merlin

Some of the naivety on this thread is almost unbelievable..either some of these people have completely lost sight of the size and potential of Newcastle United - AND Ashley's fortune, some of which is a direct result of his involvement with the club - or they are Ashley trolls...there can't be any other explanation for the stuff they post. Pay peanuts - get monkeys....reach for the stars and you might get the moon.. Trouble is, some people are quite happy howling at it.!!

Everyone thought you were SUCH a polite, nice boy, didn't they..!?? Shame you lifted the veil from your façade.....Cap, fits and wear it again...!?? Hilarious.

People are quite prepared to pay extra IF they get attractive and winning football - ask KK...

Especially when the logic doesn't make sense. Obertan was brought on over HBA to help protect the left side and it actually ended up weakening us. In that instance, there was literally no excuse for not bringing on Ben Arfa. there was like, personally I'd have brought colo on and tried to push the full backs on 10yds or so especially as they caught santon loads with the ball played inside him. really can't see any reason FOR bringing ben arfa on last weekend. When you have a team pushing forwards and leaving lots of space to exploit behind, I would think a player like ben Arfa would certainly be worth considering as part of the mix. they didn't really leave a load of space for a ben arfa type player to exploit, that would call for movement and someone to work along the line or at least someone to work off the ball. not ben arfas strong points If a team is pressing forward for an equaliser there is always space behind to exploit. Why would you need someone to work along the line to do that? You just put someone with some pace and ability to run at a stretched back four and an eye for goal. Get one of the other 11 to cover the lines. because if you just keep lobbing the ball over in the hope that that player will get to it first it will more often than not come straight back at you, far better try and play it for possession and in that scenario ben arfa isn't what you need. Why do you need to lob it in the first place? I can remember when we last finished in a CL place one of our best outlets was Solano who used to pick the ball up from deep defensive positions then thread the ball through to Dyer who broke forward at pace in loads of space to exploit against the opposition who were pressing forward. dyers (and solanos) movement was far superior to ben arfas, more of it and much more intelligent. ball at their feet, good as they were ben afa would murder them but doing the basics to get the ball in that situation I just don't think he'd be good enough at it. oh aye, and usually that was when we were chasing the game rather than the oppo chasing the game. at that time I was quite happy going in to the last 15 level or trailing by one as we had the legs to do anyone, as a team we don't now. Beardsley at his best is a better comparison - I agree with you that Solano, esp, was more effective and better team player but he didn't have the skill that Beardsley had in a one against one situation. Beardsley was a better player than HBA at his best - could beat a man, score fantastic goals and definitely had more awareness of the early, devastating pass...think about how many goals he created for Andy Cole in 93-94.....

Doubt it, he would never have signed in the first place without the release clause, it was always his objective to earn a big-money move somewhere else IMO. Or earn big money here if we were prepared to pay it. The fact we have to face is that strikers of the quality of Ba and Remy will always attract a big club sooner or later who will pay them big club wages. It's impossible to hold onto these player without paying the going rate. There's no such thing as the going rate. If you mean 'as much as Chelsea' then I can't agree we should be doing that. No one can match Chelsea or Man City because they are sovereign state clubs, not businesses. But what about Spurs, Liverpool or Arsenal? All of them operate within a budget and only Arsenal have had CL money on a regular basis over the last few years, but they'll still pay the money to secure the quality players when they're worth it. I doubt Suarez is on 50k a week. This - well said, Tron, on the button but you are wasting your time debating it with him.....

couldn't agree more. After watching the match again Dawson's tackle was worse than I even thought originally. I know if that had been Tiote or any of our players that would correctly have been awarded a red. Is this the sort of thing the FA Iis going to look at retrospectively now? It makes a mockery of the rule that saw Mbiwa sent off for really the lightest of touches on that diving cheating gobshite from Liverpool. Tiote got a red for a far less potentially crippling tackle at the SOS last season....Refs give NUFC very little in this day and age. What about the infamous McManaman 'tackle'(spell that a-s-s-a-u-l-t) on Haidara at Wigan last season.......? Almost unbelievable that no card given.

You would defend Ashley if he was conducting the Black Hole of Calcutta - and you are so far removed from the reality of PL football that its not worth trying to put another point forward. Would YOU take a job with less money if a company in a better location was prepared to pay you more..? Not sure where to start on this. Firstly, I do defend our transfer policy, yes. I think it's one thing we've got nearly right, as I've said many times. As I've also said many times, as a fan I'd ideally like us to spend more, but I understand why we don't. Secondly, no, I wouldn't expect Remy to join us if his main interest is money. If he went somewhere else I wouldn't blame him at all, I've never said I would. Thirdly, you're a bit of a dick for the tone of that post. Regarding your third point, you leave me(and many others on here) plenty of ammunition with which to retaliate but I'll content myself for giving you the following words to re-arrange into a well-known saying ;- Cap, if, wear fits, it, the........

How much joy did Walker and Townsend get..? More and more as the second half wore on, as I said in my posting. Do you think that 'protecting' Santon with Gouffran is sound team policy ? Gouffran was worn out by HT having to cover for him. Santon is an international defender so he shouldn't need protecting to the extent that it is being done now. The fact that Spurs had more joy on that side in the second half showed that they had picked up on what was happening. This isn't the first time he has been a weak link in defence and whereas Debuchy has stuck to his task and gradually improved as he adjusted to PL football, Santon's defending is still shaky to say the least.

Well I'm not buying your theory either - I reckon if Spurs had scored within 10 minutes of the restart, we would have crumbled like a broken biscuit...Gouffran was protecting Santon and as soon as he started to fade, Spurs ran Santon ragged. They would have taken heart from a goal and only Krul stopped that happening. Reality check needed......

You would defend Ashley if he was conducting the Black Hole of Calcutta - and you are so far removed from the reality of PL football that its not worth trying to put another point forward. Would YOU take a job with less money if a company in a better location was prepared to pay you more..?

This - he is good on the ball, but he is NOT a good defender and IMHO, unlikely ever to be one, esp on the left . He was exposed badly in the second half because as Gouffran got tired, Santon lost the protection he was providing for him by all his hard work. I just hope Haidara can develop the promise he showed last season - unlucky to get that bad injury or he would have been pushing Santon for the place.

I know, I can't believe that that is what is definitely happening. Moaning about first halfs and second halfs because we never really threatened for periods of games against two top sides. People just expect us to control games for 90 minutes agisnt top sides without having any pressure to withstand? We were excellent today and last week, no two ways about it. I was being facetious because I can't see anyone moaning about victory at all. We were lucky today. That opinion, or that admission doesn't count as moaning or a way of saying that we didn't play well. We did play well, but that still should have been a considerable Tottenham victory. I'm very happy that it wasn't, but that doesn't mean that I don't think we were lucky, or count luck as a reason to be unhappy. Agree with this and some people are showing why other teams' fans think we are deluded - nobody should go over the top about this performance ; the result was great but we will not win many games like this if we keep surrendering possession so easily.

Whilst we were undoubtedly the better side in the first half, the players made it very difficult for themselves in the second - they surrendered possession far too easily and the main reason was that players off the ball stopped running into space to provide a target for a colleague with possession. The worst example, and one that set the tone for the half, was when Gouffran, who ran his socks off,got a break down the left just after HT with 3 Spurs players around him and eventually he lost out because he had no colleague any where near him to pass to...a goal then would have killed Spurs off but our possession became more and more ragged after that. We were incredibly sloppy at times. All the support play that had enabled us to control the first half disappeared and Spurs began to make inroads down the right, especially against Santon - this was because Gouffran was becoming shattered and Santon lost his protection. Remy won us the game with his pace and finishing - he is such a threat to defenders because he plays on their shoulders - and this guy is adding to his value all the time...unfortunately for NUFC. Krul was terrific and without him we would have lost although MYM and Williamson battled really well at the back. Another good performance from Tiote and a very good one from Cabaye - gave his all. Delighted with the result but we shouldn't fool ourselves - this was probably the least effective performance of the 3 games we expected to lose because Krul was never as busy against Liverpool and Chelsea as he was today. More 5 a side practice needed at the training ground.....

Remy said last week that he is going to wait until Summer before making any decisions on his long term future. If France qualify for the World Cup any potential buyers will probably be made wait until after that to buy Remy. I blame Remy and Harry Redknapp for Remy not already being a permanent NUFC player. You should be blaming Ashley, not those 2....nobody can blame a player for wanting the best deal and wages he can get, we would all do the same if applying for jobs and Redknapp was only able to intervene because NUFC skimped on the player's wage offer - that is called competition and its what happens in this world. Ashley is quite happy to give himself top salaries etc but not prepared to pay the going rate for a top player - end of.

Krul was the main reason we got a result yesterday - some of his saves were fantastic, the one where the deflection wrong-footed him but he recovered enough to push it away was in the Banks class. Surprisingly enough, his kicking was below par with the ball often ending up out of play and a throw to Spurs but he more than made up for it on the day. Adding to his worth all the time and he will be one of about 4 or 5 players Ashley will be rubbing his hands about as their value increases. We will miss him when he eventually goes - Brian Clough justified his record fee for Shilton by saying a good keeper is worth 10 points a season. To a club in our situation that could be the difference between PL football and the Championship.

This - all you have to do is to ask yourself whether Arsenal or Swansea fans if they would swap their manager for Pardew - OR if WHU Charlton or Southampton fans would have him back - and if you tell yourself they would, you had better go and re-check with the Fairies at the bottom of your garden. Alternatively, you could see a specialist.......

Didn't you also say that you thought we should have won the Derby because we were the 'better team' with more possession..? If it wasn't you, there were others who certainly did. Goals win matches yes - but you can't have it both ways ...either we deserve to lose because we don't put the ball in the net more than the other team or 'We was unlucky...we played them off the park but they got their noses in front..' I think I've heard THAT somewhere before......!

Not so - the possession stats tell you that - we were the more EFFECTIVE team in the last third of the game and we battled harder than at Sunderland. Chelsea could easily have scored 3 or 4 goals and had they scored first(Terry's header) they would probably have won...we have a poor record of winning games after going behind under Pardew.

The reporter couldn't even get Cisse's age right - it was stated as 27 in the article when in fact, Cisse was born on 3 June 1985, which makes him 29 next birthday. Not much time left to become a consistent goal-scorer in the PL...and his value will start falling quickly after his 29th birthday, esp if he doesn't start scoring regularly soon.

If HBA has been tapped up, he won't be the only one...take a look around the side and you can guess which players other clubs would want. These clubs know they only have to wait until Jan and unless NUFC are in the same league position as last season, they have a good chance of getting one or two of the side. HBA and Cabaye are the most likely to go, esp the latter and I wouldn't rule out a German low bid for Cisse. Many of the players know they could do better at other clubs under better managers and I don't blame Cabaye at all - I believe he genuinely wanted to do well at Newcastle but like others, he will be disillusioned by the set up and Ashley's buying policy - or lack of it. He will want some success at his age now.

wat I am french but the message Pardew will destroy nufc 442 jonas bis (gouffran sissoko )hoof bench arfa You are nearly right - Ashley AND Pardew will destroy NUFC...!

At the moment, yes - HBA is the most naturally gifted, but Remy is far more effective because of his direct pace and willingness to pass and move.....need to see Remy over a longer period of time, but if he maintains this level of performance you have to say that he will be a bigger asset to the side in 7 games out of 10 than will HBA.

This - on the button. Remy has more pace off the mark too, HBA relies on feet trickery to beat the first defender...and the second,,,and the third...!

All of the established top 6 sides have at least one forward who cost £20m+ while we have spent about that amount on strikers in the entire time Ashley has been here. We do not currently have a competant centre forward at the club and Ameobi started again yesterday. Aside from Remy and Ben Arfa our attacking players look rank average to poor, and at the back the likes of Williamson and Dummett get a game. I cannot believe anyone thinks we would be a top 6 side if it wasn't for the manager. You cannot dismiss Remy and HBA as if they weren't part of the squad - they are and therefore my point stands. Remy would be capable of 15-20 goals a season IF given the right service and if you read my post properly, you will see that I mention Ashley's lack of investment as a reason why we wouldn't be a major force. Nevertheless, I stand by what I said - GIVEN A RUN FREE OF INJURIES, we could, under a better manager, be Top 8 and poss Top 6.....we are unlikely to see either of those scenarios achieved so the theory may not be put to the test. Surely, you are not saying that Pardew is doing as well as any manager could do...are you 1??

This - a very good summary.