ikri

We played a hell of lot better today than in the last few games, if we had a player actually capable of threatening the goal we might be an effective team.

He'll be back in his old job, running to Greggs to pick up lunch for everyone else.

Word is that Financial Fair Play limits us to £30m. That's a Murphy, a Joselu, Manquillo and a Lejeune. If we do get taken over by someone with money to burn then Financial Fair Play doesn't mean shit. We'll suddenly get a new sponsorship deal, or sell a squad player for a massively inflated fee to an affiliated club overseas for enough money to balance it out. Or there's the new Neymar method, "sponsor" the player for enough money to buy out their contract on their own then have them join on a free transfer. How about a massive deal to screen the reserves matches or training sessions on Saudi state TV? There's so many loop-holes in FFP it's not worth the time worrying about it.

Has Gabriel Obertan snuck back into the club disguised as Atsu? Utter garbage in the 2nd half.

This is Newcastle United you're talking about. We're much more likely to end up with Donald Trump as owner, we'll be playing next season in a Trump-branded stadium, the players will probably be wearing a gold lamé and velour combo kit.

You know that he's going to get a win against one of them to keep the media myth alive for a while longer yet.

An improvement but still nowhere near good enough.

That performance was absolutely woeful, just pathetic all over the pitch.

Fingers crossed that's his first bush tucker trial

Works out to around 1.3 points per game (or slightly less if you just look at club jobs). If they were to achieve that until the end of the season it would net them 48-49 points which would probably be enough to keep them safe, there's a bunch of clubs that have gone down with 50+ points though.

For reasons I've never quite worked out, West Ham have a number of supporters who write in the national press. I'd put money on them also being friendly with someone like Moyes. Who better to ask for advice on your next management than football writers for The Daily Mail or The Mirror? Their mate gets the cushy job, they get a few tasty rumours and inside stories, win-win for everyone except the club & supporters.

That's the face of a man who is being forced to read from a script whilst his wife is held at gunpoint off-camera.

I read that as a baldy saxon, close enough though possibly too modern for Sunderland.

Some of the names that they're suggesting on RTG are just bizarre. Keane or Poyet, their own players celebrated when Keane left. Some have even suggested Lee Clark, guess they've forgotten about the t-shirt.

Well that was a pile of wank

Staying up in that season might have been the worst thing that could have happened to them. If they had gone down they'd have been forced to sell some of the players (like Kone) whilst they were still worth money, their debts wouldn't be as horrific and Allardyce probably wouldn't have been picked for the England job and could have actually put together a team to challenge for promotion. Plus, Pickford wouldn't have had his breakthrough season yet so they would have had the best keeper in the league. If they had gone down that season they'd have been in a much better position to bounce straight back up. Instead, they're haemorrhaging cash, they've got a terrible squad and a manager who doesn't seem to believe in coaching, tactics, or any other form of match preparation.

Wouldn't even talk to Swansea it was too below him. I thought the rumour was that he did interview for the Swansea job but was pretty shite, talking about nothing more than hard work whilst Bob Bradley turned up with a presentation about how he would set up to play against the next opposition with detailed notes about the current squad. Giggs then ran to the press to claim that Swansea's ambitions didn't match his own.

Perfect response to their "better the devil you know" pish. Well besides "fuck off". Jeff Stelling gave it the "better the devil you know" pish on Soccer Saturday about us having new owners if it happens. Ashley hasn't done that bad as we have Rafa, and are in the top ten he spewed. Thought better of him, not now the Hartlepool supporting moron. Edit : sorry just noticed Wullie mentioned it a couple of pages back. Jeff was playing Devils Advocate (as usual) all day (not just with us) to spark some debate, really the issue lies with all of the panel just nodding and agreeing. Devil's Advocate or not, Jeff Stelling is the last man who should be giving advice on running a football club, since he's been Hartlepool United's club president they've managed to get relegated from the football league for the first time in their entire history.

Well that was just shite. Far too few chances created & the few that were went nowhere.

Excellent win, even if it was getting a bit sloppy at the end

Good result & not an awful display

I hadn't realised before today just how much Bilic reminds me of Pardew - utterly reliant on a special player to create anything & win them points, and talking down his own team because they can't compete financially with a newly promoted team.

He's a great player when he doesn't have the chance to think about what he's doing. The moment he has time to think and a choice to make he fucks it up.

The early injuries and Shelvey's utter stupidity caused us too much damage. Being forced to make 2 subs before half time restricted what we were able to do later in the game and how we could react to Shelvey being a fucking moron. No idea what might have happened if we'd kept with the same starting 11 through to 60+ minutes, Spurs were giving away stupid fouls of their own and their frustration could have easily led to their own game plan coming apart. Not the best start to the season.

They're following in the footsteps of previous winners like Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook and it certainly put them on the map... Don't forget that when Newcastle lost out to Liverpool when we were going for city of culture it wasn't because the bid was poor or that Liverpool were seen as more deserving of the title. Liverpool won because the government thought that they needed it more than Newcastle. On that basis, I'd guess they'll have a great chance.