Mick

How long has "very" been spelled with a "u"? I've just heard a mackem on Radio Newcastle and felt like punching my windscreen out when he said "vury."

Bracewell was a great player for us and was given no stick at all for having played for the mackems. I was at the game when Billy Whitehurst clattered him and broke his leg. I was in the Gallowgate and I'm sure I heard his leg go and he was out of the game for almost 2 years.

he can sit front of the back 2 (as it will be when debuchy and santon push on). my idea is that with them, particularly sissoko having little time to even train with his team mates but not wanting to waste him, have someone behind him purely as cover. it would be a waste of cabaye or perch to put them there and perch is more than capable Perch shouldn't start and I don't think for one minute that he will, Sissoko and Anita will be enough to cover the centre of defence. I think Cabaye will be told to play further forward and support Cisse.

I think Pardew will start with Krul, Debuchy, Santon, Sissoko, Yanga-Mbiwa, Coloccini, Marveaux, Anita, Cisse, Cabaye & Jonas. If he has a rush of blood he might put Gouffran in for Jonas but I think Jonas might be his one conservative approach rather than going all out for change, 2 players debuting will change quite a bit for us anyway. The 11 I've mentioned are more than capable of getting a decent win away at Villa as long as we go for it whenever possible during the full 90 minutes. If we're going to try and sit back at 0-0 or after taking a goal lead then we're giving them a chance of getting something from the game.

fyp

And Anita.

Has anybody on here seen him play and know what he's like? I haven't.

The first thing that came to mind for some reason on seeing the thread title was Billy the Kid.

The best celebration I've probably experienced was when Rob Lee scored against Chelsea at Wembley. I was near the back of the stand to start with and ended up near the pitch and I can't remember touching a single seat on the way down.

Bobby said that he had a contract and had to honour it, loyalty that you rarely get these days. I thought we approached him while he was still manager at Barca.

With hindsight, we should have appointed a caretaker and waited for Bobby. Bobby was by far the one I wanted to replace Keegan, Dalglish came in a distant 2nd and I was never really into him as I had a bad feeling about him before he arrived. As for Ferguson, I've heard him mentioned but I'm not sure how true or when it was.

He'd be top, not just for one display either.

I've still got that shirt and bring it out for special occasions, that is my favourite shirt ever. The shirt looked class but it also represents one of the best times I’ve had following us. A lot of the players who wore that shirt would get into every team we’ve had since. If only we'd managed to replace Keegan with Bobby instead of Dalglish.

Yes it was, I've seen some poor refereeing displays go against us and that must be in my top 5.

Ginola gets it for me because of the way he played with the ball before he volleyed it, you would be a cheeky bastard to try that during training yet he pulled it off during a match, I just stood up in disbelief. I couldn't speak, all I could do was stand up and point while laughing like a little lass. I kept turning around to my mates and pointing towards the goal without saying anything.

I still get that way now, Winterburn and Dixon were both dirty bastards that night.

I haven't got a clue but you could see it happen without knowing why, it was as if something just snapped in him. The decision was a shocker and the ref was a disgrace that night as Ginola had chunks kicked out of him every time he was on the ball until he lashed out. Ginola had already been booked for being fouled, yes, he was fouled and yes, he was booked. It wasn't the FA cup, it was the quater final of the league cup and we should have won that game but for the bastard ref as they should have had at least one player sent off.

If anybody hasn't seen the goal Ginola scored against Ferecvaros they should look it up, it's arguably the best goal I've ever seen scored at St James' Park.

Ginola wasn't the same for us after he was wrongly sent off, if he hadn't been sent off in that match he would probably been player of the year because he had been world class up until the Arsenal cup game.

I hope there aren't too many people expecting us to go there and walk this fixture with the new signings. This place will be a nightmare next tuesday at 10pm if we don't with people throwing the towel in and giving it "that's it life is over, boo hoo hoo". You can't legislate for dodgy ref decisions, lucky deflections, inspired keeper performances. Hell Villa might somehow come out and throw the kitchen sink at it and turn in a proper backs to the wall performance (god forbid) The signs are positive with the squad additions but I still see this as a very difficult match...we haven't won away from home all season ff. If we win a dull match 1-0 that'll do. If we are going to stay up we're going to have to win games like this, if we don't then we're in deep shit.

Can you not take him somewhere else?

I want everybody at the club to be the best that we can get, having said that, I do feel slightly uncomfortable with the number of French players that we're signing and I would feel the same if we appointed a French manager. I'm over the moon with most of our French players while not feeling totally as ease with where we're going with it. To try and put my feelings into perspective, Sissoko looks like a brilliant signing and I’m delighted that we’ve got him. I really wanted Debuchy to come here and I'm just as pleased that we've signed Yanga-Mbiwa and feel uneasy at the same time.

I agree with most of that except for your faith in Pardew, I do hope that you're right though as it will be much better for us if he turns us around. I don't think he's flexible enough to get the best out of what we've got but this isn't the right thread.

I'm with you on that, we need to strike a balance.

The injuries are no excuse for the results we've had against lesser teams.