Wallace

I always expect us to concede when he is playing and that would be the case even if we had a decent defence.

Have they got enough Art Galleries in Birmingham?

It is refreshing to read those quotes and to actually believe he might mean what he says. We are so used to bland interviews where players just trot out the party lines and you know they don't really mean what they say. I love the way he is a fan of Shearer and it is obvious it is genuine.

He turned us down at his two previous clubs and spent most of last Summer saying he didn't want to come here. It always felt as if he was reluctantly pushed into the move because Marseilles needed the money. Taking that into account and the fact that he is not playing then I can imagine him not being overwhelmed at being here. If he was to leave next Summer (unless he gets to puts in some good performances) the club will struggle to get a decent fee for him.

If they have any sense (which we know they do not), it would be a ridiculous decision to sell. They have caused themselves so many problems by constantly weakening the squad that it is going to take time to sort out. We are just starting to get a semblance of a team going with some understanding between players - what would be the sense in destroying that at the first opportunity. They need to hold on to players until they get themselves into a stronger position where selling a player will not totally destabilise the club as it has done in the past. The financial side is no longer a issue with the TV money. If a player is agitating to move e.g. Sissoko then that is different because as we have learnt an unhappy player ends up being more of a hindrance. I don't see Perez as being a difficult player to manage as he just seems to want to play football and to keep learning. (He most certainly deserves a new contract as he will probably be on peanuts compared to his teammates). There are enough players at the club that need to be moved on because they either don't want to be here or no longer contribute anything meaningful rather than looking to sell those who are happy to stay for the time being and are a key area of the team.

Agree the Carroll sale was a watershed moment. From that point onwards, Ashley has been trying to replicate that sale. Good players with no attachment to the club are always going to move on at some point but you would hope that they would at least learn when it is the right time to tell i.e. when the team is in a position to cope with the player leaving or have a replacement already at the club. I would be nice if the good players (especially when some of them are so young) could be here long enough to leave some kind of legacy rather than relatively few appearance where it is quickly forgotten that they ever played for us.

Who knows seeing as we seem to no longer announce contract extensions for existing players.

And there we all were thinking he out of contract next Summer.

They are utterly shameless like. Also these things only mean something when they happen spontaneously or organised by the fans. It always seems a cynical action when the club is trying to manipulate the supporters.

No idea if there is any truth in this but someone posted on a Falcons Forum that they had heard that on a normal matchday at SJP, the average takings for Bar/Food is £90k but for the game last Friday night, it was £500k. Outsourced though isn't it? I think so for NUFC but maybe special deals are negotiated for non NUFC events. The rugby lot would probably want a cut of the takings as well.

No idea if there is any truth in this but someone posted on a Falcons Forum that they had heard that on a normal matchday Saturday at SJP, the average takings for Bar/Food is £90k but for the game last Friday night, it was £500k.

Nothing to do with trying to sell a few more programmes then.

Just seen this on Football365. Tim Sherwood Depending on what you read and who you believe, Sherwood’s got one, two, three, four or five games to save his job (and reputation). Chelsea (a), Swansea (h), Southampton (a), Tottenham (a), Manchester City (h). Ouch.

He would definitely have been considered. It all depends on who is fit and in form at the end of the season. If all the strikers are fit then he would be unlikely to go.

Just seems to be a matter of when. The following is on the Chronicle website today "Concerningly for the Magpies, there is scope for their injury problems to get worse as they monitor an old injury sustained by Elliot last season. With Karl Darlow out injured for another month with an ankle problem, Newcastle are keeping a close eye on Elliot’s thigh after he picked up an injury last December which required surgery. Elliot broke down with the problem again in April, and Newcastle know they are just one more injury setback away from a goalkeeping crisis." http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-set-offered-french-international-10260011

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-under-steve-mcclaren-10258065? One or two interesting observations in this article.

It's no secret though that Krul is a walking serial injury these days. Should have been better prepared for that... unless that preparation was Karl Darlow. Lack of proper investment eventually comes back to haunt you though. Every single aspet of the club has been "that'll do" for so long that it's become accepted. Krul's ok, don't really need to replace him or give him competition so "that'll do". As long as it's not horrendous then it's tolerated, encouraged and accepted. "Just don't finish in the bottom 3" should be the new club motto. f*** them. Yep, they play the margins and this margin was only having one top flight goal keeper on the books. Oh how it has bitten them are the arse yet again. Bingo. Perfectly put. Neglect the squad and pay the price. It saves them money short term but actually puts the club's status in the premier league at risk, costing even more money if we slip out the league. Its f***ing stupid penny pinching in my opinion. We all knew Krul was the only decent keeper on our books. Hey ho. It's no secret though that Krul is a walking serial injury these days. Should have been better prepared for that... unless that preparation was Karl Darlow. Lack of proper investment eventually comes back to haunt you though. Every single aspet of the club has been "that'll do" for so long that it's become accepted. Krul's ok, don't really need to replace him or give him competition so "that'll do". As long as it's not horrendous then it's tolerated, encouraged and accepted. "Just don't finish in the bottom 3" should be the new club motto. f*** them. Yep, they play the margins and this margin was only having one top flight goal keeper on the books. Oh how it has bitten them are the arse yet again. Bingo. Perfectly put. Neglect the squad and pay the price. It saves them money short term but actually puts the club's status in the premier league at risk, costing even more money if we slip out the league. Its f***ing stupid penny pinching in my opinion. We all knew Krul was the only decent keeper on our books. Hey ho. They always think about the balance books short-term and it has always backfired on them yet they still don't learn. They must have lost millions through their inability to either pre-empt or react to a situation.

I can imagine Woodman playing before too long as it doesn't normally take long for Elliot to pick up an injury.

Have we actually won any games when Blob has played?

I heard Stewart Robson (who proved to be so right about Pardew in that ESPN feature when he got our job) say pretty much the same thing.

Some valid points raised about Ashley's NUFC in relation to the rugby. Personally think SJP and the city have been a fabulous experience and have felt the contrast deeply. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/11923359/New-Zealand-vs-Tonga-St-James-Park-wooed-by-All-Blacks.html By Jonathan Liew, St James' Park 11:25PM BST 09 Oct 2015 There was a religious fellow standing outside the stadium before the game, handing out a pamphlet entitled ‘The Ultimate Conversion’. It began with the story of Wales’s famous last-gasp 19-18 win against Scotland in 1971. It continued: “There was another day when people thought it was all over. With their false accusations and persuasion they had managed to get a crowd to cry out: ‘Crucify Him’. And that is exactly what happened.” You might identify a certain evangelical optimism in comparing a game of rugby to the Passion of Christ. And by all accounts, there were very few spectators at Golgotha that day muttering, “Tell you what, this crucifixion reminds me of that John Taylor conversion”. But ever since the World Cup arrived in Newcastle, evangelical optimism has been sweeping through the place like fire. It may not win the Jesmond Parish Church too many new worshippers, but it may yet win over a whole new generation of rugby fans. For against all the odds, this staunchest of football towns has taken the World Cup to heart. The fan zone at Science Central has been one of the best-attended in the country, with 34,000 packed in last weekend and similar numbers expected this. Sufficiently emboldened, Newcastle Falcons are trying to tempt new fans to Kingston Park with special £50 quarter-season tickets. Manchester, with its single meaningless fixture, must be casting envious looks. The jamboree continued into St James’s Park, with 51,000 crammed in to watch this competent if hardly vintage New Zealand victory over Tonga. But then again, for most here the result was a largely tangential concern. What mattered was that this was the All Blacks – the actual All Blacks! – on their turf. They whooped and cheered every score by both sides, held up shaky camera phones for the haka, rose and fell for the Mexican wave. For most, probably, this was just a nice night out. But just maybe, for a curious few, it was the start of something. There were families with young children. Bare-chested Tongan men in full national regalia. New Zealanders in All Blacks tops. New Zealand fans in All Blacks tops. Dinner ladies from Wallsend in All Blacks tops. Yes, it was a jolly and sundry multitude that filed past the statue of Sir Bobby Robson from early evening, filling the Gallowgate and the Milburn Stand of what on any other weekend would be known as the Sports Direct Arena. Not this time. Every single advert for budget sportswear had been excised from the backdrop, and it was hard not to be moved by the contrast. This may be one presumption too far, but perhaps one of the reasons Newcastle has fallen so deeply for this World Cup is the true paucity of sporting fare this city has been served in recent years. Government cuts have pared funding for municipal sport to the bone. The much-loved City swimming pool closed in 2013. Then, of course you have Newcastle United, a great football club slowly being hollowed out from the inside; their fans turning up more out of habit than exhilaration, like spouses trapped in a loveless marriage. Was Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle, watching? This is how you do world-class sport in this city: with enthusiasm and atmosphere, with charm and conviviality, with a smile and not a scowl. And the All Blacks is how you do a world-class sports team: a team with a rich history, a common culture, an unbreakable credo, a shared sense of destiny. And who just happen – to put this in terms Mr Ashley may understand a little better – to be one of the most commercially lucrative sporting outfits on the planet. You may not be a fan of the All Blacks or even like them very much, but at least they stand for something. What do Newcastle United stand for these days? When the World Cup circus finally packs up and leaves the North-East, what will be left? Just a mess to clean up, flags to take down, a husk of a football club to follow. Just a city and a public that may finally realise it deserves better; that may even, in some extreme cases, be susceptible to the ultimate conversion.

I just see Liverpool as some kind of cult. It's like their fans have all undergone some kind of brainwashing. All very weird.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aleksandar-mitrovic-how-newcastle-striker-10207286 He seems a really good character. I also heard Mick Lowes say that Mitovovic is always out on the training ground after others have left. It seems a long time since we have had players willing to put in the extra hours to improve themselves.

Agree with that. He was forever telling all and sundry that we could not compete and so it has come to pass.

Radio saying they think it will be Ancelotti. Apparently their Board is not keen on Klopp.