TRon

Seems we are aiming high in any case. Whether he arrives is another story, but you can only try.

Defoe is still a good premier striker. Not saying I'd want him, but we haven't got one. Of all the positions to fill that one is going to be the most tricky, so for people to scoff at the idea of Defoe is a bit rich.

We could (and probably will) get cheaper and younger. Better? I don't know about that.

I wouldn't say three times, spaced out over four months, was a 'habit' like. Plus there have been plenty where we've played out results effectively (Bolton 10 men and Wigan come to mind) and times where we've scored late to get results (Tiote vs Arsenal, Taylor vs Chelsea). At the minute, I can't really put much between them. Hughton gave us some spectacular results and a decent start, whilst Pardew made us stronger against the teams we should be beating and given us a decent finish. There's more to it than just the games in which we conceded after the 90th minute. Just go through our league results this season on .com (and remember the character of last season for good measure, to get the tone of our play). Under Hughton we failed to hold a lead in 2 games - Stoke and Chelsea (we had to last 84 minutes in that game). That's gone up to 6 for Pardew (Sunderland, Tottenham, Bolton, Everton, Blackpool and West Bromwich). That's 5 and 12 points lost respectively. I definitely don't, but a handful might count Liverpool and make it 7 leads lost for Pardew, fwiw. Regarding close games we held onto tightly after getting the advantage (i.e. not slaughters like Villa and Wolves), it's either 3-3 or 3-2 to Hughton (depends on whether you think we should have let the Birmingham home game become close after going 2-0 ahead). (The other games are Everton, Arsenal and West Ham vs. Wigan and Birmingham away, fyi) As for turning games around and not letting an early goal decide it, Pardew's only managed that 2 times - Chelsea and Arsenal (I've already given my thoughts on that last one...). Hughton managed it between 3 and 5 times - Wolves, Wigan and West Ham. Arguments can be made for Manchester City away and Blackburn at home where each time we equalised earlyish (24th and 47th minutes) and started pressing for winners before getting suckered late on. On the one hand the result turned out the same, but on the other we at least gave ourselves a shot at winning and taking three points, which boded well for the future. That's 2 points gained for Pardew and 5/7 for Hughton. The idea our finishes have improved under Pardew doesn't bear out. The truth is that most of his good results, in fact most of our just about tolerable results as well, come after we've started well and often finished weaker. It's a statement of the obvious, but our better finishes match up with our comebacks, and so under Pardew we've only definitely gotten better towards the end of a game on 2 occasions - Chelsea and Arsenal. An argument can be made for 3 (seeing the Bolton game out with 10 men). Personally, there's no way I'd list Liverpool at home here when he'd only met the players 48 hours earlier, any more than I'd give caretaker Beardsley credit, but some people might make it 4. Hughton's second halves also got stronger 2 or 3 times, meanwhile (Wolves, Wigan and putting the winner past West Ham away). As a final small point, seeing as you said we had better starts under Hughton, we only went ahead 2 times in the first quarter (23 minutes) of our games, while we went behind 5 times - Aston Villa and Chelsea vs. Man City, Wigan, West Ham, Blackburn, Bolton. Under Pardew, it's been 7/8 times ahead and 4/5 times behind. The arguable ones for Pardew are Liverpool (as usual) and Aston Villa at home (they went ahead before the 24th minute mark, which you might let squeak in, given stoppage time). Interesting stats. Hughton did seem to be quite good at closing games out because he was naturally more cautious than Pardew. Tough one to balance because we probably get more wins against weaker teams the way Pardew sets us up.

I haven't seen much of Forster but if he's better than Krul he must be pretty good. Krul makes the odd gaffe but I would still prefer him to the majority of premier goal keepers.

Something isn't right about Defoe. He's a good finisher, quick and has an eye for goal, yet he seems to disappear for long stretches of the season. I don't know if he's just not playing much, but for a team like Spurs he should be banging them in.

http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/news/article/-/9501383/qpr-ahead-newcastle-tottenham-defender-bassong/ We shouldn't have let him go. Now he's had a stint in London and according to that article wants to stay there so let him.

This is one of those threads where you look at it and wonder whether to click on it, give in to temptation then invariably wish you hadn't.

The fact that Celtic have loaned our third choice keeper and he's their star player pretty much sums up the state of the SPL. Scottish fans won't like it but Pardew is 100% right.

Charlie signing for us will be a much needed reality check for small town club fans who have far too high a regard for themselves.

Well I watched him last week when he scored two goals and I didn't think he looked that much different to the player we had here. Still looks to over dribble sometimes and play with his head down. Still puts in some great crosses and hits a good shot. I'd like him back because he's better than Jonas but I don't think we should pay over the odds for him. He's got 12 months left at Wigan, so £8m tops.

We are still playing Hughton's system (with the exception of Carroll), Pardew has changed little. I honestly think that we would have won more games this season had Hughton still been in charge. We may too have lost more, but I feel we'd have more than 46 points. Hughton got his results with Carroll still here, Pardew had to get them with a much weaker team. You can't really ignore that.

This. While there shouldn't be any doubt that he's been good for the club as a leader it's not like he's going to take us forward. Shelve the talks if he's dragging his feet and let him play out his time here. Same goes for Barton.

We played some good stuff in the first half to get 3-0 up in the first place and Barton pulling the strings in the centre was a big reason. Nolan seems to be a big character off the field though so he's worth a new contract on that basis alone...so long as he's not going to start every match by default.

Happy enough overall but handing the Mackems the bragging rights has really took the shine off it for me. It was all self-inflicted which makes it worse.

Pardew has had a decent season but a couple of the results have been down to his crap decisions. The Stevenage game was down to him and now this one. You can only hope that he's learned his lesson and won't let Smith near the pitch again.

3-2 at that point. Let's be honest...what was he going to do to stop West Brom? He can't tackle these days. He can't pass, and he can't hold the ball or run with it. We might as well have put Ole Sodeberg on the pitch, at least he can fucking run.

Because it's like playing with 10 men.

We conceded two of the goals after the useless twat came on though.

Was only given 20 mins or so but still managed to fuck us up royally. Well done lad.

You can roll your eyes but he's fucked things up at his previous clubs with hare brained substitutions.

Another one of Pardew's brain fart substitution days has cost us local bragging rights.

If we allow the makems to finish ahead of us after being 3-0 up at half time....

Now we know.

Sitting in 9th spot as of now. Very satisfying.