afar

Who the fuck is the co-commentatro, biased as hell. It was clearly a red, yet somehow, Jamall gets the smae punishment as maguire, that's fair and brilliant refereeing

The Leeds game, which is their next match, is just the type of game they have on the rare occasion gotten a result from all season, away to a fairly biggish name, they've beaten Norwich and Derby, got a draw at Wolves, beaten Fulham (at home). It's the crap around them who they've really struggled against most. Seems too much of a gap now for them, but difficult to discount them completely because of their previous, Reading seem to be in free fall and Bolton may have leveled out, they are more than likely to finished ahead of both Burton and Barnsley, catching one of Reading or Bolton might not be impossible but it's going to have to be a hell of a turnaround in form.

I really had high hopes for him when he first broke on the scene, but injuries and form have really derailed his career. Think he'll end trudging around in the lower leagues when he has the talent to perform much higher than that.

How much have we pocketed from this season, when you take into account the income we've received against the limited expenditure of minimal transfer deals ? Surely we are in good shape for next season, or are we still paying off the debt incurred by dropping down ?

To be fair to Manquillo too, he's played the majority of his games at LB as opposed to his favoured RB, not saying he's a different player on the other side, but it would have had an effect. I honestly don't mind him as a back up to yedlin, what we don't have really though is that back up to Dummett (although I think of our current squad Mbemba, could and should fill that role).

Next season will be make or break for him at the club. I think Rafa always intended for his first choice paring to be Ritchie and Atsu, with the youngsters Murphy and Aarons backing them up. Kenedy has come in and replaced Atsu, Atsu has the role of a dynamic option off the bench so at the moment there is no role for Murphy. Think we will bring in another winger next year, not certain it will be Kenedy, also think Atsu and Aarons will be shopped. Next season he has to push Ritchie for that starting spot otherwise he too could be out of the door soon.

Could see Rafa moving for Nastasic, he does love a CB signing and I think we'll be moving on from one or both of Mbemba and Clark in the summer so we'll need new recruits.

I think it is a bad thing. If we are a club that the England manager refuses to call up our good players then they must leave to secure a place. Yeah, that would be bad. But it’s a daft premise. It’s not the club he plays for which makes a difference. Look at some of the recent squad debutants from ‘unfashionable’ sides. Southgate doesn’t appear to rate Lascelles, irrespective of current shirt colour. If he moved for big money to a Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd or Liverpool, he would be in the next squad absolutely guaranteed, England managers have repeatedly done it for years picking players because of who they play for and not on ability.

Yeah we absolutely shouldn't be paying money in that kind of deal. Cairney is an unproven PL product and is a good few years older. There is a premium placed on strikers for obvious reasons, Mitro is a striker in form right now, he's also scored goals at PL level, so can make the step up if given the chance to play. His absence from our team has been the one thing I find difficult to accept from Rafa, especially when we've had Gayle and Joselu being preferred to him. His time at NUFC is over as long as Rafa is here, so we need to cash in, in the summer, 20 million should be the starting point for negotiations and preferably I would like to see him move abroad, because he's going to come back and bite us on the arse I feel.

The "perfect day" thread from that Dangermows simpleton is great, this I think was after they beat Norwich 4-1 I think and we lost to Spuds on the first day. This is a great quote from that:

Coleman said that they can win 3 out of the last 6 games, assuming the other three end in defeats that's 9 points, means Brum and Bolton would only need two draws each to send them down, if the Mackem manager's high hopes are met If the score stays as it is of course.

I've kind of ignored as much as possible the promotion picture in the champo, while our own status is not determined yet. Looking at it now with Fulham winning and Wolves drawing you would put a pretty high wager on Wolves and Cardiff going up but it's the playoff spots that are the most interesting. Villa really need to get promoted this season I feel, from an FFP perspective, from a financial one (with another year of parachute payments over), from their manager's perspective who will probably be sacked if they don't go up. Fulham are the form team and they too probably need to go up this year, if they want to hold onto their manager as well as players like Sessesgon and Cairney and be able to sign Mitro in the summer of course. Derby have been up there most of the season but are in horrendous form at the moment. Boro after appointing Pulis probably thought they would bounce straight back. Then you've got a host of clubs just behind that could be a wild card in it. Think it's been a weak year in the champo this season, with the three relegated clubs performing relatively poorly, two of them of course in the relegation fight. A few of last year's better teams such as Reading, Sheff Wed and Norwich has also been struggling. The points total to survive which was 51 last season is not going to be close to what is required this with Burton and the Mackems already unable to reach that. So for a team like Villa for example, if they mess up the playoff, that could really kill them, especially when you look at the three teams that are likely to come down, all will be a threat next year.

One of the things that make football so special is the rivalries, this being obsessed with one another is a stupid claim to make from both sides. They are our number rival as we are to them, so it's natural to take delight in their demise as it was for them. It's the 6 in a row crap, without mentioning the domination we had over that fixture, 28 years of never losing at their place, 5-1, 4-1 in recent memories. It's like they've rewritten history and nothing took place prior to the "6 in a row" except of course the 9-1 over a hundred years ago. You reap what you sow, so there should be no sympathy from us for their plight, after the stupid plane fly by's, banners on the Tyne Bridge and Steve Fucking Cram.

Has to be my favourite ex Mackem, the guy is just priceless, hope he doesn't end up back with that lot, the Brom move would suit both parties I think.

I was looking over another PL club's forum, Stoke's oatcake, just to see what the mood was like. It looks like "doing a Sunderland" is now a thing, a thing you want to avoid if you are about to be relegated from the PL

Think this is an important point that needs to be kept in mind about why they are in the mess they are in this year: https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/if-wed-kept-mannone.1424993/ They got relative peanuts for a competent back up keeper and sold their number one choice, they've then gone out and brought in keepers who have no right not be making a living wage from the game. Some of the howlers they've committed this season have been comical. We've seen ourselves what a difference a good keeper makes in recent weeks. Of all the stupid decisions that club has made over the last couple of years, this seemingly insignificant one could have had one of the biggest impacts. However 6 in a row marra.

He wasn't an odious git like Pardew and didn't have the time to inflict the damage that twat did but although it was not his fault he should never have been given the job let alone appointed to the board and in his short time achieved something Pardew managed to avoid in being the man responsible for our relegation.

Souness is still fresh in my memory too. We had a few bad ones in the 70's and 80's too but they were severely hamstrung by a board that made Mike Ashley look benevolent.

Once the season is over a few jobs will open up, think Chelsea will part ways with Conte, Fat Sam should probably be binned at Everton, Moyes could be discarded at West Ham. If that all happens the merry go round will be in full swing, we need to hope Rafa doesn't get embroiled in it, can see a least two of those clubs looking at stealing him away.

It's a really close call, but that team we had when we went down should never have been relegated.

Scary to think we've had two worse managers than him, since he left ! To go from Pardew to Carver to McClaren was suicide, no wonder we went down, and my god we fell on our feet when Rafa came in, otherwise we would be probably some place similar to our neighbours right now.

The last time they messed with the title of this thread we went on a 2 month can not win streak. Lets leave it alone until maths can't relegate us.

Exactly, a lot of folks still don't get this. We are not even spending the money the club generates anymore.

Yeah I didn't think he was all that today, in fact his was a little anonymous until he popped up with that vital assist. Still didn't stop the Beeb and Ryder giving him MoM like

I remember vivdly Matt Le Tiss's interview with Sky after they sacked him, it was so full of arrogance and delusion of grander, that his team wasn't playing a style that Southampton expect and therefore he had to go. If that was indicative of the general fan base, then they've totally deserved what they've got this season and Mark Hughes as manager now.