Unbelievable

Two very concrete things: 1) some very tangible, worrying quotes by Pardew (see above) 2) previous experience with Ashley & Co Personally I have much more trouble understanding people who can't read the club's statements for what their worth and seemingly forget the past transfer window(s) fiascos every time a new one starts..

Perch. I don't remember Taylor and Williamson partnering each other off the top of my head to comment on them as a pairing, I presume Kadar will step up. Neil Taylor looks like he's being brought in as back up. Nobody that plays the defensive role but one of Barton, Guthrie, Smith or Gosling will fill in. ...... Now I'm not advocating that Perch or Smith should be relied on as back up because they shouldn't, however they are here taking a wage and I don't see the club allowing them to stay without being apart of the clubs 25 man squad, a number that's practically at it's limit. Which is why I think the 2 players he's talking about is on top of what we've got, then anyone else will be replaced 1 for 1 with hopefully upgrades to improve the first team or squad. We know the club have been drip feeding stories to the local press about players being told they can leave and the hope is that if we can shift them that we will bring in better players as replacements, fingers crossed that the market starts picking up now clubs are starting pre season training and that we can move the dead wood on. So that's Perch (s***), Kadar (promising but extremely injury prone himself), Naylor (if he signs; played at Conference level under a year ago) and "nobody"/Smith.. Enough said I think? Also, if the club plan to shift the deadwood and only replace them if and when this happens, why not say so, rather than explicitly stating one or two players will come in?

If we sell all our players we won't have any players!!! That's not what I said or even inferred. If you would have read on you would have seen that I believe we have very little cover as thing stand (i.e. even including the players I mentioned as possibly leaving based on media speculation), especially in all defensive positions. One or two addition doesn't cut it, simple as.. If you disagree, I would like you to try and answer the questions I asked in the paragraph following the one you so eloquently responded to: Who will play right back if Simpson gets injured? Who will we have to fall back on if Coloccini gets injured? Firstly Taylor and Williamson don't look at all complimentary as players, and what do we have behind these three options? One injury to one of our CB's (especially Colo) and we are in a spot of bother.. Who will replace Enrique effectively if he leaves or gets injured? We have not had decent cover at left back for years.. An injury, and one of our strongest position instantly becomes a glaring weakness on the team sheet Who have we got to take over Tiote's role if he gets injured, or even during the African Cup of Nations..?

I find this latest set of quotes from Pardew very disconcerting... As others have said, to only bring in one or two more players will mean we will have a very thin squad again next season. As things stand, we are one injury away from huge problems in quite a big number of positions, and that is before taking into account possible outgoings such as Enrique, Barton, but also squad players such as Routledge, Best, Ranger, Guthrie and the likes... Who will play right back if Simpson gets injured? Who will we have to fall back on if Coloccini gets injured? Firstly Taylor and Williamson don't look at all complimentary as players, and what do we have behind these three options? One injury to one of our CB's (especially Colo) and we are in a spot of bother.. Who will replace Enrique effectively if he leaves or gets injured? We have not had decent cover at left back for years.. An injury, and one of our strongest positions instantly becomes a glaring weakness on the team sheet Who have we got to take over Tiote's role if he gets injured, or even during the African Cup of Nations..? We look slightly more balanced numerically in midfield and attack, even though we could do with a real injection of quality up front. On paper, we have a decent first team, but there are too many positions where we are royally f***ed if our first (and sometimes only) choice player gets injured for any amount of time, or gets sold off because we receive an offer "we could not refuse" on transfer deadline day. Just one or two additions will not give us the required squad depth to seriously challenge for anything more than midtable. Well, that was predictable, wasn't it..? The "like new players" line, and so early in the window too.. Is Pardew suffering from amnesia or what? To count Ben Arfa and Dan Gosling as new signings is one thing, but to conveniently forget about a number of outgoings is quite another. Besides Nolan, we have also lost Campbell as centre back cover, Ireland in midfield, Kuqi in attack (not going into a debate about the value to the squad - we have lost them as options to bring on in an hour of need) already this summer. I would also argue due to the timing of the transfer of Carroll, and the inability to properly replace him at the time as a consequence, we have also lost him, and when we compare last season's squad with next season's, he should also be considered. All in all we have lost our two highest goalscorers and a few squad players. We have (significantly?) strengthened the midfield, but have essentially gone backwards in defense and attack so far. Hatem is not a signing. I understand Pardew hopes he can get Ben Arfa and Gosling playing at their ability, because if he does he will have one very good and one quite decent player at his disposal, but we also have to face reality here: they have both suffered very serious injuries that may have a significant impact on the rest of their careers. They may not come back as good as they were/could have been, or they may be more injury prone in the future. I really hope this will not happen, as both players could have a great future with us, but we have to also be prepared just in case.. Pardew expects Ba to score between 15 to 25 goals! Seriously? I think we will be very lucky if he stays more or less injury free and scores 15. He has a good record in a dozen matches with West Ham, but to expect him to be amongst the league's top scorers next season is asking a bit much.. Also, this statement seems to infer Ba has been brought in as our main striker. Whilst I rate him higher than our current set of strikers, I was certainly hoping we would replace Carroll with a slightly higher calibre of forward. Again, I am pleased with getting Ba on board, especially on a free, but compared to last season's squad (with Carroll) I think we have certainly not yet made the progress in this area that Carroll's transfer fee should enable us to do, and statements like this make me worried that we don't intend to do so either. Marveaux didn't play a lot last season because of his contract situation? Does Pardew even know we are (once again) gambling on a notoriously injury prone player to take us forward? From this comment, it doesn't look like we are definitely after a first team striker. Considering the fact we have squad forwards aplenty, if we are after another striker it should surely be somebody with the profile to wear the number 9 shirt at NUFC? Why is there no new contract for Joey at the moment? Didn't Pardew himself say earlier how much he wanted to keep Joey at the club? Surely he would want to keep him here longer if he truly believes Barton had a fantastic season last year..? Also, one year contracts will be the norm!? Where is he even getting this stuff from? We are handing out 5 and 6 years contracts like there is not tomorrow for f***'s sake.. Who is to say Joey will get a contract he finds acceptable in a year's time? Is this a face off or something? Why, if you believe he had a fantastic season and you see no reason he will not play even better next season, do you doubt he will get a contract elsewhere that would be acceptable for him, especially on a Bosman..? The entire Barton contract situation makes no sense at all to me, and it makes me worried what our intentions are with Barton and Enrique this transfer window. To me it looks like we are trying to convey a message how we want them to stay and excell for us next season, whlst in reality we will jump at the first chance to cash in on them. Admittedly, I am very cautious of Ashley based on what has happened in the past, and maybe I am reading too much into these quotes, but they certainly do nothing to ease my worries. I am happy with our transfer window activity so far, but we have to push on here, as this is an excellent opportunity (with the Carroll money available and relative stability after avoiding relegation more easily than expected) to show a bit of ambition and get NUFC back to where it should be (challenging for Europe).

Well, well, well..

Hope we're not lining him up as Tiote's replacement...

Yes please!

That's not what I said. Read it again, slowly. That's exactly what you said. If you're going to make stupid points, do try to remember them before projecting your ignorance onto other people. There's nothing to substantiate that rubbish. R e a d i t a g a i n . S l o w l y . . Edit: I see Domokunwins has already pointed out where you've gone wrong. You should do yourself a favour and not get on your high horse with people all the time if you can't even read or properly understand what they are saying. I understand perfectly. I'm entitled to disagree, as i'm entitled to consider you an arse-licking, tedious little ponce. For the record, N'Zogbia always seemed to have a good attitude until idiot managers starting messing him around. He basically got Roeder his job, and how was he repaid? Keegan played him LB, and Kinnear.......enough said. At Wigan his attitude seems to be spot on. So, again, there's really nothing whatsoever to substatiate the original post. Oh, we are 100% in agreement regarding N'Zogbia. I've always been a fan and was gutted when we let him go. Doesn't change the fact you either cannot read or have trouble understanding the simplest of logical concepts, which, again, wouldn't be such a problem if you weren't so up your own arse to the point where you feel the constant urge to belittle people for their opinions... Given the fact you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer maybe you would do well to pipe down a little..?

That's not what I said. Read it again, slowly. That's exactly what you said. If you're going to make stupid points, do try to remember them before projecting your ignorance onto other people. There's nothing to substantiate that rubbish. R e a d i t a g a i n . S l o w l y . . Edit: I see Domokunwins has already pointed out where you've gone wrong. You should do yourself a favour and not get on your high horse with people all the time if you can't even read or properly understand what they are saying.

What's your problem, you fruitcake..? All I said was I could see it happening because there is obviously history between him and Fat Sam, and he is a Sam Allardyce kind of player. Not claiming ITK or anything..

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/196718/Sam-Allardyce-sniffs-Alan-Smith-deal/

Because Fat Sam loves him.

Probably wishful thinking, but I can somehow see Smith taking a wage cut to be reunited with his mates Sam and Kev...

What the fuck!?

Probably a , but made me laugh.. [flash=200,200]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrGZOqpE92g&feature=related

Just done some Dennis Wise style scouting, and I like the fact he seems fairly two footed as well as being a decent header of the ball. Excellent piece of business on a free if we can keep him fit and his wages aren't preposterous...

Did he and Carroll ever play in our reserves together? Who'd have imagined 5 years ago we'd have a strikeforce who one day would cost £60m. And we'd still be stuck with same ol' Shola..

Did Shearer ever have to deal with a chairman/owner who had essentially agreed to sell him to another club and had the chopper waiting outside ready to take him there..?

Wullie made a good point I thought. "I just have to wear that shirt one day" A certain former number 9 of ours caused anger on the stands at Ewood Park in '93 when asked by a reporter for Shoot magazine who his ideal club to play for would be. Shearer of course responded with Newcastle. He had a burning itch to play for his hometown club to the point where he thought it was his destiny almost. Carroll couldn't wait to leave by all accounts as soon as he saw how much Liverpool were willing to pay him. I worry about our future not just as a club but as a 'footballing hot bed' when average local lads like Carroll and Henderson seemingly don't give a toss about playing for their local side. Steve Bruce, Sir Bobby Charlton, Jack Charlton, Sir Bobby Robson, Bryan Robson.... they all say one of their regrets in life was never pulling on that black andf white shirt. Does NUFC mean as much to young kids these days? What can be done to make kids starry eyed when it comes to all things NUFC? Success? I don't know myself, were NUFC successfull when Shearer was a youngster? Rubbish

Sigh.. That's four world cup finals lost in a row..

Good save Tim!

Krul in a penalty shootout..

No clean sheet today...

Van Marwijk: Tim did fantastically well. Great occasion for him, but he coped well. Defenders played him often on his right foot because they are used to right footed goalkeepers, so some work to be done. Would like him to punt the ball less, and build from the back more. Overall a very promising debut.

Van Bronckhorst and Van Basten very complimentary of him. Good presence and positioning and they like his coaching of the defence. They think he may have done well enough to be considered second choice behind Stekelenburg for the future, surpassing the more experienced Michael Vorm.