ChrisJbarnes

It doesnt stack up. Why would a highly paid captain of an English premier league team who has been a model professional since he joined all of a sudden decide "sod 'em". Theres something more to this.

They have 2 extra games inbetween the time we play them. If we don't win this game, you question when we will win again. 0-1 Cisse

He's 27 not 23. His type of player - pace and athelticism tend to decline quickly as they approach their 30's. He needs the money now. So what do you do? Bend to his demands? What's the difference in what you were offering and what they did? You could equally say that if he's that type of player, he needs the money because he's going to decline, as you said, which doubly makes him one to avoid, especially at that cost. I think you're both arguing the same thing. Posssibly I am just super wary now, after our recent experience, of getting lumbered with high earning, uncommitted players, of the wrong age group. I'd also say that there are only two factors which could possibly swing him to them rather than you, one is London, which you can't change, the other is ££££ which you can change, but there have to be limits. Mind you, lucky you lot even trying to get these signings in. I dread to think of the sort of dross at the end of the market we'll be shopping in. 31st Jan there will be a "SENSATIONAL" battle between Newcastle and Aston Villa over the blow your socks off signings of Dean Windass and Lee Trundle

To be fair, it will truly be a privilege to see him play for a great club like QPR, under one of the most likeable ambassadors in the game in Redknapp.

Relegation season we had a shocking squad, a ton of managers, we were a total shambles from top to bottom, and still we went down by 1 point. I'd be far more worried if I was Villa to be honest, not that finishing 16th or so will represent a "victory" by any means.

football really is full of twats isnt it!

MASSIVE next 2 games. Reading at home, Villa away. Villa will have played 2 extra fixtures between the next 2 PL games, with a derby away to WBA, a cup semi against Bradford and then Millwall away. Their squad is small and young and will be exhausted. Frankly, we won't have a better opportunity to win away all season, and we'll have no excuses for a poor performance having had a week and a half to prepare. 2 very winnable games, which Pardew and the squad should be asking questions about if we dont.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newcastle_United_F.C._managers Since 2006 (6 years), we've had 7 managers: Roeder, Allardyce, Keegan, Kinnear, Shearer, Hughton, Pardew. Out of those, Pardew is the only one that has started and finished a season as full time manager. He finished 5th and we nearly got into the champions league. This season has been poor, for which Pardew must take some of the blame. Frankly though, is there any manager out there who: 1) Would have got more points on the board, taking into account the total lack of a squad capable of competing, decimated by injuries 2) Would fit in with "the system" and be willing to work under Fat Mike and Dekka for peanuts 3) Would manage to produce better attacking football, taking into account the glaring squad weaknesses, decimated by injuries 4) Would be worth the loss of credibility due to sacking someone who has got us our highest league finish in years, taking into account all of the above. I think for Newcastle, changing the manager has always been the solution, and frankly its never really worked. The grass may be greener, but given that Ashley has hired and fired Allardyce, Keegan and Hughton more or less because he doesnt get on with them and they dont fit in the system, surely its only a matter of time before whichever mediocre manager we were to appoint gets the boot. For anyone looking to make a name for themselves in management, they arent going to want to come here, work under Ashley with minimal investment in players, and then eventually be made the scapegoat when it doesnt work out as planned. We've got through managers faster than Ashley gets through pies and when they've left its hardly been onwards and upwards each time. Allardyce and Hughton seem to be doing very well because they are at much better run clubs. For me, Ashley's last of many chances was when he appointed Pardew after sacking Hughton, Keegan and Allardyce in a short space of time. His whole regime's credibility depends on Pardew's success, because surely after so many poor decisions and dismal failures, there wouldn't be anyone who would want to come here amid the turmoil and who would be a success. If Pardew goes, Ashley has to go as he will have consistently mucked it up over numerous years with many chances and lost all credibility. Since I don't see this realistically happening, Pardew has to stay for me. I think a better solution would be a striker in January, finishing off a crap season, reviewing in Summer, building a squad with Pardew and then this time next season if we aren't considerably better then Pardew and Ashley can both fuck off.

Everton and their encouraging defeat versus our encouraging defeats, but who wins? the neutral.

This news will be followed by the announcement that in order to secure the clubs financial future, they've had to change the stadium name to the sportsdirect.com Closing Down Sale arena @ Wongapark.

To be fair it's an honour to see us a club like Arsenal play so well.

q: What time do Aston Villa kick off? a: Every 10 minutes

if we get a win here today, results will more or less have gone perfectly today.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11667/8363114/The-FA-will-not-be-taking-action-against-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-over-his-Boxing-Day-touchline-rant

I'd rather have a go at EL than finishing top 10 in the league. 10th or 14th doesn't make so big a difference, while a good cup run (let alone winning the trophy) would bring a new enthusiasm around the club. THAT would salvage the season, imho. Agree, but more realistically I think we will get knocked out by Anzhi and end up finishing 9th, 10th or so. That would represent a disappointing, but not catastrophic season.

I think most of the pressure is off us by beating QPR. We've been poor this season, and no-one expects to get anything against Man U or Arsenal away. Nonetheless, there have been some positives in our recent games away to Fulham, Stoke, Wigan and Man City (H). Take all the positives from these games, put them together with a bit of belief, a committed performance and a gameplan, and perhaps a bit of luck and it's not out of the question that we surprise ourselves at the Emirates or OT. I'd be over the moon with a point from the next 6, but even if we lose let's hope for 2 performances to bring back a bit of confidence and push on against Everton (h) in the new year. Despite how poor results have been this season, we are currently still just 5 points off Liverpool in 8th and 10 points off Arsenal in 3rd ( ) . Assuming we lose these two, 20 points from 20 games, get hopefully 1 decent new signing in in January, Cabaye, Taylor and Arfa back and knocked out the EL at some point, we can still push on the premiership and salvage the season and finish top 10 at least.

Definitely the away fans were completely behind him at the stoke away game.

I'd be really surprised if 3 of QPR, Reading, Sunderland, Aston Villa (all of whom have looked utterly abject this season), Wigan, Southampton, Norwich, Stoke and Swansea didn't finish below us. We've looked disappointing and mediocre at best this season, but we've got players that we know can perform, and in a few of the defeats we've had, we've showed promise. Eventually we'll be knocked out the Europa League, will make 1 or maybe 2 uninspiring signings in January and finish at a mid-table finish, which will be a massive letdown. Although results are pretty poor, we are showing some promise and results will pick up, albeit not to the extents we hope. Despite being 4 points off 18th, we're also only 9 points off 4th. 10th for me, although I put money on 7th at 25-1 the other day.

Was just going to post the exact same thing. Its definitely a case of "grass is always greener". I think its characteristic of the knee-jerk nature of this forum that a few people are saying that they'd "love to see" a manager here who we've just beaten 3-0 and who has just kept Wigan up for a couple of seasons (not to discredit that though). We'd inevitably be hounding Martinez out after a few poor results and the vicious circle continues.

A broken clock's right twice a day

Rafel FF captain appears to be a bad call. 3 goals conceded, booked, subbed after 31 mins!

A lot of points dropped today for our champions league rivals!

2-0 Ben Arfa Cisse

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