merlin

,,,apart from twice - and look what happened then.... No way would Negredo have scored that goal had we not thrown caution to the wind in a desperate last try for an equaliser. That's football...the scoreline says we lost 0-2 and Dzeko and Negredo were the scorers...end of story.

Had this conversation today. Blokes at work saw no reason to invest as we were safe but couldn't break into the top 4 or 5. The drip-feeding of "that'll do" coming from all aspects of the club has become ingrained. Top 8/9 is now universally regarded as a good season and job done. The PR dept have worked wonders on our fans. maybe they are thinking "get a good deal if there is one but we aren't despearte like this time last year" Granted but why can't they think "let's push on"? We treaded water in the summer so let's add a couple to bolster things and go for 5th or 6th? The money is surely there but the reluctance to invest modestly is more prevalent. 'That'll do' United Football Club. i think they would for the right deals. The problem is that what NUFC think are the 'right deals' are not what the selling club think...

You are right on the button and using logic but the conclusion has to be drawn that if there are no signings in this window, Ashley is prepared to accept the status quo....he is probably gambling that a takeover offer might be forthcoming in summer and therefore won't spend any money he doesn't need to. If that is correct, it will be the task of new owners to try to sort out the mess.

Had this conversation today. Blokes at work saw no reason to invest as we were safe but couldn't break into the top 4 or 5. The drip-feeding of "that'll do" coming from all aspects of the club has become ingrained. Top 8/9 is now universally regarded as a good season and job done. The PR dept have worked wonders on our fans. They have, but you have to face the fact also that many fans just want an excuse to keep getting their fortnightly dose of life-stimulant(and to get away from their other half) and acceptance of the club's propaganda means they don't have to justify spending money to support a lost cause....

,,,apart from twice - and look what happened then....

This is probably not wide of the mark...I reckon they only want loans.

There is no doubt that the signing of Alan Shearer was THE top signing NUFC have ever made in the modern era - he was the top CF in the UK, probably in Europe at the time and had the choice to sign for one of the biggest clubs in the world but chose to come home. He was 25 at the time of his signing and nothing before or since has topped this or even come close. Owen was close because of his reputation and the club he was playing for, but there was always a doubt in my mind about his total commitment and his fitness. The most exciting signing of a striker before Shearer had to be Macdonald but he was not an international at the time and only 21...he turned out to be sensational and the most exciting striker I have seen in the B&W, if not the complete player that Shearer almost was. Mirandinha was exciting simply because he was the first Brazilian to play in England and had scored against the national side 3 months earlier but he was a let down in many ways. Cole proved to be a much better striker than I suspect many believed he would when we signed him. None of the current side hold a candle to the excitement created by the signings above....and nobody we sign under this regime will do so either.

If we don't sign another forward this January I agree we should give him another chance in the second half of the season, because I would still rather play him than Shola. That said, he was an integral part of last season's failure, not (just) a victim of it. It could be argued we didn't play to his strengths (not sure which ones really, but there you go), but the fact we were treathened by relegation for much of the season was as much to do with not having a striker putting the ball in the net (especially second half of the season after Ba left) as anything else tbh. For him to refind his early form, it's not just a matter of Pardew giving him that chance, but also him taking whatever chances come his way and proving that he's on the way back, making himself undroppable. From what we've seen so far this season you have to wonder if he's even interested. agree, but still think we should give him chance - starting now! At the expense of who though? If we're changing our front three I would rather introduce Ben Arfa to be honest, at least he's shown he's eager in his substitute appearances and we all know what he can contribute. If we gave Cisse a number of starts to get him firing again we could very easily suffer in an attacking sense if he doesn't magically click. All in all, I still believe he should not be given a start before he displays some signs of improvement in his substitute appearances, which he certainly hasn't done lately. maybe try remy in wider role (left) instead of gouffran. Our 3 next matches should allow us to play with both! You could also argue that arfa should show some more tracking back / defending in his substitute appearances... You'd drop Gouffran for Cisse? If we did, who would cover Santon's ar-e..?

You what? ...go on then - tell ne you are delighted..!

Cisse has been out of form for 18 months now and he is 29.....when do you think he is going to recover his form..?

I am staggered that the club refused a 9m bid for Cisse from Qatar - apart from the fact that they are almost getting the original transfer fee back after the player has performed disastrously over the past 18 months, they would be selling him to a place where he couldn't return to haunt us. The only conclusion to be drawn from this is that they are after loan players/deals only and will simply hang on to the likes of Cisse and Ameobi if they can't get them. This tells you all you need to know about Ashley's short term commitment to the club...he just wants to get to the end of the season in the hope that we can be sold after that. Unless Moenchengladbach are prepared to loan us de Jong, I will be surprised if this move goes ahead. As to whether de Jong would be an improvement on Cisse, well like most decent Dutch players, he should at least give us more movement up front than does Cisse...I have seen him on Youtube playing in Holland and he looked to have something - maybe a change of club would help him show what he can do. It surely can't be worse than what we have now...

All of the comments about Ashley and the way he is using the club are correct, but many people just don't want to see the answer because it upsets their life and that is, there has to be a boycott of STs. As long as he is getting 50,000 gates he is quite happy to sit back and take the money without having to do anything to make the 'product' more appealing to the 'customers'..i.e. the fans. As long as people make excuses as to why this wouldn't work, yadda yadda, and keep paying, there will be NO change unless and until he decides to buy Rangers for cheap CL exposure. People need either to accept it and not waste time moaning about it, or do something that will hit him in the pocket and withhold the dosh - that's the harsh truth of it.

In my opinion he's a lot more than that. Today he absolutely bossed the midfield. On this form, he's extremely difficult to play against if you're an opposition midfielder. His reading of the game is unreal. Yes he's really good at moving the ball around quickly. We look a lot better passing side when he's starting. This - really intelligent link man, invaluable to most teams...but maybe not Pardew's...

Remy was excellent in his early games but he now has the look of a player who is on loan and likely to remain that way until the loan is up...he has done enough to show other clubs what he can do but probably knows that NUFC are not going to get anywhere near his wage demands so he doesn't now want to bust a gut in case he gets injured. Wouldn't be surprised if he had been 'spoken to' by reps of other clubs....

Norwich handed us both goals in our win. Cardiff we had a deflection for the first goal, and against Stoke we were woeful until they started losing players through players getting sent off for no good reason. if we do it it's not because we were unlucky, it's because we f***ed up. luck is when an outside agency affects the game in a cackhanded mannner. like I say today wasn't bad luck, that decision would never have gone against man city. Well I thought we were talking about luck. The incidents I mentioned were about luck, whereas the Tiote goal being chalked off was anything but. the incidents you talked about weren't luck then. they were poor play from the oppo. (I'll include cardiff as we had been the better team) How often will teams hand you points through incredible defensive gaffes? Enough to ensure a mid table position I suppose. If you want to finish higher then you need to make your own luck. everey week. don't you watch games ? Yes I do. What's your point? the point is it happens every week. we haven't got where we are, or where we ended last season through other teams defensive gaffes etc, should we look at every other team and examine if they are quality "can't stop them" type goals against defensive gaffes ? maybe give extra goals for non defensive gaffes, have a defensive gaffe panel to sort things out ? Well where are we exactly? Out of the cups and lost 4 consecutive games. Maybe it's just bad luck. would you say it's bad luck ? We are losing games because we aren't good enough to win without our best players - any of them - and we lack striking power. Oh - and also because Pardew is too cautious and often makes baffling substitutions - all of these....

Only saw first half - totally disgusted with the decision over Tiote's strike and went to bed because I could see what was going to happen... Apart from the fact that we seem to have given them a better game than usual, this match told us little that we didn't know ; 1. That we are pathetically lightweight up front and unless a new striker of quality(ha ha) is brought in, we will continue to struggle for goals 2.They have so many quality players that even when they lose people like Aguero, they can have a bad day and still win whereas if we lose a couple of our best players, we cannot win even on a good day 3. There are many unanswered questions about refereeing standards/decisions in the PL The game's powers-that-be chose to alter the off-side rule interpretation OFFICIALLY, but they still allow referees to interpret the rules as they see fit ; Gouffran may have been offside under the old rule but in this case, he was clearly NOT interfering with Hart's ability to attempt a save and Hart's obstruction of vision came from his own players...not that he would have stopped Tiote's rare bullet shot anyway. In cases like this, it is small wonder people suspect that the game is corrupt at the highest levels - once again, a fifth official, watching a replay in the stand on TV and linked to Jones by headset would have been able to ensure that justice was done....so why won't the game's rulers allow it...... Your guess is as good as mine. Even the SKY commentators, including our friend Waddle, were mystified over the decision...... Leaving this aside, we cannot allow the incident to blind us to our problems so that Pardew/Ashley can sweep them under the table during this transfer window - the Mackems beat this lot and we have not done that in many attempts and mainly because a)Pardew's over-cautious style of play in past meetings and b) we lack firepower up front. None of these issues is going to be solved by hiding behind the blatant injustice of the disallowed goal.

Only from the fans. Not the fans at the ground, just about 20 of us lot. The ones at the ground are quite happy with the Emperor's new clothes - the 20 you refer to can see he's got nothing on...!

That's because we have started to lose them - if we lose the next one its the first time since the 1920s that they have beaten us in 3 successive games....yet ANOTHER feather for Pardew to put in his cap/CV..!

Jon Dahl Tommasson, Patrick Kluivert, Michael Owen. Having said that mind the Dutch league is not much better than the SPL. All true, but of the 3 you mention, Tomasson was unlucky because he was shoved up as a CF when Shearer got injured and before that, he had looked great alongside Shearer in the pre-season games...was never a CF...went on to prove himself a top player at AC Milan ; Kluivert was on his last decent pay day and wasn't really bothered - a shadow of the player in his earlier years and, allegedly, had substance problems..; Owen was like Kewell, never the same player after a bad injury at Liverpool. He did OK at Real but I don't think he really had his heart in the move to us although he may have been more effective under KK had Keegan not fallen out with Ashley because KK had got him playing well in a more withdrawn role. All 3 players were a disappointment here for different reasons and we can add Viduka to that list because we signed him too late in his career...was a beast at Leeds.

Was never a world beater because he wasted much of his approach work by bad crossing, but he did try to give the club his best efforts which is more than can be said for some...his best work was in the early years at the club. Inevitable that his time is up now, but basically a good pro and obviously had genuine feeling for the club and the fans. I wish him luck wherever he ends up and hope we get a good replacement. Now THAT is another story.....

Had Shearer not been injured, it would have made sense financially - Sir Les was 31 and Spurs were giving us 6m for him, a lot in those days. We had bought Tomasson who had played well alongside Shearer in the pre-season but was NOT a CF so he struggled when Shearer got injured - still went on to become a star at AC Milan.. We were unlucky - nobody touched Shearer at Goodison, he fell backwards on his ankle when stretching for a ball and the injury was catastrophic. Sir Les had already given his word to Spurs that he would go so wouldn't change his mind. The whole thing was a disaster...

Totally different types of striker in my book - Cole was a terrific goal-scorer in 93-94 and a bargain at the price we paid for him in early 1993...he was also young and had a longer career in front of him. Ferdinand was almost 28 when we bought him but he was better at leading the line and being a target man because he was bigger built...better in the air too. I reckon KK sold Cole not only because he wanted Ferdinand, but because he knew we had a good chance of getting Shearer ; I know for a fact that Shearer was asking one of the NE's national journalists if Newcastle were coming for him in 1995 and it took another year before we got him. We'll never know how Cole would have done during the season 95-96 when we missed the title but he had had shin splint problems some time before he went to Man U...at his best, he might have won us the title because Sir Les had a barren spell for goals in the run-in, notably against Man U at SJP that March when he had at least 2 good chances to score. All conjecture, but we missed Ferdinand when he went to Spurs because Shearer had that long term injury. Both really good strikers, Cole lethal at his best and hard to separate...I'll go for Cole simply because we had so much excitement during his time with us and I'll never forget SJP rocking to THAT song during the Leicester 7-1 and the Villa game next season where Cole got his 41st goal..!

This sounds about right - the usual NUFC way of bidding for a player. Its great - it alerts all the other clubs who may want the player and they just let us haggle away until they can jump in with a slightly higher bid or an increase in the wage offer, which the player's agent will have told them about.... At least we are enabling players to get a better club...!

You're the perfect customer, you're barking mad. Why becasue i'm not all doom and gloom saying i may as well chuck my season ticket in as the season is now over and nothing to play for anymore? Was only after Palace we were going into the festive with postivie attitudes looking how we are only x amount of points off top 4 or even top. Suddenly a couple of league defeats and out the cup and people are saying our season is now over, it's pathetic. Never mind - Mike loves you and he's grateful for your support !

I'd like to know who these people are.... their team on paper isn't good enough to finish top 8 never has been. 10th is about where they should finish most seasons if they don't have some massive decline and they probably still will. Even if they could finish 8th which is always unlikely in the extreme they are not finishing any higher than that.... anyone that thinks they could finish above any of the top 7 wants their head looked at. Note the word "challenging" and not "finishing in". Without looking, I remember a lot of envious eyes on here in the summer saying how they've got a manager who wouldn't blame Europe for a poor league performance. They should really be challenging us & Southampton for those top 8 places, they're nowhere near as things stand. And "who are these people"? Without searching the forum I remember quite a few up to August/September thinking they'd be "best of the rest", etc. and.... http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/18932/8857360/jamie-redknapp-on-title-race-top-four-contenders-and-a-swansea-surprise Swansea have had a bad injury to Michu to deal with - can you imagine what our placing would be right now if Remy had picked up a long-term injury this season...?