Sifu

The bit in bold is quite telling imo - you could say that you wouldn't be surprised if there are Sports Direct signs in the end (what I think) or you could say that it's simply maintenance and people are reading too much into it.

I'm still hopeful that he'll develop into a canny right back but that's just me. If at any stage in his career he turns into a canny right back, I'll drink my own p*ss Quoted for future reference

Fantastic

Phil Dowd confirmed as the referee for this game.

This is implied in the article like. Looked terribly unfit during pre-season.

I did too

Considering that Pardew first "brought" Tevez to the PL, a cheeky loan bid wouldn't go amiss you do know he's the one who dropped Tevez to bench right? Was taking the p*ss. Hence the smileys.

Considering that Pardew first "brought" Tevez to the PL, a cheeky loan bid wouldn't go amiss

Pardew isn't leaving. End of.

Good news

I'm still hopeful that he'll develop into a canny right back but that's just me.

Maybe the pressure of being a £35 million player is getting to Carroll?

Hmmm

Which was eight years ago and arguably our only successful January business since. There was Nolan, but most of us were livid that we had signed him at the time. And Routledge I guess. I, for one, was quite happy when he signed. Thought he was the midfield presence we needed (ie. a fighter) to help escape relegation - of course I was proved wrong when May 2009 arrived.

We signed Woodgate in a January transfer window. Our best January signing ever really.

We'll done, you're old . That sign has been at every Newcastle home match I've ever been to, so its part of my heritage as a NUFC fan so to speak. And I'd rather it wasn't replaced with some red and blue w***

What does he offer the team? We saw last season that defensively, he is quite sound (bar a few games and his constant backing off). I'm pretty confident the lad will develop into a canny right back - will hold my hands up if it turns out I'm wrong but atm he's the best option for RB imho.

He deserves to be part of our squad at the very least. If only there was competition for places in our squad he'd either rise to the challenge or we'd have a better alternative in our first team.

Bloody hell - wish him and his son all the best.

Excellent.