Tsunami

I was in The Clock on Saturday and they've been told they can't open before 10am (may even have been 10.30).

Nowt wrong at all, given that the players haven't turned up the last few times I hope they've seen it as well. We have to start well and quiet the crowd, last season especially their fans made a hell of a difference. I know a lad who has a ST there and their usual atmosphere is as poor as ours (he sometimes comes to our games) but it was jump in last year. It's a shame we're now up in the rafters.

I can see him wanting to go, he's already mentioned Spurs interest before the season started and it sounded like an invitation to try again. I'll be gutted if he goes, he's a star in the making and we'll under sell him.

Fwiw I wouldn't want Colback in the side but he's the best option we currently have for the way we need to play. Any defence of him is based on posters expecting him to be able to do things which we all knew he couldn't before we signed him. That disappointment is down to the club's transfer policy and not Colback's abilities. He should have been a squad player but is in the side purely down to the club ignoring the team's needs. The money spent on Thauvin would have been much better spent on a better holding player.

We haven't replaced Cabaye, labelling Colback as his replacement is complete bollocks. If that's how he's being judged he should pack it all in now. I've said before that he shouldn't be judged by the general ineptitude of our transfer policy. Colback is doing to Tiote role and Tiote just happened to have Cabaye to give it to. Neither Wijnaldum or Sissoko make themselves as readily available as Cabaye did. If you had your pick of players to put there who would you choose? Teams need balance, even when we were good/ better than now we had the likes of Batty and Butt playing that role. We don't keep the ball well enough not to have someone playing a really boring holding position. I'll say again he's bang average but he's doing what he's been told to do.

Seriously, comparing him to Cabaye. I forgot he was his replacement.

'Unrealistic' to expect our starting midfielder to not be s**** at football. Great post. Very insightful.

He does break things up and he does protect the back four where there'd otherwise be space. It's not glamorous and it's certainly not eye catching but it is functional. He doesn't get slack for being a local lad and if he's being judged on goals and assists he's got no chance. He's playing a position where the effectiveness isn't always obvious, the opposition will try and find attacking areas to nullify his position. On Sunday we were far too narrow again and the wide areas were vulnerable. With all the will in the world he can't protect those areas. He's not great but there's some unrealistic expectations of him.

I thought he was awful yesterday- we were charging forward looking to rip Norwich a new one, ball comes to him. everything stops and goes backwards. When we're bombing forward Colback shouldn't be involved full stop. I can't really remember him getting the ball in an offensive position, there were times when he got it defensively and slowed down any quick break but, that's the price to pay for his limitations, doesn't make him awful when he's no doubt been told to simply pass the ball on. I'm not pretending he's anything other than average but some need to understand he's being asked to play a certain way for the team. He'd get hauled off if he started straying out of position or tried spraying 50 yard passes and booted the ball into touch trying to do so.

I really struggle to understand the constant criticism of Colback on here. We all know his limitations and we all know the limitations of the side as a whole. He cost nowt, it's not his fault we havent bought a better player for the defensive role he's playing and there's little doubt that he's following the manager's instructions. He did OK yesterday, certainly better than Tiote. If he could pick a pass, dictate play and he a goal threat, he wouldn't be playing the defensive role he is for us or he'd be playing it for a better team than us. Tiote has a long long way to go before he can be considered as a reliable option, Anita isn't up to the role (expect the usual Anita defending posts) and we are pretty much left with Colback. I'd have liked to have seen Abeid get another chance, that was a very strange sale.

Good going forward, woeful defensively, didn't track his man for their first and he knew it.

Foul for me, he's turned his backed and jumped into the keeper, he wasn't going for the ball.

He's having a shitter at sociedad as well mind. I don't think he's suited to managing abroad.

If Moyes goes to Villa I'll feel we've missed an opportunity. He's a bit dour but he seems to be able to motivate average sides, he was awful at Man U but he had an average Everton team, with little money, consistently getting results.

He's my step son's God Father (though he probably doesn't remember as we never see him and when we did he didn't recognise him) but he's a just a canny lad, he's not the brightest and he's doing what he needs to make his money. His We knew his brother Ronnie better, Ronnie travelled all over to see him play and loved it. He gets grief for seemingly to support Ashley but he's just looking after himself. The bloke was a fantastic player and loves the club, nowt wrong with that.

Went to my old school in its old guise as Washington Grammer

But not for folk it's infecting, his face looks a bit pussy as well.

You're right like, I previously thought he was doing a reasonable job at keeping things calm despite the poor results but now it looks like he might actually be broken already. Think he's a manager of limited ability who could probably do a half decent job in a well run, professional setup but has seriously underestimated the scale of the clusterfuck he was walking into. He's not a manager, he's a coach and always has been. As a manager he's as aspiring as Ghonorrhoea. He turned the job down at least once and it's reasonable to assume he did so as he knew he wouldn't succeed, he clearly didn't think he could do better than Carver in keeping us up. Yet, unbelievably, we went back to him again when he got sacked for failing to inspire a faltering Derby side. Charnley and Carr have a lot to answer for. McClaren is making Pardew look like a genius by comparison. You'd struggle to make it up.

Open Top Bus Parade, Newcastle hit 40 points, get the ticker tape ready. The man is a clown, this really is a case of you should celebrate just surviving 'coz that's your lot. How on earth was a decision made to believe that this idiot was the man to win something for Ashley. Lies upon lies, it's depressing stuff.

Og?

And then I decided to find a better seat http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/nufcstu/B18B3FA6-8352-409D-BC08-1A9057FCDADE_zpsrezvxsti.jpg

From Row W in the away end last night. http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/nufcstu/F1533E36-845A-4B7F-B917-951C634BC05C_zpswfczgtn8.jpg

I used that van to move my stuff out of my old flat. Sure it was the same one?

We need a motivator, no thanks.

Advocaat