Memphis

Our defenders walk and subsequently let players score and we get thrashed 4-0 by Southampton. That's the difference. In general, the effort level cannot be defended full stop. Effort, positioning, all of it was a disaster. My point was simply that Carragher bleated on and on about how you NEVER walk on a pitch, always on your toes, etc then showed several clips of a winning team and a title favorite doing just that. That's all, nothing more.

The Chelsea clip was showing walking in the first 5 minutes of the match, though, very little difference. My point is that sort of analysis is ridiculous and there are literally hundreds of other, better ways to hammer Pardew than that. The lads at sackpardew.com have done that well.

I did think it was funny that Carragher slated our lot for "walking" - "I'd never walk during a match! Always on your tiptoes at least!" then while they're highlighting Fabregas for Chelsea, league leaders and rampant force, against Swansea, you can see no less than 3 of the mighty Chelsea players walking, WALKING ON A FOOTBALL PITCH! And, of course, that fact is never brought up. I love the microanalysis those guys do and generally I quite like MNF but to pinpoint that stuff is ridiculous because it happens everywhere. Our lot are shit and don't care because of the manager and the horrendous way he prepares his team. You'll be shocked how decent that same squad would look under a decent manager. Nothing to do with walking at all.

Anyone who would turn their nose up at Moyes at this point is fucking delusional. Compared to Pardew, he's Mourinho + Ancelotti + Ferguson x10.

It's well beyond the point of no return. The only question now is one of time -- even Ashley must know that there's no way back for Pardew under any circumstances. He's put his faith in a CB pairing that's absolutely awful without any reasonable alternative, he's put his faith in a strikeforce consisting of precisely zero strikers, and he's actively pushed aside creative forces who could potentially score goals for the sake of his ego. He can't get the best out of anyone. We're gangrenous. Do we merely cut off the diseased finger now or do we wait until the entire arm or more is rotting? Because that's inevitable. And anyone who even insinuates that Pardew should stay because of who might replace him is a complete idiot. You couldn't find a manager with a record as poor as Pardew's -- couple that with the toxicity of his presence and literally anyone would be better.

Caulkin. Best in the business.

Typically unprofessional behaviour from a thoroughly unprofessional coaching staff. Inexcusable but not surprising. Not much of a coach and in no way a professional. But as others said, Pardew squared up to a player, called Pellegrini a cunt, and today failed his contractually obligated press appearance, so we are a self-hating fucking Mickey Mouse operation regardless.

Press box for the Hull match: http://www.gopsusports.com/blog/DSC02226.JPG

The terms coming out from Tancredi Palmieri regarding Falcao's contract with Manchester United are absolutely astonishing: --10m Euro loan fee, option to buy at 44m -- deal automatically becomes permanent if he makes 15 appearances and scores 5 goals --14m annual salary after tax, around 270k per week, plus 3m in after-tax bonuses linked to those same small performance incentives Wayne Rooney makes 300k/week under his new deal but that's pre-tax. He'd have to make 436k/week to match Falcao's deal (before the incentives kick in). Holy shit.

Would love to see one of those like the ones showing the goals, except this time depicting every attempt by Pardew to leave the dugout during the Cardiff match

The quotes from Pardew regarding our home support just serve to cement what a cowardly manager he is. It takes a special kind of cowardice to take the thing that's been a huge driving force in making opponents fear a trip north to SJP and turn it against us. It takes a special kind of myopia to see that home support as more likely to cause our team to be disrupted rather than the opponent be intimidated. Much like his freezing out of HBA, it just exposes the way he thinks - self-preservation and "tactical nous" winning the day rather than empowering an individual or a crowd to do unpredictable but potentially wonderful things. I talked to Tim Howard one time and asked him his toughest place to play, and he immediately without hesitation said SJP, he loved the passion, the intimidation, the atmosphere. This was a few years ago. I wonder what he'd say now.

http://www.marca.com/2014/09/08/futbol/seleccion/1410165416.html Don't habla Español but this all seems very good for Wor Ayoze. NOW DON'T GO AND START PERFORMING WELL YET. YOU AND ROLANDO COOL IT DOWN UNTIL DICKHEAD IS GONE, THEN GO CRAZY, OK???

Does anyone know the actual details of the potential buyout/payoff should Pardew actually get sacked? I know he's got (ugh) 6 years left on his contract but surely there must be very favourable clauses in there in case of termination? Ashley's a tight cunt and Pardew's lucky to have a job so surely this contract wasn't ironclad for Pardew. Offhand people have mentioned things like "surely Ashley'd have to pay a lot of compensation" but is that actually true?

Why do we have so many fans who seem to hate the idea of flair? Books have been written, waxing melodic about the majesty and beauty of the game. That is the point of doing all this, especially for a club like us that clearly isn't going to win the Premier League anytime soon, if ever. The moments that lift you off your backside and make you scream, the moments where you run around your house/pub/wherever acting like a maniac because you've just seen an outrageous bit of play, the moments you remember for the rest of your life -- HBA is the embodiment of those kinds of things, and our club, the one that used to produce those moments on a regular basis just a decade or so ago, now actively hates them. No child has ever gone to a match and left wanting to become Yoan Gouffran (harsh on the lad but you see the point). It would be almost impossible to have watched HBA in his prime and left not wanting to be him, at least for a few minutes. We have no soul, no reason for existence other than merely to make up the numbers. In many ways that's sadder than what happened to Portsmouth or Leeds. HBA is a player full of colour and we are a club that, now literally and figuratively, can only see black and white.

Pointless

Utter confirmation of the fact that Pardew is in control. Utter confirmation that fear reigns and ambition is pushed aside. Utter confirmation that we'd rather persist with grafting 4/10 players than a flair-filled, maverick matchwinner. Utter confirmation that the football on display will only get worse, not better. Utter confirmation that Hull's squad and tactics are more like the Newcastle I remember than Newcastle itself is these days. Hull!

Apt description of this club.

Each ticket bought to support this club now is like giving alcoholic family member a pint. Watching the decline is sad enough without actively supporting it.

How did they do a whole segment on Hull and not mention HBA? The fuck?

We can't compete with the likes of Hull for ambition.

Why do we insist on ludicrously low transfer fees and haggle over incomings forever and ever then sanction the move away of a potential matchwinner for pennies to placate the coward in charge?

We'll probably pay them. I hope he tears Pardew a new shithole.

Driving quite the hard bargain

There is no "push on". That phrase should be eliminated from the vocabulary of any Newcastle supporter. There is no "potential" because you'll struggle to find a single player who's done anything other than get worse with our clueless coaching staff. So what is there? Stockholm Syndrome has set in amongst a far-too-large portion of our fans and we are approaching the point where an entire generation of Newcastle fans will think the extent of success is avoiding relegation and maintaining our position atop the financial tables. The team get a huge groundswell of support after scoring a 3rd to take the lead against Palace and it scares Pardew to death. No wonder our home record is so shit. We have a manager afraid of his own shadow and scared to be even more exposed as a fraud than has already happened.

I think that's very well put, sadly. The extent of our ambition is merely to stand still. We barely spend enough even to do that. We couldn't possibly sanction moves with any ambition whatsoever. The point of sport is to excel. Other than as a commercial shop window I'm still working out what the point of Newcastle United is these days.