Memphis

Deserved this. Absolutely zero motivation. Players can't even complete simple passes. Outplayed and outthought by Stevenage. I'm far more bothered by the red to Tiote and the suspension than going out of the cup. Not looking forward to having to add this to the list of memorable FA Cup upsets. How Pardew handles the response to this will be telling as he couldn't be bothered to motivate this lot today. And his selection didn't do us any favors.

Have to say it looked a red to me. I would be very surprised if it's overturned on appeal.

From Caulkin via Twitter: Pardew: "I can’t say to you strong enough that Andy Carroll will not leave this club in this transfer window. 100 percent."

Everybody has a price at the right time in the right situation. But this is none of those. There is no compelling reason to sell as we're in a relatively decent financial position. Spurs are doing better than us now but are not historically a 'bigger' club. There is no reason we can't replicate what Spurs have done over the next 5 years if we make the right decisions - and the first right decision is to keep Andy Carroll. This isn't Man Utd or Barcelona. It's Spurs. There is a massive, massive difference.

The transfer window is officially open. Also, regarding Pardew's quotes, I don't really see the harm. As someone else pointed out, part of his remit is clearly to improve the communication and he's doing that (and then some). It's only fair to wait and see how his quotes compare with what actually happens. It took us a while to get accustomed to Hughton's style (I remember a fair few frustrated people once the secrecy began), and it will take a while to get used to Pardew. I'm still struggling to warm up to Pardew, but I think we have to try to be reasonable.

Also from Wilson - expected to be a 4/4.5 yr. deal but no info yet on wages.

Scott Wilson from the Northern Echo: #NUFC expect Ben Arfa deal to be confirmed tomorrow after Marseille officials return from winter break. €6m give or take a few centimes.

I'm thinking we could sign Lacina Traore, sign Crouch on loan, then maybe bring over Yao Ming as cover.

From our pal Jonas: "Nobody told us to delete our twitter, and if someone tell me to delete i am not going to do it because i dont do nothing bad."

Brilliant news all around (assuming it becomes official). In an ideal world, we would have had the 25 game window to properly analyze the lad on the pitch and feel 100% assured he was a great fit. Thanks to the twat de Jong, that was no longer an option. However, off the pitch, he appears to have fit in brilliantly, appears to have a real affinity for the supporters and the players, and is clearly motivated, with his rehabilitation ahead of schedule. Signing him for £5m while still injured is a risk, but it's a smart one with positives outweighing negatives. And if we leave it until summer and he plays up to his potential over the last 2-3 months of the season, he isn't going to be a £5m player any more. Which other 23 year old international that can play in the middle or on the wing and turn a game with his quality were we going to sign this window?

Weird things have happened at WHL - Butt's scored twice, Geremi (!) has scored, Huntington(?!?!), Acuña scored one of his few goals there too... So, Smith will score a hat trick and Perch will bag a brace and we'll win 5-0 then.

I think I'd rather play Harper at LB than perch.

Really loved watching Pablo Aimar in his prime at Valencia.

Yeah, I'd agree. Did the best I could. I tried to limit those who had only played sparingly to the subs bench. It was not particularly easy to try to remember 18 players who've really been terrible...

Given the requirements of players who at least feature a bit, I'm going to try to set up an XI (w/ subs): ALMUNIA PERCH--------CALDWELL--------BOYCE-------SPECTOR BOA MORTE-------N'ZONZI--------RIVEROS BOSELLI---------ZIGIC----------BECKFORD Subs: FABIANSKI WALTERS GUTHRIE LOVENKRANDS ILUNGA DELAP SIDIBE

Jon Walters. He is horrible.

Definite BJB material there if he's suspended. If every footballer who cursed and/or made obscene gestures were suspended, we'd struggle to put out any 11 v 11 matches on any Saturday. He's got cameras focused on him all the time because he is, in fact, Joey Barton - of course they'll see everything he does. Trumped up nonsense. Ridiculous.

Hahahahahaha These commentators are brilliant.

Oh fuck...Smith

Would love to see a .gif of Fat Ashley looking like he was trying to molest Lamb's Arse after that goal...

SCOUSER POWER X2

About as obvious as it gets. Jonas rugby tackled him.

So weird to hear just the commentators without any noise.

Ranger's running around like a maniac. Really destabilising Liverpool's back four. Shame he has no idea how to end a move.

Ranger is lively without any end product at all. So that hasn't changed either. Give him a bit more polish and he's going to be a handful.