toon25

If this is going to be the only option I'd rather more effort went into bringing through some of the kids.

Has anyone noticed what a smug cunt Dalgiesh appears lately? Can't stand the bloke. According to John Henry we'll be seeing more of him after this season too.

Why we were not linked with striker even from the 1st Jan when it was evident that with Carroll's injury we'd struggle is truly baffling. Complete an utter short-sightedness on behalf of Pardew who, on the basis of one game against a shite Wham, thought Best was good enough. I think Pardew genuinely believed he'd be able to bring in 2 players and, to be fair, if Birmingham hadn't pulled the plug on Larsson he might have successful in bringing those 2 men in. I can see no other reason for deciding to let Routledge go. At the end of the day though, who knows. Yet another monumental cock-up from those in charge who have done nothing more than foster resentment, negativity and uncertainty among fans. Bastards.

This. He's deliberately tried/been advised to stir the shit so as to come up smelling of roses.

Sadly I don't think anyone will take Smith tbh. We're stuck with him. The very best we can hope for is that he decides that he can't play any more at the top level and hangs up his boots in the summer.

As I've said yesterday Carroll had tried to use the fans as a pawn in all of this, and that is absolutely disgusting in all of this from the hatred from the fans towards Ashley. I would rather he just admitted he tried to extract more money from the club from the situation, but he won't. Exactly. Has done far more harm than good in this instance for a club that he 'loves'/loved. All he's done is to stoke the embers of tension already existing between Ashley and the fans. I'm no Ashley apologist, but this endless debate is doing nothing disrupt the situation further. He genuinely excited me as a player - the first man to do so since Shearer. Somehow you had the feeling that if he was playing there was always a possibility that we could score. He's gone now though. Let's move on. He's not the first player to excite fans and he won't be the last.

Can't blame people at the club for being shocked tbh. After all, we fans are. It's only natural since Carroll/Pardew had been adamant that he was going nowhere. I'm sure the players will pick themselves up. I don't think we'll win tonight though - 2-0 Fulham or something to that effect. They seem to be picking themselves up somewhat.

And the worst thing is that when the next homegrown star leaves, we'll be just as shocked as with Carroll. http://www.nufc.co.uk/javaImages/96/a8/0,,10278~9021590,00.jpg Who is this?! Is 36 AT LEAST, no?

As much of a 'non-manager' as Joe Kinnear. Dear oh dear. The manner in which people make these suppositions is truly baffling.

Exactly mate, these conspiracy theories are cringeworthy. He's a mercenary cunt who doesnt give two fucks about Newcastle, simple as that. Exactly. The bloke still has family in Newcastle and will obviously be coming back at some stage to 'ride' a few lasses - the text malarky was nothing more than an effort to save face and, in my opinion, has done more harm to the club he supposedly 'loves' by giving rise to some of these ridiculous conspiracy theories. If he really loved the club he'd shut the fuck up and stop trying to stir the shit.

Nothing like Kinnear in the slightest. I think the guy knows what he's doing for a start. Can you imagine Kinnear having £xx millions to spend?

Agreed. That interview was absolutely spot on.

At the end of the day Carroll is just one of the modern generation of footballers where sentiment is plastic and soundbites are delivered for an audience gullible enough to believe them. 'Number 9/great number' bollocks, 'can't wait to play here', 'great club', etc. We've heard it all before.

That does make it clear. Unproven kid with an offer more than Villa and co? sheeesh. I would probably bite off that hand that offered 35mill. Sucks. But True. Absolutely right. Take away the sentiment (very hard to do so, I know) but in the end, this is what it's all about. Did Man Yoo really want to sell Ronaldo (forgetting for a moment his wish to leave)? Did Milan really want to sell Kaka? The fact of the matter is, if someone comes in with an offer too good to refuse it would be foolhardy for it not to even be considered. I'm no Ashley apologist, I'm really not, but quite simply we're not in a financial position to be able to turn down an offer like the one received for Carroll. But having let the dust settle a bit, £35mil is a good deal. One hopes that this will allow greater flexibility in the summer when it comes to bringing in new faces. That remains to be seen.

I think of all the challenges you mentioned, this is the one that the other players in the squad will find easiest to deal with. Really hope so mate. Really hope so. It's difficult to see past the shit sometimes but personally, I think we'll be ok. Just need to make it through to the summer and concentrate on staying up. In the meantime, we've plenty of time to let Carr earn some of his wedge and het him looking for a couple of Tiote's around the globe!

As far as I'm concerned the players and we fans have to do what we've continued to do to the cynical media and the doubters in coping with crises, whether these manifest from a monumental Ashley fuck up, or a key players fucking off. Prove them wrong. - When we went down, it was doubted if we'd ever get back up. The response was to win the Championship convincingly. - When we came back up, it was doubted that we'd be able to compete. The response was to reach 9th in the table with a number of convincing wins including 5-1 hammering of our rivals. - When Hughton was sacked, again, many predicted we'd implode. The response was, even from my own perspective, much better than expected. The team spirit held together and remained strong. Some decent results followed. Basically, in the past few months, the squad have triumphed in the face of adversity. The best way to deal with this fiasco is to move on and look to build on the excellent progress made throughout the season starting with a result on Wednesday. We're all gutted about this. It's fucking shit. It's a kick in the teeth. But like it or not, week in week out we'll be here and so will Newcastle United. If the past few months is anything to go by, I for one have faith in the squad and, strangely, a degree of trust in Pardew. I've no doubt that the 'this group of lads' will pull together and see us through another period of uncertainty and disillusion. For we Toon faithful, we'll have to wait until the summer to see whether or not our renewed faith will again be crushed. Still, life in the Toon circus is fun ay?

Precisely. All this bollocks from Pardew about 'not having time' to replace him. We needed another striker before Carroll's injury anyway. Baffling really. As I said in another thread, I'm not fan of N'Gog but I personally would have asked for him on loan for rest of season if AC was moving there. I think he probably could have done a job for us.

yep- how i see it. How could he have made Carroll hand in a transfer request though? It doesn't make sense. The only situation would be that Carroll made it clear he wanted to leave and the club said they wouldn't sell him unless he officially asked to go. That makes sense, nothing else. All this confusion is being used by both parties to save face. Both Carroll and Ashley's heads were turned by both the size of the fee and the substantial increase in wages that were supposedly on offer. At the end of the day, if he 'loved' the club as much as he claimed he would have told Liverpool that he wasn't interested, irrespective of whether he was asked to hand in a transfer request or not. It's a sort of 'plastic' loyalty that footballers have these days. Nothing sincere and meaningful can ever be taken from such statements imo. Just sounbites to please their audience.

Trust me, I'm no fan of N'Gog, but I can't understand why, in the knowledge that time was running out to replace AC, we didn't ask to take him on loan for the rest of the season. I think he could have done a job.

Andy Carroll isnt the be all and end all man. Spurs finished in the top 4 last season and they didnt have an Andy Carroll. There are other players out there. Its a team game, not built round 1 player man. Whatever has gone on, £35 million is great business. He's what? 8th most expensive player of all time? Fucking hell, he's only had 6 months in this league, the deal cant be argued - its how much of its invested that will determine whether I go back or not. That's all well and good, but we've no guarantees that all of that money will be invested in the summer or, if it is, if the clowns in charge will invest it in the right areas. The fact that we were seemingly willing to spunk £10-12mil on insominia rather than find a striker suggests that it won't be going in the right areas. I live in hope that it'll be ploughed back into the squad but right now £35mil does not compensate for the fact that we're still a squad in dire need of depth and for the remainder of the season have to rely on Best, Shoal, Ranger and Loven.

Agreed. Loyalty quite simply means fuck all these days. ££££ rules and ££££ talks. Still devastated though, couldn't get a wink last night. Tbh, I know £35m is a lot but at this point in time I don't think it's even possible to argue that it was a good deal as we've not been able to reinvest and I very much doubt that we'll receive reassurances that that reinvestment will take place in the summer. What's worse is that it might cost us more than that if we go down looking at things as they stand now, we're fine, but most of the sides around us have been able to improve their squad. You know, before yesterday, I thought we were going in the right direction. Trust the fat cunt to fuck it all up. I hope to god that the boys can keep up some momentum until the end of the season and keep us up.

Fuck me. Nearly shat meself laughing!

Andy Reid Jason Puncheon James Beattie and a fella from a Russian Team whose name I can't recall.

I dare not go on SSN, but just for interest who did Blackpool sign?

Can't believe what's happened today. Stunned. Gutted. Royally fucked off. They had a whole fucking month to bring in a forward and all we got was yet another CM. Going to bed for a read and a wank now.