merlin

Sounds like Nolan. A midfield poacher is rare. How on earth anyone can liken Alan Gowling to Nolan is beyond belief. Granted when we signed Gowling from Man U, he was a reserve midfielder, but we converted him to a striker and he scored a phenomenal number of goals in fact only Andy Cole beat his record of scoring more than 40 goals in one season, as I recall I was only a nippa but remember Gowling as gash in a Shola kind of way. Certainly didnt bang them in like Andy Cole and dont think he was signed from Man Utd He was at least twice the players Shola is.....he looked awkward but was far more effective, but Cole was a far more dangerous striker over several seasons during his career...Gowling never bettered his goals return at NUFC anywhere else during his career, either after or before he joined us.

Sounds like Nolan. A midfield poacher is rare. How on earth anyone can liken Alan Gowling to Nolan is beyond belief. Granted when we signed Gowling from Man U, he was a reserve midfielder, but we converted him to a striker and he scored a phenomenal number of goals in fact only Andy Cole beat his record of scoring more than 40 goals in one season, as I recall He only scored 30 goals in total for us according to Wikipedia. Yes, he and Supermac got over 50 between them that season.

Sounds like Nolan. A midfield poacher is rare. How on earth anyone can liken Alan Gowling to Nolan is beyond belief. Granted when we signed Gowling from Man U, he was a reserve midfielder, but we converted him to a striker and he scored a phenomenal number of goals in fact only Andy Cole beat his record of scoring more than 40 goals in one season, as I recall Gowling was a clumsy, gangling type of player, but he was paired with Supermac up front by Gordon Lee in 75-76. They proved to be a devastating partnership and took us to the LCF that season as well as the QFs of the FAC. Gowling got our first goal very early on after beating the o/s trap in the home leg of the SF of the LC against Spurs and frankly, there is little comparison with Nolan. Nolan was more of a poacher than Gowling who was an out and out CF when playing for us...he was awkward for defenders because of his tall gangling body . Nolan's type of role in the 76 team was held by Geoff Nulty, the skipper who made runs from m/f and got quite a few goals that way. Nulty's absence, through flu, probably cost us the LC.

That's a pretty short term view. I'd prefer Pardew to continue learning at the moment than risk upheaval like we saw in 08/09. I base my view of what sort of working relationship they might have on what I perceive to be the footballing outlook of the people Ashley brings in compared to the footballing outlook of the people he's shown himself incapable of getting on with. Time and again he has shown that simple minded purveyors of no-nonsense football like Wise, Kinnear and Pardew are people that he gets on with. Anyone with a more romantic view of the beautiful game or anyone that builds a rapport with fans such as Keegan, Hughton or Shearer get moved aside quite quickly. How much 'learning' did Pardew do at WHU, Charlton and Southampton..? Not enough, judging by those clubs' Chairmen's decision to get rid of him....the man is over 50 for heaven's sake....

Yep - as bad as people saying that RDM isn't a good enough upgrade on Pardew..!! There must be a lot of Pardew's troll mates on this forum.

Not an upgrade ? Compared to Pardew..?? I despair....

did his chelsea team play decent stuff? i only recall them cliff thoburning their way to the CL tbh You are surely not trying to say that we are playing better football under Pardew...?? I cannot believe that anyone would turn down a guy who has won the CL in favour of the status quo...or anyone else who might want to join NUFC as manager because of those who would accept the job, none would have RDM's record behind them. As if supporters of Ashley's NUFC are in a position to turn down the likes of Di Matteo...!

Di Matteo would be a good shout IF he was prepared to accept Ashley's policies - he has won trophies and his teams play decent football. About as good as we could get in any circumstances, let alone with this board/owner - the big question is whether he would be Ashley's choice...and we've still got Pardew sitting on the majority of an 8 year deal...

None of this is a surprise to me, nor should it be to anyone else ; it has been clear for months now that there is an apathy and lack of ambition at the highest levels throughout the club and this will obviously impact the thinking of all employees, especially those involved in the playing side. Brian Clough sacked the tea ladies at Derby when he first took over as manager because he heard them laughing about a Derby defeat the previous week-end. He wanted a win-at-all-costs mentality to be felt by ALL the club's employees because he felt anything else led to complacency. For a club like Newcastle United, who were the FA Cup kings in the 1950s and whose history is inextricably linked to Cup football, the admission that only PL fixtures really matter(you could have fooled me after last season's fiasco) is a dampener on a large percentage of the supporters whose families brought them up on tales of great Cup runs. Even those we narrowly lost, like the LCF in 1976, stuck in our memories because of some of the great games and excitement we witnessed. The worst part about this report for me is that Ashley is not actively trying to sell the club because as long as he is here, the club will be dragged down by thinking like this and the toleration of third-rate managers because they are prepared to fall in with Ashley's money making plans...which, apart from 2011/12, have yet to bear any fruit because our league position has been mediocre. How anyone can be happy with this regime, who have allowed the Commercial side to deteriorate to only 13m p.a. is a mystery to me. The club do not deserve 30,000 attendances, never mind 50,000...perhaps in time they will start to get the crowds their lack of ambition deserves.

The point isn't that the majority were happy with those managers...but that the majority of managers are a disappointment. Advocating for the sack because of a boring/annoying style of play is asking for another journeyman manager to come in and disappoint, but perhaps a way that doesn't prove as effective. All of those managers should have been sacked and we were right to want them sacked and they were right to be sacked. Just because we've had a string of disappointing managers doesn't mean that we should accept it because we're worried that the next one will be disappointing. If that next one's disappointing then he should be sacked too. In our current predicament, it's a bit different because we pretty much know that the replacement is worse, but that isn't any reason for us to think that Pardew is anything other than absolutely s*** and to maintain the stiff upper lip. Saying that Pardew isn't as bad as Souness, Allardyce or Roeder, or to try and claim that because we've had s*** managers before that this is who we are is a thoroughly depressing and incredibly small-time attitude. It may have a basis in reality because of Mike Ashley, but there's no way that I'm going to let him affect the way that I think and the things that I aspire to for this club. That definitely isn't Kinnear, but it absolutely isn't Pardew either and backing him up with these stats and going on about being careful what you wish for is negative, pessimistic, stagnation. Cracking post!!! Agree - also, saying that the majority of managers are disappointing is no justification for NUFC putting up with one who is ; the majority of PL clubs get nowhere NEAR us in attendances or potential crowd base if we are run correctly, so using the fact that most managers are crap is not a valid reason for keeping one who is as crap as most. These arguments are just defeatism and acceptance of Ashley's brainwashing as well as that of the southern Media. We should not be happy with ANY manager that can't get us into the Top 10 even with THIS decimated squad and should in reality be looking for someone who would have the club challenging for Europe every year - this would certainly be the target of anyone who takes over the club and it WILL happen one day.

A season ticket holder saw Newcastle win 33% more games than a Swansea season ticket holder last year. But I know facts tend to cloud the issue so I apologise for mentioning it. "Last year" isn't the same as last season. Is this another one of your creative uses of stats? No. I meant last season. We won 9 at home. They won 6. Its a pointless discussion. Like being asked who would win a fight between the grufallo and sasquatch. I named several other PL managers I wouldn't be fussed on at the same time. It's really not worth pages of discussion. ..and how about this season so far...?? I bet the Swansea fans would cut off their right arms to swap Laudrup for Pardew - NOT. As for your assertion about Pardew having as good a record as Laudrup...who won a trophy last year..something Pardew has never done ? Ask W Ham, Charlton and Saints fans if they would have Pardew back.

If NUFC had done this after 13 games, we would never have heard the end of it from the media - as it is, Sunderland realized that they had made a mistake and acted on it - as others have said, certain clubs can have the longest serving manager in the PL, lose successive home games by 9-0, avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth on the last day of a season and totally fail to entertain their supporters, yet still hang on to the incumbent responsible, even though he has a poor CV with his previous clubs..... We would still get grief from Pardew's friends in the press if he got the P60.......its laughable.

Yeah, great ! Of COURSE we shouldn't expect to beat one of the bookies' favourites for relegation at SJP..... Ashley has done a GREAT job on you, hasn't he..!?

Wimbledon used to go into most Ist Div/PL games with the same 'handicap' as Hull...they just ignored it and regularly beat supposedly 'better' teams......funny that, isn't it...!?? A team is only as good as its results over a period of time - look at ours over the past season and so far this - we are NOT a good side.

Just as last week's result was deserved, so was this - we ended up looking like a team who had just been introduced before the game and all the movement in attack that was there at Villa disappeared after HT. The overall impression is that once we get in front at SJP, the team is either told to, or is content to, defend the lead and surrender midfield - this was what allowed Hull to get back into the game and as the second half wore on, they looked by far the better side. Newcastle were timid, disjointed, passed back instead of forward, m/f and forwards stopped linking together and the whole thing became a shambles. We resorted to far too many hopeful punts towards the edge of their area - Debuchy was particularly guilty of this in the second half. The defending for Hull's second equalizer was worse than school-boy stuff and El Mohadey was allowed to run across the penalty area to meet the cross unchallenged ; the defence was all at 6s & 7s again when they got the winner but by this time there was only going to be one team that won this match and it wasn't Newcastle. HBA had an absolute stinker they doubled up on him and he couldn't handle it although he got little help from his team-mates who should have been giving him more options but he gave the ball away far too often anyway. Cisse was dire - hard to see how this guy is going to resurrect his career at SJP without a major central striker being signed and that isn't going to happen so he might as well be allowed to leave in Jan. He looks leaden-footed and slow. As for the rest, only Anita came out of it with any credit and without his timely interceptions and reading of the game, we could have lost more heavily...as it was, Krul saved our bacon before they equalized in the first half with a great save from Graham. It is clear to me that either the team are brittle and buckle as soon as anything goes against them, or they have been instructed to surrender ground to the opposition after taking the lead - either way, some of the blame undoubtedly lies with the manager, as most of us sussed out ages ago. Ashley's policies encourage this because the club will never have proper competition among the squad and he is content to let the club drift until Pardew walks...which he won't, so there is little prospect of anything major changing soon. I hope all those who rushed to reduce their relegation prophecy scores have now decided to wait until after October to properly assess the team's prospects...as I have already. A look at the next 6 fixtures tells you why....!

In that case, its about time the club were getting similar crowds to Hull ,Cardiff or any other bugger as well.....

How was it an over reaction to talk about relegation when we only just avoided it last season and then didn't invest in the squad? You don't half post some guff. People were claiming we were near certainties for relegation. If you have the merest of glances at the other teams in the league, you will see this is indeed an overreaction. There have been plenty of overreactions, you know that as well as me. Pretend it isn't true to create another Pardew beating stick if you wish. I have always said that I wouldn't make ANY predictions about relegation until October is out... Even that may be too soon - look what happened after we bought some apparently good players in Jan and nearly got relegated... You nail your flag to Pardew's mast if you like.....I've already made my mind up about him, but not yet about relegation - if this side goes down, its a rare achievement even for Pardew....

The only thing that can lead to such a debacle would be if the chef puts in too many strange ingredients which are out of place. ...which you can never rule out.. The other reason is that the players don't bother to turn up - as with the Mackem/Liverpool games.

You are probably right in that Pardew is being slightly offensive towards the fans especially - this is because he knows that Ashley is gambling on him walking out because of Kinnear, lack of signings etc., and Pardew is trying to manoeuver a situation where the fans start pressurizing him and Ashley then is forced into a situation where he has to fire him...we all know that this won't work for a number of reasons but Pardew is also engaged in trying to salvage his reputation and ensure that the blame for the club being a pantomime is down to 'over-expectant' supporters and interference from above. Anyone looking for a new manager in the PL now would not be keen to take on Pardew unless it was a club like Palace...a look at Pardew's CV tells you that consistent success has ALWAYS avoided him and he has been fired from such giants as Charlton and Southampton...the latter had higher ambitions and they knew they wouldn't reach them with Pardew at the top and so it proved. NUFC is NOT Southampton though, and Ashley will not fire Pardew unless results start mirroring those of last season - we shall see.

Sir Les was a great signing by KK and we could see why he had traded Andy Cole in earlier that year. The only thing I had slight reservations about was that Ferdinand was coming up 28 by the time we signed him and I reckon that came back to bite us on the a--e in the 1996 title race, esp against Man U at SJP ; yes, Schmeichel had a great game but Ferdinand should have left him no chance with at least one of his efforts when he shot lamely at the keeper... Nevertheless, a good bloke , enjoyed his time at the club and was a great partner for Shearer - I reckon that if KK had been able to get Shearer in the 95 close season, we would definitely have won the title - the club did ask Blackburn but they wouldn't sell at that time because they had just won the title. Les was sold because Dalglish wanted a younger player(Tomasson)to partner Shearer...Shearer's injury at Everton pre-season put paid to that, but Sir Les had given his word to Spurs and wouldn't go back on it. One of our best strikers of the last 20 years - we could really do with him now....

You've got to field a side that looks as if you want to win one first....since when did Pardew do that in the domestic trophy games...?

Back in the 70s we had Joe Harvey as manager up until 1975 when Gordon Lee took over after Joe's retirement. Joe had been in charge since the early 60s and got the club promoted in 65 after a couple of abortive attempts. After promotion, we had a team that basically was a lower half side and we lost to the Mackems heavily a couple of times in that decade. Joe was lucky in that we had some good kids coming through and Foggon, Dyson and John Craggs all came into the first team squad in time for our fortunate qualification for the Fairs Cup at the end of 67/68...Bobby Moncur and David Craig had already got into the first team by then and were respected internationals.....Joe was probably at his best as a manager between 65 and 71...after that, things started going downhill and it wasn't until a coach called Keith Burkinshaw started taking training that things improved and we played some great stuff between 72-75 but Burky left and went to Tottenham, eventually becoming manager and winning the FA Cup there in 81.... The point here is that we don't know what has happened in the close season reg coaching of the first team....my bet is that Ashley has told Pardew to sort it or else and get the side playing better football - Pardew is NOT an exponent of carpet football so I would lay odds that one of the coaches - possibly Carver - has started having more input in day to day training as well as asking the senior players for their feelings on what has been wrong ; don't forget, Jonas took Pardew to task about the players' fitness and that seems to have been addressed by what we have seen so far. Certainly, the side looked much fitter on Saturday and lasted the Fulham game better too so maybe the fitness coach has also made herself useful. Either way, I don't accept that Pardew has made the difference - why do it now when he obviously couldn't before - at ANY of his clubs...? He probably picks the team - after consultation with his coaches etc...and that's it.

If you think back to all the decent strikers we have had in the last 20 years, they all had something to contribute even if they went through a dry spell of goal-scoring ; Shearer had aggression, movement and the ability to hold up play and bring others into the game ; Bellamy had raw pace, Ferdinand had decent pace and strength as well as aerial ability, Cole had pace and movement(was probably the closest in style to Cisse albeit a better all round player), Kelly never stopped running and harassing defenders, Peacock had all round skill but lacked size.....all these players were still an asset to the side when not scoring. Even the likes of Viduka had strength and skill on the ball although at the end of his career - only Owen was a disappointment but not as much as Cisse has been over the past year or so. I always thought Cisse would find it tougher in his second PL season but not as tough as he found it - the goals record tells you that.... We all thought he was given a tough job last season and people thought he would be more dangerous after Ba left but this proved to be a false hope. He is hopeless as a target man, cannot hold the ball and even though Remy was playing on Saturday, Cisse didn't seem any more comfortable but Remy was playing more of a wide role on the left and he and Cisse don't look a compatible partnership because Cisse needs the support of a big striker in the middle. That is why I said we would rue not getting another central striker in before the deadline - Cisse is proving that he is a poacher and ONLY a poacher - in the current set up, his type of player cannot work because he lacks pace and the strength on the ball to beat defenders in a one against one situation. At his age - 28 now - he won't get any better ...looks a shadow of the player from almost 2 years ago. Cannot see an answer to this because Ashley will not do what is necessary to sort out the problem.

Sissoko was marking Benteke and totally lost him after some great movement by Benteke. Maybe so - but Benteke is one of their main central forwards so it should have been one of the CDs marking him..

He looked better yesterday because he spent less time going forward as Remy was taking the responsibility for attacking down the left and he has pace, so Santon could concentrate more on defensive duties - which is his main job. He often gets caught out of position when he has to go forward a lot.