quayside

Think we have made a fantastic signing here.

Good, he played well today. I know you haven't been his biggest fan on here so respect for that post

Generally I haven't had a problem with Fester in the past - but, my word, today he was talking utter bollox from start to finish.

Don't think you should get slagged for that, it is hard to argue that we have always bossed the games we have won. But every year the top teams in this league win games when they aren't playing too well and they aren't bossing the game. I would also say that frequently you will get tough games against lower placed teams in the league who are fighting for their lives and, to coin a phrase, are "up for it". We were faced with an "up for it" team today but got the result. Let's not forget that only a few days ago we deservedly beat the reigning Premier League champions (and Champions League finalists). On balance I think we are where we are in the league on merit.

Sweet Jesus you really want us to go through all the crap of the last 4 years again - and this time with a man whose football knowledge extends to referring to the ManU result as a "3 love" victory?

Bizarre - no one on here was.

Why not? It's a forum and its the best one around imo.

There was some embarrassing stuff posted on here earlier to be sure. We've all done it - but this forum exists because people post shyte.

Some will need to eat shit before they agree.

That wouldn't be my problem and it's irrelevant to the question that was asked. I see.

I'd be happy to see him go at the end of the season but can't see it happening. Who would you want to replace him with?

Thanks for that review. Last season you had an attacking threat from Elmander and (for the latter part) Daniel Sturridge, you also had Holden available and Kevin Davies in better nick than he is now. That's a lot of gaps and they haven't been filled. Tough job for Coyle..

Would put our best/in form 11 available players on the pitch so

Yes that's a good summary - the issue is whether the wheels can be re-fixed. 7th with 27 points at Christmas - who would have taken that in July? Most clubs in this league will have or indeed have had some really poor spells. It is disappointing because the shyte has happened just lately when, after the ManU/ManC/Chelsea run we are now in a spell of games where good points ought to have been on offer and (unlike the first ten weeks or so of the season) we haven't taken advantage. I had us down for finishing 7th in some thread on here months ago and I'd like to think we aren't done with that yet.

Indeed - or you could just shave 9 inches off the crossbar and the right hand post at the Leazes end and I think it would have worked out ok.

After Shola came on I think it was a "loose" 4-3-3 - and we got the goal we were chasing (which was not much to do with Shola admittedly). Trouble is we conceded another one.

Not yet.

We currently have a manager who is not playing a skilful player because he’s not grafting enough. We also have a manager who has got performances out of players whose ability has been fairly widely questioned. In recent times performances by the likes of Best, Guthrie, Perch, Raylor (and Simpson?) have exceeded the expectations of many - Lovenkrands also? Maybe, until his injury, Saylor had grown a bit this season. Dare I say it but the real class of Coloccini has only come through since AP took over. And then there is Krul, probably it would have happened anyway as he got experience but it's happened under AP. There were many defining aspects of our time under Souness but, for me, his complete inability to manage "ordinary" players was his greatest failing. He did once say after we lost a match words to the effect that it wasn't surprising and you only had to look at the players in our side to see why we lost. I would obviously agree that he mismanaged Bellamy. But tbf I'm not so sure that Robert wasn't losing his mojo when Souness was here, the evidence being that he never did anything much for any club after he left us. I guess what I'm saying is don't write off AP's handling of HBA just yet.

It's not a bad policy if the money is reinvested. But rebuilding the team every year on a tight budget is risky business. We essentially "got away with it" with Andy Carroll, but if you take key players out of your team and replace them with free transfers it won't always end well. Generally speaking, successful teams are those who keep hold of their better players. You look at Newcastle squads since Bobby Robson and there has been very little continuity in any area of the field. You would hope that by giving his manager a long term contract Ashley was looking to change that but the departures of Enrique, Barton, Nolan and Carroll suggest we will be rebuilding yet again next summer. I may have picked up some of that in my response to Skirge and I wouldn't disagree with most of your post. I have to say that I'm not sure that the departure all of those players you mention has necessarily weakened the squad, Enrique would be the obvious exception to me but I don't think the case for any of the others is that strong.

I wouldn't disagree with any of that, after all we support a football team not a business model. And of course if other clubs come along in January and offer the required rate for Ba, Colo, Cabaye Krul and Tiote and we agree to let them go then it would be an unmitigated disaster. There has to be some balance to any transfer policy - however the principle of looking for value in the transfer market has to be a lot better than the alternative.

So basically our policy is to look to bring in players who are worth a lot more than we pay for them. And if another club wants one of our prized players they will have to pay a price that gives the targeted return. That's not all bad and better than some policies we have had in the past.

This 300% ROI target hasn't worked very well has it? Apart from Carroll I'm not sure I can think of any player we've sold that has even come close to hitting that sort of return. In fact with our most recent departure, we let a player who cost £5 million go for nothing.

A colossal talent, he could play anywhere on the pitch (maybe even in goal) and look exceptional.

Was good yesterday, did everything you could ask of him.

Yesterday I felt we could have won the game in the first half - but we didn't and AP needed to freshen things up after about 65 to 70 minutes. The Swansea defence is efficient and their central defenders were winning every header (their number 4 in particular was nutting everything that came anywhere near him). Our delivery from wide positions was pretty poor all day tbh and Cabaye's set pieces were providing virtually zero threat. Our tactic of trying to win the game through the aerial threat of our front two was looking stale and, as I said before, the delivery wasn't that great anyway. So it seemed to me that we needed to find another way to unlock a stubborn defence and I think sticking HBA in behind the front two was worth a shout with 20 odd minutes to go. Cabaye wasn't making much happen in an advanced role so he could have sat a bit deeper when Tiote went off. For the record I'm a fan of Pardew and I do think he's the right manager for this club at this time but, as it is with our players, his performances are always open to discussion. The 4-4-2 was looking a bit predictable and a change of approach was called for imo..