Elma

Don't mind him going at all, provided we get a decent fee.

He played him as he wanted a player more in that mould than Mitrovic to fit his system, and the window was shut. I'd be surprised if he didn't try and shift him on this summer due to his contract and the fact he has problems with his knee. I like that - Keegan did the same with Shola when he mis-controlled a past on his upper arm at home to Bolton. Good managers see average players do stupid things and weed them out.

Can see why you say that. I heard from someone (who should know) that he had already decided after the Villa game, when he realised Sunderland would probably relegate us v Everton. His heart was already there, but he needed to make sure he could agree the correct terms / working conditions. I agree that what the Spurs game did do is confirm to him that he had made the right call, and probably more importantly convinced Ashley and Charnley that the only way they could come out of this with any credibility was to give him what he wanted. Whatever, that Spurs game and the atmosphere was exactly what we needed and hopefully it will be the David Kelly moment.

To be fair, until his injury at Plymouth over Christmas he was great. Coloccini and Taylor hardly got a kick with him sitting in front - he mopped up everything. Anyone who was at Palace away would tell you it was probably the easiest game a centre-half could have. Once he lost his place due to that facial injury he struggled to get back in. I wouldn't knock him or his attitude though. It wasn't his fault he was on £60,000 a week. Model pro.

Agree - but both kits are decent and they'll probably use that as an excuse to bring out a third kit that is radically different in colour to the first two. Possible clashes with Blackburn, Huddersfield, QPR, Reading, Wigan, and Sheff Wed if they don't go up? That's if a predominamtly solid blue away kit is deemed to clash with blue stripes, hoops and halves.

Quite like the leaked home shirt - I always see yellow as our second colour. Although it's technically described gold I like it. Like wide stripes - just wish they would continue them down the back. My favourite shirt back was the Asics one we wore in our first Prem season, where they stuck a rectangular black patch with white number on, and black patch along the top with white name lettering. Memories of Beardsley, Fox and Lee at a myriad of away wins that season we came back up. Had a sort of Juve feel to the back. If that Boca style shirt is the away then I like that too. Would prefer a yellow kit but that's a nice design. Won't look half as nice with the Wonga logo on the band though I'm not keen on the Adidas mock up - professionally done, but I think people are liking it due to the sponsor. The white pin stripe on the black stipes in unnecessary and I think if Puma had come up with that, and it had Wonga on it, we'd all hate it. Someone did a Nike mock up a few years back which was much better in my opinion. Anyway, I don't buy kits anymore but for what it's worth that's probably the best pair I've seen from Puma for us.

It's an Old English suffix for farm/homestead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_forms_in_place_names_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_Ireland The amount of places in London that end in the word HAM is absolutely unreal Ton means the same I believe...Stoke Newington, Brixton, Islington, Hoxton (Pig Farm) etc...

Am confident of automatic promotion if Rafa stays, as by extension that means he's got the assurances he wants on spending and the squad. Would actually fancy us to be champions, as Villa had less than half of our points and Rafa had us playing top half form in the last 6 games, no matter who jumps ship on the playing side. All three relegated sides should be top 6. Without Rafa, I'd still fancy us for automatic promotion but would be less confident and a hell of a lot less interested in, and excited about, the new season.

Let Krul go if there is anyone interested after his injury. What we've learned is that there's not a lot between our keepers and if he brings in some money, great. Happy with Elliott, Darlow and Woodman in the Championship. Think we need a decent right-back to come in. Even if Anita stays its not his natural position. Persuading Mbemba to stay is important. Him and Lascelles could be great in the Championship. Let Taylor's contact expire. Dummett and Mbabu to cover left-back and centre-half. Colback and Shelvey centre-mid and do everything we can to keep Townsend, and if possible Perez. Aarons to stay and ideally Mitrovic and Armstrong. Everyone else can go if we get offers. Tiote in current form could be an asset but only if his head is in the right place. Don't want Thauvin back. Colo is the strange one. Walked the Championship last time and could be an asset if we have two young centre-halves. Probably on too much and feels wrong to keep him on one level though. The big question is the manager. Throw money at Rafa and try to convince him to stay. With that squad and Rafa as manager we'd be straight back up. If Rafa goes try and see if Moyes will drop down for a season for a 'project'. Vitally important now they don't sit and fiddle. They need a decision from Rafa quick so they can move on. Do that and I'm strangely confident of coming straight back. They will undoubtedly piss about like last time though.

The FA are just letting him finish the job.

True, but I can't see them winning twice either. They need at least one win and if we beat Villa (a big if I know considering our away form) then they will be needing 4 points from those two home games to keep it in their own hands on GD. They are third bottom of the 'home' league table with the second lowest number of home wins after Villa (only four), and both teams they are playing are in the top half of the away league table. Everton's season has been built on their away form. http://www.soccerstats.com/homeaway.asp?league=england Big Sam is going to have to gamble and throw more forward than their standard 4-1-4-1 allows, if they are going to turn these draws into wins. Can see Chelsea and Lukaku having fun in the extra space. My worry is us beating Villa. Can see their spiteful fans coming out of the woodwork to give them a lift for their last home prem game.

I make them slight favourites, as do the bookies. However, nowt will be clear until we prove we can win away and they prove they (Defoe) can score at home. i.e. we'll know next Saturday at 5pm.

Could easily see them losing to both Chelsea and everton to be honest. Really haven't a clue how it will go. As I said earlier, I think they are too defensive at home. A win yesterday would really have shafted us, and although that's a valuable point for them and a bit gutting considering the timing of the goal, I would have taken that at 3pm. We took 1 point from the fixtures they have. I think we would now be hopeful of 5 under Rafa. However, our home form and theirs are very different. I will be surprised if they win both, particularly Chelsea. Two wins and I'd be stunned if we went down. More worried about Villa than Spurs for us.

I want both Leicester and Spurs to win today. Leicester to stop Spurs getting the title, and Spurs to put breathing space between them and Arsenal ahead of our game. Plus a Chelsea defeat against one of their main rivals should make them more up for putting things right ahead of their next game against the makems. Thankfully Arsenal are yet to go to Man City which should further help us. So far, Sunderland's two unexpected points aside, everything else had been going for us over the last two weeks, even down to a Villa red card and late defeat coupled with a little boost for Watford. Remember also they have not scored for three home games, failing to beat both West Brom and Palace recently, as only three of Defoe's 14 goals have come at home. Only two wins in their last 14 and one win in the last nine. If they open up to try and win the home games that could leave them more vulnerable at the back. I would definitely take three more draws for them.

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.