TRon

It was the first sentence which I was disputing He clearly didn't maximise his resources at Newcastle, by playing long ball to small strikers. His gameplan was thus utter shite.

Barton might be a high earner but at least he is earning it these days. One of our key players so he must stay to the end of his contract. Whether we'll be able to offer him a new one on similar terms is the real question mark.

I don't see why you need a shitload of money to play football the Allardyce way, he's had the most success with smaller clubs who can only get results through buying big physical players with emphasis on set pieces. When he was given an expensive squad of smaller players at Newcastle he still tried to play the same way, which if anything showcases his lack of flexibility and basic understanding of football common sense.

Plenty of top clubs are rumoured to be sniffing round Andy Carroll with figures of £20m being bandied about by clubs not quite in that bracket like Spurs. Should be interesting to see how Ashley and his muppet deal with having money thrown at them for a valuable asset.

Whatever he's on that contract was handed out during Ashley's initial big spending phase which ended with us getting relegated. I don't know why people keep chiming in with Colo's supposed wages, does anybody seriously think when his contract is up he'll get that sort of money again? At least Colo's a foreign mercenary and stays fit. What's local lad Taylor's excuse for wanting to screw his home town club? Colo's hardly a mercenary. “At the end of a player’s career, the only thing that counts is their checking account, they don’t feed themselves with cups neither with medals, and I fear he could miss the contract of his life. “The pay rise is very important for Fabricio,” he added. “Here (in Spain) you have a better life, but a player’s career is very short" - Colocinni's agent around the time he was threatening that he'd leave Depo the following season on a Webster if they didn't let him leave to come here. Like I said I don't know why people keep chiming in with what Colo's getting paid, unless there's some way we can get in a time machine and go back and renegotiate his contract. Otherwise we should look at what we were paying Michael owen and on that basis quadruple Andy Carroll's wages.

Jose seems to have remained under the radar for a long time now, although the English media seems to have finally seen the light. Getting a lot more praise these days across the board.

The Sunderland fans seem to have this ludicrous notion that Bruce might fancy him.

What good was that to us? I wouldn't say we were going down, but regardless of what he's done in the past and where we were in the table, we were in relegation form when he was sacked. And you could say exactly the same about our record with Keegan. 5 wins out of 19. The point is, there is far, far more evidence to suggest Allardyce would have kept us up than not. His record with Bolton, Blackburn and even us to some extent, points to a fairly strong conclusion. What a fucking daft conclusion. Bolton and Blackburn were teams built on sides with physically large players especially up front. The thick fat bastard Allardyce didn't have enough nous to adjust to the players we had and tried to implement his anti-football tactics with players who were bought for different qualities altogether. What a fucking thick cunt he was.

In what way is Fat Sam a shoestring manager? He needed a coach to bus in his backroom staff when he came from Bolton to Newcastle. Although why you need 10 different coaches to instruct players to hoof the ball towards the corner flag is beyond me.

At least Ashley seems to be backing Pardew to bring in his own staff, something he wasn't prepared to do with Hughton. I hope this means he'll back Pardew with transfer funds as well.

Whatever he's on that contract was handed out during Ashley's initial big spending phase which ended with us getting relegated. I don't know why people keep chiming in with Colo's supposed wages, does anybody seriously think when his contract is up he'll get that sort of money again? At least Colo's a foreign mercenary and stays fit. What's local lad Taylor's excuse for wanting to screw his home town club?

There was always going to be a reaction from the fans after Ashley sacked Hughton who brought us back from oblivion last season. Unless Pardew causes the team's morale to sink like a stone I would think all the fuss will die down within a week or two. Newcastle fans aren't vindictive but it's up to Pardew to earn the support. There has to be some justification for Ashley to have made such a move.

The biggest difference between Williamson and Taylor is that Williamson doesn't think he's worth superstar wages. If Taylor can get bigger wages at another club then good luck to him.

What do you class as ball retention? He picks the ball up outside his own box and carries it, relives pressure. Now of course lately he hasnt been doing this as well, but when he's full of confidence he does it as well as anyone in the team. That's not really ball retention though, as while he might on occasion carry the ball forward 10-20 yards, he usually ends up walking into trouble. That's what bugs me about his game, he never tries to run past players. He stands, waits for the ball to played into feet, puts the ball on right foot, waits until the defender (or two) come in to close him down, and then tries to take the ball forward. It is ball retention. Im not sure what else carrying the ball into the oppositions half is classed as then? I could dribble 90 yards up the field, but if I pass the ball to opposition defence I haven't retained the ball. Iniesta and Xavi are ball retainers, as nearly everything they do goes to a team mate. I personally don't feel that Jonas has that quality, his decision making is a major flaw which effects everything he does, include retention of the ball. He picks the wrong pass, picks the wrong time to run and where to run. Like I said, his passing stats are flattering because he'll pass 3-5 yards to Enrique 20 times a game, but those passes are usually concentrated around the halfway line. His forward passing his terrible. If you took passes to Jose away his figures aren't that stellar. A lot of truth in there, Jonas is so frustrating how he holds the ball too long or makes a poor final pass. He does lose the ball more than he should because he makes bad decisions. He does show for the ball and runs all day though so at least he's not a passenger. Not good enough but better than what we've got until HBA comes back (if he does).

He's not asking for a squad player's wages.

Despite the fact I have always had a bad feeling about Pardew I will always want the manager of Newcastle to succeed even if I can't stand him. It was the same with Souness even though I knew deep down we'd be fucked in the long run. Pardew seems to have a bit more football nous about him but I will need to be convinced about his man-management skills over more than one game.

Memo to Danny Gutless: this is how it's done.

Shola had more time on the pitch today than he had last weekend. Chris Hughton rebuilt the team spirit at this club but I never really felt he used subs to best effect. Maybe Pardew just got jammy with this one but it worked. He did talk about pressuring the ball before the game and Ranger did that brilliantly.

Sol starts off the games well but looks a bit knackered after 70 mins. Good thread though.

What a difference enthusuiasm makes. Shola looked like a crippled horse in comparison.

Made them early as well. Ranger on for Ameobi had a massive impact on the way the game was going.

If Pardew thinks he's under pressure before the game I wonder how he'll feel after we've been shafted in his first game as boss?

This sort of slur on NUFC fans really winds me up because you hear it so often. |I'm sick of hearing from other fans and all these pundits on tv and radio how we are too demanding. You can bet your bottom dollar that it was these same pundits who were howling with indignant rage when Ashley refused to give Hughton a new contract, now when we object to the manner he was sacked suddenly we're throwing the baby out with the bath water.

This is my view basically. Barton might not be effective every game but the ones in which he is will probably keep us up. If he goes, Danny Gutless will be raising the white flag to every midfielder in the division, that much must be pretty obvious by now. Let Barton play out his contract, those 18 months will be crucial in keeping us up. My worry is whether he'll be able to stomach Pardew as manager. That might force issues somewhat.

I find it equally strange that, for many people, it would apparently have been okay if Jol, Klinsmann or O'Neill were brought in. They're bigger names, but who's to say that they'd be better people for this situation? All sorts of assumptions are being made about Pardew's ability, based on very little knowledge or insight. The anger about Pardew being sounded out well in advance is also a bit misplaced. Do people seriously think that doesn't normally happen? That an owner who's unhappy about his manager never approaches anyone else before the actual sacking? This decision is a massive gamble, but one that Ashley felt he needed to take. It's normal to wait until a team is in trouble before making a change, but in this case he's decided to act now. The die is cast, and we just have to hope it works out. It depends at the end of the day whether you have trust in Ashley or Llambias' judgement on Pardew's ability. I admit I don't know that much about him other than his inability to make use of Mascherano and Tevez and penchant for sleeping with club staff wives. I wouldn't have been in any position to make the call that Pardew is the man to guide our future for the next 5 years. But the club have gone out of their way to make sure he is that man so the onus is on them and Pardew to prove that judgement was sound.