alexthegreat

An English football fan who likes standing with supporters at the match and has comparable wealth to Abramovich was supposed to be the dream ticket. The intent has never been there though and the vitriol he faces has been entirely of his own making. I saw those numbers and wondered for a moment if it could ever have turned out differently, but I don't think so really.

137. Roman Abramovich Net Worth: $9.1 B Source of wealth: steel, investments 256. Michael Ashley Net Worth: $5.5 B Source of wealth: sports retailing No longer worlds apart, assuming there's any truth at all in these things.

Newcastle United PLC Annual Report 2004: Group turnover £90.2m (2003: £96.4m) http://www.nufc.co.uk/staticFiles/68/4/0,,10278~1128,00.pdf Newcastle United 2012/13 Financial Figures The Club's turnover rose to £95.9million - up from £93.3million http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20140225/newcastle-united-201213-financial-figures_2281670_3686538 Practically no increase in turnover despite money being poured into the game by television and other clubs doubling or even quadrupling their turnover in the same period. The way Shepherd and Ashley have run the club over the last decade has been shocking.

No idea why any one rates Hoddle. He has done almost nothing at club level to be considered a decent appointment. Did ok with England but had a fantastic squad. I'd rate him as a slight upgrade on Kinnear. It's debateable whether he did better than Kinnear managing at club level, and they are from the same era. Hoddle can speak coherently though, and as far as I'm aware isn't likely to have a heart attack. On the other hand Kinnear didn't seem to do anything except talk complete shit (which I would probably count as a plus). I could see Hoddle and his colossol ego going around interfering, causing chaos, and making a mess. He has a connection to Spurs and no one has given him a job in 6 years so he fits Ashley's criteria, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is something in it.

There's going to be a lot to do this summer. Jonas, Ameobi, Gosling – contracts expire this summer Ben Arfa – one year left on deal, looks likely to leave Marveaux , Obertan, Cisse – could easily see all three leaving Coloccini – clearly wants to go back to Argentina Remy, De Jong – not our players Can’t see any of our loan players making the grade – maybe Tavernier and Good still have a slight chance. It’s surely still too soon for Campbell as well. Ryan Taylor is unlikely to play for us again. Potentially that leaves a 1st team squad of: Krul Elliot Alnwick Haidera Debuchy Williamson Mbwia Taylor Santon Dummett Sissoko Anita Tiote Bigirimana Sammy Gouffran Let's hope Mike splashes the cash this summer.

If he was going to stay beyond this summer a new contract would have been put on the table and he would have signed it at least 12 months ago. There's been reports in the press of a contract offer a number of times over the last 12 months, (most recent was about a month ago) yet still no deal: I think both he and the club have been fairly certain he's going this summer for a long time now, and this has been reflected on his part in his dreadful physical condition and attitude for most of the last 12 months, and it may have played some part in Pardew's thinking as well. It's a shame, because from about March - September 2012 I really thought his performances suggested he could be one of our greats.

Looks finished here - about to turn 27 years old, 16 months left on his contract, and on the bench behind Sammy Ameobi. Did well for the first 10 minutes when he came on and then couldn't be arsed - not for the first time either. Wouldn't be surprised to see him go to Turkey or Greece or somewhere and get even fatter. Should be the best years of his career at the moment, it's a bit of a waste.

29 points from his last 34 matches - his side have been dreadful since winning the cup so not really a surprise. Any manager is at risk of the sack with a record as bad as that.

Is it me, or is little being done to try and get him back into form? The problem Cisse has is that he isn't very good at football: he's absolutely dreadful at controling the ball under any sort of pressure. He isn't strong at all for a centre forward. He isn't particularly good in the air. He seems to have some sort of issue with being offside as well. Worst of all is his complete lack of technique. When your number 9 is through on goal you want some belief that the ball is going in the corner of the net. The most simple way is head over the ball - laces - corner - goal. Worked for Ferdinand - Shearer - Collymore - Fowler - any number of top England centre forwards. Cisse has never shown he can do that on a regular basis, that is why I would snap anyone's hand off for £3m plus and if some one is actually willing to pay £10m for him then they must be on drugs.

well flogging one of our worst centre forwards since Andreas Andersson for £10m seems quite a good idea to me. As for would I rather play Shola? I probably would actually - both equally hopeless but at least Shola is too slow to get into an offside position these days. In fact his chest down from a Williamson punt and attempted lob over the keeper was the best bit of forward play we produced on Saturday.

Well as long as you admit you want change, even though you don't know what it would be. That's a fair enough conclusion, but so is doubt about it. People staying with their "security" no matter how s*** it is rather than taking a chance is the same? With that attitude, we'd still be roving bands of hominids. Civilization would have been still-born. You might be overdoing the comparison there a bit, but I see what you mean. It's not like I actively want to have Ashley as our owner, I'm just aware of the number of mentalists and charlatans that are in charge of football clubs. If we finish 8th this season it will be a finish we have only bettered 14 times since World War 2. Things are far from perfect but that is hardly the sort of season that will make fans give up their season tickets en masse. And things could certainly be worse than this without Ashley - they usually are. Not that I'd be at all sorry to see him go.

it would be nice to see him get the ball at pace with just the full back to go at after a sharp passing move. Too many times recently he gets it then stops it dead with about 3 players in front of him. Everyone else stops to watch and it's just a waste of time. Then again, I've rarely seen him go running into spaces behind the fullback looking for a through ball. I certainly hope Pardew makes him go on the next club trip as well. This is the 2nd time in the last year or so that he's been left to his own devices and then come waddling back carrying an extra stone.

not a very good player and won't be missed.

I haven't really any issues with his team selection. It may have been worth starting Mbiwa for some more composure on the ball. You never like to see Shola starting, but having seen De Jong's contribution I think it was justifiable. The problem today was with the mentality. He was in the programme today saying that the performance didn't matter, all that mattered was the result, and I heard him say the same in a radio newcastle interview on the way there. Shola said it would be a 'war'. I looked at our players geeing each other up and going into their huddle and fell into the trap of thinking we were going to put on a show today. In contrast the Sunderland players looked very relaxed. The 45 minutes that followed were just totally lacking in any intelligence. Numerous 50:50s that were contested involved our players overstepping the mark and conceeding a free kick. There was no composure on the ball whatsoever, I dont think we strung more than 3 passes together in the first 20 minutes. Countless long balls were launched from Williamson to Shola. Any shots we managed were scattered in all directions. They did nothing special. They were intelligent enough to knock it around at the back a bit to settle things down in the first 20 mins. When that happens you either press as a unit or back off as a unit. We did neither. We had players losing their discipline, hurtling out of position towards the ball - they knocked it into the spaces, and took advantage. The first goal typified the mentality we were playing with. 2 players close down Johnson when only one was necessary. He nudges the ball into the space left and Anita cleans out the man, gifting them the 1st goal. I wouldnt decribe Anita as the most reckless player, but this typified the way we were playing. Santon is the most placid defender you will see, but he needlessly hacked someone down for a clear cut booking as well. We gifted them the 2nd after that as well and that was the end of the match. I think Pardew settled them down a bit at half time, and we could have pulled one back if we had any quality up front. On the other hand they were just as likely to pick us off on the break as they did last time. It is one of their few strengths and it was no surprise to see them add a third after we'd thrown the towel in at around the 75th minute. The overweight looking Ben Arfa was well marshalled and their centre backs handled what little threat we posed comfortably. Aside from that they did nothing special. I don't doubt that someone somewhere on this forum will have described the performance as 'gutless'. That wasn't the problem at all, the problem was the witless mentality instilled in the players by the manager today. The same side (minus Remy) passed it around quite effectively against Norwich, none of that was visible today.

Strikers who could get on the pitch at some point: Altidore (1 goal this season) Borini (2 goals) Fletcher (3 goals) Wickham (8 goals for Sheff Wed) Shola (0 goals) Sammy (0 goals) De Jong (0 goals for anyone) Cisse (1 goal) Possibly the worst selections of strikers to be seen in a Premier League fixture this season?

Every time I've seen this lot play they've been absolutely atrocious. They have 5 wins this season and in 2 of them they scraped home against 10 men. Since Poyet came in they do seem to keep going til the end though and somehow or other they've been taking chances when they arrive, despite having Altidore up front. I don't really know what to make of the Sunderland team at the moment. On paper there is very little to fear apart from Adam Johnson if he's in the mood. They have been getting reasonable results, but in isolation none of the results in the league recently have been particularly impressive aside from their win at Fulham. I'm sure we'll look the better side in the first half anyway. I seem to be the only one who is fairly confident of a win.

Their next 5 league matches: Newcastle V Sunderland Sunderland V Hull Man City V Sunderland Arsenal V Sunderland Liverpool V Sunderland They desperately need to win at least one of their next 2 or they're very likely to be right in the mix with 10 games to go.

Martinez doesn't do that nearly every week like Pardew does and i would say that is to put pressure on Stevenage, not give himself and his team an excuse if they lose. Jesus, do people still not accept what our manager does. Martinez on Monday: "The second half I must admit the condition of the pitch didn't allow us to control the game in the way we wanted, to concede the goal in the manner that we did was unfortunate." Pathetic excuses nearly every day of the week. What a complete tit. Hate him.

missed the most obvious booking you will ever see for the tackle on Debuchy, then 2 minutes later books Sissoko for getting hit by the ball. Failed to penalise an obvious foul on Sissoko shortly after that, and the red cards were the icing on the cake.

Steadily getting better and better over the course of the season. Had some shocking decisions go against him tonight from the diabolical referee - which seemed to fire him up a bit. I don't think he'll ever be a top player in the final third, but it would be interesting to move him inside to see if he's capable of really imposing himself a game from the middle of the pitch.

did well today, absolutely nothing went for us. The complete lack of quality on our bench is slightly alarming.

they have been shit but have fresh legs on now from the bench. We have nothing on our bench. Worried we're gonna get sucker punched here.

worried we've missed our chance here

...especially now the club is actively avoiding competing in it That old chestnut. Avoiding a top 6 finish, are you really that thick? Do you honestly believe we will throw matches just so we fall short of it? Not so much throwing matches but selling our best player and the severe lack of incoming transfers do suggest they don't want to finish top 6. Add to that a lot of the quotes attached to Pardew which belittle the Europa League and it does appear that they would rather not have the hassle. They've already accepted they aren't too arsed about Cup competitions so why would they want to qualify for another. I think you may be being naive. Pardew wants to finsih as high up the league table as possible, to think otherwise is mental. The players themselves will be in the same boat trying to push for it as well, precisley why we are only 7 points of a champions league spot. Not that i think we are capable of getting in that position but at least they are keeping themselves in touch with the top 6 teams and not just folding away like other clubs have. Pardew doesn't get what he wants, that's not the way the club is ran. The powers that be will be doing all they can to avoid another Europa League campaign. It's almost been admitted in interviews/fan meetings. It's nonsense. The powers that be have said that the Premiership takes priority over cup competitions (inc. Europe presumably). Not that we don't want to be in them, they implied if nothing else it gave a chance for lesser squad players. Pardew on the other hand has repeatedly said he wants to win something, and to get into Europe. He would prefer to have a squad capable of competing in it and has often voiced concerns over the format of the Europa League and wants it to change, but that does not mean he or the club want to finish lower in the league to avoid it ffs. In the first half of the Europa League we put some very weak teams out and muddled our way through unspectacularly. In the second half of the tournament, when it gets good, we put some strong sides out and maintained mid table Premiership form while playing those 6 matches. I'd imagine if we were to qualify we would aim to do more or less the same thing again.

True. That probably applies to almost any potential signing, unfortunately, seeing as everyone knows we've just trousered about £20m with 4 days left in the window.