Exiled in Texas

Wum? Seriously of course it wasn't a foul. Was actually a very good piece of defending. It was great defending.....right up to the point that Fletcher scissored the forward down with one leg either side of the arsenal player. Playing the ball first...in essence, means winning the race to the space, and then having established the right to the position, the other players momentum causes the contact (See spurs keeper last week). If Van persie had fallen over Fletchers front leg (that had played the ball) I doubt it would have been a foul, but instead the foul was caused by Fletchers trailing leg closing on Van persie and bringing him down in a scissors move. Winning the race to the space (i.e. touched the ball) doesn't mean that you are absolved from committing fouls - you have to look at what contact was made and how it was made.

John Terry looks like a right knob-end with his socks up over his knees.

just like Jose Enirque at the Chelsea game

Jesus christ. One of the most ridiculous posts I've ever read on on this forum. Well done. Coloccini makes 2 glaring errors, yet it's all Duff's fault for playing it simple. I feel sorry for the kids you manage. I already said that Colo made dreadfull errors, but the ball was safe out on the touchline, and instead was hooked into the top of the Penalty area. One bounce (and a poor touch) and the Anelka was all over Colo. If you think "playing it simple" means putting the ball into a dangerous area in such a way that it requires a one-time hoofing clearance than I'm glad you're not coaching my kids. That's an even dumber a statement than you think mine was. The way the ball came in to Colo (in hindsite) he should have hoofed it out of there, instead took a touch, bobbled it and then was in deep ****. I expect more from both players.....better control and touch from Colocini and not passing the ball into dangerous places.

Terrible couple of errors from Colo leading to the first goal, but i put the blame squarely on Duff for playing the ball back into the center when it was safe out on the wing. Duff just took the easy route when he was pressured, and he didn't even try to work the ball up the line. Duff - turn left - blocked, turn right - blocked. No worries, lets just hook in back into the top of the Penalty Area and let the D figure it out. My U13s would have got a right earfull -had they made that mistake. Shocking defensive work from Colo, but an incredibly stupid move from Duff.

I'm sure that what we know at the moment is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure there are much bigger plans already in place for next season as long as we survive and stay up. I'm convinced that the gun is loaded but they are keeping their powder dry until the season plays out. This is really perfect timing for Shearer.....stay up and be a hero, or go down and no-one will blame him because of the series of cluster-f***s that went on leading up to this.

I think it was a matter of principle for Shearer - if you want me, then get rid of Wise. Shearer at this point held all the cards - and if Ashley wanted him as manager, then those were the conditions. The slide towards the bottom 3 increased the pressure on Ashley and while he may have rebuffed that request earlier on - at this point he became willing to accept it.

great line from Robbo's gospel

Classic. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/robborobson/2009/04/the_gospel_according_to_st_jam.html (I won't spoil the read by snipping the great lines - well worth it)

The answer is actually "Yes- BECAUSE he keeps us up"

Ummm..... FC Dallas and Kansas City Wizards.

Good one, that. Applies to a lot of different things. When you hear commentators say 'if that had've been outside the box it would have been a free kick' you just want to shout 'Well why isn't a f***ing pen then!?' Cos if you'd ever been a referee you'd know that some fouls are given as part of game management, and other fouls have to be really, REALLY earned......and giving match deciding penalty kicks like candy at Halloween isn;t something that referees want to do. Every time a commentator says "that should have been a penalty" I think....oh really.....you'd give away this match for that little thing? Referees don't want to decide the game at all.....we want the game decided by the players not the referee. The last 10 mins of a tight game, and I'm chanting in my head.....Don't do anything stupid, don't make me change the game, don't be an idiot and give up a stupid foul.

Does he have his Licence??

Hmmm.....so it's a choice of a Pot Noodle and a glass of Vimto every day, or a few weeks of stale sandwiches and then maybe Medium Rare steaks and a nice Cabernet Sauvignon.

The appeal of taking over at NUFC right now, will be different to the appeal of the club in the summer. Even assuming that we stay up. The situation of the club right now, is that there is some baggage that comes with the job. In the summer that baggage is much less as it's a "looking forward" time of the year. So as the appeal of the club changes, so does the quality of the individual that the job appeals to. Anyone taking the job now would have a different set of reasons to someone who takes the job in the summer. Consider the likely pool of candiates now, and then see how that might change during the summer. Look at Rijkard who turned down Chelsea now, but would have considered them in the summer. If waiting till the summer give us a choice of better candidates then I'm OK at not rushing into another mistake.

Exactly. This is not like last time (although we're not out of the woods yet). But the situation is more under control than the last time that Hughton was thrust into it. Situation is not perfect, but better than last time. I do wonder if they are NOT hiring a proper manager, so that they can start afresh during the summer without an incumbent in the way.

Was just thinking that Martinez could be our Wenger. The question is though, is the todays Premier League the same as it was when Arsenal brought in Wenger. With all due respect to Swansea (and I went to Milford Haven Grammar school, and know Swansea quite well), they are not exactly one of the biggest Championship teams, and with them already over achieving on their expectations, the pressure is off. It wouldn't be like that at Newcastle. Not in todays EPL.

I like the sound of Martinez and the style of football he likes to play....BUT.... I'm not sure that he would command the same respect and freedom in the PL as he gets in Swansea. I'm sure that the Swansea players don't have the attitude of PL players. Swansea is a long way from PL football and PL lifestyle, and I wonder if they are more likely to buy into an unknown manager like Martinez, than know-it-all PL players who might consider themselves above him. I also think that the level of expectations at Swansea are only a drop in the ocean compared to Newcastle. It's easy to ride high when you're exceeding expectations, but when the bar is set so high in the PL and in Newcastle (unreasonable in many cases) good is not always good enough. Is Martinez strong enough to control a PL squad? It would be nice to think so, but I'm not convinced. Yet.

http://www.achievement.org/achievers/wal1/large/wal1-003.jpg

More than anything, I put Man Utd's sucess down to the one-in-a-million chance of having a Youth team produce a crop of amazing first teamers like they did - Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Nev1, Nev2, Butt. Fergie has been trying to catch lightning in a bottle ever since. Until these kids came along, Man U were just like any other team trying to break through as champions.

FA Couldn't act on Bosingwa because the AR saw it but did nothing - FA can take no action because the officials saw the incident but decided not to punish it. The FA Could act on SWP because the referee didn't see it but said he would have dismissed SWP if he had seen it.

Good shout Yes, but which one. Didn't Spurs just get a point and get out of the bottom 3 - cue re-emergence of the MJ we know and love.

We just seem to have more of them......and the Knee Jerk is in full effect. If we are going to have some change, then it needs to come from the inside as progress... and not from the outside as change. For example, if you're going to change managers, get the new guy lined up and agreed and then move out JFK - that's a progressive move. Don't fire the guy without a replacement lined up - or that's just more turmoil. Oh well. Here's hoping that the protests don't do too much more damage. So you're saying we should recruit to the position before we sack the incumbent manager? AKA constructive dismissal...aye, that would be a truly progressive move. Exactly...I'm sure that's what every company does (although probably not publically). They know they are going to pay off the incumbents contract anyway. But you have to know that your plan is taking you forward, rather than just hope that it turns out OK, once there is no turning back.

We just seem to have more of them......and the Knee Jerk is in full effect. If we are going to have some change, then it needs to come from the inside as progress... and not from the outside as change. For example, if you're going to change managers, get the new guy lined up and agreed and then move out JFK - that's a progressive move. Don't fire the guy without a replacement lined up - or that's just more turmoil. Oh well. Here's hoping that the protests don't do too much more damage.