quayside

Didn't need it.

Didn't think we were negative today, which was good to see. We maintained an attacking threat right to the end. WBA are a decent side and we deserved that win.

Timing, he forced a move mid season. Sure he gave us years of good service but the club had certainly played a part in helping him make his reputation. That was his last real chance of a big move though. None of the other clubs needed him, City had the money and were in the opening stages of where they are now. If they'd not signed Given that January, they'd have either just signed someone else or wait until the January until they were in a position to sign someone better. If he'd cracked on for another 4 months and played to form (such as that horrendous 1-5, never forgotten) he'd have had no problems getting a lucrative move. I'll be honest here - I think player loyalty is a concept that went out the window years ago. I know why it happens and I have some sympathy with players that work the system, but I'll never think too fondly of them. Who to though? The other top clubs in this country were sorted in goal, and Man City would have bought someone better in the summer when they had more time and availability to sign someone. He went to City as a squad player, and then to Villa as a squad player....The clubs he went to had better options. He chased the pound, fair enough, you only get one go at it. I just think he could have handled his exit better and still have got what he wanted. He didn't go to either of those clubs as a squad player Fair enough. He went to City as first choice, my bad. I repeat the final sentence of my post above....

Timing, he forced a move mid season. Sure he gave us years of good service but the club had certainly played a part in helping him make his reputation. That was his last real chance of a big move though. None of the other clubs needed him, City had the money and were in the opening stages of where they are now. If they'd not signed Given that January, they'd have either just signed someone else or wait until the January until they were in a position to sign someone better. If he'd cracked on for another 4 months and played to form (such as that horrendous 1-5, never forgotten) he'd have had no problems getting a lucrative move. I'll be honest here - I think player loyalty is a concept that went out the window years ago. I know why it happens and I have some sympathy with players that work the system, but I'll never think too fondly of them. Who to though? The other top clubs in this country were sorted in goal, and Man City would have bought someone better in the summer when they had more time and availability to sign someone. He went to City as a squad player, and then to Villa as a squad player....The clubs he went to had better options. He chased the pound, fair enough, you only get one go at it. I just think he could have handled his exit better and still have got what he wanted.

Timing, he forced a move mid season. Sure he gave us years of good service but the club had certainly played a part in helping him make his reputation. That was his last real chance of a big move though. None of the other clubs needed him, City had the money and were in the opening stages of where they are now. If they'd not signed Given that January, they'd have either just signed someone else or wait until the January until they were in a position to sign someone better. If he'd cracked on for another 4 months and played to form (such as that horrendous 1-5, never forgotten) he'd have had no problems getting a lucrative move. I'll be honest here - I think player loyalty is a concept that went out the window years ago. I know why it happens and I have some sympathy with players that work the system, but I'll never think too fondly of them.

Timing, he forced a move mid season. Sure he gave us years of good service but the club had certainly played a part in helping him make his reputation.

Yep. Ruined his reputation at the only club who'll give a f*** about him once he hangs up his gloves. I have more respect for Harper and I'm fully aware of the flaws in that argument.

I don't see what he's said wrong there and anyway I don't think there's any point going through this all over again. I was only joking. So was polic.

How come? Cardiff second half/Liverpool second half/Chelsea first half/Spurs second half/Norwich second half? 3 goals conceded and only dropped points against Liverpool with 10 men. That's a fair return really so i wouldn't say we aren't very good at it. I don't think we're very good at it, and thats based on watching us do it. Against any side there are going to be chunks of the match when we don't have the ball. We are at our best when we press the other side and don't just sit there and watch them. We invite teams back into games that we should win convincingly, we especially seem to do it against the less than stellar sides in the league. And we do not look bullet prooof when we do it. Did the same last season on a number of occasions (Reading at home was a horrible example).

Now there's a question. Opinion is divided on the subject and if you have a browse through the last few pages of the Alan Pardew thread you'll get some idea of the views of the different factions. I think its a combination of some decent attacking football, some excellent defending and a slice of luck. Although as far as luck goes we've not had anything close to what Chelsea got against you lot at Stamford Bridge. In a lot of our matches we seem to play well for 45 minutes, more often the first rather than the second half. We can be good enough to hurt any side but go to crap if we have a lead. We sit back and invite pressure and we aren't very good at doing that.

Shola showed why he deserved to start today and why Pardew was right. I wanted him dropped for hba today but credit to Shola, thought he was excellent! 4-4-2 is really suiting us and shola is playing his part. I'm happy for shola to start now next week, he has proven himself after today that he is effective in our side atm! Wasn't my point. I bolded the words "everyone happy" and I don't think everyone is happy . Shola was fantastic in the first half, a really great performance.

Somewhere between the two.

The flat 4-4-2 with Shola was fine in the first half, we created plenty of chances. Had some bad moments defensively mind. The problem in the second half wasn't the formation, it was that we stopped pressing, sat deep and invited pressure. I don't hate Pardew but I get totally pissed off when we get a lead and do this. Its ridiculous, has cost us points and we show no signs of changing it.

At the end of the day our captain shouldn't be someone who consistently talks about leaving the club. Give it to someone who wouldn't dream of leaving... like Cabaye. We all know there's only 1 man at the club who will never leave us. He's paid his dues. It's time to pass him the armband. You must be referring to the man who has been our "false number 9" for the last 13 years.

And vice versa Aye probably, I'd personally just try to have a laugh and hope for the best in terms of finances. That's not a joke. And you are right. Nothing would ever get launched if there was too much focus on finances. Most of the business ideas that end up working making no sense financially at the inception stage.

Yes agree that brand awareness is exactly what is being attempted. Your second paragraph and especially the last sentence is where our views will differ. I don't think that the SD exposure through NUFC will have made any difference to where SD is right now - and I'm very much in a minority.

You're wrong. Fine. You don't often get to change people's opinions on internet forums. It's my opinion and I have tried to explain it, can't do much more. I'm just totally baffled by it tbh, you're even drawing a distinction between what he's done to SJP and TV advertising, it is TV advertising. I tried to explain that in my response to Polic above.

And vice versa

You're wrong. Fine. You don't often get to change people's opinions on internet forums. It's my opinion and I have tried to explain it, can't do much more.

I find it amusing that you mocked my point about TV advertising when a 10 year old could have seen the point I was I was trying to make then. Why does he bother with TV advertising if the reason for SD's success is having a monopoly of the market and "that's it really". It's quite expensive, he could be saving himself a lot of money by not bothering. I'm not sure if you're just doing this because you've dug a hole or you generally believe marketing isn't all it's cracked up to be unless you're a start-up brand or have a specific offer to plug. Ok I'll come back to that and I do apologise for the mocking, I was in receipt of a fair amount of mocking at the time (probably more to come tbh) and was responding in the mood of the moment sorry If I could pick up the point at the end of your post I do believe that a lot of advertising is a waste of time (and money if you happen to pay for it) but there are companies who employ large departments who have to justify their existence. Yes advertising of start up brands and specific offers/products is essential. My point was that I see the advertising that SD does through NUFC as mostly non specific and passive ( I don't like that word but I mean that is purely visual and not audible). TV advertising whether general or specific is audible and of course visual as well. Someone mentioned webuyanycar.com, the trick with that has clearly been the rather annoying jingle that fixes in your brain despite your best efforts to reject it. I don't see the advertising at SJP as being in the same bracket at all as TV advertising. And I can't see that the SD advertising at SJP does anything much for the company. And him doing it doesn't necassarily mean it works. There's probably more stuff I should add but thats what I've got right now.

You're overestimating peoples opinion tbh. He sells stuff that cheap that parents are drawn to it. Aye Newcastle fans hate him and wont use it but unfortunately the rest of the country couldn't care less. And a fair chunk of people in the country aren't football fans, cheap is attractive whatever guise it's in. To be honest though even those that hate SD will probably have to buy the stuff from there anyway, he owns the market pretty much.

I take that point. Although I don't see the club as being a big enough pull internationally for it to have much effect there is clearly some value. It would be greater if the club were more successful.

Advertising works when properly targetted. I think that Ashley's involvement with NUFC is widely viewed negatively, and his forcing of the Sports Direct brand on to SJP especially so. I don't think the NUFC Sports Direct advertising has done anything for SD. There must be many thousands of NUFC fans who hate the sight of the words Sports Direct on for a start. The company has a virtual monopoly in its market and that is why it has grown to be the monster that it is today. Thats it really.

I wonder why Mike Ashley wastes money himself on TV advertising, etc. The free stuff's doing him no good though. Oh dear. So advertising on TV is the same as doing what he's done at SJP.