TRon

It's more than likely they did know, but knowing it and proving it are two different things. While the Italian league might be intent on stamping illegal betting out over there, they won't give two fucks about us.

Yep. If he has a gambling addiction then he's a bit of a tit but that's his problem and he should get help. Anyone who's that daft clearly needs it. The problem it's not just his personal anguish, he's fucked us over as well.

Also it's been reported that he always bet on Milan to win while he was there. Does that mean he bet on them when they played us? I know the answer's probably no, but the question has to be in the back of people's mind.

I'm frankly surprised if we are willing to play him, but if it's true I would back Eddie's judgement. He might have a bit more background than we do.

I wonder if he put a bet on our game with Milan which he was playing in?

Got no sympathy for him whatsoever. he stupid cunt has potentially fucked our season. We could certainly have spent that money elsewhere if we knew he was doing this stuff on the sly.

Really can't be arsed with any of this. It doesn't look great, and it's not what he needed after a patchy start to Premier league football. I'm not surprised the club have stayed silent, this must have come out of the blue.

Not sure I wanted to see it tbh.

The stupid cunts will always find a way to make even a short flight an absolute pain. The flight attendants are reluctant to say much either, probably figure it's not worth the hassle since the mackems are usually hammered halfway through, and it's a mercy if they can get to the exit without leaving their seats soaked in piss.

Was wondering the same thing as it sounds totally out of character for them. Don't believe it tbh.

Our best bet might actually be our Saudi ownership, as I imagine they won't take losing £50m lying down. Obviously nothing is proven yet, but been very wary about how this could have happened right from the start. The Italians wouldn't have sent these players home without good reason.

The only people who could do that would be the Italian authorities, and I'm not sure they'd be that motivated to prosecute an Italian club in favour of a British one with Saudi ownership.

Lots of crap jokes about balaclavas and gambling laws until we know more.

He's got lawyers involved and is staying silent, so until I hear something concrete, I am not assuming anything.

Yep. No doubt his first touch has been hit and miss, but that might just be surprise at how quickly he is surrounded in the PL as compared to the Italian league where I don't think they press high as a rule. I'd not be making any judgements one way or the other this early in his Newcastle career. If he's still making the same mistakes by Christmas then there might be reason for concern.

Death threats for not wearing a poppy. Spitting at him in a car in front of his pregnant missus. The fucking plight of those inbreds.

He bigged him up, but then didn't really allow his teams to play football anyway. The term hoofball was invented during Pardew's era let's not forget. Tiote wasn't brilliant, but when he was actually in a team which had proper footballers around him like Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse etc, he had an outstanding season.

Loved Tiote me. He got a lot of criticism for trying to be too much of a footballer instead of just winning it and giving the simple pass, but Pardew didn't exactly encourage passing football.

I don't think he's capable of a rush of blood.

More chance of you being the real Pardew tbh.

I stuck up for Willock because I saw him doing some incredible running, nice dummies and ball carrying even if he wasn't finishing well. I'll stick up for Tonali because I see the same sort of qualities, albeit he's off the pace a bit. That's my take on it. I see good footballers in both essentially.

He was only playing today because Gordon, Joelinton, Willock and Barnes were out.

Pretty decent comparison that. Could still go on to fulfil the promise Barkley never did, but he's clearly not the finished article yet, and no one should expect him to be.

Sorry like Kaka but you were hyper critical of Willock I disagreed with you at the time. I always felt like because he wasn't scoring goals a lot of fans were getting on his back despite him doing some great stuff other than finishing.