Lotus

The bank overdraft was at £11.8m at July 2012, with Ashley taking out another £18m by June 2013 plus the January buys i cant see him going the extra mile any time soon tbh. Another summer of 'penny pinching' accusations coming up. I don't understand this all very well, could you highlight the £18m by June bit. It's just all Greek to me unless someone spells it out!

Vermaelen & Koscielny?

I guess my worry is that next season is just an average of the 1st two, so we finish about 10th (ish), the good players leave for better things, we struggle to buy replacements who as influential if not more so. Thing is, i know he's been very unlucky this season, however, i also know that he was very lucky last season. Neither will be the norm. Last year you could see there wasn't the consistent quality of our play to warrant a 5th place but somehow we managed. We did't build on that, we didn't evolve a style, a method. This year we've played better than our league position so it's swung the other way. I don't think he's sure of the philosophy he wants to implement. Actually, that's painfully obvious but 'a thought', just look at it and you can see it. Another thing is, you look at managers who are recognised for their ability, obviously, Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho and then others not quite mentioned in the same breath, Benitez, Redknapp (christ knows why), Moyes, etc. They can instill a bit of awe in their team, a bit of fear. I think Pardew goes for the buddy buddy approach because he knows he can't pull that off because he, as a manager, as his charges. He's never had a squad this good (and it isn't even that good) but he's never managed players of this calibre and if he gets sacked from here he never will again. If he gives that dressing room a fire and brimstone talk they're gonna think, 'f*ck off, pal. You haven't got enough about you to dish that out'. He knows it so he goes about it being Mr Nice, arm around the shoulder, etc. Deep down, i reckon he knows he's a mismatch. If he really believed his talent made him deserve this he'd have got stuck into the bigger players earlier on in the season, shaken them out of the stuper that just seems to envelop everyone before January.

Not really a dribbler as has been said. Given his pace you'd think a run between the FB and CB would be the ideal ball for him to get onto (in our current system). Nice diagonall burst. We don't those though :-(

I hope we go for the jugular right from the off next Sunday. Will be a packed and busy midfield next Sunday imo. Would think quick balls down the line like we did against Soton would work well. Pace of Gouf on one side and maybe Sissoko getting on the end of those would be very useful. Would start to force them to sit back a bit, give players like Marveaux and Cabs more time to pick a pass.

Thing to try and calculate is that Harry alleges that there is no free transfer for Remy if they go down but you'd have to think it's a fairly reasonable price. Thenn there's his signing on fee and then his wages over 5 years. If you add that all up, would it be a lot less than PEA? PEA's transfer would be higher but i would reckon his signing on fee and wage demands maybe a little lower. Anyway, i'd be delighted with either of them. As will every other team in Europe i would think.

Over the moon with the 3 points. Couldn't believe it took us so long to score. That being said, i thought Fulham looked like they were going to score too. We're pretty bad when we lose the ball unexpectantly, from any where on the pitch. That transition, from looking to build an attack to having to defend, we don't do that well. Still, i thought the game looked like a 2-1 to us but happy we managed to keep a clean sheet and Cisse finally managed to nick one. Was surprised at how much time and space Fulham gave us. Still, Berbs isn't the sort to go closing down the backline incessantly.

There's also that controversy when he was taped in a meeting agreeing with keeping the percentage of non-whites in the French academies at or below 30%. Something like that anyway. Given we have HBA, Sissoko, MYM, Marveaux and Obertan in the squad, i'm not sure how that would go down.

Tbf though, i would say that Pardew has had more joy in the transfer windows than Moyes on balance. Maybe Neil can shed some light on this.

Saw us 'coached' by Souness, Roeder, Allardyce, Kinnear and Shearer. Quite happy to keep my penny in my pocket, thanks. Doubt any of them would be doing any worse with the current squad tbh. The only two from that bunch that would do worse is Kinnear and Souness. Doesn't Souness have a better win % with us than Pardew? Think he does, actually.

No Presume Perch is injured and Anita is getting smaller to the point of disappearing altogether. Sort of need Tiote to be back for this.

Sissoko Marveaux Gouf Cisse Would score a few i reckon.

Is Tiote defo out for this?

The thing with stats showing a lot of corners, it shows that the team had attacking intent. You don't win many corners from your own half like.

Benefica-------------------Newcastle Possession 55%-------------------------45% Goal attempts 23----------------------------7 Corners 12----------------------------0 Fouls 8----------------------------15 offside 0-----------------------------3 Bookings 2-----------------------------2

Marveaux is a good player for Cisse.

It will be a close game. We'll be tired, feeling low about the loss last night and nervous about relegation. We've better players than them and hopefully that will show through eventually. It does look like a draw at the mo. If we start well you never know though.

if you weren't such a tub-thumper, I'd be laughing at the hilarity of this post. Dire reading. If you were so obviously naive and lacking in knowledge about what makes a decent manager, I might be taking those comments seriously....as with most of your comments about Pardew, I won't be. Time to get real for you I think.... Where did you get your knowledge about "what makes a decent manager"? I'm more interested in where you got yours.

I don't think we did this deliberately either. I think our problem is we are unable to control posession. We give the ball away a lot. We rarely string more than 5 passes together when in the opposition's half. When another teams presses us we go for an 'over the top ball' very quickly. Would be great if it worked, but it hasn't. Everyone can see we can't hold onto the ball. Pardew knows it, players know it, opposition knows it. Wiss we could address it but it obviously we aren't.

How have his game plans been so far this season, in your opinion? Given that precedent is an indicator for future behaviour.

19 of those came in 5 games against the top two sides and a freak final 20minutes at Arsenal. That's 39 in 26; a bit more reflective of our struggles. So, when you cherry pick out the games where we concede quite a few our defence looks a lot better. Respectable even. Maybe even good! You must be AMAZED we are 15th. Troll.

?? It was an awesome pass to play Sissoko in. He defended ok as well.

Think Simpson can do ok vs Fulham. More worried about Duff vs Santon tbh.

Sissoko looks a better option at RM than Marveaux tbh. Waste a bit of him there i know but you waste a lot more of Marveaux. Sissoko's certainly got the pace for it and can ping a nice low ball in. Played there for France. Not optimal i'll grant but we're struggling to find a good combo in MFbecause of the players missing.