AyeDubbleYoo

It is heart warming to read of your trust in people to do the right thing On a completley unrelated note you may be interested to learn that I am the Head of defence in a small Arican country and am looking for somewhere to deposit £175 million. If you can send me your bank details I will be willing to give you 50% as a handling fee PM sent!

Yeah, I agree, I was just admitting that I tend to believe things rather than disbelieve them in general. I've got faith in human nature, it's a pretty big weakness!

He's not a good player. Jeeez. He's just important now cause we have a paper-thin squad, and no good forwards. Being injured and partying like a rockstar should not be accepted. A rockstar? Leon Best couldn't be a rockstar if he tried. Look at him ffs. Racism?

Don't think popping out for a couple of hours and not drinking any alcohol counts as partying like a rock star. A Christian rock star maybe. if you believe thier statement of course, which i certainly don't. Ian W is a very credulous chap. I envy that characteristic. Also known as incredibly naive. TBF I do believe them, after being caught red handed they wouldn't come out and apologise only to lie to everyone. They didn't look drunk or tired or anything in the photo (though I was concentrating on the abs obviously). I'm not cynical by nature though, must admit. That's had me caught out buy Mike Ashley a number of times.

Don't think popping out for a couple of hours and not drinking any alcohol counts as partying like a rock star. A Christian rock star maybe.

For me, the overriding issue was that our squad was already too small. Gosling and Ireland were injured at the time, maybe HBA as well (I can't remember) - it was obvious that we should be looking to increase the size of the squad not reduce it. I understand the point about Routledge not being in Pardew's plans as well (not that I understand why), but even so I think the short-term need to survive is more important than the possible future sale of a player for what will probably be a pretty small fee.

Not on my nelly. If he refuses to sign an extension then we should cash in now. But I would 1000% rather keep him.

Thanks quayside, very useful as usual.

We would be incredibly unlucky to go down on 42. Has it ever happened?

Letting Routledge go out was a terrible decision. Even if Ireland was the 'replacement', our squad is tiny and we needed them both.

Riddled?

Why the hell is his Twitter name seedorf77? What a tool.

Aye, but they have to announce every signing the same way. We're hardly going to sign a player and not show him on the website or programme.... that's just what you do when a new player comes in.

I really don't think anyone thought signing Ireland would 'appease the fans' after selling Andy Carroll. "Well, we've sold our number nine, young Geordie lad who gives everything and scores loads of goals - but hey, at least we've signed this injury-prone Irish headcase."

No surprise, you sure? Kyle Walker looks streets ahead of him, anyway. Well, maybe there would be some surprise, I just mean he has that potential and is more than good enough to be our first-choice RB.

I love Cantona, one of my favourite players ever. If Ben Arfa has half the success in England it would be amazing.

No chance. His attitude stinks, but that doesn't change the fact he's scored ten goals in eighteen games. Hasn't best scored 6 in 10? Yes he's got a few goals but his game looks poor and lazy, he hasn't done anything that's made me think god he's world class. Just my opinion like Totally agree, I've seen nothing (in England so far) to suggest that Balotelli is a class player. And as we've said in other threads, his bad attitude is a massive factor against him. It isn't just an inconvenience, it could easily cost his team games and trophies (as in Europe).

Ha ha, that's true, I always thought he was one of those players that were too good for us ever to have a hope of signing.

We desperately need a better and more consistent way of reviewing video evidence for stuff like this. Pathetic that certain players and managers are targeted when others are let off.

Aside from Best who else from the first team would've started against Stoke bearing in mind he knew Ben Arfa and Ireland were crocked when he bought them? Basically without Barton, Jonas and Best (and Routledge, who Pards should never have loaned out) we're devoid of any attacking threat. Combine that with Jose going off and Ben Arfa being out for the season (which is due to his broken leg so wasn't known when he arrived) we're fucked. I honestly don't think the manager matters that much when the players on the pitch are as poor as we have now. it was known he had a broken leg when we signed him permanently, pardew was the manager then, be consistent. Well fair enough, technically, but the fact remains that we thought he would be available and he isn't. Letting a player like that go when we had a chance to sign him for such a reasonable fee would have been a much worse mistake by Pardew.

He will obviously be our first choice RB next season, to even question that is pointless.

It's a total nightmare that there's so long between games at this stage of the season, must mess with the players' heads something rotten. On the plus side, maybe have a couple more fit players by the time this comes around - we've absolutely got to take the 3 points.

There's no way we should even be contemplating selling Simpson. And obviously we aren't, but for the sake of argument: We've managed Simpson's transfer and career at Newcastle pretty much perfectly so far, and although he didn't seem brilliant at first we now seem to have acquired a player that makes his transfer fee look like an absolute bargain. As England know, there aren't many decent fullbacks around, and there would be no surprise if Simpson goes on to be his country's number one in that position for years to come. Out back four is one of our strengths, and we should not be messing with it by selling Simpson. For many reasons, it would be a terrible decision.