merlin

This is quite unbelievable. How many years ago was this? Pardew has literally not learnt a thing. Not even a new excuse. Can we please get this guy out now. Why do you think he keeps getting sacked..? Only a desperate club or a dickhead director would employ a man with a record like this.......Oh, wait..!

Breaking teams down and creating chances is the most important thing in football so you are talking s****. We struggled, Ben arfa had another poor game, wasn't through his lack of effort, nothing paid off for him. Remy just went missing, Gouffran just ran around doing nothing. When your three forwards aren't in the game, you're going to struggle and we did but we kept the ball well and kept plugging away, after our goal went in thought we would go on to win, think our players sensed that too but got done by a very good goal on the break, it can happen. 'Puts fingers in ears and chants 'Lalalalala..'

That was the main thing I took away from it really, absolutely appalling game. Yeah, which makes it worse as had we turned up we would had won imo. I still don't know what I think about it really. It's almost impossible to draw any conclusions about tactics or performance in an environment like that. Even the best teams usually struggle when pressed like that, and struggle to settle into a rhythm when the start of a game is so frantic. If they hadn't nicked that goal we would probably be just saying "s**** game, I would have taken the draw beforehand". That's how close the margins are. I might have brought on someone like Anita instead of Shola, to add control in midfield. And put HBA out wide right since Sunderland had no threat down there. No they don't. Actually, I think they do. How come that they usually accrue more points - and beat - the teams that try to do that to them then..? Its only poorly organized and mentally weak sides that crumble like we did.....

So you haven't read the views of our esteemed Financial director on Cup competitions then...!! Time to wake up mate...

This thread should be re-named the 'Let's make up another excuse for Pardew(in case he runs out of his own)'....!

Why wouldn't he have 'the temerity' to do that, like? It's a perfectly legitimate complaint, which makes it the perfect excuse. I can't see many managers not mentioning a questionable decision that led to a winning goal. This is in no way a defence of anyone or anything, but of all the legitimate complaints from yesterday, this ranks near the bottom. If the positions had been reversed and we had scored the winner from the free kick, would you have been defending Poyet from accusations that he was whingeing after defeat....? Or would you have said he was just a sad bitter Mackem..!?

I want us to lose this game AND the next 2 so that Ashley gets his smug nose rubbed into the dirt when the realization that another relegation battling season beckons, but surprisingly, I reckon we could end up edging this....City have much bigger fish to fry and if they play a team largely made up of reserves, I reckon Pardew and his self-satisfied players could see this as an opportunity to take the heat off their respective backs because there is no doubt that a win over City would once again have the mass myopics singing Pardew's name once again and vowing to the players that they will ' support you evermore..' If this were to happen, Pardew will be safe until Christmas.......the players have him where they want him so they will be quite happy not to have someone new coming in and either kicking their butts or getting them to work harder and more productively.

I wouldn't bank on it - 24 years ago, yes, but there has been a generational change in the UK since, esp in the NE which has lost its traditional industries. There is now a cringing apathy, based on fear of losing employment and jobs generally and this has transferred itself into fear that nobody else will have NUFC if Ashley doesn't, added to the fact that following the club is all some people have in their lives apart from a monotonous job. Ashley is far from a genius yet he has succeeded in lowering the expectations of thousands in a way that Goebbels could only have dreamed about.....his immediate predecessor would have been hounded out of SJP for such policies, esp as he was a 'Geordie'....

Probably this...or crowds dropping to 20,000. The first we have no control over - the second is in the hands of the fans. If they are prepared to continue taking it up the rear end from Ashley and Co they deserve what they will get. Just as voters get the governments they deserve, but at least they DO have a vote....

A deserved defeat after a mediocre performance and a negative approach to a game in which the players should need no motivating...not that Pardew seems very capable of THAT... Our lack of decent CB cover cost us the early goal and our attempts to get back into the game were laboured and slow - no forward worth their salt would enjoy playing for this side as the build up is so slow that the opposition has plenty of time to get cover on all our forward players by the time the ball reaches the penalty area. Even Remy is beginning to look as if the Pardew disease has got him too, because he had a poor game. HBA was heavily marked every time he got the ball and instead of passing and moving, he tried to retain it which usually ended up with us losing possession again. Haven't a clue where Sissoko is supposed to be playing and I suspect he doesn't either and the only player to look decent on the day was Tiote who at least ran his socks off to try to keep us moving and break their momentum, not that they were any great shakes which makes the result even more galling. Debuchy did well to imitate Dummett's blind side run against Liverpool and convert HBA's cross-cum-shot, but we took our foot off the gas and Pardew's subs did nothing to improve things except that Shola did hold the ball up better than Cisse who once again was a flop....Sunderland deserved their win if only for the fact that Borini did something our forwards seem incapable of, that is, beat a defender near the box, create space for a shot, and thrash it into the net, leaving Krul with no chance - the last time I remember anyone doing this - apart from Cabaye who isn't a forward - was HBA and he got very little chance to try it yesterday. Another day when our reputation got even more tarnished by the 3 wise monkeys running the club - this is the first back to back losses against the Mackems since 1967....Flower Power and all that......2 years before we won the Fairs Cup, to put it into context. Yes, Trashley, Kinnear and Pardew are doing a great job of making NUFC a team to be feared - esp if you support them..! I cannot see any change on the horizon unless we lose the next 3 games, and I suspect Man C might field reserves in the Cup game which would give Pardew another chance to delay the evil day for another few weeks. Meanwhile, Rome continues to burn as Nero fiddles down in Notts at his summer palace.........

Thought you were on about wor neesy til the Pardew bit. Sunderland were so s**** it was hard to believe it could be possible to lose even a point against this lot. Yet Pardew managed to nullify every single one of our superior footballers by turning this into a clogfest. Thankfully Sunderland look so s****, surely even hiring a competent manager can't save Sunderland this time around? They might be just as bad as you say, but after the next few fixtures, we might have our own worries about whether a 'competent manager' can save us...

Not the same thing at all - if the head honcho of BT is ill, that is very unlikely to affect your telephone service so you wouldn't be interested in ringing them about it....if one of the top players at the football club you support clears off, then that IS likely to affect the team's performance and fans want to know why...by your reasoning, even a player being injured gives the fans no right to know why he is not playing if the club or player don't feel like telling them. If BT were not providing you with a good service, you would leave them and get another supplier...would you do this if your football club also lets you down..?

Are we talking about Colo's 'family issues', or those of Jonas..? What ARE these 'issues...'? nobody has made it clear what they are so people can only guess. Of course, they couldn't be a smokescreen to cover the fact that one of these players - or both - want to return to Argentina....could they..!? The fans pay the wages of these guys(in part) so are entitled to know as long as the problem is not of a highly personal nature.

Surely the club captain could defend him....oh wait! Nobody needs to defend anybody. Even without colo we have leaders in the dressing room who don't require Colo holding their hand telling them everything will be ok. He's injured, he's flew back to Argie, what's the big deal? Nobody was calling Ben Arfa when he spent months in Paris, players do sometimes go home when they injured, nothing new. People question his commitment for the cause but they weren't questioning that in the second half against Cardiff when he held us together and was excellent in getting us the 3 points required. Overall in his time here, he’s shown nothing but a first class attitude, yes his personal problems got in the way earlier this year but he’s come through that and knuckled down for us. No need to give him so much abuse. I'm a bit of a traditionalist at heart, and a club captain should be someone the rest of the squad look up to; will listen to and respect. Going back to Argentina prior to a game with our biggest local rivals, even whilst unfit to play, to me is f***ing totally wrong and what's more Pardew wants shooting for allowing it. Or the fact Jonas has went back for personal reasons, ever occurred Colo might be offering support with him in this difficult time? People do have lives outside of football and sometimes when put into perspective, the derby game isn't as important as offering his close friend support. Pardew may have found this totally acceptable as he is injured anyways so isn’t really in a position to massively affect the game on Sunday anyways and has allowed him to stay in Argie with Jonas. My heart bleeds for them...IF Jonas has a sick or dying relative then his return to his own country is totally understandable - Colo had - er - 'personal problems' last season which we never really got to the bottom of other than to discover that he wanted a transfer to San Lorenzo which NUFC were not prepared to sanction because they couldn't afford him and he risked being sued for breach of contract.... You seem to be prepared to defend Pardew whatever the circumstances are when clearly, the player(s) concerned, certainly one of them, is obviously wanting to be away from the club notwithstanding the fact that his presence as captain might have been a morale-booster to the team on Derby day. In this case, the fault is more probably with the player concerned but your rush to defend Pardew implies that you are more concerned about his reputation than the player's motives...

For all Ferguson's great achievements as a manager - and not just at OT - he is now as much a part of history as is Sir Matt Busby and Bill Shankly. The fact that he has to have a poke at various people in the game is just part of his having to come to terms with the fact that its all over and he aint the Big Cheese anymore. We all know that Keane is a loudmouth and Beckham ruled by his wife... For what its worth, I reckon Bob Paisley had the really tough job of taking over from Shankly in 1974 because he was a modest man and did not want the spotlight and yet he went on to build in Shankly's achievements in his own quiet way, without haranguing referees or flinging boots at players in the dressing room. It took Ferguson a few years to win a title at Man U and although he did a fantastic job, he was at a club with massive world-wide appeal and resources..his legacy will always be tainted for me due to his nasty streak and gamesmanship which he used to intimidate not only officials but the powers in the FA and PL. As for his reputed comments about NUFC's fans/potential - well, whether true or not, he isn't the first famous manager to know that...KK always knew it, even before he became a player for us, Clough and Taylor also knew it and said so and even Shankly rang Arthur Cox on the day of his appointment as manager and told him that if he made NUFC successful, there wasn't, quote, 'a piece of Granite in Aberdeen big enough to make the statue they will want to build for you'... Ferguson knew that too, but it didn't stop him calling us a wee club in the NE, criticizing us for firing Allardyce after his poor buys and lousy football....OR for parting company with SBR even though he was the same age then as Ferguson was when he retired(Shepherd made a complete mess of it all but that's not what Fergie was complaining about)... or saying that NUFC have always had to sell their players after he wrote about buying Andy Cole off us...conveniently forgot the 1m we got Gillespie for as a makeweight, and it came back to bite him on the a--e when we beat them to Shearer..... A great manager but his time is finished.....he will have to get used to the fact that others are in the spotlight now - he will be a hard act for Moyes to follow but that's not our problem....we have enough of our own..!!

He's not in France now....and he DOES use his pace to try to cover his mistakes. Didn't work on Saturday.... He may improve but he is 24 now - if Good was shoved into the side and made some of the mistakes MYM has made, people would say he was crap ...yet he is 4 years younger than MYM.

Even if Colo is genuinely injured, the club has had plenty of warning that he is unsettled at SJP - this will be his second long spell back in Argentina in a year and a new CB should have been signed in the summer. This is yet another example of Ashley's financial chancing combined with Kinnear's ignorance about modern players which is why he pulled the plug on Douglas...not because he wasn't good enough(in his view)but because he didn't know anything about the player. Doesn't say much for his confidence in Carr's judgement.... Colo's biggest asset now is his reading of the game - none of the other CBs at the club have this quality in the same way and we could end up paying heavily for not investing last summer.

Yeah - very strange. Was a cracker. It was very well hit but the keeper has to do much better. Totally disagree with this - in general, a strike from 30 yards does pose questions about a keeper's competence but if you saw the shot from behind Cabaye, as on the TV replay, you can see that the bend of the ball and the placement of it gave Mignolet NO chance of stopping it - he dived in good time, but it was just too far to his right for him to reach. One of the best long-range goals I've seen, in the class of Arie Haan of Holland who hit 2 amazing strikes in the 78 WC in Argentina. He misjudged it because of the bounce. No chance of stopping it, ffs. Whether you like it or not, he had NO chance of stopping it - Cabaye has hit too many long range strikes for them to be classed as keeper errors or flukes. Quintessential Merlin post, this. As was yours - no defence of MYM this time...?

Redbull Arena would be fine with me as long as we we're benefiting on the pitch from the investment. Personally I draw the line at change of team colours/name/badge. Mostly this although I would like to see SJP incorporated into the Red Bull Arena name. NUFC is a world famous club, mainly because of its history both recent and back through the years ; reputedly, the Italian who formed Juventus decided they would play in B & W stripes because he was so impressed with the football he saw when he came to watch NUFC, then a top side. Surely, anyone taking the club over could see that some things about the club are too famous and important to change because they would gain nothing financially by doing it. ANY potential sponsor would be happy to be associated with us provided they knew there was ambition and real money going into making the club a regular competitor for the PL title and the CL...changing the club colours would not make a ha'porth of difference because most people associate the club with those stripes. Some of the other clubs mentioned as having changed strips etc are nowhere near as famous as us and therefore lost nothing by doing so whereas I believe we would. Many fans would not take kindly to a change of colours which totally removed the traditional Black and White so its hardly worth Red Bull doing so - there are plenty of ways they can improve Newcastle United but strip and name change is not part of that. It would take some major on-field success to get many fans to accept these things although consistently being in the PL top 4 and in the CL may make the pill easier to swallow....

Don't EVER expect an unbiased commentary/highlights from any BBC sports programme where Liverpool are involved ; the media - especially the BBC - is riddled with scousers(what a surprise) and they think its a disaster that Liverpool aren't the team they were in the 80s. Its a wonder we got mentioned at all.....

Yeah - very strange. Was a cracker. It was very well hit but the keeper has to do much better. Totally disagree with this - in general, a strike from 30 yards does pose questions about a keeper's competence but if you saw the shot from behind Cabaye, as on the TV replay, you can see that the bend of the ball and the placement of it gave Mignolet NO chance of stopping it - he dived in good time, but it was just too far to his right for him to reach. One of the best long-range goals I've seen, in the class of Arie Haan of Holland who hit 2 amazing strikes in the 78 WC in Argentina. He misjudged it because of the bounce. No chance of stopping it, ffs. Whether you like it or not, he had NO chance of stopping it - Cabaye has hit too many long range strikes for them to be classed as keeper errors or flukes.

Yeah - very strange. Was a cracker. It was very well hit but the keeper has to do much better. Totally disagree with this - in general, a strike from 30 yards does pose questions about a keeper's competence but if you saw the shot from behind Cabaye, as on the TV replay, you can see that the bend of the ball and the placement of it gave Mignolet NO chance of stopping it - he dived in good time, but it was just too far to his right for him to reach. One of the best long-range goals I've seen, in the class of Arie Haan of Holland who hit 2 amazing strikes in the 78 WC in Argentina.

I agree - Man U had a bad experience back in the 70s when they had to replace Busby...they plumped for O'Farrell from Leicester and then fired him after only a short time ; they had a run of moderate managers and NO League Championships until Fergie was appointed in 1986 so I expect they will at least give Moyes a season - possibly two - to get things right which, for them, means challenging for the PL. Already, this looks a tough ask this season with Arsenal especially looking consistent but Man U have been spoiled for the last 20 years - they will now find it tougher to dominate other clubs and although Moyes was as good a choice as they could get in the circumstances, Fergie will be a tough act to follow, just as Busby was in the 70s. Leeds were never the same club after Revie left and the same applies to Derby and Notts Forest after Clough..... A top manager can bring you years of success but is very difficult to replace - as we know even though we never got the silverware to go with the football we played.

yet most think we actually have a decent group of players... I don't think anyone can really argue otherwise after today, although I'm sure Happy Face and Haris will have a go. What today showed to me was that we have players who can look good against the best in the division if they are properly organised and motivated. But different teams will provide different problems and we'll need to be able to adjust accordingly sometimes. This - there are obviously a good number of players with talent in the squad. I reckon that there has been some sort of a change in coaching responsibilities hence the different - and more effective and attractive - style of play. We ARE a couple of players short of being a potential Top 6 side but the main problem is that the squad is lightweight on quality whenever we have injuries to the better players. Haven't changed my mind about the manager either...I reckon he is allowing the coaching staff to have more influence, possibly Carver.

Tiote was excellent today - were it not for Cabaye he would have been our MoM. Never doubted this lad's ability after I saw him make his debut against Everton but he has been going through a really bad spell...I reckon that some change in the coaching responsibility has led to a different style of play which suits him far better because there is now more movement from players around him and he has more simple passing options when he wins the ball.