Paully

What a load of bollocks! http://mobile.nufc.co.uk/default.aspx?s=news-display&aid=5071290

@KeithGillespie7: Yesterday's press conference by McClaren was worrying. His comments on not looking at the table, Krul and pre season football were strange!

The season starts on Sunday, thankfully! 'The first eight games were very difficult, very tough. They proved that. We’ve had setbacks and good performances. It’s kind of been an extended pre-season, and now we have to start playing, our season begins now'

Very much this! Extremely jealous of them! Under an ambitious owner, he could have been our new head coach in the Summer!

"Norwich manager Alex Reid has warned his side of complacency ahead of Sunday's trip to Newcastle"; has just been said on Sky Sports News! That's where we currently are!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/15/221244ec5a9e7754b21861e13cebdc6b.jpg

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/newcastle-skipper-fabricio-coloccini-says-6635625 Newcastle skipper Fabricio Coloccini says relegation is NOT an option • 0 COMMENTS • 22:30, 14 OCT 2015 • BY SIMON BIRD Defender who experienced the heartache of the Toon going down in 2009 is upbeat despite their still-winless start PLUS He explains why he almost quit the club Fabricio Coloccini grimaces, and shakes his head, when asked about the last time Newcastle were relegated. Painful memories of the 2008-09 season are haunting Tyneside at the moment. The Toon are currently bottom of the league, without a win, and in danger of being cast adrift by the rest of the Premier League unless they beat Norwich on Sunday. Coloccini has felt the anguish of relegation. He was part of the rebuilding job. Could history repeat itself with even more painful ¬financial consequences, including the loss of £100million of TV income? “No, completely different,” says the centre-back belligerently. “We have quality in our squad. We need more experience, and the new players need time to settle in. But the mood is different. “In that season we started better, then had bad times in the middle of the season. Four managers. This time we have enough time to turn this around. We’ll finish strongly. “To go down was very, very hard. But it helped the club to start again. We rebuilt everything. "But this time we can’t afford to go down. This club has to be in the Premier League.” Skipper Coloccini’s leadership has been criticised. The commitment of United’s foreign recruits is under scrutiny. Do they understand the language, the culture, the city? The Argentininean faced all those problems himself when he signed from Spain's Deportivo La Coruna for £10m. Too many foreigners? Coloccini said: “I can understand that criticism. "It is difficult when you come from other leagues and there is none harder than this one. They take time to adjust, and to give their best form,” he said. “But it is the policy the club has and we respect that. But of course we need more experience in the Premier League, results show that.” So are there enough strong ¬characters in the dressing room? “Sometimes it is very ¬difficult, because many do not speak English,” said the 33-year-old. “I am not perfect, but I can ¬understand and express myself. So ¬sometimes it’s difficult.” He is a thoughtful influencer, not a shouter. Concerning his ¬leadership style, he said: “I could go to the pitch and start to shout and put my hand up, but that is not the way to lead a squad. It is like being a small child then. Geordie sore: Newcastle players have been doing plenty of soul searching “I try to be with the players. If they need something on the pitch, or in life outside football, I try to be close to them to get what they need and help. “We have to be close on the field. I try to give confidence. Here in the changing room, I say, 'Are you OK? Wife? Kids?' It is a nice group. We just need little things to improve.” Coloccini was in his first season in England, adjusting to a new life, like many of his ¬team-mates are now. Kevin Keegan was forced out, Joe Kinnear came and went, Chris Hughton and Alan Shearer took the helm, and the worst happened. Never again? He said: “Everyone knows we are not in the best moment. There is a lot of criticism. But I am not worried. We had a lot of difficult big games – Man United, Man City, Chelsea – but I am really trusting this squad. “See our level of play in the first half against Chelsea [Newcastle led 2-0 before being pegged back to a 2-2 draw], or the game against Man U [a 0-0 at Old Trafford]. Man City - first half [The Magpies scored first, but shipped five goals in 13 second-half minutes to lose 6-1]. There are elements there that we can trust.” The Norwich game is followed by a trip to local rivals Sunderland, who are also in the bottom three. He added: “Now is when we start our league. We need points. It doesn’t matter playing well or bad. We need a win. We need characters and confidence.” The defender has played for eight years on Tyneside and has had several chances to leave, including a reunion with ex-Toon boss Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace in the summer. Coloccini said: “I have the opportunity to move, but I preferred to say here because the people in the street are kind with me. I feel part of this city and this club. “People didn’t understand what happened when I wanted to go back to Argentina, in January 2013. My family moved to Argentina. My kids were there and it was a bit difficult. “It was the first moment I have been separated from them. Then you have to separate work from family. It was difficult because I want to be very close to my kids. “I had a lot of love from the club and the city at this time. They said, ‘Colo stay’. That was a big part in my decision to look forward. “Then this summer I had a few opportunities to leave. I spoke to the club and said, ‘I have this opportunity, what do you want? I prefer to stay’. “They say, ‘No, we want you to stay with us’. For me, that is part of the love that I take from the city. “I enjoy Newcastle very much. It is not a big city so there is no traffic, 10 minutes to go anywhere and you have everything here. You don’t need to go to a big city for anything. “We have everything. We have a theatre and it is very nice. “I live in the present. Sometimes people say, ‘You are going to be a manager’. I say, ‘I don’t know, I have a game on Sunday’. I live and enjoy the present. A career is short and I like to enjoy every day.”

Nailed on it would have been the ginger mackem so I'm glad Colo signed a new deal!

The price of football http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/34531731

Which challenge are you copying mate or are you just doing your own?

705 at South Shields tonight after they attracted 1045 on Saturday! Tremendous!

That defending!

Won me £110 as well Lovely! Did you see the highlights?! Estonia missed one of the worst open goals I have seen in the 93rd minute and Switzerland went straight up from the goal kick and scored!

And speaking on the possibility of Cisse playing alongside Mitrovic as a front two, McClaren said: “The plus for me has been seeing Mitrovic and Ayo link up well, but also having Papiss there. We did talk about at the beginning about Papiss and Mitrovic together, I’d like to see them together. “It’s not been possible so far but it could also be something for us.”

Switzerland's 95th minute own goal winner won me £144!

I would absolutely love to see that hippo-headed twat takes these bastards down!

Class by Harry Kane! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3267171/Harry-Kane-treats-six-year-old-fan-invited-kickaround-Wembley-Stadium-England-defeated-Estonia.html

It doesn't sound like his game this! Gan on the beast! http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/oct/08/euro-2016-qualifiers-10-things Back in October 2014 while Serbia were taking on Albania, Ismail Morina piloted a drone into the Partizan Stadium in Belgrade. Dangling beneath the drone was a large flag bearing the Albanian black eagle. Serbia’s Stefan Mitrovic made a grab for it. And all hell broke loose. Players brawled, ultras invaded the pitch and the game was abandoned. A Belgrade visit from the Albanian prime minister, the first for 68 years, had to be postponed. Serbia were initially awarded a 3-0 win but deducted three points. The court of arbitration for sport, however, disagreed and this summer awarded the 3-0 win to Albania, leaving the Red and Blacks with a very real chance of reaching their first ever major finals. It would be some achievement – in 21 previous attempts they’ve finished bottom of their qualifying group 11 times and second-bottom eight times. Reports suggest 2,000 police officers will stand guard at the Elbasan Arena. Tickets are changing hands at €500 a piece. Morina was, on Wednesday, arrested as part of the security operation around the game – two guns and 36 match tickets were seized too. The atmosphere is likely to be rather spicy. With Portugal and, in their final game, Denmark, the top two in Group I, meeting in Braga on the same evening Albania could secure a spot at Euro 2016 with a win. If they manage it, it’ll be an achievement on a par with that of Iceland.

It's either going to be Fat Sam or Moyes apparently

Genius

Cracking article that!

I agree but as I stated earlier in this thread, Colo is now the easy option for people to blame regardless of whether or not he is at fault as proven above!

Colo was at fault for "the majority of them"? 1 - Mbabu didn't track Fernandinho when Silva dinked it towards the back post - Janmaat was marking Aguero and didn't track him - well worked goal 2 - Mbemba awful pass 3 - Janmaat was yards behind the rest of the line (this has happened for a few goals lately) - Aguero spun off Mbemba (who probably thought he was offside) and finished superbly - well worked goal 4 - Gouffran didn't track de Bruyne 5 - Aguero skipped-by Mbemba and finished superbly 6 - Aguero got in-between Colo and Lascellas to tap in Aguero was world class and sometimes you have to accept that he was far too good for our defenders to handle!

"Outside of the top four, Newcastle is one of the toughest places to manage because of the expectations" What a complete imbecile!

http://www.true-faith.co.uk/thru-black-white-eyes-a-winter-of-discontent-5oct15/ THRU BLACK & WHITE EYES – A Winter of Discontent – 5/Oct/15 by Michael Martin • October 5, 2015 • TBAWE • Comments (3) • 727 Circumstances meant that I couldn’t get to a keyboard for much time following this season’s disintegration in Manchester, which is probably just as well as regular readers of this old toffee have probably reached their limits when it comes to reading another rant from me. Like last season, I walked out way before the final whistle. Unlike last season it was when the sixth goal went in (as opposed to the fifth) when I went slunk in resigned fashion past the Blue-Moon Burger Van en-route to Manchester’s enviable light-railway system and back into the town centre and some agreeable company. For the avoidance of doubt this was not to attend a fringe meeting of the Young Conservatives. Just thought I’d clear that up. TRUE15 LUKE 1977 Voucher (1) Leaving matches early is no longer a taboo for me and looking at the hundreds hitting the coach park as we contemplated the football genius that imagined Vurnon Anita and Yoan Gouffran could provide any kind of resistance to anyone in any kind of Premier League football match, I’m not alone. The stoicism that was once our signature as a travelling support is crumbling. Though, to be fair we had almost a full allocation at £44 a throw which is a bigger turnout than last season when we had our arses tanned x five by the nouveau-riche arrivestes in M11. I really get the impression that our support is now at a point where our defiance is almost as limp as the team we support. It’s hardly surprising and I don’t think any group of supporters anywhere in the world or at any time in the modern era could retain any sense of optimism or enthusiasm given the diet of thin gruel we’ve been fed on for so long. One argument I’ve heard repeated a few times by those who believe the current era we are experiencing isn’t as bad as Yoan-GOUFFRAN-104281what we’ve had before and the implication is supporters should to use the modern idiom, “man-up”. I’ve followed United since the early 70s and I can pin-point two eras when we were really on a low. One of those was in the late 1970s/Early 80s and the other in the late 1980s/Early 90s. Don’t get me wrong seeing United sell Macdonald in the 70s and then Waddle-Gascoigne-Beardsley in the 80s led to a mass gnashing of teeth but this is worse. Here’s why. In the period from 1974 to 1984, Newcastle United had two runs to Cup Finals in 74 and 76 and although we lost both, the days and games are still talked of fondly by those of a certain vintage. I’d also suggest the 82/83 and 83/84 seasons aka the Keegan Years were amongst the two most enjoyable seasons I’ve ever had following the club even though both were spent in the Second Division (old money). Likewise the period between 1988 and 1998 bore witness to the best football some of us have ever and will ever witness from a team wearing Newcastle United shirts. Sandwiched between both those periods were the McGarry years (Shinto, Rafferty, Clarke et al) and the period following the Play-Off SF defeat which led to a bleak couple of seasons prior to the sunshine of KK’s return in 1992. That’s why this is worse. The unremitting gloom of the Ashley era has tested many beyond breaking point. Remember it is eight long years since that unbearable Tory gobshite John Hall sold us out to Ashley. He’ll still be counting his pieces of silver now. There have been very, very few ups to sustain us beyond a very brief but enjoyable tour of the Championship, tanning the Mackems 5-1 and a few decent trips to Europe. There are a few Mags in their mid-to-late 20s whose devotion to United is as committed as any of any other generation I’ve known, but I worry about what is sustaining them through this long, endless winter of Mike Ashley. Where are the Cup runs, the days out in Europe, the bravura displays and wins that make it all worthwhile and give us the emotional blanket to keep us warm in our supporting lives? The things to talk about in years to come when today’s young Mags become tomorrow’s old farts (hello there)? We are not deluded to believe Newcastle United deserves more than what Ashley and the people he has appointed to keep it ticking over are providing. Let’s start from that point. Let us never ever forget that or concede that point. Ever. The other points have been made by The Chronicle’s Mark Douglas this last week. This is, in terms of results, the worst calendar year in the history of Newcastle United Football Club. It is as things stand the worst start we have had in the Premier League era. As McClaren’s request to judge him after ten games stretches now to twelve, the season is starting to develop a feeling of desperation about it. It is not a season which has come out of the blue or is the coincidence of a lot of random factors which might convince us we are experiencing some rank bad luck. The context for this season is another of entirely predictably dreadful results on the back of previous seasons when we have looked closer to the trap-door than the mythical land of top eight finishes and cup runs, an increasingly clueless Steve McClaren talks about. So, who is to blame? It is inescapable. It has to be Mike Ashley. He has appointed every single person to a position of authority (ha) at United, he has set the budget, he has plotted the course and he signs the cheques. It is easy to imagine (and I’ve heard some articulate the argument) that Ashley is engaged in some form of spite against us because we had the audacity to challenge his running of the club and maybe called in some horrid names. But I think it’s worse than that. I don’t think he even gives a fuck really. All of his actions suggest he is supremely indifferent. I regularly hear about a complete lack of communication between him and anyone at the club. You read in the post-Man City humping Steve McClaren say quite clearly he does not speak to Ashley. Imagine that, the owner of a football club having no relationship with the man who picks the players and stands at the side of the pitch in the full glare of football’s microscopic attention. Oh, I beg your pardon, Ashley sent McClaren a text. You can look elsewhere beyond Ashley and point to the grotesque inadequacies of Lee Charnley as someone to steer the club to anywhere out of the bottom quartile of the Premier League. You can set a harsh spotlight on Graeme Carr’s increasingly frequent flops in the transfer market. A squad of has-beens and never-will-bes is all the work of Northampton Town’s ex-manager. A first team populated by poor characters with the losing mentality Alan Shearer speaks of is the culmination of too many bad buys courtesy of Mr Carr, another of United’s executive team who lives in the shadows. Fingers will point at a manager who was sacked by Forest, Derby, Wolfsburg and most memorably by England with only a Dutch title with Twente providing him with any credibility whatsoever. How does the sack at Derby in the Championship prepare you for Newcastle United in the Premier League? As for McClaren, he may be supping deep from the poisoned chalice of Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United and is attempting to get a tune from a selection of players completely disconnected from our just and righteous cause and pursuing the narrow agenda of self-interest they were tempted here to pursue. The formations change, the tactics are amended but the same rotten results continue. The big question is, how long will it be tolerated before Ashley sees the PL millions disappearing down a massive Lee Charnley shaped toilet and act to completely over-rule the football board he entrusted to run the club for him? Personally, I can’t see McClaren surviving the next two PL games without gaining 4 points. There, I’ve said it.