Elma

Completely agree. This is the big one this weekend. This is where the tide has to turn if we're going to do it. We either fail to win, or they do win, and it will look very bleak. A point for them this week is fine. Coupled with a defeat for Norwich and a win for us against Palace, it would lift us out of the bottom three and give us a huge boost going into the final two games, especially as I think Sunderland will struggle to take more than a point against Chelsea. I'm most worried about our goal difference to be honest.

Sunderland failing to win against Stoke, coupled with a win for use against Palace, would set things up nicely. Firstly, it would take us out of the bottom three for a few hours, and possibly longer with Norwich away at Arsenal. Secondly, I really do think Sunderland will struggle to beat Chelsea the week after, and another win for us at Villa (easier said than done I know) would then heap pressure on them going into the final week. For all Sunderland's devensive organisation and rigidity, they have actually failed to score in their last three home games. Although two of them were against Leicester and Arsenal, they couldn't breakdown West Brom either. Defoe is their main source of goals, and of his 13 in the league this season only 3 have come at home - 2 against Villa and 1 against Swansea. He is far better when they play on the break and he can run in behind. In short, they have a problem with balance. All ifs and buts, but I would be surprised if Sunderland were to win both home games - Chelsea have picked up a bit and even Everton isn't easy - they typicaly find that one a difficult fixture for some reason. As I say, fail to beat Stoke and we can push the momentum towards us with a win against Palace. All results (except Sunderland's point) went for us at the weekend. Leicester maintained their gap, and both Norwich and Sunderland's last two opponents are now out of the cup. Although they've nothing to play for, it would have been worse had they also been resting players ahead of a cup final, whilst those chosen may not have been throwing themselves into tackles. Instead, it's Palace in that position ahead of our game on Saturday. If we win all three, I would be stunned if we dropped. If we win the next two, it will come down to how motivated Spurs are in game 38. If we don't win the next two to take it to the last game, frankly we don't deserve to stay up. And I'm a pessimist....

I doubt we'll stay up with 7 as that means 35 points and would mean Norwich only need a win and a couple of draws or two wins for the mackems. I actually think the mackems could easily take seven or eight points from their games and will finish ahead of Norwich (I really wanted a draw between them at the weekend) so I think we need ten points to put them both under pressure and give ourselves a fighting chance. Three wins and a draw from somewhere. Anything less and I wouldn't like to put too much money on us staying up. There are so many factors in this - we really don't want Everton or Watford getting to the cup final as they have to play both Norwich and the mackems in the last two games of the season - that's a shocker how that has turned out - our failure to knock Watford out of the cup could come back and really bite us on the arse, which would be ironic considering how much MA has promoted the league over the cup to remain on the gravy train. We could do with Leicester being more than three points ahead of Spurs on the last day, and Spurs being more than three ahead of Arsenal. I still think we're down and we were after the Norwich and mackems games. However, if we somehow take 2 or 3 points from the next two games we will have a real chance, as our following two games are probably the easiest of all three teams in the run in. I'll definitely be cheering on Palace against Watford at the weekend!

If Sissoko got the third it wouldn't technically be a hat-trick....

Probably this. I'd love to hang on to Perez and Mbemba too in the hope we could come straight back, but it's unlikely. Am I right in thinking Shelvey, Townsend (and therefore by extension Saivet) can't move again until January unless it's back to the club from which they were signed? If so then Shelvey and Townsend should both tear up the championship and any reasonably competent manager should be able to get that squad back up. May depend upon how Villa and the mackems restructure though and who misses out on promotion this year, as there are only two automatic places.

I agree with this, would go further and say less than 6 points from the next 2 and we are down A win today, a draw against Norwich and we're down? I'd bite your arm off for those results. Me too, and I'm a glass half empty person when it comes to NUFC. Ideally six points, but four would definitely keep us in the race.

A point tonight would be amazing - whatever happens we then need a minimum of four points from the next two. Ideally 3 against the mackems and minimum draw against Norwich. Get that and I can see the momentum taking us over the line. Less than that and it will be a struggle. I would hope we could beat an already relegated Villa on the second last game, and I would be disappointed if we lose to City, what with their poor-ish away form and them focussing on the Champions League. Wouldn't want to have to get anything from Spurs on the last day, but then both the mackems and and Noriwch have tricky away games, albeit against sides with nothing to play for.

I'm not nervous for this one, strangely. Nowt to lose I guess. The only negative result would be an absolute hiding. Sunday is much more important and I probably won't be able to eat on the morning before the game. Unfortunately I'm GMT+2 which will make it even worse waiting till half three for kick off.

Newcastle United is delighted to announce the appointment of Rafa Benitez as the Slub's new manager. They spelled slob wrong.....amateurish....

Be careful what you wish for I read that in a 'Down with this sort of thing' voice.....

Nearly all football chairman etc are odious in some way I suppose. I can handle odious....incompetent is what pisses me off. Hell, I've even been wishing we had Llambias back....that's how desperate I've been with Charnley running the shop.

Yep We'll go down, Rafa will leave and we'll hire some no mark as Charnley will say, "Well look what happened last time we listened to the fans..."

Impossible to say really. We've got to look at the table like this now and aim to win it. Sunderland. P 0, Gd 0, Pts 1 Norwich. P 0, Gd - 4, Pts 0 Newcastle. P 0, Gd - 6, Pts 0 Technically we should be P-1.

That's what I was saying earlier, only I was thinking that they would keep him on as a coach as his contract probably says Head Coach - so it would probably be easier to get it through from avoiding a constructive dismissal case. Either way, I've a suspicion he will stay in some capacity.

What if his dad answers?

....and on pills for his nerves? The Bobby Chariot of football.

Kind of what I'm thinking, although I actually think McClaren is a proud man and part of his statement was "...regardless of whether I'm sacked I know I can get out of it". That's deluded of course as he and the team haven't shown it. I'm not actually sure he would have been aware of their immediate intentions when he said that. I just think that the club won't mind writing off a couple of million if we stay up, but wouldn't want to if we're heading down, particularly that if we do drop whoever comes in is unlikely to stay on and they will probably think that McClaren will be more suited to the Championship. It would have been 2 million ripped up in tough financial times ten weeks before he may have become useful. I see them covering their arses by saying they didn't get it totally wrong in that he is a decent coach, and provided he accepts that role then they will be saving a pay-off now whilst keeping him in their back pocket for a championship campaign. I appreciate how things going tits up at Derby would negate that argument for most of us, but Charnley & Co don't think that logically. They've also seen a similar appointment work pretty much immediately at Swansea. If you think it through financially (which is what they will be doing), then McClaren will be on the most of him, Simpson and Cathro. The new man will more than likely have to work with the existing coaching set up due to time constraints. The normal route would be letting McClaren go while retaining the assistant coaches. I just see them hedging their bets and keeping him on too to save the outlay and cover the very possible Championship challenge next season. Provided his contract and ego allow for that. If his contract does but his ego doesn't then they might win again by saving the pay-off. I don't know anything on this - I just explored the angles on it last night and this scenario jumps out as logical (if you try to think like Ashley/Charnley based upon previous decisions).

Maybe we wouldn't have to re-hire him? I was thinking this through last night. I think the reason for the delay just might be that they want to keep him on and are waiting to see who we get, and whether McClaren will accept it. They just might have stitched McClaren up contracturally with the title Head Coach, allowing them to restructure and bring in a Manager above him without McClaren able to do them for constructive dismissal. I think it's fairly well accepted that the new man (if there is one) will most likely only come in for 10 games. The chances of him bringing his own team in for that time are slight. They may be already in work and wouldn't leave a given job for one which might end after 10 games. The club will also want to avoid ditching the existing team team with over two years left on their contracts and will want some continuity to provide a smoother transition for the critical final ten games. McClaren's salary is apparently 700k a year, so we would owe him somewhere in the region of 1.6-1.7 million to pay him off. The players do suport the generally held belief he is a good coach but at the moment Simpson and Cathro are taking most of the sessions. Maybe they see him as suited to the Championship and would do what they did with Shearer/Hughton if we dropped. i.e. have him support the new man as head coach, but save themselves 1.7 million should we actually drop by having a ready made championship manager on the books for that eventually. If we stay up they will then have no qualms in sacking him if they believe the new man (who will then want his own coaching team longer term) to be the way to go as 1.7 million plus the cost of the contracts of Simpson and Cathro will be small change compared to what we will have saved. To me that seems the most logical reason for not sacking him at the moment.

Keegan after fat Sam. Could not have been more delighted. I thought I had actually got Ashley all wrong. At that point he'd done nowt to be hated for if I recall correctly? It was the whole, Vetere/Jimenez/Wise vs Keegan that started it off. He had inherited Allardyce, given him a decent amount of time, and Mort was saying all the right things. Outside of initially bringing Keegan back, Mort's the only reasonably competent decision Ashley's made in my opinion, and I think that was a fluke.

Interesting choice if so, we need a miracle. At least we might get more crosses in....[sorry]

But it blatantly hasn't worked for the last few years, if we don't know how to appoint a proper footballing MD, then the next best thing would probably be to hire a highly rated manager and let him do the job. At some point even Ashley must surely realise this? Agree - put in a good knowledgeable MD and the rest will follow. We wouldn't then have to tolerate weak managerial appointments and Carr would have been out the door long ago. Ashley should know by now that spending a few million on the right MD and manager, and letting the manager have more of a say on players (ins and outs) would save a load of money wrongly invested? However much evidence is thrown at him it seems he still wants to be surrounded by 'yes' men no matter how much it's costing him (the club). It's truly bizarre - he's probably just doing it out of stubbornness now.

I wanted Bilic in the summer and would take Moyes or Rodgers now. I think Moyes would do a good job long-term, although something tells me, maybe based on Keegan's style, that Rodgers and NUFC would be a good fit. Would take either of them in a snap at the moment, although Rodgers has said he'll look for work in the summer so may need a bucket of cash to persuade him. A lot less money than we'll lose by going down though so it's worth the approach in my opinion. Mind you, it'll never happen with Charnley there. If we remove McClaren then it'll be Nigel Pearson or someone similar. Despite squad imbalance and some criminal recruitment, the current squad is still good enough for 30-35 points by now and the reason I think the mackems are favourites to stay up (out of those on 24 points) is that Allardyce will bully performances out of their players. A Pearson or Moyes may get that response short term although Pearson long-term doesn't particularly fill me with excitement.

Agree with that. That's why I'm thinking Rodgers as we're certainly not going to defend our way to safety. We need to keep the ball, frustrate the opposition and use our midfield to create enough chances that we might just take one or two. There's a half decent side in that squad which should have at least 30 points by now. Why we never signed Huth when he went to Leicester is beyond me though. I was so pissed off at the time. £3 million

I'd happily take any of Benitez, Moyes or Rodgers. Benitez we've got no chance, Moyes would build long term and might be best for stability. However, I've a feeling that Rodgers might just be the right fit for us. He plays an attacking style and tries to keep the ball. He has said he's taking a break until the new season, but he might be tempted if we threw money at him - he might also think that a large club with gates around 50,000 and money in the bank might be a great place to get his career back on track. With Charnley there we'll get Nigel Pearson.

It is and I have been saying it for months but he still hasn't. We will know in the next 48 hours but I'm not holding my breath. My one hope is that with the money spent it must be near the time his trigger finger will be getting itchy. He won't do it but of course he should. He should boot Charnley out at the same time otherwise we'll end up with McClaren MKII if they do pull the trigger...