Happy Face

You not spoke to anyone pissed off about the away ticket situation? Being forced to pay for a membership or to move from their seats?

The Mackems? It was their new manager's home debut and their fans and team were massively up for it. Their previous showing for their new manager had been as bad as ours against the mackems at home the year before and they were looking to react to that on top of the awful start that had preceded it.. Everything about that game pointed to a reaction from them that we would have to weather and the mackems went at us with massive energy from the first whistle and had us under the kosh for half an hour. How was it an opportunity to be comfortable for 90 minutes?

I think it would have been easier to find a buyer that would pay the asking price prior to Ashley arriving than it would be now. The size of the debt now puts us in a situation that cannot be corrected without massive sums of investment that dwarf Ashley's. The problems back then were a ballooning wage bill and the resulting loans/interest which added to a growing debt. But the debt was half of what it is now and could be nipped in the bud with cost cutting... Ashley implemented those cuts, but too harshly, leading to relegation and exacerbated losses. Maybe in 10 years, if we pay off debt at the rate he has over the past couple of years, we'll be back to a more attractive prospect off the pitch.

If we won the league Ashley would still be a prick and i'd want rid of him. Respect for fans, tradition, players, the game, professionalism, the opposition......just any respect for anything really is sorely missing at the top of our club.

Wigan last year? Southampton? Blackburn the year before, Bolton? Stoke? man U? Don't worry about putting me right on those being slim pickings. I didn't take it literally when you said the bold bit

ian, i suppose the "absolute worst" is in fact that out of work pardew used his influence as a mate of llamblias to plant seeds in the guys mind that he could do a better job than hughton etc. etc. not saying this happened by the way but it's far from the realms of possibility, much in the same way that people "believe" kinnear was getting pissed in the pub with ashley and talked himself back into a role at the club, and believed his undermining of pardew and return to the managers seat was inevitable Well it's possible I suppose, but it's a big leap to just assume that it's what happened. Anyway, everyone uses their connections to try and get work. It's up to the regime who they give the jobs to. similar leap to assume didn't, no? Are you religious?

Anah, I wish he'd leave the forum, tbh. Do I really have to quote people verbatim or be chastised for paraphrasing every time?

fortunate that you have inside knowledge of what took place and when between pardew, llamblias and ashley ian otherwise people might think you were talking out of your arse Are claiming you have insider knowledge? Because without it, if one assumes that he engineered the change, with no evidence either way, that would be talking out of one's anus. Maybe you weren't on this board at the time but we have a very occasional poster here who told the board a couple of weeks before it was announced that Pardew had been approached to take over the job. He had been given a contract to look over. There quite a few sceptics on here at the time but this poster was proved completely correct. A couple of weeks later, Hughton was sacked and Pardew was appointed. No suggestion Pardew actually engineered the change in management. However, he did know it was going to happen despite his protestations that he didn't. Not judging anyone for what happened, just enlightening you as you were probs weren't on this board at the time. I was told the same elsewhere. none of that makes pardew to blame for engineering anything. 'No suggestion Pardew actually engineered the change in management.' it was a long post, you probs glossed over that if not most of it. Minhosa seems to think Pardew acted less than gentlemanly. I wondered what evidence there was of that. Seems odd to respond with ITK that doesn't back that up and agree it doesn't back it up. Glad we cleared it up though

fortunate that you have inside knowledge of what took place and when between pardew, llamblias and ashley ian otherwise people might think you were talking out of your arse Are claiming you have insider knowledge? Because without it, if one assumes that he engineered the change, with no evidence either way, that would be talking out of one's anus. Maybe you weren't on this board at the time but we have a very occasional poster here who told the board a couple of weeks before it was announced that Pardew had been approached to take over the job. He had been given a contract to look over. There quite a few sceptics on here at the time but this poster was proved completely correct. A couple of weeks later, Hughton was sacked and Pardew was appointed. No suggestion Pardew actually engineered the change in management. However, he did know it was going to happen despite his protestations that he didn't. Not judging anyone for what happened, just enlightening you as you were probs weren't on this board at the time. I was told the same elsewhere. none of that makes pardew to blame for engineering anything.

I've been struggling why this view keeps being put forward. Why do otherwise intelligent people, who follow football and have a good knowledge of the league, hink Newcastle have a right to roll over opponents for fun? It strikes me as a conceited view of our capabilities and condescending of other teams in the league that have outspent us in just about every case and which are ALL managed by better men than Pardew...if you believe the haters. Hull can turn over Liverpool 3-1. Sunderland beat Man City, as did Cardiff. Villa pissed on Arsenal and took 3 points off Man City. This is a competitive league where points are hard fought and won. It struck me just now that it might be a lingering sense of entitlement from the championship season. We were scoring 3, 4, 5 and 6 week in and week out there. At least we were at home. Even in the championship we rarely scored more than 2 on the road though. We currently score at the same rate we did in 10/11 (even with those 4 and 5 goal thrillers) and in 11/12 (when we came 5th). These rates are the highest in a decade at the club...except for the championship season... Goals per game.... 2014 1.5 2013 1.2 2012 1.5 2011 1.5 2010 2.0 2009 1.1 2008 1.2 2007 1.0 2006 1.2 2005 1.2 2004 1.4 There have been few times that i have followed Newcastle and rolled up to St James' expecting us to win and to do it comfortably. Our current approach/ability is the norm. It takes brilliant men like Keegan or Robson to improve on that.

fortunate that you have inside knowledge of what took place and when between pardew, llamblias and ashley ian otherwise people might think you were talking out of your arse Are claiming you have insider knowledge? Because without it, if one assumes that he engineered the change, with no evidence either way, that would be talking out of one's anus.

This notion that Pardew is a scheming back-stabber while all other managers are full of integrity needs to be nipped in the bud like. I know at Newcastle we are used to dipshit chairmen, who will sack a manager while being totally oblivious as to who is available or how willing they are to take a job. But the best way to approach a change of manager is to have your new man in mind, lined up, ready to take the role immediately. This happens time and again at loads of clubs and in no way suggests Pardew should have a guilty conscience about Hughton's removal.

The kitchen at the training ground has really upped it's game with the bait as well. Pardew has nothing to do with the baked potato toppings. ...and the cleaning ladies have been getting into all the nooks and crannies that Pardew can't. That's been worth 9 points alone.

The goals you mention are interesting because they were against teams who had the onus on them to attack us. Champions League contenders and/or home teams who we had space to run in behind. Norwich, and WBA are not going to commit to attacking away from home at SJP like any of those other teams we scored prettier goals against. The space for us to attack is much more limited. True about the away games, not entirely true about the home games. When we went 2-0 against Norwich, they came at us second half. Instead of immediately changing our formation to counter attack them with pace, we took Remy off and sat back, when we could have exploited that. There was a slight improvement in attitude against West Brom, and although we conceded, we didn't let the panic set in. No, we didn't. We didn't? Could've sworn we did Remember going ape shit about it at the time. You probably were. But, it definitely didn't happen. Remy played the full 90. Subs were Anita for Cabaye, Cisse for Shola and Hatem for Gouffran. Remy assumed he was coming off because he was fucked. He walked from the centre circle right over to the dugouts....then realised it was Cabaye's number that had gone up and walked back where he'd come from. Even NUFC.com have made the mistake. Team: Krul, Debuchy, Williamson, Coloccini, Santon, Tiote, Cabaye, Sissoko (Cisse 90+5), Gouffran, Sh.Ameobi, Remy (Anita 84). Subs n/u: Elliot, Ben Arfa, Yanga-Mbiwa, Obertan, Sa.Ameobi. That's the WBA game. He was talking about Norwich

The goals you mention are interesting because they were against teams who had the onus on them to attack us. Champions League contenders and/or home teams who we had space to run in behind. Norwich, and WBA are not going to commit to attacking away from home at SJP like any of those other teams we scored prettier goals against. The space for us to attack is much more limited. True about the away games, not entirely true about the home games. When we went 2-0 against Norwich, they came at us second half. Instead of immediately changing our formation to counter attack them with pace, we took Remy off and sat back, when we could have exploited that. There was a slight improvement in attitude against West Brom, and although we conceded, we didn't let the panic set in. No, we didn't. We didn't? Could've sworn we did Remember going ape shit about it at the time. You probably were. But, it definitely didn't happen. Remy played the full 90. Subs were Anita for Cabaye, Cisse for Shola and Hatem for Gouffran. Remy assumed he was coming off because he was fucked. He walked from the centre circle right over to the dugouts....then realised it was Cabaye's number that had gone up and walked back where he'd come from.

The goals you mention are interesting because they were against teams who had the onus on them to attack us. Champions League contenders and/or home teams who we had space to run in behind. Norwich, and WBA are not going to commit to attacking away from home at SJP like any of those other teams we scored prettier goals against. The space for us to attack is much more limited.

Aye. It's the law of averages. it's not individual brilliance because we had 19 other efforts against Norwich that were going all over the shop. Out for throw ins, 30 yards over, straight at the keeper etc. Just needs one or two of the speculative attempts to come off... and we're really hammering that speculative approach.

I'm as equally inclined to say that Cisse's baron spell cannot go on as i am to say that Remy's purple patch can't. Ramsay and Giroud have 55% of Arsenal's goals. Remy and Gouffran have 63% of our goals. Soldado and Sigurdson have 64% of Spurs' goals Rooney & Van Persie have 68 % of Man U's Sturridge and Suarez have 72% of Liverpool's. Having an in form goal scorer or two is vital to the majority of teams that want to be doing well. You are absolutely right of course. Having said that, if you watch all the above goals scored between all the above players you will notice a glaring difference in the way they were scored. We create nowhere near as many clear cut chances as the above pairings get (barring Soldado & Sigurdsson). The football we play relies on scraps and moments of individual brilliance in the majority. Naturally, scraps and wonder goals are part of football, but they are not as sustainable as playing in a way that creates more clear-cut chances for your forwards and midfielders to score from. The worry is, if we go through a barren "unlucky" spell, where we get no scraps to feed off, and Sissoko/Cabaye/Remy don't pull rabbits out of hats for a while, what do we do then? Surely there must be a way to score "easier" goals with a more distinct style of play? This is clearly evidenced by Cisse's horrendous lack of form. Yes he's missed one or two sitters, but they come so rarely. A forward lacking in form and confidence needs even more service. We spent bloody 10M on the lad, might as well figure out a way to get that confidence back up again. (Not excluding Cisse from criticism here at all, as I believe he also needs to pull his finger out). I think it's clear to anyone watching that we aren't trying to score perfect goals. We don't play it into the box on the deck and bamboozle defences with our attacking movement. But what we do is effective. We have a lot of attempts. And if you have a go ten times, one of them has a chance of coming off, whether it's from a long range whack, a cross into a crowd of bodies or a through ball on the break.

I'm as equally inclined to say that Cisse's baron spell cannot go on as i am to say that Remy's purple patch can't. Ramsay and Giroud have 55% of Arsenal's goals. Remy and Gouffran have 63% of our goals. Soldado and Sigurdson have 64% of Spurs' goals Rooney & Van Persie have 68 % of Man U's Sturridge and Suarez have 72% of Liverpool's. Having an in form goal scorer or two is vital to the majority of teams that want to be doing well.

I think you could say the same since January. This season we've only brought in Remy. Harper, Simpson, Perch, Ferguson, Tav and Gosling going out. In terms of bodies available, we should be worse off. The squad improvement was all last winter though. They've just needed a year to settle. 27 players started games last year and so far this season we've only needed 19. 3 of those have only started once. Keeping the players that aren't good enough out of the first team and off the bench has been the biggest factor in our return to the upper echelons. The January signings that have been largely responsible for any individual errors that cost us points are making them with much less frequency now. The majority of those players being in the running for the player of the month award.

The money in football comes from TV stations that want football on every night of the week and 3 times a day at weekends, not concentrated on one day with one kick off time.

Just been updating my charts, as everyone should on a Monday morning, and came across some oldies I don't think I've posted on here. I whacked these together for a dick head mackem who was giving it the old "plastic mags" shit. Obviously our average attendance has consistently beaten there's, since the years prior to the Premier league being set up... http://i40.tinypic.com/v7zasg.jpg But is that because we are plastic? The percentage change in attendances year on year tells us... http://i43.tinypic.com/8zk9ip.jpg Those large red peaks and troughs show which club has the most plastic Premier league era fans, with attendance bouncing up and down. Their maximum average attendance in the last 30 years (46,790) is 244% of their minimum average attendance (13601) in the same period. Our maximum average attendance in the last 30 years (52,032) is 208% of our minimum average attendance (16879) in the same period. Their biggest year on year increase in attendance was 64% in 97/98 following the move to the Stadium of light. Our biggest year on year increase in attendance was 41% in 00/01 following the last Leazes expansion. Their biggest year on year decrease in attendance was -31% in 03/04 following relegation on 19 points. Our biggest year on year decrease in attendance was -22% in 90/91 which were the darkest days of McKeag (we only lost 11% following the 08/09 relegation debacle). Plastic mackems!

The Europa should be a straight knockout competition over 2 legs. No groups at all.

There's not a post in this thread, no matter what length, that tells the whole story. Daft to demand a view that is panoptic in ANY form.

FFS, more Gifs Your predictable response to every single post where I include a number is the boring part of the stats debate. Others have said they appreciate them and commented on points of interest raised. The argument of stats being bollocks or not is fucking tedious. I prefer to stick to the footballing discussion, irrespective of the degree to which you think the numbers might illuminate the argument or not.