W, that our long period of failure and the so-near-but-so-far disappointments of the last few years have probably made our supporters more jumpy than the average, especially when you consider how much the club means to the city. The sort of signing we need to avoid is where we pay over the odds in fees and wages in order to secure a player who wouldn't normally sign for us (eg Owen) It places undue emphasis on the ability of one individual to transform a team. Unless you're going to pay over the odds to secure a number of players (eg Man City, Chelsea), it's not going to work. We can't afford that and the new financial rules ought to make that strategy impossible anyway.

Come on, people. This aint difficult. He's not saying we won't pay big money. He's saying you don't have to pay big money to get quality. And he's saying it to publicly distance himself from Joey's rather thoughtless comment about players who come cheap.

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-united/2011/02/20/big-spending-won-t-guarantee-united-success-79310-28200050/ Pardew's response.

By his own admission, Cole's career was slow to take off due to a lack of self-discipline. He's now a decent target man, and a lot better than Leon Best.

I hope you're right.

That whole episode struck me as odd and a bit impulsive. If we're going to blow £12m I'd rather spend it elsewhere.

We've got a new policy on salaries and it was always going to be difficult when the contracts of the high earners were coming up for renewal. It looks like Jose has had an offer from Liverpool which we won't match. I'm not convinced that Liverpool's prospects are better than ours in the long term, but they're a bigger name for sure. I think he'll be off. Barton I'm not so sure about, because while he may get more money elsewhere I don't think one of the bigger clubs will want to take the risk.

wrong demographic for most I'd imagine. In an ideal world I'd pick him, Pele and Maradona but unfortunately I've never seen them live and you can't properly judge on highlights however good the reputation. I picked him. In fact, I'd rate him as the best player I ever saw, in terms of his overall contribution to his team. Ajax and the Dutch national team were nothing until he came along. Allied to his talent, he had great leadership qualities and a very quick football brain. It was no surprise when, unlike most great players, he went on to become a great manager.

I'll go for 3-5-2. Shilton Walker Adams Ferdinand Steven Gazza Robson Gerrard Cooper Rooney Shearer

Yeah. Enrique is a good player and an improved player, but I'm not sure he's good enough for a Champions League club and the Spanish national side. His defending is still a bit hit and miss and he's still prone to giving the ball away in his own half.