Wallace

Doesn't Richards gets a lot of injuries?

The thing with Shepherd is that the accounts did look bad but it is all hypothetical now. Who knows what would have happened if Ashley hadn't bought us - maybe a better owner, maybe Shepherd would have found additional investment.... We will never know. Ashley has just found different ways to damage NUFC but we have a much greater debt now which he seems to have no intention of reducing with the free advertising is in lieu of interest charges.

Steve Howey is a Sunderland Season Ticket Holder though. Is he really? Didn't know that. I know his brother was/is. yes, he takes his young un. Sometimes he is on Total Sport doing the Sunderland bit. He has said in the past that he does Newcastle on TS as an ex player and does Sunderland on TS as a fan. Heard him on national radio once correcting the presenter when they said he was a Newcastle fan and he made a point of saying he was a Sunderland fan.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/apr/10/atletico-madrid-fans-champions-league From a Sid Lowe article about Atletico Madrid: The Atlético manager smiled. "I like your question," he replied. "We can envy other teams' economic power but when it comes to competing we don't envy anyone anywhere." If only we had that attitude.

I hear a lot of hostility towards Pardew at games these days - home and away. Infact, I only know of one person who has some sympathy for him but still doesn't like him very much. I think the crowd is on the verge of becoming a lot more vocal and it is more likely to happen at an away game where the fans are more vocal than at home. The anger and resentment is definitely festering especially at the away games. I wonder how he will get to his seat at Stoke. The players and coaches have to walk past the away fans to get back to the dressing room so would Pardew be allowed to take that route to and from his seat in the stand?

It is just that basically we hate everyone, but love Newcastle TO do with the miners' strikes and them crossing the pickets, is it not? Don't think so as that chant was around in the early 70s and before their successful period. Could simply be because it is a good "fit" for the first line and the other teams mentioned would often change depending on which club's fans were singing it.

Derby as well. Always in favour of southern teams being relegated and northern/midlands teams promoted so away days are nearer to home.

Wonder if Pardew has had a go at Colo for his recent mistakes that have lead to goals?

I wonder if he will continue to refuse to do any press now? Will his former position as Football Secretary be filled?

No offence, but this combined with the request for Ashley's email address suggests you are pretty naive. If Ashley was worried about Pardew getting us relegated he'd have sacked him last summer, when Pardew nearly got us relegated. Supposedly it was Llambias who persuaded Ashley to give Pardew another chance as Ashley was ready to sack him at the end of last season. He hasn't got that support any more so could he be more vulnerable than previously? And if it comes down to money then Pardew is losing Ashley money at the moment. No TV games for the longest period I can ever recall because we are now so uninteresting with nothing to play for and boring to watch as well, the cancellation of season tickets, the decrease in the value of our players. If our best players have had enough and want to leave, Ashley is going to have to replace them and if he decides to take a risk then he will end up panic-buying in January and may well have sacked Pardew by then. Better to do it sooner rather than later. Well I can live in hope.

You see the players coming out with the same excuses as Pardew. His negativity obviously has an impact on the players because they are going into games believing it is going to be really tough for them because Pardew gets his excuses out before the games.

Really good caller on Total Sport now putting together a well-thought out and coherent argument (with the stats to back it up) about Pardew's failings. Anyone on here?

I think the club should start selling half-season tickets for the first half of the season as the second half is a waste of time as far as NUFC are concerned.

I kind of get the feeling that Pardew is deliberately setting up some of the French players to fail in order to try and achieve his aim of more English players. Supposedly with Taylor leaving in the Summer and now the possibility of MYM and Colo also going, it looks like we are going to need 3 CBs unless they give a couple of the youngsters a chance. It is all well and good saying they are going to get x amount of players, but we struggle to get one player over the line and are reluctant to pay the going rate. Other clubs are going to see how desperate we are and no doubt will push for higher fees (especially with all that TV money). The recent inactivity in the transfer market is going to cause them some huge problems in the Summer. They should never have allowed themselves to get into this position.

I can see all of our best players wanting to leave and the ones we are trying to shift, still here next year. I wonder if the club are anticipating the likes of Debuchy, Krul, Tiote and Colo leaving. They have enough players to sign to fill in the gaps as it is without having to replace the likes of Debuchy and Krul. We could be looking at more or less an entire new team - 2 strikers, 2 CBs, 2 right backs, creative midfielders, a goalkeeper before addressing the other gaps in the squad.

We all have legitimate angst with Ashley and the numerous diabolical mistakes he has made and will continue to make. But we shouldn't allow high level criticisms about what we should do, or should have done, in terms of strategy/vision to mask what we actually currently have today. E.g. yes, the abysmal transfer windows could have been infinitely better, and yes we should be aiming for much more than what we appear to be settling for, and yes we should be treating the club like a Harrods or Selfridges as opposed to a Poundland, but when you look at what we do have right now as opposed to what we don't, I think we have a pretty decent squad from which a good manager could form a solid footballing side. Other managers are getting alot more out of lesser of equivalent squads imo, when you watch their teams you can see visible evidence of how their players are coached into passing, moving, creating, and defending as a team - why should Pardew be excused because Ashley didn't give him a couple of £20m players to ruin or paper over the cracks? I agree and it is an easy get-out for Pardew to hide behind Ashley's shortcomings. He may not get the players he wants and may be asked questions about the club that he shouldn't have to because no-one in the boardroom will speak but he is pretty much left to get on with the job of managing a talented pool of players and he is failing massively in that task. He is not developing them and there is no cohesive style of play. He pins all his hopes on 2 or 3 star players and there is no Plan B when they are not available. Other managers will have the team playing in a certain way so when they lose a player another one is able to step in. When that happens to us, the wheels come off in a big way. He put all his effort in to trying to keep Ba happy and in the process alienated Cisse who has never recovered. He obviously relied heavily on Cabaye and the journalists often said that he "managed" the French players and it would now appears that was probably true because their attitude and performances have been woeful since. He has now pinned all his hopes on Remy who everyone knows will not be here next season. All of these failings are down to Pardew and not Ashley.

I expect in his pre-match interviews, he will again be saying how there has been an overreaction to one game - conveniently overlooking the fact it is not an isolated example.

Maybe Remy and Debuchy will help get a result from somewhere but I could see us losing every game from now on even the supposed home bankers against Swansea (starting to play well again) and Cardiff (have some attitude and may already be down so could play with some freedom especially knowing they have already beaten us at home this season). I think we will finish 10th at best but there is a good chance, we could drop below that. Often the teams that have a really poor second half of the season continue that form into the next season as well. I am just hoping that Pardew is reading too much into Ashley's reappearances at the matches and he is lulling him into a false sense of security and come the day after the Liverpool match, he will get his marching orders.

I hate how they always have to be better than everyone else or to have suffered more. Apparently, they are now The Entertainers and better at it than we were!! Why not just enjoy it instead of trying to prove you are better than another team from a different era.

I was saying this same thing to my neighbour yesterday and he agreed and started getting really angry ,jacked his season ticket after the last renewal and said would never go back till Ashley is gone ,team rebuild in summer ffs half will jump ship and rest not good enough .Imho relegation a definite sadly :'( I look at this 'team' and it's not been built to stay together. It's a shop window to advertise goods, they leave and the next goods go on display. That's all we are these days. We have attracted those kind of players as well just like the last regime attracted players looking for their last payday living off former glories. I kind of agree with that but where this "plan" falls down is that the players are supposed to improve and thereby increase in value. With the exception of Cabaye that is not happening and at best there will only be a modest profit. Ben Arfa was supposed to be the "crown jewels" but they will be lucky to get their money back on him now. And with Pardew making it clear we want rid, any buying club knows they can drive the price down.

Sure the Man Utd fan interviewed about their banner this week said it cost about £800.

I wonder whether Ashley watches each game or just relies on feedback from personnel within the club and Pardew's self-promoting soundbites in the media about what a good job he is doing. Surely having seen for himself the last 4 games (and even the Palace result was lucky really), he must be alarmed and starting to ask questions of Pardew. Where I sit in the Gallowgate and at away games, I hear very little support for Pardew but unfortunately, it hasn't really come across vocally as yet but I think that could be about to change. The players were loudly derided and booed off at the end of the game yesterday and I think if Pardew had been visible, he would probably have had a lot of abuse directed at him. If he stays, you can already hear the excuse for next season - too difficult to blend in so many new players. Every team above us is miles ahead of us in every way as a football club, team etc. Other teams behind us are better in lots of ways but may not have the players we have (who should definitely be performing better than they are currently). We are 6 points ahead of Stoke who could only be 3 points behind us by the time we play them. I think West Ham are just a little too far off to catch us. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see West Ham ditch Allardyce this Summer and buy a few players and then they may well be a top 10 team. If Ashley really expects top 10 as a bare minimum and he doesn't remove Pardew, then I think we will find ourselves battling relegation next season. Potential signings and agents will know what our players think of the set-up at SJP and their opinions of the manager and coaching staff. Lots of other clubs are now looking in the same markets as we do and why (along with our publicly stated lack of intention to try and win anything) should we be seen as a more attractive option that other clubs.

I heard pretty much the same a couple of weeks ago - that he had stormed out when he found out that we was not playing against Villa and had gone AWOL and there had been no injury.

http://keithrnufc.wix.com/internetpresentation/apps/blog/systematic

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2589313/Platinis-secret-plan-alienate-England-faithful-plot-change-way-YOU-watch-football-doesnt-care.html According to that article, they are talking about playing all international football (all confederations and all tournaments) in two blocks: Nov/Dec and June/July. That would leave domestic football to played during the rest of the year but without any internationals breaks.