Mick

Yet we appear to be one place higher in the league going into an away game which a defeat will see us at best where we were when he came in, at worst lower depending on other results.

Where's the improvement? Being the same is not good enough after our upgrade to a more experienced manager.

When Carroll was asking for more money Pardew told him to put it in writing, I think Hughton will have taken a different approach so who knows.

If we fail to pick up a point against Birmingham we'll be exactly where we were in the league when Pardew came in, at best. Except, we'll not have our best forward and we'll be just as close to relegation and further away from Europe than we were when he arrived.

We need to hold on to players like Enrique or we'll never progress. Taking £12 million for him will be a backward step and send out all of the wrong signals if we want to move on.

Don't man, it's bad enough that we're worrying about Enrique and Tiote.

Summer 2013.

Who is butthurt? The comment was in response to "Imagine if Pardew came out with that baloney." Pardew has talked shit and that comment is proof of it.

Pardew just spouts shit about not selling out best forward then admits he was misleading us.

You're the one making claims which don't add up. I agree that he had a commercial value, I just don't think that it was as high as you seem to think. I didn't make a claim tying Michael Owen to the Northern Rock deal which was signed a year before he arrived at the club, us using that money isn’t a positive as far as I’m concerned and had nothing to do with the sponsor.

Agreed.

Keegan and Bobby had done a lot more than Pardew to gain respect. Also, remember Keegan getting stick over the sale of Cole and coming out to directly face fans?

I wouldn't be surprised either mainly because he's arrived from the lower divisions and doesn't have recent Premiership experience.

I'm sure that we'd gotten rid of Routledge and Xisco by then and Ireland came on the same day as Carroll left.

It could be like that, it could also be that he meant it although I hope that isn't the case.

Hughton must have been really good then because he seemed to get money to spend, even if it wasn't much.

The deal was in our favour apart from us having to buy him if he made a certain amount of appearances. I doubt many teams would have been pushing with us to sign him with his injury and lack of games this season.

He gets shots off from stupid positions, he's only had one clear chance on goal that I can remember this season. Unlike the others who are getting games ahead of him. I doubt that he would have fluffed the chance that Best had right in the middle of the 5 yard box which ended up closer to the corner flag than the Blackburn goal.

He spent money on a player who was already at the club until the end of the season.

Ranger finishing isn't awful, he's missed 1 sitter and the rest have been saved, blocked or just missed from difficult positions.

Have a look at this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/create He probably touched the ball less times than Harper who had very little to do.

Nolan had a shocker today, he did nothing that I can remember.

I've just checked, we signed our sponsorship with Northern Rock in 2004, Owen didn't sign until 2005.

You made the claim that Michael Owen brought with him loads of sponsorship £millions for the club as well as loads of replica shirt sales, where's your proof? As for Northern Rock, the only tie in with him and them is that the money which was coming in from them went on him. I have seen nothing to suggest that they sponsored us because of him and as they are a local company I can see plenty of reason why they would sponsor us anyway.