Chris_R

Even that wouldn't do it. The headline should be "Alan Pardew admits to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty, and commits Seppuku". Then we'd be about half way there.

Fucking hell, he actually says in that link "I can't say that this game is a game that we're confident of winning". You're the fucking manager. You should be inspiring these players. They should be confident of winning EVERY SODDING GAME THEY PLAY. If they're not, you're not doing your job. We're beaten before we even set foot on the pitch. Wigan were confident of winning today. And guess what? They bloody won! They had BELIEF. You snivelling scrotesack of a man. Prick.

There's no way we should be talking about Pardew getting sacked. It shouldn't even be being discussed. After this shambles of a season, if he had an ounce of dignity he'd resign.

Baffled at how getting relegated equates to playing safe.

On a similar level, I'd like to rule myself out.

Alan Pardew, you LUCKY BASTARD.

Sadly I think he's going nowhere. Otherwise he'd be gone by now.

What's that site that shows where on the pitch players were over 90 minutes?

Why not just rest Ben Arfa until the Arsenal game?

I hate football. Fuck you, Pardew.

This. I'm just having to distance myself from football entirely in order to cope. Have done to an extent for most of this season but it's getting more serious now. I'm at the point of trying to convince myself that I don't care anymore. To an extent it's working.

There's no way we're scoring here. We could play until Tuesday and we'd still not score.

Seems we're determined to defend for the next 30 minutes...

It's as good as we could have hoped. Colo back. Ben Arfa starting. Gouffran starting. It's all down to how they're set up now and whether we actually look to attack and break them down rather than defend for 90 minutes and try to nick one somehow.

Well we'll get the lineup soon enough. But infinitely more important than the lineup is how we're sent out to play. A decent manager could have any combination of players in any formation looking to attack and threaten. Pardew has made noises this week about us needing to attack more, let's see what he actually does about it.

We all know Ian has bought all 11. No point denying it.

What about all the players that used to give us 7,8 or 9 but have been Pardewed down to a 3?

I'd not worry. Everyone knows it's a horrible regime with ideals that you find deplorable, but on some level there's a grim fascination from a few individuals that somehow transcends that. Buying one doesn't mean you actually like him. It's just a bit like buying Nazi memorabilia.

Well that makes them better men than me.

Oh my. That's special. This encapsulates why I never buy newspapers and would lose no sleep if they all went out of business. That's such a shit article.

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd suggest that long-term, the opposite is the case. OK, short-term "DRESSING ROOM SPLIT" sells a few extra copies, but long-term knowing that the local paper can be trusted to ask the right questions and is on the side of the supporters and is clued up as to the real issues is infinitely more likely to get me to regularly buy a paper.

The press will do just do anything to avoid alienating the manager. Never bite the hand that feeds you etc. It just seems to be accepted that you don't undermine him. Undermine the players, the fans, anyone else. They don't provide your soundbites or interviews. OK, some players do, but alienate one and others will still talk or you can alienate them generically rather than specifically thereby avoiding direct confrontation, a la the recent "split in the dressing room" articles. But no manager is EVER called out over his tactics. Which is a crying shame as plenty of them could do with it, our present incumbent being top of the list. They should be held far more accountable for their actions.

Well ask him and he'll lie. He's already on record as saying he likes front foot, fast paced attacking football. Which is an outright lie. No point asking that again, you'll get the same answer. So you've got to either print that answer or confront him and call him a liar. Unfortunately none of them seem to have the balls to call him a liar over it, even though there's a wealth of stats, figures and observational evidence that prove he's talking out his ring.

It's fucking obvious why they don't do it. They ask him questions that don't directly blame him so that he continues to talk to them. Call a manager useless and he'll stop talking to you. Call his players useless and he'll get angry and disagree with you but continue dialogue. Still, as a fan it's shit. They're not asking the questions that I want them to ask, that NEED to be asked.