Andy

If the club are smart they'll get this sorted now to pacify people somewhat.

Lads, man, keep it on topic instead of trying to score points over each other. The "true fan" argument is embarrassing and certainly not relevant.

I tend to believe this is true. We're essentially a massive advertising board for his company at the moment, and the one grain of blind optimism I can take from that is the notion that the better we do, the more global advertising Sports Direct will receive. Therefore Ashley will probably see it as being in his best interests to maximize the club's exposure (and therefore his company's exposure) by competing in continental competitions, which may actually mean that he'll start investing to get us there.

Howay man, get a grip FFS. Fuck off Otter you utter cretin. You have absolutely no idea about passion and love for NUFC. If you can't understand him saying he's hearbroken then you really need to fuck off from 'supporting' NUFC. Sorry lads...he's just wound me right up there. I know this news has ignited passions somewhat, but can we direct all vitriol at the appropriate people, and not each other please?

I could definitely see them advertising the shirt colour as being a saleable asset to any wannabe-sponsors in the near future. As you say, they're completely out-of-touch with (or - more likely - apathetic towards) the sentimental value of these things that it just seems inevitable. Everything is for sale, the whole lot.

'Understands the need for the club to find new ways of improving the playing squad' apparently. Seriously doubt that's the case - not fully at least. I'm sure he'll be at least somewhat angered by the potential disruption this will cause.

Really don't understand how some people can approach this with such apathy. They might as well change our home strip to red and blue stripes next season as well. Cunts.

It's easy if you hold in L1 + Triangle, man. Easy.

We'll come through these games unbeaten, then lose heavily against Norwich.

I love how the thread title specifically states the subject of the thread, yet people still make the effort to click on it and then say "who cares". Ferdinand, for me, was the better of the two at their respective peaks.

The cynical side of me is slightly concerned that the press are "leaking" the details of the contract offer; it's very reminiscent of the way the Barton/Nolan/Enrique contract negotiations were reported... (Whereas the deals for Jonas/Tiote/etc seemed to just "happen".)

You only ended up bossing it because Cabaye went off, and we also had Tiote out injured. These players are vital to our team and not having them makes a massive difference. We can barely see you all the way down in 16th. And we had no Fellaini who is just as vital to us. And with that in mind, you lost. It speaks volumes of the mentality of each set of players - the contrasting ways they handled the dilema of key men being unavailable... We're second because of our defence, our ability to score goals, and a bit of luck btw. Simple as that, really.

He didn't need to do that at all today. He was brought on to slow the game down and he did it brilliantly.

He didn't console him, he pointed him towards the fans who were singing his name.

Has Chris created another account to go along with HTT, knightrider, etc? Because it would explain a lot...

Because your post count is lower than 100.

Man management at its best tbh, if you throw in his constant talking to the players and his spending entire games on the touchline. Aye. It's a small touch but Best probably felt on top of the world at that moment.

Nice little moment when Best was subbed, Pardew directing Leon's attention to the crowd who were chanting his name. Stuff like that makes it easy to see why the players are playing with so much confidence under him.

I don't know, are City still in the League cup? They got beat of Bayern Munich in the CL.

This will make us the only English team unbeaten in all competitions, aye?

Did you really expect us to piss all over them? Wigan are already fighting for their lives, they had reason to be a lot more motivated than us. Grinding out a result in a game like this is pretty encouraging if you ask me. I expected us, not unreasonably, to play much better than that. You're not going to play well every week. That's the worst we've played over a full 90 (mainly down to complacency) and yet we still dug out a win and kept a clean sheet - speaks volumes.

Did you really expect us to piss all over them? Wigan are already fighting for their lives, they had reason to be a lot more motivated than us. Grinding out a result in a game like this is pretty encouraging if you ask me.

We haven't really done much with the ball - some pretty passing, but not very incisive so far. Doesn't seem like a game suited to having two physical strikers so I'd imagine Ben Arfa will be on very soon for Best.

Predictably lacklustre first half. We'll win this 3-0 if we get an early goal.

Team selection is understandable - continues to raise the hunger of those on the bench, and keeps the starting XI on their toes while also keeping their confidence levels high due to the continued faith. As fans we might not like it as we want to see the most exciting players playing, but Pardew is making the right moves from a man-management perspective I think.