Wallace

I think Giggs taking over is just for the rest of the season.

Could imagine Moyes going to West Ham as they would probably pay the biggest wages out of the rest of the league considering what Allardyce is on.

Ashley take note.

I think if he goes it will be at the end of the season so I am not too concerned at this stage that he is still here. Anyway wasn't Ashley on holiday last week - maybe he is still away.

There are people I know who have been disillusioned but have continued to go to games because they thought their kids still wanted to go. However, their kids are now saying they are bored and don't want to go to games any more so the parents are relieved to be cancelling season tickets. I wonder how extensive this is? And I am starting to wonder, in what would be the most damning indictment of Ashley's tenure, if in 5 years time all the kids will be wesring the shirts of the top 4 teams rather than Newcastle. It is starting to happen but often once you got them to a game they switched to Newcastle. If they end up not going to games that will no longer happen.

I would be amazed if Ashley appointed Pulis. It would mean abandoning everything they have put into place so far. Pulis is too confrontational and would not accept players foisted on him nor the kind that we have been buying (and Pulis' own buying record is not great and he spent loads of money on average players at Stoke). I cannot imagine him to be willing to constantly praise Ashley in public and of course, he would want far too much money. The main thing in his favour is his record of never having had a team relegated which would fit the bill if that is all Ashley wants but other than getting a team organised, he does not have a record of developing young players and selling them on for a profit.

Like the 51k there today? I think it will be next season before we see how many people are staying away. Many with season tickets will continue to turn up this season even if they are renewing and with the cheap tickets, a lot of parents would take their kids in the school holidays.

Anyone hear Pardew's interview on Radio Newcastle? Very subdued and Mick Lowes pushed him on whether he had had any guarantees from Ashley about his job and he said he couldn't or wouldn't talk about it. Wishful thinking maybe - but it kind of sounded that he might be genuinely concerned about losing his job.

Although surely if it was a normally structured loan, it would be reducing over time and this one isn't.

Really good point, Wullie. I think quite a few of our potential targets share the same agent. Either Grenier or Cabella have the same agent as Remy so agents will actually know what is going on behind the scenes rather than what the club tells them. If a player has a number of options, I would expect the agent to recommend those ahead of us. Cabaye did improve but he did say one of the reasons he signed for us was because he was told that the club were aiming for the Champions League and we all now know that is no longer their intent.

I think the game before Hull was Villa away when he was brilliant. I recall Steve Harper saying he had told Bruce how to nullify Ben Arfs's impact in that Hull game and they did it really well. He hasn't really recovered from that game.

"Newcastle are ready to move for Ajax playmaker Siem de Jong if they finish in the Premier League’s top 10. " So if we finish 11th, we won't buy him!

I can't believe that Pardew thought it was a good idea to say that one of the reasons for not playing Ben Arfa was due to the rest of the players not wanting him in the team because they couldn't trust him. Apart from again deflecting the blame away from himself, he is also saying that he is allowing the players to dictate team selection which makes him look weak and it also reflects badly on the players. If he picks Ben Arfa on Saturday, it will be a desperate attempt to keep the fans onside.

Caller to Talksport just mentioned the Elliott story!

That sounds similar to the stories in the press. However, we have so few English pros left of which the only regular first-teamer is Williamson and at least 3 of them will be leaving this Summer anyway.

Now Cabaye has gone, I just don't see who the "leaders" are in the dressing room - apart from Colo obviously as captain (but is he that vocal) and Shola due to longevity (too nice). I wonder whether these dressing room leaks are meant to alienate Ben Arfa further so that the fans start to side with the manager?? How can the players be allowed to dictate who should and shouldn't be playing? However, all it is doing is allowing Ben Arfa to emerge as some kind of "folk hero".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/10764683/Newcastle-supporters-are-sick-of-Alan-Pardews-excuses-and-fan-power-may-force-Mike-Ashley-to-finally-wield-axe.html Newcastle supporters are sick of Alan Pardew's excuses - and fan power may force Mike Ashley to wield axe If St James' Park offers a vocal and prolonged no confidence vote, then Mike Ashley may have to accept a new manager is needed, writes Luke Edwards By Luke Edwards8:46AM BST 14 Apr 2014 Comments5 Comments Newcastle United have supposedly had nothing to play for since accepting they were well short of the European qualification pace, but had more than enough points to stay out relegation trouble. Not anymore. After a dismal run of form moved into abject territory with the 1-0 defeat at Stoke City, Newcastle are playing to keep manager Alan Pardew in a job. The statistics are grim. At times, the performances have been even worse. Poor results are one thing, dull, unimaginative football is even worse. Newcastle have lost 12 of their last 17 games and have failed to score in 12 of those fixtures. They were knocked out of the FA Cup, at home, to Cardiff City in the Third Round and they have done all this while Pardew has offered repetitive excuses about injuries, key players more worried about being fit for the World Cup, bad luck and the sale of Yohan Cabaye to Paris Saint Germain in January. They are all valid, to an extent, but completely ignore his own role in failing to spur them on and the fact he has, for three years, offered excuses and even praise for owner Mike Ashley, despite the persistent offence he has caused. Pardew has moaned about the lack of depth in his first team squad, yet he has also publicly defended the failure to sign any players since January 2013. Pardew has performed the manager's role exactly as the owner wants him to, not the supporters. In keeping one content, he has gradually made the others resent him. The frustration in the stands is boiling over. He is the only member of the Ashley regime that supporters can funnel their anger towards. They can hurt him, they can force him to lose his job, but they cannot force Ashley to sell a club he cannot find a buyer for. Newcastle fans are tired of listening to Pardew trying to explain the team's woes. Anger and resentment has made them deaf, but they are not blind. The Newcastle team is one-paced, lacks motivation, defensive discipline, creativity and is unable to play with anything approaching the sort of passion or style that is needed to win matches. There are limitations in the squad that Pardew has acknowledged and cannot entirely be blamed for, but the team is not trying hard enough - and that is unforgiveable on Tyneside. There is lack of a creative spark, according to Pardew, without Cabaye and the injured Loic Remy, yet he ignores the fact he has fallen out with two players who could add that to the team, Hatem Ben Arfa and Sylvain Marveaux. Even a player he was responsible for signing, Gabriel Obertan, is nowhere to be seen, depriving the team of pace on the counter attack. The players should not escape blame. Some of them have been disgraceful, their lack of appreciation for what it means to play for a club like Newcastle just another punch in the stomach, but as ever it is the manager who carries the can for their actions. He responds by blaming others in the media and, inaccurately, claiming he is without 10 senior players because of injury or suspension. After just over three years of tolerating Pardew, supporters are turning in vast numbers. The Stoke game was the first time the discontent has been expressed at a match, but it has been mounting on social media and among influential fanzine writers for a long time. The home game against Swansea next weekend is a pivotal moment. Pardew needs a win, of course, but if the home support abuse him, if St James' Park offers a vocal and prolonged no confidence vote, then Ashley, even an owner who has never seemed to care what the supporters think or feel, may have to accept a new manager is needed. When fans turn en masse, a manager's position is untenable, because no team can play in such a negative and divisive atmosphere. This is not a knee-jerk response to a slump in form and it is not, as Pardew foolishly argued on Saturday night, because the local newspapers have it in for him because they were banned in the autumn. It has been coming for weeks, if not months. The Newcastle Chronicle may have conducted a poll that revealed 86 per cent of fans wanted Pardew to be sacked last week, but they did not rig it. The Journal may have written he is a "dead man walking" but it was their columnist, one of Pardew's former players at West Ham, Don Hutchinson, who said it. You can trace the Pardew Out chants that emanated from the hard core travelling support on Saturday and the abusive banners unfurled at the Britannia Stadium back to 12 months ago. Newcastle's players also stopped playing for him at the end of last season following a Europa League quarter-final defeat to Benfica. The team were almost relegated as a result. He did well to repair the damage and, at Christmas, the Magpies were talking about a top six finish again.

I am curious about Pardew's Ben Arfa comments the other week when he basically blamed the other players as a reason why he wasn't picking him. Whether that was true or not, surely it is something that you don't publicise. Another reason for the players to turn against him?

I think they were outside the stadium or on the concourse so didn't realise although that prompted some of ours to start calling for them to shut up.

Would have been one of the many "Ashley out" protests but I can't remember when the last one was.

No, just cheating in favour of his favourite team as he always does. Scandalous he's allowed to ref their games. Newcastle fan isn't he? Yep, and why he never refs us. He's not allowed to as a Newcastle fan. Hypothetical...if we had games that meant anything, would he be allowed to ref games that affect our games? I think referees have to declare any club allegiances they have and are not allowed to referee competitive games that involves that team. Clattenberg did do Shearer's testimonial though. Michael Oliver also supports us so he can't referee our games either.

Fans were also singing yesterday "Ben Arfa - it's always his fault". He is definitely seen as Pardew's scapegoat.

I wonder if Jonas leaving has had an effect. The club seemed to handle it badly as usual and Jonas seemed to be upset by the way things panned out. That's not to say the decision to move him on was wrong but the club are pretty ruthless when they want rid and Jonas had been a good servant to the club. Colo should be above that but when you think a work colleague is being treated unfairly, it can create conflict behind the scenes.

I think chanting for Ben Arfa is just another way to have a go at Pardew. I just wish he could come on and do something great but he looks woefully shot of confidence and he picked up an injury almost straightaway yesterday.

Just a thought but I wonder whether than boycotting the game, it would be an idea to turn up and protest to keep the heat on Pardew - whether inside or outside the ground. If all the discontented supporters stay away and there aren't any anti-Pardew banners, he will spin it as only a minority of supporters who are not happy. Many of those left going to games are pretty apathetic and it will take a lot to raise them from their slumber.