Sifu

Update: nobody is.

indeed. Fucking hell.

So I'm assuming you would prefer a Coloccini-Perch partnership instead of the Coloccini-Williamson partnership? Williamson has been, for the most part, defensively solid (apart from the Fulham game). His weaknesses have been highlighted a bit recently, yeah but I'd definitely still stick with him until the end of the season like.

Don't think anythings been on SSN so he won't have a f***ing clue. Has he been banned?

:lol:

This campaign has turned out to be quite a disaster for them.

Huh? Interesting I guess.......

while i think this is way ott i have the same gut feeling, in the same way i felt that hughton had took us as far as he was going around the time he was bagged a better manager could get more out of what we've got imo, but that's a blindingly simplistic way to look at things - for a start how many "better managers" could work under MA and DL? Mojo, TRon is being ridiculous in his comments, way OTT as per. Yes, it is overwhelmingly likely that (at the moment) Pardew is not an 'elite' manager who can guide his team past the 'big boys' on a consistent basis - he also seems to suffer from the team 'underperforming' as a group when the expectations are for them to win the match (it could be said that previous wins from this position have been down to individual brilliance rather than an overall good team performance). However, to say that you're counting the days down until he's sacked [TRon] Pardew fits our club in the current system and where we're at. We've not had a top half finish in the Premiership for 5 years, one of those years spent in the Championship. We've not won a trophy for 19223123years and not contested a major final since the 1970s*. This is not to say that we can't win trophies or challenge for titles, or that we don't deserve to, but it's a bit rich to expect us to be hiring world-class managers and signing world-class players - ask yourself [with your b&w specs off]: why would they want to come? We need to re-establish ourselves as a genuine Premiership team, 3+ seasons of consecutive top 6 finishes and we become a regular European team. This means we not only earn more money through TV + prize money, but we become a more attractive prospect for those players with the quality of Ben Arfa (but without the alleged dodgy temperament/baggage). When we get to this stage, we may well find that Pardew hasn't evolved or adapted and we've surpassed his ceiling. In that case, in the same way Hughton was sent packing when it became clear he wasn't going to kick on, it'll be time to wave goodbye to Pards - but we have to get there first. Pards has shown some interesting ideas and some new ways of working which have seemingly benefitted the club this season (we're over-performing everyone's initial expectations for this season), so there's definitely a lot of good things for him to work with and expand upon over the second half of the season. Now that we've achieved Premiership safety (or at least 4 points from it), there's now a cushion for him to try installing his own way of playing (pass + move, fluid football) in a competitive environment with the players he's been working with for over a year. He can introduce some of the youngsters that have impressed him and try other players in slightly different positions to give them a chance. We've also got the rest of the season to help Cisse bed into the club, with no immediate pressure for him to score. He's not perfect and he has some points which look to have cost us wins this season; however, we have to give managers the chance to evolve and learn from their mistakes before we start praying for their departure. Only if we were dragged into the bottom three, with a team looking bereft of leadership or ideas, would I consider sacking a manager 18months into his tenure. Yesterday's performance and result were both disappointing, a cup run would look to be our best shot of success but it wasn't to be this season as we've underperformed in both cups, despite playing reasonably strong teams in the games that we've been knocked out - similar to last season. If Pardew is genuine with his comments about wanting to go on another cup run (a la WHU) then he needs to work out how to get his players on the same wavelength, because they're playing in the cups like they'd rather be at home . *I don't count two no-shows at the old Wembley in 98 + 99 Bang on the money there Stu (well for me anyway)

Very impressive indeed. All credit to Roeder for that. Shame about the following season though.

Fair enough. Thanks for that!

Hmmm yeah, this could very well be the case.....

How did the mackems play today? Missed the game.

Sensible really.

:lol: If the mackems sign at least one of them, haha!

Not really. Pretty much. This piss up had fuck all to do with Saturday's result.

Just caught up with this Stefano person. What a tool

:lol: Woody's face!

He's finally gone!!! Thank feck for that like. He had some in the Championship. Imagine if Hughton would have played Butt instead of Smith. Aston Villa (6-0 win) springs to my mind as well. Though aye, tbf to Smith, he had a fair few decent games in the Championship and was one of Hughton's group of lads that got us back up. Apart from that and generally speaking (ie. his NUFC career as a whole), he's had a shitter here.

Just watched one of his press conferences from when he was Inter manager (it was the pre-match press conference for the Chelsea-Inter CL game) and during it he said that he has the following three ambitions: 1) To return to English football someday; 2) To win La Liga; 3) To coach Portugal one day Looks like Ambition 2 could happen this season and if it does, can see Mourinho leaving tbh (due to a case of the job being done).

Ah Wireside's at it again.

And from the same paper... EXCLUSIVE: City turn down Liverpool's Carroll for Tevez swap offer. Utter bullshit, made up, simply for the sake of it. And for the moronic c***s that lap it up. It's in the Guardian too.....

And long may it continue.

Well obviously a win would be brilliant but as is the case with most away games (the FA Cup/Carling Cup being the exceptions), I'd be happy with a draw......

Draw please.