TRon

Hughton seems to have a real problem picking a balanced side but hopefully Guthrie will just be glad to be back playing and put in a good shift on the right. Normally he looks like he'd rather be in Iraq than on the wing. He can deliver a decent cross now and then.

It really is. A bit like "it really is" has become a catchphrase for Shearer.

Me too....until I remember that we have Kevin Nolan up front in the premier right now.

WHoever buys them stll has shit loads of work to do, they aint suddenly going to be able to challenge again. They have a lot of shit in that squad, Carra is aging as well as Gerrard and a huffy injured Spaniard. And they need a new stadium. Anyone who bought them must realise that, and you can only assume that they have the money to be able to get them up there again or why bother?

Jammy bastards. Looks like it's only clubs like ours that have to pay the price of being run badly.

He should have been played on the wing last season when we were wasting Guthrie in that position. Her should have been played on the wing in the Carling Cup this season rather than Nile Ranger. Not really sure what all that's about.

I'm happy that Carroll has signed a new contract, he's a huge threat in the air and he has a good strike on him, that alone makes him worth a fair bit in this league. He's still very raw though, I think both Shola and Ranger are far better with the ball at their feet. Carroll never seems to gel with any of his partners and I think that's the main reason why.

I almost took the bait. I can see he's not the finished article, and might never be, but as a right winger with attributes which are in short supply at Newcastle I'm just surprised he has been shipped out, especially after a MOM performance in his last appearance.

It was another cracker aswell. Just goes to show what regular football does for players. ...and playing in a lower division. Aye, good on the lad, he's found his level. He's not 'committed' or 'hard' enough for the Premier clearly. Pace, skill and a good strike are so over-rated.

Like me, Martin Samuel picks up on the reducer element: Just like Hatem Ben Arfa's leg, rules are not meant to be broken At least nobody claimed Nigel de Jong was 'not that sort of player', after the tackle that may have ended Hatem Ben Arfa's season. Brian Kidd, the Manchester City assistant manager, came closest to it, saying De Jong was as 'honest as the day is long'. Maybe he weekends in Reykjavik this time of year. As we know from the World Cup, De Jong is exactly that sort of player. That is why Bert van Marwijk, coach of Holland and clearly still feeling pangs of guilt in the aftermath of the dirtiest World Cup final in recent memory, has now dropped him. He said De Jong needlessly pushes the limit, although he could equally have been generalising about the game in England. We play a version of the rules over here. Roberto Mancini, De Jong's manager at Manchester City, said as much when we talked in his office two weeks ago. He said the referee never whistles in England. Fabio Capello used the same phrase to describe the Premier League during his first year as national manager. Maybe after all those years in buttoned-down Serie A, the Italians find this liberating. Other countries have fouls, we deploy euphemisms. De Jong is the type of player who likes to let an opponent know he is there. He gets stuck in and gives them something to think about. A favoured tactic is the little reducer. That was what De Jong tried to give Ben Arfa after three minutes on Sunday, breaking his left leg in two places. The broken leg of Eduardo (right) for Arsenal against Birmingham City came early, too. The reducer strikes again. Tony Pulis, manager of Stoke City, may think the biggest curse in the game is diving, but he is wrong. The reducer, and this unique version of the rules that maintains its presence in our game, is the real problem. Reading, for instance, have had three players sent off in as many matches but Matt Mills, the club captain, thinks referees are to blame. He said: 'The Championship is physical and referees will have to accept that. If we don't do anything about this, it will slow our game down.' No, the Championship is actually just a football league like any other. It is not operating off a separate code of practice, but the same rule book that governs every club from La Liga to the local park. A foul is a foul, not a reducer, and there is no special dispensation. All De Jong reduced on Sunday was the career of a young Newcastle United player who looked to be a genuine addition to the worth of the Premier League. Maybe that is how we should approach it, purely as a business problem; because nobody seems particularly interested in applying the actual rules. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1317980/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Its-good-talk-Fabio-Capello.html#ixzz11brZoI00 I had shocker C + P this but it is in the right order now What I find shameful is that someone from our own club, Colin Calderwood has been quoted defending this thuggery while Martin Samuels who is supposed to be anti-Newcastle is saying what we are all thinking.

Clearly just relieved HBA won't be there to destroy his side. If it happened to Modric he'd be squealing like a stuck pig...but then what can you expect from a cunt like him?

Yep. I don't agree with his use of subs or his love of Nolan, but his signings have been top notch this season. Ben Arfa and Tiote would grace better sides than us at this point in time. Absolute class players.

Imagine Feguson, Mourinho or Wenger defending a cunt who had broken their best players leg....impossible isn't it? I don't object to Calderwood being spineless but he could at least keep his trap shut. On the same note, props to Enrique who has called for DeJong to be banned for the period that Arfa is out injured. That's how a person who cares sticks up for their own.

Just posted that in the de Jong thread. "Tackles like that have to stay as part of the game" Fucking moron. Well if we get relegated and he gets sacked, Calderwood can console himself that those tackles are still in the game while him and Ben Arfa are out.

De Jong dropped his arse with tiote standing over him, who wouldn't, he probably fought lions on his way to training as a bairn!

Fantastic deconstruction of the stats based bullshit too many people get caught up in, the part about wingers getting to the byline and getting crosses in which are wasted bcause no one is getting into the box (usually because they are too slow or lazy) is a case in point. Anyway, this isn't the right time to criticise Hughton. Despite all the blows in that game against City the side showed plenty of character and fight, and that's to Hughton's credit. It might yet be enough for us to steer clear of trouble this season even if the fire power looks weak so far.

This is my position as well. While the players did themselves proud yesterday in their response to the setbacks it's going to take more than good spirit to keep us in this division. The lack of goals from forwards (and I include wide players in that) is a worry. Can't argue with the effort though and hopefully it will be enough to keep us up.

No he hasn't but if you think we are going to sign players of this ability every week you are living in cloud cuckoo land. IIRC it was you who was in tears when Keggy Keegan walked out. Ironically he left because he wasn't going to be able to sign players like Ben Arfa who make a season ticket worth paying for. Doesn't really make some of the reactions on here any less cringeworthy. I'm not too fussed what anyone else thinks tbh, but I was really looking forward to watching us this season because of this signing so I'm well pissed off. It's not like we've got a glut of talented players with killer end product who can win matches. Still I suppose we can enjoy Jonas dribbling round 3 players and then passing the ball to the opposition goalie. Or there's Routledge who can run...stop...then hit the defender in the balls with a feeble cross. While Nolan and Barton stand watching with a fag and a mars bar.

I remember getting into a massive argument with tooj over the ape who broke Wilshire's leg because I don't think it was the first Arsenal player to get his leg snapped in half, Eduarda had the same fate. Generally it's always the most skilful players who get taken out and I was honestly half expecting this. It happens far too often in our league and there's always cunts who defend it.

No he hasn't but if you think we are going to sign players of this ability every week you are living in cloud cuckoo land. IIRC it was you who was in tears when Keggy Keegan walked out. Ironically he left because he wasn't going to be able to sign players like Ben Arfa who make a season ticket worth paying for.

UV will be along shortly with a fancy graph showing us how great Nolan is compared to Ben Arfa...who to be fair disappeared from the game after the 3rd minute.

Taylor is shit.

A fair indication that nobbling HBA was their top priority at the start of the game. No one has been able to get close to him in his previous starts, it was always a fair bet that other teams would try and take him out by other means.

To be fair, he did work hard for what it was worth, helped Perch out a fair bit tracking back. What pisses me off with Routledge is that after failing to make it at Spurs and Villa, you'd think he'd be busting a gut to prove himself in the premier, but he just doesn't give that impression at all. Happy just to coast it and be anonymous for most games.

Barton hasn't been too bad this season, but the way Tiote covers the ground with his pace and running shows exactly what we've been missing in our central midfield for years now. He runs while others jog.