Sifu

Bale doing everything himself.

Bale was blatantly onside there

Same. But as soon as the World Cup/Euros come along the euphoria does come back.

Goal. Ashley Young.

The emergence of Smalling will hopefully mean the end of Glen Johnson being the first choice RB.

Why is Downing playing on the right?

As ever for a player coming back from injury, he'll need a run of games to get himself up and running. Best to give the lad some time.

Don't worry, f*** all will happen in 15 minutes.

I still think seeing Ashley Young in the number 9 is weird....

Apparently it's not considered cool anymore to simply let the commentators read out the team

This ITV thing with the photos introducing the players Completely unnecessary.

We win today and qualification is pretty much a certainty....

The lad will be fine.

Other than the abuse you're directing to me, you still won't answer me on his direct quotes. Of course the board was happy to get a big offer, that is obviously not in dispute and quite why you feel the need to shout this out I don't know? I won't be lead down your garden path of childish behavior. Carroll has 'clearly' said on more than one occasion that he was forced out. Yes, "forced to write a transfer request."

It's a choice of who you believe, the board or Andy Carroll, only one version of events is true. How any one can believe the board is beyond me. http://nufc-ashlies.blogspot.com/ Carroll is hardly blameless in his departure. Remember that he signed a new contract a few months prior to him leaving. From what I gather, his new contract was hardly the minimum wage and was very reasonable, it seems to me that Carroll's head was swung by the money on offer at Liverpool. The board of course aren't blameless either. They sold a player who would have been the core of the team in the future (building a team around him and all that) and was also a potential Newcastle legend in the making. Both parties were satisfied, end of. Hopefully, he wont do that well at Pool and we can get him back at less than what we paid. Wages likely to be a problem however. Indeed. Regarding your second paragraph, hf he ever does come back, hope he has a nice long apology prepared.

It's a choice of who you believe, the board or Andy Carroll, only one version of events is true. How any one can believe the board is beyond me. http://nufc-ashlies.blogspot.com/ Carroll is hardly blameless in his departure. Remember that he signed a new contract a few months prior to him leaving. From what I gather, his new contract was hardly the minimum wage and was very reasonable, it seems to me that Carroll's head was swung by the money on offer at Liverpool. The board of course aren't blameless either. They sold a player who would have been the core of the team in the future (building a team around him and all that) and was also a potential Newcastle legend in the making.

It's a choice of who you believe, the board or Andy Carroll, only one version of events is true. Not really.

Would I take Carroll back? Unlikely tbh, I still feel betrayed by him leaving like. I don't for one second believe that he was forced out (whatever Steve Wraith says is a load of b*llocks imo). Like Cajun said, both Carroll and the board are to blame for his departure so for him to come back (within the next couple of years) is kinda taking the p*ss.

Ben Arfa being back in Toon =

As some of you have said, these are decent questions but really it's unlikely that the board will answer them properly. They'll probably twist the questions around to their own liking.

Definitely deserves a new contract like.

Precisely. And pointing this out doesn't mean people are delighted with the end result either. It's a bitter, petty stance you get in lots of situations, reminds me of people saying "Well done, the invasion of Afghanistan/Iraq/Vietnam wasn't a great idea after all. All those soldiers died, you must be delighted we didn't win, congratulations." The people who were predicting transfer window failure seem more p*ssed off about it than the people who thought it would go well, if anything. But if someone's been smug and arrogant in dismissing people's concerns, of course he's going to get stick when those concerns turn out to be justified. I don't actually think that Ozzie really did believe a load of money was going to be spent, I think it's more that he's invested so much time and credibility in arguing with Leazes Mag about the old board (which then became new board/old board after the takeover) that he simply can't conceed on the virtues or otherwise of Ashley now. It's like if you've already sent £30,000 to Nigerian scammer or you've spent the last two years preaching Harold Camping's doomsday prophecy - it's easier to just hold firm no matter what than to budge even slightly and have to admit to others and, more importantly, to yourself that all the support and belief you ploughed into it might have been misplaced. so he's become NE5 :omg:

Definitely. Like someone said in the England thread, looks as if no one is there to actually look after him and make sure he's in the right mind set, ie. he really needs someone like Nolan.