nufc4eva

Played well first half and then faded. Looked a real threat though. Cant understand people wanting him to fail. He clearly has talent and some really clever play tonight.

Sadly I think I agree - aside from being able to head the ball clear when defending set pieces it's like being down to 10 men when Shola is on these days. These dags? Its been that way for 12 year

Cant believe he has dropped mym, fucking joke. Not too bad lineup considering he could have started Oberwank and Shola

You think he commits fraud? It was in the last set of accounts how much he had taken out and planned to take out. Absolutely wouldn't put fraud past him, no. Howay, why would he bother with that? He's a billionaire and Sports Direct is doubling in value every week or whatever. I don't think he takes that much out, I just don't think he wants to invest more than the club can afford. He wants the club in profit and self sufficient rather than taking approach of other clubs and spending in the hope they improve, although also in a lot more debt than us and quite risky. Ashley does not appear to want to take risks and therefore insists we spend right within our means.

I bet he plays Haidara in Gouffran position rather than Sammy (Assuming Gouff is out) - or heaven forbid Oberwank, Can only see Hatem or Shola in for Cabaye with it more likely Shola. I'd forgot about Haidara. You're probably right. Benefit being that Haidara is another defender so Pardew wins, albeit one that looks decent going forward.

Why? - He needs games and has some potential. Hate Shola love Sammy

I bet he plays Haidara in Gouffran position rather than Sammy (Assuming Gouff is out) - or heaven forbid Oberwank, Can only see Hatem or Shola in for Cabaye with it more likely Shola.

I agree with this, I want us to be the greatest club in the world, however I also don't want us to be destroyed similar to Portsmouth. There is a balanced way of selling for profit and reinvesting that into young talents that may get us around top 7 every season and hope we can improve on that. The strategy of buying players looks correct (Although I wish we bought some british) I just wish we would be more ruthless in getting our targets and really pushing on rather than being happy to miss out on them and leave it for 6 months.

Pissed off as many were when Andy Cole was sold, we then went on to improve significantly and buy Shearer. It's always gutting to sell your best players and important how we spend that money (If we do). If we can improve somehow as a squad then the decision may have been correct one. The thing is Joe won't get anything over the line

Players leaving is a fact of life if no ambition is shown at the club. It is important how the club react to this now and try and improve with that money. It's easier said than done to improve after selling your best player but can the squad as a whole be improved with that £20 million rather than a direct replacement with same quality. We would benefit from being a more well rounded team with a good Left or Right winger, Striker and Attacking Midfielder / Central Mid with attacking capabilities.

He has very little say on players getting sold tbh, that will have been Ashley, Joe and Cabaye wanting to leave as I can't imagine Pardew would want his best player to leave no matter the cost. He is to blame however for whoring him about in the media and constantly talking about potential bids for our players, added to the inept football at times and not pushing to get into europe probably makes players want to leave at some point. That's as much Pardew as it is Ashley because the managers preferred style of play and our transfer strategy are not very well aligned. I don't blame Cabaye and wish him luck personally, he deserves to be at a club challenging for things and kind of glad he did not go to a club in this country. You can also see why he would be happy to go back to the country he is from and of course Paris which pisses on Newcastle for things to do. I just hope we can now move on and invest in player or two to replace him. Can we splash 10-12 million on a attacking midfielder and another 5 on a central midfielder / winger to at least give us attacking capabilities. If that happened then I would be ok with it.

Football clubs have other costs Yeah but that 80 million is on top of what we have accomodated for in last few years anyway. At least 40 of that should be spent on transfers, as that is more than we expect or require to cover club costs.

You just know we wont replace him and end up fucked until end of season, he works his arse off also and we will miss that. Guaranteed to lose tonight even though it should not affect the players that much. Pardew will probably do something stupid

We should just tell them to fuck off back to france and come back with a serious offer, thats a joke

Cabaye replacement, must be.

Shola wins again i'm afraid, although Ben Arfa is only sensible replacement (Although I would put him out right and move Sissoko) Thing is Sissoko has 5 assists from right midfield this season and I'd like to see what Hatem could do with an extended spell at no10. I'm just not convinced Ben Arfa can play that position, the few times he has been put there he is anonymous. His movement off the ball is not great and does not contribute as much. Sissoko isn't great there but he is a threat because of his power, pace and mobility that pushes opposition back.

We need to be getting some young players through. I had hoped Sammy, Campbell, Bigi, Streete etc would have progressed to play some part. Do we have any young wingers - what about Aarons or a 6ft striker (I suspect they are all Campbell like dwarfs)

We will end up with Shola as only striker at end of season man, guaranteed - and then new contract time for him

If we don't sign anyone it really is time to blood a young player or 2 as this season has nothing left to offer and we will probably drop to 9th or 10th. They will probably reinvest 15 million of it, I do believe that. With £25 mill we should be able to strengthen in a different way with a good winger and striker brought in.

Shola wins again i'm afraid, although Ben Arfa is only sensible replacement (Although I would put him out right and move Sissoko)

I doubt his agents would want to discuss with PSG if that was the case. Wouldn't surprise me to see us stretch it out until Friday leaving no time for replacement and probably Pardew rolled out to slag off PSG for late deals. We will keep our powder dry for the summer and most likely bring in a couple of players, however this season will be fucked as won't get that 7th place without Cabaye or a replacement.

Our players should be mentally stronger than to let 1 transfer effect them to any sort of degree. We still have much better players than Norwich.

It will be gutting if we don't replace him this week. Inevitable that he will leave and getting over 5 times what we paid for him is good going and kind of shows there is some point in our transfer strategy. It will mean nothing if we don't use the 25mil and look to bring in 2 or 3 players to replace him and improve squad. Cabaye for a Striker, Attacking Mid and Centre mid (8 mill a piece) would be good news. Even a Striker and Attacking Mid/Winger would be good use of the money. It's just unlikely we are going to improve the squad and find a player as influential as Cabaye. We don't have anyone in current squad capable of having that kind of influence on a game. Can Anita or Sissoko? - Probably not at this time although Anita is very tidy player, he doesn't have the attacking abilities of Cabaye and Sissoko is limited and unable to control a game with passing, defensive and movement like Cabaye can

Yip, good that we are actually trying to offer for replacements though. it's just a pity we won't get them near that ever moving line, never mind over it

What? I think we are 1 good manager and 2-3 players away from challenging top 4 each year, but we will never get near the title or anything like that while Chelsea and City are loaded.