quayside

Regardless of any debate on windows slamming and shattering you are right. No one is definitely down yet, money can be spent and managers can be changed. It's only half time.

I agree that he needs time, he's got it anyway. I don't hate him but I think his rumoured involvement in the sacking of Hughton was s***. We have no proof that he was involved but I find it hard to believe that his name was randomly plucked out of fresh air. He was brought in as an upgrade on Hughton so my expectations of him are to do better than the person he’s replaced and he’ll not get an easy time off me because of how he got the job. Not bothered about how he got it tbh, anyone in his position would take a job like ours if it was on offer. He didn't sack CH nor did he force Ashley to make that decision, he was offered a job and took it and I don't blame him for that. Totally agree with the bit in bold, and the whole credibility of the decision hangs on that. Pardew has to make a difference and, as I said above, getting results when key players are missing has to be a big part of that difference.

How far away from serious pressure was CH? I think CH would've garnered significantly more support through the bad periods due to his previous achievements and the general goodwill towards the fella. Nobody expected miracles of him. If an 'Experienced Manager' is recruited as an improvement over the status quo then naturally pressure will be higher and patience lesser. If he came with more gravitas then the argument would naturally be to give him time (see the argument for Hodgson from some quarters) but his previous clubs have been Reading, Southampton, Charlton etc so he'll find himself with very limited public support should results go against him. That and the fact he's an Ashley man. I agree that AP probably won't receive a huge amount of patience but I'm not so sure how things would have panned out for CH. The performances against Bolton and WBA had been very poor and any thought that we might rely on away form to stay up was blown (and yes some did seem to be relying on that). He wasn't too many poor results away from being under serious pressure imo. Yeah, but he had several key players out - this is a definite factor in them results. But we still shipped 5 goals against Bolton with CH's first choice back four playing. I think some people will tend to look back on CH now with more tolerance than they were showing at the time. There was hell on after both those games, and this forum was no exception. I was against sacking CH (still am) but as I said I don't think there would have been unlimited patience. We'll never know if CH would have got more than 3 points from the last 3 games but I doubt that he would, the last 2 in particular were very hard matches and 3 points isn't actually too bad a return. The fact is that other sides at the bottom and around us have started picking up good points and so we are on the slide. But its all irrelevant anyway, we now have a sequence of games coming up where points should be picked up. AP was appointed because Ashley thought he could make a difference and he has to find a a way to deliver results - whether players are missing or not.

How far away from serious pressure was CH? I think CH would've garnered significantly more support through the bad periods due to his previous achievements and the general goodwill towards the fella. Nobody expected miracles of him. If an 'Experienced Manager' is recruited as an improvement over the status quo then naturally pressure will be higher and patience lesser. If he came with more gravitas then the argument would naturally be to give him time (see the argument for Hodgson from some quarters) but his previous clubs have been Reading, Southampton, Charlton etc so he'll find himself with very limited public support should results go against him. That and the fact he's an Ashley man. I agree that AP probably won't receive a huge amount of patience but I'm not so sure how things would have panned out for CH. The performances against Bolton and WBA had been very poor and any thought that we might rely on away form to stay up was blown (and yes some did seem to be relying on that). He wasn't too many poor results away from being under serious pressure imo.

How far away from serious pressure was CH?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9330251.stm Too many apologies. He's a decent man and a good manager but it looks like this gig wasn't for him.

Surprised at those that are concerned that he'd be another Owen. The club isn't going to do a deal that is financially crippling (as was done with Owen) and Keane is an entirely different type of footballer.

He'd do well for us for a couple of seasons. He's still far better than anyone else we have to play alongside Carroll. And the club won't do a stupid deal to get him here, they'll let him go elsewhere rather than do that. So if we can get him on our terms its a definite "ja" for me.

The club will be trying to get shot if they can. No one on the coaching staff has rated him from the moment he joined. But just supposing you were Pardew and knew that no club was going to come in for him. If you wanted to have a look you would not take a risk in a League game where vital points are at stake, much more likely you would let him have a run out against Stevenage in the Cup.

It's Pardew's job to release information to the public about the squad. It certainly isn't Enrique's.

I'd be staggered if Xisco gets a game. He's way down the list and is probably being kept clean in case an exit opportunity arises in January. An injury to Carroll was always going to happen at some point, we've got to try and muddle through with some very ordinary players - its wing and a prayer time. We do have a proven goal scorer in Nolan, and Barton has scored a couple of important goals but no one else has had much of an impact. We need someone to make a name for themselves.

That's what I thought. The performance was so similar. That was an absolutely gut-wrenching night to be a Newcastle fan... Worst game I think I have ever been too. Absolutely horse. Seem to remember it was in a run of appalling games. Assume you mean the 0-1 under Roeder? We were shocking but I think the away win at Palermo 2 nights before had something to do with it. We hadn't a deep enough squad to be playing European matches away and following them up with a League game 2 days later.

What?

Even by Ashley's standards Pardew's appointment was a bizarre decision. But I'm not passing judgement on anything that's happened under him so far. Very good result against Liverpool (arguably not much to do with him) and, although any loss is disapointing, the other two matches simply went to the form teams. Starting on Sunday we go into a decent sequence of matches that we should be looking to get something from. We'll get an idea of what AP is made of in the coming weeks.

I know - have now edited

Guthrie?

Something like: Krul Simpson Colo Taylor Enrique Rout Tiote Barton Jonas Nolan Carroll

Ketsbaia is it

He paid the club, he loves us that much tbh.

Hope so. That desperate? Because we have every reason to hate the manager that won us an FA Cup, a CL, a SuperCup, and took us to another CL final and within a few points of the Prem. 7 surely he is the reason you are where you are now. That would be Hicks and Gillett. Hmmmm. Without knowing too much of the Politics, your sqwad looks awful, and some of his buys were shocking. Surely down to him? Every manager makes a few shocking buys. In the end, there simply wasn't the money to buy the players we needed to improve. The Yanks were taking every penny the club made to pay down their debts. If you haven't got the money to buy nailed-on quality players like Torres, Masch and Alonso (though he was a bargain), you have to take risks. No, Rafa wasn't the best in at the transfer market, but making out that Rafa is some kind of Souness in the transfer market is well wide of the mark. Basically. I thought that would be entirely obvious to an NUFC fan. Admire the loyalty and, of course, you won things under him. But surely the £60m spent on Aquilani, Lucas, Babel and Keane (for example) is indicative of more than just taking a risk because funds weren't available to buy better? That is pretty serious money that should have bought something a whole lot better imo. Nonsense. What we paid for Babel was reasonable considering what a proven, top-class winger costs. Lucas was cheap. The criticism I'd level at Rafa regarding both players is not that he bought them but that he didn't play them enough to let them develop. As I've said before, Rafa only wanted Keane as an accessory to Barry. The Barry deal fell through, but Parry still bought Keane. The f***-up was his. Aquilana was a mistake, but even if we don't get a penny back for him, the profit on Alonso and Masch will still cover any losses. Did I mention Rafa took us to two CL finals? And you seriously want to claim this is a bad manager? Calm down. You don't have to mention the CL finals, I'm well aware of that hence the first sentence of my post. And I didn't say he is a bad manager. You don't get to manage the clubs he's managed and win the trophies he's won by being a bad manager. However I think his recent track record isn't so good, some of his dealings in the transfer market have not been great and when results are going against him he starts whingeing about needing more money to spend.

We'd better get ready to splash some proper money then, this kid is on a lot of radars.

Yes he did - from Wikipedia "on 8th December 2009 Owen scored his first hat-trick for Manchester United in a 3–1 away win against Wolfsburg in the Champions League". He certainly scored a hat trick for us at West Ham, and he scored one against us for L'pool.

1 Michael Owen? Didn't he score a hatrick in a ManU Champions League match?

My cynical side is telling me that Taylor and Ben Arfa could have been tied up under Hughton but were delayed. PR games being played will mean that AP will get any feel good love thats going.......

Even Keegan wasn't Ashley's first choice at the time, Redknapp was.