Gallowgate Toon

No point in doing legit sendings off in games like this, the ref should just tell the managers to sub the two off.

Desperately need some quality on the left and upfront.

I'd say £8 million is a fair valuation of his ability but not with his contract situation etc. Yeah that is probably fair, i would imagine we could get them down to below 6m but considering the situation i would say we are in no position to f*ck around. Especially with Cisse's situation too. Yeah. He's a good player who I think will be well-suited to the league and can bring some much-needed qualities to our striking pool, if we get him in.

I'd say £8 million is a fair valuation of his ability but not with his contract situation etc.

In English ffs. RMC announce that Newcastle have made a 10million offer for Gomis.

Debuchy isn't quick but he doesn't need to be, as Zabaleta has shown.

Are you serious? Everyone was raving about Shaw last season and how brilliant he was. Are you f***ing serious, or is this just you wanting a 'conversation' ? I'm serious, Shaw had a brilliant season. Didn't he? Shaw did well for his age and experience, to judge a player a decade older with a decade more experience against him is pointless, you just don't have that level of consistency or mental awareness and will always have off days and learning experiences. He destroyed a 17 year old...and? So he f***ing should. But you're talking exclusively about pace? Your Rose example wasn't good anyway, there are a select few players in the league that could beat Rose in a foot race when chasing a ball.

Great, I look forward to the new attempt at playing passing football this season. My view is though it's one thing talking about it, but another knowing how to implement it. For some managers it comes naturally, like Dario Gradi who was (is?) at Crewe, Martinez and Keegan. Pardew is a long ball man, and when the pressure comes it's what he'll revert to when the heat is on IMO. We'll see. But we have played passing football under Pardew before, it seems logical to suggest he knows how. He didn't revert to long ball when the heat was on last year either. Happy Face posted on here that post-January, there were 14 teams that played more long balls a game than us iirc. I don't dispute that he didn't revert to defensive football though.

It's not just words though, the training details I've heard and read, Caulkin for example, have mentioned ball retention. Why bother making it a focus if you're not that bothered about it and it goes against what you want to do in the regular season?

Indeed. Jonas has no place in our starting line-up, especially not as a winger, he's done there.

He's watching the 3 players he mentioned. He's not suggesting all of our players are good at it, that's why it's one of our main training focuses at the minute. Well maybe if he played Marveaux a little more instead of putting f***ing Perch in, it wouldn't have been as bad. See i like this kind of post, it sums him up. Pardew says something and the reality is completely different. The bloke refuses to let the team play and then moans we don't play enough. What a cock. Pardew's obviously had a re-think over the Summer, he can only be proven a hypocrite on what he's currently saying after he's had his chance. True, doesn't explain playing hoofball in the friendly the other night though, of all the times to try something different it's then. He knows no other football, direct unlikable, percentage ugly, whatever you call it. He's a poor Fat Sam. It would seem illogical to me that he would set up to play passing football one match and then the antithesis the next. It may have possibly been other factors not in his control. I understand your frustration and where you're coming from but, personally, I'm prepared to give him a little bit more of a chance to see what he comes up with. While i'd prefer not to see him get that chance, i will have to reluctantly as he's not going anywhere. Despite hating the s**** football he gives us, i hope he proves me wrong, team comes first. I'd still prefer someone better came in and there are many that I rate higher. I think we will improve this year, in terms of style and results but not to an amazing level.

He's watching the 3 players he mentioned. He's not suggesting all of our players are good at it, that's why it's one of our main training focuses at the minute. It appears I may have misconstrued those quotes. However I'm not sure what he's really getting at. Games got too big and open? Why was that? It certainly wasn't down to the expansive attacking game we were playing. We do need to work on pressing opposition teams more. If that's what he means by tightness then its a step forward. If he is seriously looking at the team and its weaknesses then great. My hunch is that he has always been s*** scared of losing the fans and being hounded out of the club. I think that's why he went so conservative last season despite it being detrimental to the team. You'll have to forgive me for treating what he says as cliché ridden nonsense but we have been here before with him. I think he means we didn't/couldn't retain possession well enough, so games became too open and we couldn't control them. That would explain the focus on keeping possession at the minute, if we improve retention in the face of pressing then we can control matches more. I wholeheartedly agree with your second paragraph. Personally, I was pretty much done with him at the end of last season, my only hope was that he would come back refreshed and with a new attitude for this one, and he seemingly has. Because he's come back with a different mentality I want to give him a chance, I know we've heard some similar stuff like this before but he's being pretty in-depth rather than mumbling vague ramblings about front-foot football. I'm still cynical to a degree, I'd rather just try to be positive because last year was such a tough one that I don't want to repeat.

He's watching the 3 players he mentioned. He's not suggesting all of our players are good at it, that's why it's one of our main training focuses at the minute. Well maybe if he played Marveaux a little more instead of putting f***ing Perch in, it wouldn't have been as bad. See i like this kind of post, it sums him up. Pardew says something and the reality is completely different. The bloke refuses to let the team play and then moans we don't play enough. What a cock. Pardew's obviously had a re-think over the Summer, he can only be proven a hypocrite on what he's currently saying after he's had his chance. True, doesn't explain playing hoofball in the friendly the other night though, of all the times to try something different it's then. He knows no other football, direct unlikable, percentage ugly, whatever you call it. He's a poor Fat Sam. It would seem illogical to me that he would set up to play passing football one match and then the antithesis the next. It may have possibly been other factors not in his control. I understand your frustration and where you're coming from but, personally, I'm prepared to give him a little bit more of a chance to see what he comes up with.

He's watching the 3 players he mentioned. He's not suggesting all of our players are good at it, that's why it's one of our main training focuses at the minute. Well maybe if he played Marveaux a little more instead of putting f***ing Perch in, it wouldn't have been as bad. See i like this kind of post, it sums him up. Pardew says something and the reality is completely different. The bloke refuses to let the team play and then moans we don't play enough. What a cock. Pardew's obviously had a re-think over the Summer, he can only be proven a hypocrite on what he's currently saying after he's had his chance.

He's watching the 3 players he mentioned. He's not suggesting all of our players are good at it, that's why it's one of our main training focuses at the minute.

Tbf he might well be GT, but do you think he has any idea how to do it though ? If we can replicate some of the stuff we played in 11/12 more consistently, I'll be happy, and he obviously has some idea of how to execute that. He's making the right noises at the minute, the big question, for me, isn't about whether he has the ability, it's whether he has the balls.

Is he not suggesting that perhaps we're not physical enough to handle open, end-to-end type matches? We're more technicians than athletes. Working in tight areas could mean he's looking to force teams into their own half more and we have players that can thrive in less space.

Don't see the fuss, he's only come in as a scout to look for domestic talent.

Exactly, and to play in exactly the same way, hoofed balls and set pieces in our pre season friendlies, games where you can experiment, well has he learnt ?, don't look like it. Didn't we reportedly play good, on-the-deck football against Motherwell?

Result means naff all at this stage, see Man U and City losing on their tours. We'll see how it goes, I'm confident we'll be an improvement this season, on every level.

2 forwards is enough IMO. As long as one of them can play as a 'wide forward'. Remy and Gomis would be great business if nobody else left. Ideally I'd like to see Williamson shipped out with another coming in.

He played there last year and obviously enjoyed the freedom that came along with it, he did an interview with the Chronicle last season iirc. I'm not sold on him as a no. 10 but I do think he'll perform better there with HBA back fit. In an ideal world, it would be Sissoko and Cabaye behind Marveaux.

Just caught his interview from yesterday's Chronicle, he obviously likes playing no. 10 and it's good to hear Pardew's told him he needs to score more, hopefully means more than one player in the box next year. Personally, I think he's a central midfielder but he might perform much better behind the striker now he's not being asked to be the hub of the team.

Great read and it seems like the right areas are being targeted to be improved upon. We definitely didn't look match-ready last year, some of the fitness (Cabaye's for instance) was really poor with players hobbling about after 80 minutes.

The PL is much more open than Ligue 1. He should be looking to hit similar numbers.