merlin

It might be tempting to recall Armstrong in view of the dire striking ability of the first team, but it probably wouldn't be a major success. There is a huge difference between Lg 2 and the PL and in any case, chances are not exactly being created by the midfield so any striker would stuggle, esp if asked to play a lone role up front and being of Armstrong's size. A spell with a Championship club would give a more accurate pointer of what his success level would be back in the PL, but he's doing OK. We should have bought and experienced and proven striker like Austin - Cisse is hopeless playing on his own and his heart went out of the whole thing years ago. He needs to be moved on ASAP.

What a load of horse s***. Some advice which you badly need - it is better to keep one's mouth SHUT and be thought an idiot than to open it(or in your case, type it)and prove the matter beyond doubt. I think even you might just get this....

This - the heart of the problem.

Last time it was a 7 from me - now raising it to 8 and it will stay that way until Christmas at this rate.

Carr has been found out big time - he is, as has been said, living off the back of signing Cabaye and even then, it wasn't exactly rocket science as the guy was an established French international. He has been successful in conning Ashley and the CEOs he has worked with because none of them know anything about football and Ashley just wants bargains he can move on. Carr obviously enjoys his trips to France and his Duty-Free booze etc....probably too late to do anything this season but really the whole background team of the club are a shambles...amateurs being exposed badly by the rest of the PL..

Another dire performance, slightly improved in the second half, but nowhere NEAR being acceptable for a decent PL side. Watford deserved their win, they attacked in greater numbers once they got the ball and always looked more dangerous. They are a poor side and as someone said earlier, we would have been hammered by a better team...roll on Chelsea and Man C eh..? This Newcastle team is going down - even though this is early in the season, you cannot see any real goal chances being created around the box apart from Janmaat's crosses and they weren't always accurate although he WAS our best player by a mile, mainly because Watford either elected not to put a man on him to try and block his forward runs, or didn't have the brains to suss out what was happening. Colo was woeful and so too, on the day, was Haidara so we conceded early and easily. Colo is struggling for pace even more these days when the opposition catch us on the break and we will pay heavily for Charnley's decision not to buy another experienced CB as both Colo and Taylor are unreliable...Williamson we won't even mention.. Wijnaldum does disappear, and I have noticed this since the first game, even though he scored in that....our m/f generally is lacking in creativity and vision, Colback getting worse by the game and Charnley is responsible for the whole fiasco in my view - he was given carte blanche to control buying and selling and we are stuck with 2, possibly 3 players who do NOT want to play for us, Cisse, Tiote and Sissoko, 2 of whom are midfielders and who would make a real difference if their hearts were in it and the 3rd who plays in the area of the field that we really ARE short on - striker. All this should have been sorted out before the season and players moved on/brought in so we had everyone pulling the same way - as it is, we face a desperate fight against relegation and after the next few games could be marooned without realistic hope of recovery. Confidence in McClaren is now at a very low point and although he is not responsible for the summer transfer activities, he shows no sign of being able to organize or motivate the resources at his disposal. There is no way Ashley will fire him if he can possibly avoid it and the chances of us being able to get a really decent manager are nil so that avenue is closed. The main problem is that Ashley should have tried to sell in the summer and we may then have had a board with real ambition and vision - we really are in a horrendous position and unless some sort of miracle occurs, we will struggle to stop and score goals for the foreseeable future.

If you are a realist, your first option is the correct one...if you are a dreaming optimist, try choice No 2...

The crucial thing about BOTH of them is that they fit the Ashley mould...and that's all he cares about. They keep their mouths shut and let Carr/Charnley sign players that fit the Ashley criteria - likely to make money when sold on. Other than that, and they would be out of a job.

This - all of it. Anyone thinking that 'its early days, tough fixtures etc etc' is living in dreamland or has never seen a REAL relegation season/team. Once you get into a long losing streak it becomes very hard to get out of it and I have seen 3 relegated Newcastle sides in the past 38 years, not to mention numerous poor seasons where we escaped by a few points. Even in the season after we signed Supermac we struggled until November when we signed Tony Green and he almost single-handedly sparked life into the side. However, we DID have players like Macdonald and Tudor who had the potential to be a really good strike force and Green's addition to m/f got them going....this side has NO goalscorer in Tudor's class, let alone Macdonald's and the defence is much worse than the one in 71-72. We DO need a dominant and constructive m/f player but we are not going to get one and by the time Christmas comes things will be very difficult unless we start looking like creating and taking chances which we are not doing now. After Watford, Chelsea and Man C lie in wait and Chelsea are not going to be poor for long - they have too much talent all round and we could cop a hiding unless they break their losing streak before then. OK, so we have played Man U and Arsenal but neither are really the power they were and we have also played sides we should expect points from so Watford IS a cruncher. The rot has to stop or it will be too late - relegation sides show a distinct lack of confidence and ability to score goals...this is NUFC right now, not last season or the one before - NOW, and after spending a reasonable amount of dosh(probably nowhere near enough), excuses for continuing poor performances are going to wear thin...its one thing to be playing well, creating chances but not taking them, and another thing not to be creating chances at all whilst conceding easily at the back ; there is only one ending for sides who do this regularly in any league.... We are a 7 and will remain that way until things pick up.

This is a MUST win....anything else has the alarm bells chiming wildly.

Didn't show the game live here in Oz, but I won't watch the recording - another dire show by the sound of it and another game with a failure to score. We have scored twice from open play against Saints, failed against Man U, Arsenal and Hammers... If we lose to Watford, McClaren is going to start feeling the screw big time and his honeymoon period is now well and truly over. We are in big trouble, bottom of the league and not looking likely to create danger to any opposition - if this doesn't change quickly we will be in deep relegation trouble as confidence continues to slump. Happy days again at SJP.....

Yep - the knives will start coming out if we lose at WHU and then at home to Watford next week...even a draw in the Watford game will not be really acceptable.

I don't think you will have to worry about winning anything with this team - they are light years away from being strong enough and I believe Ashley & Co know this but just aren't prepared to make the necessary investment to achieve that in one or even 2 transfer windows.

Absolutely this. KK said they would lie and lie to the fans and they have - he was right when he said nothing would change until they all went - esp Ashley.

Heard some stories about McNamee and Ollie Burton and I actually think Kevin Scott was up for it, always first on the scene and protective of his team mates when things got ugly, his problem was he was so polite in play. No one bullied Shearer and apparently if Benny Kristensen could be roused he was mean, Kevin Dillon had a reputataion that it seemed he was trying to live down when he came here, Joey Barton was/is a pussy in comparisson. On the pitch Billy wasn't that hard but he had a reputation, put him in the car park with a Shearer could be interesting, as much because Shearer could take it. Both McNamee and Burton were hard cases - McNamee more obviously, I once saw him get booked for a clattering foul on Alan Clarke of Leeds and McNamee had only been on the field as a sub for a couple of minutes. He was a decent CB though and intimidating for opposition forwards - he often weighed in with crucial goals too, saw him score against Spurs after just about battering his way into their penalty area after working a 1-2 with Pop Robson(I think) and there was that never-to-be forgotten moment when he swung from the Sunderland cross-bar at Roker Park after scoring there...I think it was a 3-3 draw after we had been behind. Burton was a more cultured defender and he had decent ball skills but he could be very nasty on the quiet....always thought him and Moncur were our best defensive pairing during the Fairs Cup run. Some real hard cases around at that time...Chopper Harris of Chelsea, Peter Storey at Arsenal and of course, Tommy Smith(Liverpool)and Norman Hunter/Jackie Charlton at Leeds. Some of these guys wouldn't last 5 minutes with today's rules/refs....

Does your free season ticket work? It's been like this for ages, increasingly so all the time. Whenever we play one of the better sides, home or away, the crowd goes home absolutely buzzing if we do anything other than get absolutely obliterated. It used to be just the top couple of sides in the division. Now if we play Swansea City and don't get f***ed up the arse, it's treated as a moral victory. Meanwhile West Ham have already won away at Liverpool and Arsenal. As a support, we write these games off and are delighted to do so. One of the many reasons I can't be f***ed with it any more. Yep - the Ashley propaganda machine has done a fine job on NUFC fans...or what is left of the genuine ones. He set out to lower expectations and because many fans have nothing but SJP on every alternative Saturday/Sunday to look forward to, he has probably even bettered his aims. The club will never do anything whilst people are prepared to accept mediocrity - I'm not particularly referring to Saturday as there were mitigating factors, but even so, a more ambitious owner would never have allowed a club of our size to start a season with such an inexperienced CF with a reputation for being physical or without PL experience. Its all about investing in young players in the hope that they will come good and make a profit when sold on. How long have you supported Newcastle? Where does your view of the life and times of 'the genuine' NUFC fan come from? (An unseen Tyneside-based Ripping Yarns episode?) Have you considered what the realistic aims of most premiership clubs are in this era? I'm all for a bit of Cashley criticism, where warranted, but the above imo comes over like some kind of NOTW-flashback Southern, ill-considered, and patronising journalism. You have picked the wrong one to lay out 'I'm-a-better-fan-than you' crap pal - I was probably supporting NUFC when you were still in your father's imagination(or whatever you want to call it in your world). Was going to SJP back in the 1960s and was part of the Magpie Group that got rid of an unambitious board..a bit like this one except most of them were Geordies.... Your comments are typical of many of the modern generation - think they know it all but actually know nowt, and you have done a fine job in cementing my views about many modern NUFC fans. The hilarious part about your ramblings are that I looked up your profile and saw you only joined the site in July this year... Pots calling kettles, or what..? Grow up lad and come back when you can play with the big boys.

Totally agree ... and I think it is worse due to the current political environment of England. Not sure what you mean about this one....Liverpool are in a very left-wing city and yet they are both media darlings(lots of scousers in the media)and followed by loads of fans outside the area because they were successful once. Its more that people think NUFC are a mediocre club and shouldn't get ambitions above their station..!!

Does your free season ticket work? It's been like this for ages, increasingly so all the time. Whenever we play one of the better sides, home or away, the crowd goes home absolutely buzzing if we do anything other than get absolutely obliterated. It used to be just the top couple of sides in the division. Now if we play Swansea City and don't get f***ed up the arse, it's treated as a moral victory. Meanwhile West Ham have already won away at Liverpool and Arsenal. As a support, we write these games off and are delighted to do so. One of the many reasons I can't be f***ed with it any more. Yep - the Ashley propaganda machine has done a fine job on NUFC fans...or what is left of the genuine ones. He set out to lower expectations and because many fans have nothing but SJP on every alternative Saturday/Sunday to look forward to, he has probably even bettered his aims. The club will never do anything whilst people are prepared to accept mediocrity - I'm not particularly referring to Saturday as there were mitigating factors, but even so, a more ambitious owner would never have allowed a club of our size to start a season with such an inexperienced CF with a reputation for being physical or without PL experience. Its all about investing in young players in the hope that they will come good and make a profit when sold on.

Waddle was just as bad on our commentary in Oz....supported Marriner over almost every decision apart from his not awarding a pen for Thauvin's tackle..! Tbf to pelanty his initial reaction was that it wasn't a red, it was only after he realised he had better fall into line he changed his view. He also said that Colo's tackle wasn't a free kick. Not that I'm sticking up for him like, can't stand him. Whereabouts in oz are you? In WA. south of Perth...great place and weather AND we get almost all Newcastle PL games throughout the season. Because we are 2-3 hours behind the East depending on the time of year, the games are not on at stupid times either as we are only either 7 or 8 hours in front of the UK..!

Lets see how Pardew does after another year...he did the same at every club he's been with including us.

After reading a fair few comments from earlier in the thread, some people need to get their heads round the fact that NUFC are NOT a popular club anymore, especially in the south. We upset a lot of comfortable journalists by challenging the London-NW axis back under SJH and KK - also, to a lesser extent under SBR, but they weren't as vocal about him because he had been England manager. Once the 'Entertainers' tag wore thin and we fluffed the title in 96, they began to see us as Paper Tigers who they could laugh at, esp once SJH and KK went and again after SBR was sacked. TBF, they have had a point since then...we have had a succession of dire managers, a board which was nepotistic to say the least and then a new owner who has done his best to make money from the club by turning it into a laughing stock with mindless decisions...because he too is a Southerner, we are resented by people down there because we rejected him and his southern oppos like Wise, the two Spanish sounding guys , Llambias and managers like Pardew and the Womble King. The media don't like him because of his decision to give exclusivity to News Corp(SKY)and Mirror Group, so we get a bad press there. TBH, the majority in the rest of the UK would be delighted if the club folded tomorrow, apart from the fact that most of the PL get a decent points haul from playing NUFC and SKY get full stadiums to show every time they visit SJP. You would have to be stupid not to think that all this has gone unnoticed by the PL, the FA and Refs generally, and that is why they act accordingly... It has NEVER been easy following NUFC and it isn't going to change any time soon..!

Waddle was just as bad on our commentary in Oz....supported Marriner over almost every decision apart from his not awarding a pen for Thauvin's tackle..!

Regardless of the decisions made by Marriner, this match shows us that we have a number of strengths and a number of problems. The fact that the side kept Arsenal out until late in the game shows that in certain circumstances(i.e. when a team like Arsenal keep possession but use a slow build-up, we can keep them at bay because players like Colo, who was outstanding yesterday, are not having to turn and chase a speedy forward as would be the case if the opposition was playing on the break). Colo's experience enabled him to read most of what Arsenal were trying to do and the rest of the defence also kept discipline...Haidara gets crucified on here, yet he was second only to Colo in his defence effectiveness yesterday. If anything, he was safer than Janmaat on the other side. Until Giroud came on, Arsenal were also without a tall forward . We shall never know what would have happened had Mitrovic not been sent off and everyone has their own view about this player. It IS possible that refs have made their minds up that he needs to be watched and the foul was definitely borderline ; certainly a yellow and maybe a red although Coquelin, who dived and play-acted all game, was probably responsible for Marriner bringing the red out...together with his dodgy decision about missing the Thauvin tackle which should have been a pen. It is hard to imagine we would have got anything yesterday if the Pen had been awarded and Mitrovic stayed on the field....they basically outplayed us in m/f and with their off-ball movement although for me, Wijnaldum was just behind Colo for MOM yesterday ; his best game in a B & W shirt in terms of overall commitment and he was instrumental in taking the pressure off several times by his ability to hold and run with the ball. What we lack in m/f is a player with vision but we aint going to get one of those in a hurry. Anita and Colback did a decent job of stemming the flow in front of the defence, but Anita spoiled this by often giving possession away after intercepting the ball. Thauvin did a manful job on his own when you consider this was his first PL full game but he was never going to do it all by himself - the whole team was given just too big a task once Mitrovic went and several others were on yellows but even the Arsenal goal had a hint of fortune about it, being slightly deflected by Colo's heel. We may yet rue the fact that a PL-experienced forward has not been signed...Mitrovic out now for 3 matches and we face a tough few games yet with a trip to the Scouse-beating hammers next. There IS potential in the side but no back-up once injuries and suspensions take their toll...its also hard to see where goals are coming from at PL level and it is going to be late in the season before the side starts showing what it is capable of.

We won't know what this squad is capable of until they have completed a season....too many new/young players and it takes time to bed them in. However, I agree with HTT - the club should be capable of finishing Top 6 EVERY year, but never will consistently under this regime. Top 10 is what they want and whilst that target exists, climbing into the top 6 is a pipedream. Any position less than 12 is a fail, though, and so is getting booted out of the Cups by lower league opposition......

OK, I mistyped the stadium name(but to old timers like me, Man C will ALWAYS be associated with Maine Rd !), but READ MY POST...Did I, or did I not say HBA was TAKEN OUT BY DE JONG.. Incidentally, HBA could also be inconsistent but how you have come to deduce that I was stating that in connection with the de Jong tackle, I have no idea. Tbf your whole post didn't really seem to have much of a coherent point to it, you basically trotted the "french wingers are moody" line out It might have looked 'incoherent' to you because you clearly haven't got the intelligence to understand it - and don't waste your time trying to reply again, I am not interested in either the opinions or posts by people like you.