merlin

Anyone with half a brain knew that Cabaye would show his class in a good side - he is doing that now and it just highlights that we are NOT anywhere near being a good side, esp under Pardew. Good Luck to Cabaye.

Who cares..?

yep agree. Most, if not all of the phone ins I have heard recycle this same tosh. Im sure it was Paddy Barclay (sp) on talkshite the other day spouting the 'no one else could do as well as he has' line. Followed by the 'his hands are tied by MA'.... Ignoring the fact that he is complicit with and an utterly willing bondage victim of the fat ones. Not sure why his stock is so high darn sarf?? Beggars beleif that journos cant see anyone else doing better than he has though... The National media and fans of other PL clubs are happy with the set up at SJP because they know that we pose no threat to the 'established order' of the PL. The media have little interest in a successful NUFC because it would mean they had to spend more time away from their cosy metropolitan and mancunian bolt holes. The fans of clubs like Liverpool are happy because once again, they can be confident of humiliating us almost every time we play them and a comfortable 3 points beckon. Some of them will KNOW Pardew is a toss pot if they have looked at his past record but it suits them for him to remain our manager and keep us from fulfilling anything like our potential...or that of the players, most of whom have declined since coming under his management. Nobody is going to care about NUFC except the fans of the club and they are the ones who matter. I don't give a toss what smug scribblers like Barclay say on a pathetic radio show, or what other teams' fans think. They can all get stuffed.

....and he would be absolutely right if that person was Pardew...

Its quite clear that giving Pardew an 8 year contract after his sacking record at other clubs was either an act of madness(unlikely, Ashley is a prat but far from mad), something done on Llambias's prompting which caught Ashley in a gambling mood(this is the most likely) or something done because Ashley wanted to give an impression of stability to any future buyer ; this, of course, has rebounded on him big-time as many of his gambles do. There is NO way on earth that I would have given Pardew an 8 year contract ; firstly, his record tells you everything and 3 years is the absolute max he would have got and secondly, the football we played when finishing 5th was still largely poor.

I fall roughly into this category but there is little doubt that Hoddle would be a vast improvement over either Pardew(as manager) or Kinnear(as DOF). Hoddle tends to get a bit wound into the theoretical side of the game rather than the practical and you need both...wonder also about his motivational qualities, think KK and you can see what I mean but I would definitely be happier with Hoddle at the club in place of the idiots we have - or had - already.

Finney was a truly great player and was ahead of his time in many ways ; could use both feet almost equally well and was just as devastating when playing in the middle as well as on the wings. As has been said, Bill Shankly idolised him and its strange to think that he played alongside Finney for Preston because sadly, Finney has just passed away at the grand age of 91 whilst Shankly died at the relatively young age of 68 back in 1981. If England had a player like Finney now, he would be ranked alongside the likes of Messi & Co - shows how far we have fallen in producing top class players because Finney, Matthews, Mannion, Mortensen and Milburn would have been worth megabucks today...AND they would have been just as good because the modern players have much lighter kit to play in with better boots and lighter matchballs ; think how fast a modern ball would travel if Jackie caught it with one of his zero-backlift specials....! RIP Sir Tom.... a real gentleman too.

Tbh a couple of drawers in that run would have won us the title. But on the other hand it was a an all or nothing charge to the title I think we lost by 4 points. Mind Man Utd won something like 11 in 12 towards the end, keeping clean sheerts galore. I personally think everyone connected with the club just wilted a bit under the huge pressure of trying to win us that first title since '27, even KK himself. It stands out as our best ever season since '27 though in terms of the league or top division. If only we could snip two of the goals from the 5-0 and add them to that 0-1... That result will probably be regarded as the decider and it was, but more for them than us IMO. When they came away from SJP with that 1-0 win despite a battering all game, that galvanised them and gave them the belief that we were not this rampant runaway train and could be stopped. The result obviously hurt us, but I don't think mentally it had anywhere near as much as an impact on us as it did on them. The Liverpool defeat though... that killed us, especially the manager himself! Great game though This - had we beaten Man U as we totally deserved to on the balance of play and chances created they would have died after that. The Liverpool result wouldn't have mattered because Man U would never have caught us. It gave them real hope and began all the doubts that were to cost us the title.

Ask your mate if he thinks WHU, Charlton and Southampton fired him because their boards were 'too involved' in the team...? The trouble with many NUFC fans is that they see something in Pardew that 3 other decent clubs have not...or rather, maybe they DON'T see something that the 3 other clubs DID...!

Totally understandable views here - you are right in that far too many fans are cretins because they are still prepared to spend money - in some cases, on credit cards - to support a regime that is taking the p--- so badly that if they walked up to half these idiots face to face and said what they think of them, the fans would drop them there and then. Instead, these so-called 'fans' hide behind some stupid vision of gang loyalty, or keep going because they have nothing else in their drab lives and it gives them something to gripe about without doing anything to alter things. The club is almost at the point now where the bedrock of support it had nurtured since 1992 is about to crumble big-time and Ashley will achieve his aim of wrecking it for good. Unless action is taken to force the discontent on to the agenda of the media by a sustained boycott, nothing will be done unless Ashley has agreed to sell in summer and is just now asset stripping. I cannot blame HTT or anyone else for thinking as they do.

How do you know they don't have a similar opinion of you...?

That's the joy of having such a big squad...............oh wait. Actually pretty well stocked in his position Stocked with what? Kids? Dummett, Haidara are f***ing children and MYM's not a natural there. As opposed to the fully developed professional that is Santon? He may be fully developed and consider himself a professional - many of us just see him as a poor defender who plays on the left and can't cross with his left foot. Sell

...and what happens when he leaves at the end of the season..??

Just shows what a new manager could do...I wonder if..Oh, wait...!

This - it was clear to me from the recorded Foxtel coverage that the majority of players have either given up because they know the club is satisfied wit just staying in the PL or that they are not playing for Pardew....either way, its a terrible situation for a loan striker to be dropped in to because he will get very little support. If and when he leaves , he will take away some bad tales about NUFC unless things change pretty quickly and not many of us can see THAT happening.

Yes, this is true - more hammerings would mean more empty seats in the stadium and that is the one thing that will worry Ashley ; it will reflect on his tatty brand badly and also, eventually, the media will start questioning the club's policies and therefore, Ashley's competence as an owner. A pity we haven't got Liverpool or even the Mancs at SJP next....

Ultimately, as an outsider, you're 9th. Nobody is going to get sacked for getting you 9th. Not in modern football, with the lowered expectations it means for all but a handful of clubs. Er - remember a chap called Chris Hughton...?? We weren't far below 9th in December 2010, had beaten Sunderland 5-1 at SJP and then......

Robson was 70 years of age - if more people want to retain this failure at his age and after the series of humiliations that have been heaped on the club under his tenure then those fans deserve everything they are going to get. This club is heading for an extended period of mediocrity beyond anyone's worst nightmare.

Mostly this - all should be making occasional appearances throughout the PL season if they had anything. Our youth set up needs serious attention at all levels...

Funny how the likes of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor - and Don Revie - always envied us our fans' numbers and the backing they gave to NUFC....I think they could safely have lived with the so-called 'down side' because they produced successful teams and there would hardly have been any occasion when our fans would have cause for complaint if they had been watching Derby/Forest/Leeds when these guys were in charge... Strange how good management can make a difference, isn't it...

Nope. It really isn't odd at all It should probably be something like SOS in this case....sack of s--t...

I've been waiting to see how long it was before someone picked up on this...I noticed it too but I'm getting tired of saying that Santon is not a good defender so I wondered if anyone else had noticed Saturday's howler. He's not a decent PL LB and now it appears that he's not good in m/f either because his defensive frailties show up there too. In an ideal situation - i.e. with a decent owner/manager I would sell this guy in an instant because he is never going to do the job he is there for. Has decent skill on the ball but can't cross with his left foot to save his life...well done for picking it up BB...

The National journos are quite happy to see NUFC as a nothing club - it suits their metropolitan/mancunian agenda so they won't look at anything that shows Pardew for what he is.

Until the owner goes, nothing major will change but there is just a hope that a better manager might make things a bit more tolerable in the meantime....

That's a very fair summary....