tmonkey

Pards will still be like "just faakin kick him, get stuck in come awn".

Ashley or no Ashley, Rafa or no Rafa, Ritcihe needs to be moved on imo, along with any of the other borderline/flat out Championship standard players who've done a decent job (or temporarily over-performed) when asked but just aren't up to PL standard on anywhere near a consistent enough basis - the ones that we can sell that is. Needs to be done if we want to go beyond hoping to keep our necks above water till we eventually drown. Ritchie, Atsu, Murphy, Clarke, Gayle, Diame, Joselu, and Manquillo, if we can cash in on them do it sooner rather than later.

For in NUFC looking to survive in the PL or aiming for mid table finishes, I don't think being in the North East makes any difference to attracting players. The stadium, the fanbase, the money on offer, the reputation, the manager, the potential to turn into a higher tier team/club, those kinds of things will be more important for the types of players we'd be after. I think at this point in time players would choose NUFC over the likes of Fulham and Crystal Palace for these reasons if we were competing with them. If we were looking to compete with the likes of Arsenal and Spurs for players, then the London factor would of course be a factor, but even then I think most footballers don't really care all that much because they're kinda thick/have low standards (ties in with football being a working mans sport). Alot of the time it's more to do with a demanding or entitled WAG who wants to be in a posh location worthy of bragging about that has fashion events, premieres, Michelin starred restaurants, etc etc, in the vicinity. Victoria Beckham for example wouldn't have allowed David to ever sign for NUFC at any stage of his career because of the region. I remember there being a story in the press about Pablo Aimar wanting to sign for NUFC under Keegan, but his wife throwing a fit in front of Keegan/Ashley because she hated the weather/location. Probably a true story given that we did appear try to sign him at a time when he was cheap, though in hindsight wouldn't be surprised if that was just a bullshit story put out by Ashley because his lot weren't ever going to meet the wage demands.

After three years of repeatedly trying to take on his man whenever he gets the ball and failing at every attempt whilst looking like a boy playing against men, this guy looks like a completely different player. All of the dribbles/tricks seem to work now and he's become one slippery fucker for the opposition team to deal with in recent weeks (ever since Almiron signed). Now all he needs to do is spend a few more years trying to thread an accurately weighted through ball.

Tactical masterclass from Rafa.

Pretty much a sprinter only at this level.

Leicester defenders just grabbing Newcastle players knowing full well this referee won't give a foul.

Absolutely disgusting that the manager has to sell this to the owner of a football club. "Come on Mr Ashley, please let me try to make the club successful, please". I bet the fact that Ashley has gotten NUFC relegated twice, and nearly relegated several times more, proving factually that his methods/policies/vision are utter shit, simply doesn't register in his tiny little brain. All someone elses fault.

Rashford has been Trashford so far.

"Cheeky monkey" isn't racist when used in jest to kids as a term of endearment for family members, friends, kids you know, etc. "Cheeky monkey" is in highly likely to be a sly racist dig when it's a presumably white adult male calling a black footballer who he has no connection to that (nor is this a kid, it's a nigh on 6 foot powerful athlete). The context of course being the whole retarded "blacks are apes/monkeys and not humans" ideology that the alt right/white supremacists believe in to the extent that there's dedicated websites for this kind of retardation. The timing of such a tweet is very relevant too, i.e. when monkey chants from racist football fans in a few European countries have been hitting the national and international headlines in recent weeks on a daily basis almost.

Was in the Milburn and could hear it. Thought it was the Palace player he fouled though.

The chances we had weren't clear cut/easy ones imo. Some of Rondons chances were scrappy ones (bad clearances, poor crosses that caught defenders off balance, etc etc) with lots of bodies in the way and Rondon himself either off balance/stretching/being wrestled or trying to shoot with the ball behind him. Maybe the header from Schar I think it was, from the corner that was headed straight at the Palace keeper, was our best chance. The rest were mainly half chances.

Yedlin was the worst player on the pitch. Shelvey had a terrible cameo. Ritchie was his usual shiite self, lots of huff and puff but consistently poor delivery. Almiron best player on the park (for us, overall best player was Zaha) followed by Ayoze and Rondon. It's such a shame Ki can't shoot to save his life. All well and good passing the ball sideways nicely but the type of CM he is means he'll always get shooting opportunities because of his positioning, and it's just a massive waste to have a CM of that type who cant even threaten a decent shot.

Very even game, both sides have had decent spells of football. Our left flank is the weakness defensively.

Is this cunt going to play or not. FFS backwards = Soft forrin fullbacks.

Reckon there's a good chance that as soon as survival is guaranteed Ashley will do the usual of disappearing act and making sure everything is left in limbo doing nothing for as long as possible.

I've been criticizing Ritchie since before the Championship season ended, as have a few others on here, so making out the criticism of him is only a recent thing isn't reflective of opinions that have been held consistently. Those opinions were based on the basics, i.e. the lad is a winger with no real pace, no dribbling ability/flair, can't really beat a man, doesn't stretch teams, has average stamina, floats one decent cross in every dozen or so attempts, and alarmingly bottles half decent shooting opportunities with regularity despite possessing good shooting technique (in theory) - why any of our fans rate him at all is beyond me. I mean he's not completely crap, he's capable of the odd decent performance in this league, but then most mediocre players can do so if given enough games (even Colback got an England call up). The shift to LWB masks some of those issues, but then exposes others, such as him not being a liability defensively and being reluctant to pass it to the wingers in front of him. Overall though I think he's better at LWB than he is a winger in this league. Re: guts/commitment/leadership, I'm personally not convinced he offers anything beneficial to the team. I think if he does offer something it's experience, i.e. he's generally OK on the ball in general play in terms of controlling it confidently, laying it sideways, etc. But an actual leader? I think he needs to be performing at a much high level before his running around like a headless chicken getting knackered serves as inspiration for his teammates. I suspect some of his teammates secretly dislike him as he's arguably the worst/weakest player in the current team yet he's berating others - leadership normally comes from those who are established and good at what they do. More importantly, how relevant is all of that pfm bollocks anyway? Look at it in context. No injection of pace and skill from Kenedy last season and we're probably in a relegation fight. No injection of pace and skill from Almiron this season and we're probably down where Cardiff are at the moment. How useful really is the "guts/leadership/commitment" of Ritchie given that it was doing nothing for us before we had to say "fuck it, lets bring some pace and skill in"? If anything it proves ability and athleticism matter more, certainly for wingers. Maybe it matters everywhere (remember people saying the same when Nolan was given the boot, losing our leader etc, yet Cabaye was infinitely better and so was the team as a whole). In terms of replacing him, nothing is guaranteed, but I think it's going to be pretty likely we get an upgrade if Rafa gets decent money to buy a replacement. One way to get that decent money is to cash in on Ritchie whilst there's still a bunch of clubs/managers who think he's a good footballer, or more likely clubs who'll factor in that he was good in the Championship. There's always been good options for an upgrade, the most obvious one being Townsend (unfortunately that ship has sailed), but Rafa if he's still here will know.

The not passing to Almiron is imo Ritchie's ego making him ignore the obvious pass on to the superior player. He doesn't want to give the ball to the guy who is most likely to do something with it because subconsciously he thinks he should be the one to be pulling the strings, and so instead of releasing the ball to that guy he uses him as a decoy instead and looks to develop play elsewhere. Tiote (RIP) had this ego issue also, though it wasn't really as noticeable as Ritchie's - he would frequently avoid passing to Ben Arfa even when it was the best pass on. He'd have the ball in the middle of the pitch whilst getting closed down, Hatem's to his right free and unmarked and in a good position so it's a simple pass to him, so what does Cheik do? He fakes that he's about to pass to Hatem and then turns on the ball, and looks to pass it left sideways to someone else. It was fucking frustrating to watch and made zero sense, and the sample applies with Ritchie's refusal to pass to Almiron. Anyway, Almiron is looking like such a massive signing. Those crosses into the danger zones were superb, the quicker his teammates adapt to his ability to fizz the ball hard and low into that gap the more goals we'll score.

http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-12---fouls-and-misconduct

Why? Quality player. Least of our problems.

Good penalty from Ritchie. He's the least of our worries.

Penalty imo. More I see it, more I think it absolutely has to be.

Ashley never had any intention of selling the club because why would he? Owning NUFC makes him richer. Vast sums of football fans' money are routed via the club shop and retailing fees into Sports Direct, free advertising in one of the most relevant forms available, he's already asset stripped and will want to see the development of Strawberry place through (he's probably an investor, after all there was a news story about him expanding into real estate), and no doubt all manner of morally corrupt transactions are taking place that funnels NUFC's money into Ashley's pockets without ever having to declare anything in the annual financial statements. He'll never be questioned as to why he loaned NUFC money instead of injecting cash as equity. He'll never be asked what terms and clauses he added when loaning the club cash and what he got in return for not charging interest. He's put out through the media this idea that NUFC has cost him money, but it's utter bullshit and you know it's bullshit because he's refused to sell this "loss making" club for far more than he bought it for. If this club was genuinely costing him millions to run per year he'd have chopped his arm off to get a sale, but it's the complete opposite.

Shelvey needs time to get back to the fitness levels he was at least season. And his ability to play balls over the top is still a huge weapon, he just needs players in front of him who can take advantage of that skill.