robbo_11

We've probably deserved to go down bar a spell of around 6 games before the Christmas period. Today highlights what a poor team we are and the fact we now rely on Hull City not being able to get anything from Man Utd to remain in the league is shambolic. It stems from the top with an owner disinterested in ambition, a chief executive who has zero idea about how to run a football team, a head coach who got this role because he is a Geordie with passion/self acclaimed best in the league/already at the club so costs very little and players who are simply not good enough. We've just lost to a side beaten 6-0 the previous week and already relegated with the opportunity to confirm safety today gone. I'm sure Aaron's is a good player, but to put him on after months of injuries is unlikely going to lead to a big impact. Its the same for Cisse and De Jong, maybe a fluke goal if they come on late, but we rarely create many chances. Sammy Ameobi is better off going to another league, simply not good enough and that attempt at a cross that ballooned away was awful. The winning goal was a cracker from Fer, but a non tackle from Ryan Taylor and poor clearance from Krul leads to it. There needs to be a massive clear out and rebuild, whether thats in the Championship or Premier League is likely to rest with Hull City. This team doesn't care one bit!

I'm sure Fletcher pulled that defender over. Definitely going down.

Saturday 2nd May "Let me take the flak, leave the players alone"...Saturday 25th April "some of these players are not good enough" Carver man!

Carver is clueless. Asked what he saw in that game to try and change things he starts talking about using players experience, going with a second striker and admits some of them are not good enough. At least he realised some of the players are not good enough with a non performance from Gouffran again. When Ameobi and Obertan are your game changes that says everything! In all honesty some of the players with experience have let us down - Coloccini at Everton and Sissoko at Liverpool. The bench with the likes of Armstrong, Woodman, Sterry, Kemen, Satka and Robert's in recent games are not going to change things and he said in previous games he didn't want to stall their development. A poor game and disappointing that some fans are outside protesting and then still go to the game. I'm fine with people still going because that's their decision, however to complain about the situation and still go doesn't make sense. We are a club in trouble.

Dec 96 home game against Metz which we won 2-0 thanks to Asprilla then followed that up in the January against Nottingham Forest...a 2-1 Ian Woan inspired defeat. Ironically cup competitions!

I had lost interest with the team in recent games, but with it being the derby game I got some excitement for football. That 90 minutes has just killed it. John Carver used to go to my old high school and I remember the staff used to always mention him as a favourite old boy. If I ever turn out like him it will be doing a disservice to the school. He looks overawed by the opportunity and surely should be no where near contention for the role. The players lacked effort, it was a game with zero effort and bypassed so many. Gutierrez worked hard and showed for the ball which is more than what most of his team mates did. Janmaat played fairly well, but again he didn't really impact the game. The goal from Defoe was a cracker, its been a good weekend for the Premier League. We aren't safe either, the players we have at our current disposal have shown nothing to suggest we are above getting sucked into the bottom of the league. We actually made Sunderland look an average team as well just from being able to play with some passion and string two passes together.

Transfer question "Thankfully I've got nothing to do with that..."

Sissoko is a good player, often deployed as a driving force with pace and speed. This season he seems to have become more noticeable, however 2 goals and 1 assist is not great for a midfielder I didn't realise that was his contribution. I'm not really surprised that he will talk himself up to other teams because from the very top at Newcastle we are looking to sell players at their premium. The days of someone signing for us (under this management) because they want to win trophies, love the area or the club are gone. The statement by Charnley and appointment of Carver pretty much confirms that we are happy to settle for a comfortable finish in the Premier League and nothing in the cup competitions. I can't really blame Moussa because we are a good stepping stone club once you've hit a good level of form to a bigger team. Cabaye, Remy and Debuchy in recent times have moved on to a bigger team because I guess we are a way to becoming noticed. I'd guess a bid of around £12m+ may get him as we paid around £1.8m when he signed and thats a decent profit margin win... It's sad and returning from Brazil to see the Southampton game was painful. The crowd had nothing about them and a large part of that is down to the stewardship of the club. I was at the game with a director from a Brazilian club and was telling him that Sissoko was probably our best player and that he should support Newcastle as his English team...basically ruined his life.

I feel your pain bro. Every time I'm back in Brazil playing I get p*ssed, because if people were honest it would be a great thing,b ut people aren't when they're playing so it just screws the whole game. It's all about adapting though. As for the before. Some teams in Brazil are horrible to watch, actually most teams are. It's been a lot of exactly what you said. There are some teams around that play great football though, take a look at Cruzeiro. They're rather fun to watch as they have some good players same goes for Sao Paulo. Corinthians, Atletico, Internacional are mostly boring teams to watch although Corinthians is a well organized team. Hope you enjoyed your game, atmosphere must've been awesome given Green Hell? Also Ceni scored once again yesterday from the spot, harsh on Gremio who apparently were the better team and looking at highlights should've had 2-3 goals. We play against the Coxa coaches who are decent, but I understand now why the kids I'm teaching call for everything. We've lost once since we've been here and they don't really like that, but it boils down to being organised as a team and a quick counter attack. Still when your going to be one v one its a nightmare when someone cheats. Atmosphere was really good, not quite as I expected, but still more intense than back home. Coritiba won with a wonder goal and the crowd went nuts. They really do hate each other though! Sao Paulo and Cruzeiro have to be the two best teams here by a long way, watching them on TV they just dominate the games. I've got a bit of time left so I'll try and see them live. http://i60.tinypic.com/ouzeqe.jpg

I'm going to Coritiba v Atletico PR tomorrow. A local derby, will be interesting to see how it is. Coxa have been really poor this season and Atletico are not as good as they were last season. Generally I haven't been overly impressed by the standard of football in the Serie A. I've saw Internacional, Corinthians, Santos and a few other teams this season against the local teams here. Granted they could have had poor days, but the game have been drawn out by petty fouls, long balls and poor passing. There are still moments of brilliance, just not as much as I expected before I arrived in Brasil. PS its a nightmare to play here. The game gets stopped for "fouls" that are called by the opposition which means the games are very stop start. They also have a tendency to purposefully handle the ball to give a free kick away if it prevents a one on one situation. Madness!

I would like to see a game. We drove about 3am outside River Plates stadium just to see it and flew over it in the plane. I had heard about the team and I'd like to see more of the city. Unfortunately/fortunately I have quite a lot to do in Curitiba with football coaching until I leave in December. I will try my best, which team do you recommend? I do miss the World Cup and the atmosphere the stadium had!

Some World Cup games from Arena da Baixada. http://i57.tinypic.com/3581mdf.jpg http://i62.tinypic.com/2sbsi2h.jpg http://i61.tinypic.com/i3hswg.jpg Coritiba Couto Perreira Stadium http://i57.tinypic.com/23hnejq.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/qzgqkh.jpg

I was in Montevideo last week and went to watch Penarol in the stadium used for the 1930 World Cup final. Class experience! Came back via Buenos Aires but only had a night so didn't do any stadiums. http://i62.tinypic.com/9iwdv4.jpg The Arena da Baixada is pretty cool here in Curitiba as well, just lacks a bit of colour!

Coming to Brazil has been a blessing to get away from the Newcastle news. Needed a striker and two players left instead. Typical!

Watched Coritiba win 2-0 in the Copa do Brasil last week. Stadium is currently being refurbished with a new seating area. It is quite surreal as was sitting with the injured or unused first team players including Alex who is a bit of a legend here. Also visited the training ground of Atletico PR where Spain will be based and it is very impressive. Adriano has been released last week (his kg was around 90, which was above what they had set for him) and met a few of the first team players/manager on a walk around. Just booked up to be in Rio for the World Cup final weekend as well!

I've been in Curitiba for nearly two weeks now. Witnessed my first game in Brazil last night when Parana Clube beat Sao Bernardo 3-1. Action packed including a red card and racism from some supporters. I start my projects soon, you wouldn't think the World Cup was going to be here soon since there is very little about it on the streets.

That was my last match before I go to Brazil and wish I hadn't bothered going to see it. To be fair to Everton they were much better than us, clinical and caught us on the counter attack. I think it quite disappointing that we lack any creativity as a team or idea's from players. Much of the game was us passing the ball left to right and Everton just waited for a poor pass to intercept. For the first goal it reminded me on the Anichebe one when they won 2-1 last season as Anita had the decision to make and close down or leave a simple pass for Lukaku. Unfortunately Collocini slipped and that left a huge space for Barkley to run into. I suppose Mbiwa could have made sure that we wouldn't be left exposed by either winning the ball or giving a freekick away. Dummett is a limited player and often resorts to a long ball hoping that one of the attackers is near to where it will land. Deulofeu had the beating of him pretty much every time he ran at him and if it wasn't pace, it was to out skill him. Gouffran did try and support him by tracking back, but its hard to see if it is his natural game. He struggled to take players on and often looked for the easy pass. He did have a cracking volley that just went over. De Jong I'm not impressed with, but suppose he is adapting to the league. He wants to take that extra touch or a bit more time on the ball when he won't get it. He would turn into defenders and he doesn't work well with Cisse. They were either right next to each other or would leave the ball thinking the other would go for it. I thought Cisse had a decent game, tried to create chances and was good on the ball considering he was the only outlet for most of the game. Sissoko seems to get a hard time on here, but if its not relying on Ben Arfa then the only option we have is for him to run with the ball and use his strength to beat 2, 3 or 4 players. Quite staggering to watch him surrounded by 4 Everton players as there was no support from our team before the ball went out for a throw in. Anita should have scored after some lovely skill by Ben Arfa and at 78 minutes it would have been an excellent lift. He is a very tidy player, keeps it simple and did some great link up play in the first half. I didn't really notice Tiote, but he at least showed for the ball. I'm glad I have the distraction of the World Cup this summer because watching last night there is a mammoth task to rebuild the squad ahead of next season.

Sounds like you have an excellent plan. Managed to get my hand on more tickets now for the games in Salvador. Whole family and couple friends going to every game now that will be played there. Can't wait. I've got to make the most of it so going to try everything whilst doing to teaching. I'm jealous about Salvador as all the guys I've met have said to try and get there if I can. Sounds like will be mint experience. I'm going to pay a visit to the training ground of Atletico PR as well where the Spain team are based for the WC. They seem to develop a few players (Nathan has been linked to Man City) and is highly regarded for facilities!

It looks like I'm going to arrive in Curitiba in April to stay until December as visa is taking ages. I managed to get tickets for all the games in the city so it was huge relief that they are confirmed and hopefully the stadium gets finished. I will spend some time in Rio in May then a week in Belo Horizonte in August. Plan is to find a few weekends when not busy to visit Florianopolis, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo and see some friends. Since deciding to go been following the Brazilian league/football and there is quite a few decent guys on Twitter who've got good knowledge. Vickery was one of the first I noticed for columns.

I saw him speak at an event a few months ago. He went to U20 World Cup in the summer and decided to represent England, but he came back and suffered an ankle injury. This stopped him going on loan and then Pardew decided he should stay rather than go out. I'm not sure why he didn't go out in January. He is extremely religious, so much so that so players use the term "freak" but respect his beliefs. There is a lot of religious players at the club so he likes the environment. Interestingly Obertan would speak with him a lot as he was frustrated at not playing, but then after speaking to Bigi he began to enjoy coming back to training and realised that it was out of his hands for selection. Coventry offered him a one year professional deal instead of three years initially which he rejected, then Man City became interested so they offered him a three year deal. A youth coach from Coventry joined Newcastle and told the club about him then we signed him. The story about him asking for a trial at Coventry, being told to go then called back after they saw him running home was true. He supports Arsenal and the hardest opponent he faced in Premier League was Scholes.

Great to hear about you having the same faith as me in terms of tickets. It's all group games being played in Curitiba I suppose? Hope Iran doesn't disappoint us. As for the relegation decider, it was just unbelievably stupid organized. Like you said, no police inside, and only three security stewards in each side of the Vasco fans? Atletico PR were also playing a crucial game for Libertadores football. Aye I just think its the World Cup in Brazil, if I'm watching Iran - Nigeria I'm still there and there could be some mint games. All group games in Curitiba so it was going to be quite open. I will also have Spain based in Curitiba so might be able to watch some of the training if its relatively open as will be doing work at the same training ground with Atletico PR. I'm looking forward to going to some local games as well, completely different atmosphere to enjoy. One of my friends is from Belo and he was asking about England fans as they play a game there. Its really hard because you get the regular fan to enjoy a game then you get idiots who go to games as well. I hope they manage to support the team without any incidents!

I managed to get tickets for the four games in Curitiba so I'll have the pleasure of watching Iran v Nigeria, Australia v Spain, Algeria v Russia and Honduras v Ecuador. I'm really looking forward to it, so hopefully they manage to get the stadium finished by February. I'll be out in Brazil from January so will have the chance to go to local games featuring Parana, Atletico PR and Coritiba. I did see the violence, but speaking to some people in Brazil it seems like a culmination of different factors. Limited/no police inside the stadium in a relegation decider might just about do it like!

I was always going to be in Brazil from January, just need to see which city England will be in. I kind of hope they aren't in Curitiba which is where I will live, but with them qualifying for the tournament now there is a lot more interest here in what we will be doing. Internal flights during the World Cup will cost a fortune I think and the tourist office seem over the moon England fans are coming to pump extra cash in!

Gosling in Tynemouth about an hour ago.

If we have to shift 4 or 5 of them to get money in...clueless man