John P

There's absolultely no chance that we're signing Ayew man!

Is Lukaku likely to start for Chelsea or not?

Hmmm, it's quite clear that we're not going to be spending more than about £8m on a new striker (if we get one at all), so to miss out on Bent for about £6m is pretty disappointing. Would guarantee goals and create competition for Cisse.

Sorry if posted elsewhere but this is pretty disgraceful: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23703265 Shows what a truly great pro he was.

Would love Thauvin, looked great every time I've seen him.

Mignolet Ivanovic Mertesacker Zabaleta Hazard© Coutinho Kagawa Ben Arfa Lukaku(vc) Berbatov Sturridge Subs: Boruc, Whittingham, Clyne, Garrido Fairly happy with it but it will no doubt change countless times before the season starts.

Robert Elliot ‏@the_dilsh 11h When I get my bike I will do a shot of me riding eating something(shola esk) suggestions?? X

Caulkin tweeted this today, sorry if Giggs: http://twtmore.com/note/gFq

You've got to be kidding me. Highly rated centre half who we seem to have tracked for years becomes available on a free, deal is nearly done and then this joker comes in and cancels it immediately. He's probably never seem him play and thinks 'Brazilian centre half, nah they're all rubbish, where's John Scales' number....'

There's only a tiny bit of the R in DIRECT left, but it's been like that for about a week now. Every day I expect it to be gone in the morning on my way in to work, and if it's not I expect it to be gone in the evening when I'm leaving, but it's still hanging on in there.

James Tavernier in Sports Direct doing head ups with a tennis ball and getting told off by a member of staff. He only managed 7 as well.

They're not in any rush over this like, only done half of the two S's in 'Sports' and a random strip down the middle so far.

Danny Graham was in Osborne's earlier looking incredibly pissed with some charver friends

Tremendous player, has been so important having him for these last two games. He was giving someone a right bollocking in the first half as well - Captain Colo will be missed massively.

Could anyone recommend somewhere in town to watch this?

Pretty much. 'f***, how do I get shot of all of this dross' Bosingwa on 60k a week, 2 years left and looks happy enough to do a Bogarde. Good luck trying to get rid of the likes of him, Tony. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Park_Rangers_F.C.#Current_players Look at the size of that squad. What's their injury record been like this season? I like the idea of snapping up their strength and conditioning coach.

Incredibly frustrating to think that if we'd had a decent ref and / or linesmen in the Wigan game and they'd seen the handball we'd be on 38 points and they'd be on 30. If they'd taken the correct action over the McManaman tackle it's quite possible we'd have 40 points on the board and they'd be stuck on 29

Just watched the Feyenoord and Barcelona highlights, I'm just going to be disappointed tonight aren't I? Off into town now, COME ONNNNNNN!!!!!!!

From the BBC website: 'Roberto Martinez hails the contribution of chairman Dave Whelan to Wigan's rise through the divisions ahead of Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Millwall. Whelan, who will lead the team out at Wembley, has seen the Latics rise from the fourth tier of English football to the first since buying the club in February 1995. He played for Blackburn in the 1960 FA Cup final, but was carried off on a stretcher with a broken leg as they lost 3-0 to Wolves. Martinez says: "Our chairman has been through a lot, in football and in life. I think the FA Cup is something very special to him. "Not many players had the experience that he had in the 1960s with a final and he had to be carried off on a stretcher, and there's a little bit of a sense of unfinished business." Must be why he was so sympathetic towards Haidara.....

Bit worried that there will be a lot of inappropriate gestures made on Sunday. Hopefully people will see sense and others around will put a stop to anything offensive.

Touring the US in the pre-season according to Llambias. More US radio commentary What was that guy's name again? Need to start a petition to get him to do all our games if we do go to the US

Touring the US in the pre-season according to Llambias. More US radio commentary

Saw this online: Unsurprisingly this letter relates to a particular challenge during a Premier League game that went unpunished last weekend. I don’t even need to name the people involved and which challenge it was, because everyone knows which incident I’m referring to, and everyone knows the utterly insane decision (or should it be lack of decision) made by the FA in response to this ‘challenge.’ I call it a ‘challenge’, but maybe ‘assault’ would be a better term? I call you ‘the FA’, but maybe ‘inept fools’ would be a better term also? I don’t know precisely which inept fools were responsible for this decision, but maybe whoever they are should pay a visit to Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary and explain the decision in person to a certain 20-year old French youth international who has just had his knee shattered into God knows how many pieces. A few years ago, before the recent advances made in treating sports injuries, that ‘tackle’ would almost certainly have ended this young lad’s career. Luckily, he probably will return, but as is very often the case with young players who receive terrible injuries, the likelihood is that he will never truly fulfil the promise he has shown in his brief career in French football and the few games he has played and shone in for Newcastle. And the punishment for the player who’s inflicted this? Nothing. The consequences for the assistant manager who ran on the pitch to remonstrate with the player I can’t even bring myself to name? A charge of misconduct. To charge him and not the player is absolutely beyond belief. I know the apparent reason why the ban wasn’t given, because the FA don’t want to be seen ‘re-refereeing games.’ If that’s the case, why do bans get rescinded? Is this not re-refereeing? Good contradiction there guys. I note that the FA are trying to improve standards in grass root football and have also in recent years introduced the Respect Campaign. It was also my belief that the FA and officials have a duty of care to protect players? And I look at these points and then look at what has happened in the last few days and I struggle to believe how the FA can justify anything they say or do. Would it therefore be ok for 10-year old lads on a Sunday morning to fly in knee high and put another young lad in hospital? I would hope that a Sunday league official (you know the type, fat Dads with glasses on, running the line because no-one else will / he’s the least hungover) would be able to see that incident, ‘full extent’ or not, and see that that was a red card offence. Never mind fully trained professional officials. Which brings me on nicely to the FA statement made in regard to the incident. I’ll quote it for you in case you’ve forgotten: ‘In the case of McManaman, it has been confirmed that at least one of the match officials saw the coming together, though not the full extent of the challenge.’ So let me get this right – one of the officials saw the coming together (I’m guessing the linesman who you can see looking at the incident on Match of the Day footage) but not all of it? So, he didn’t actually see the challenge then? And the reason no action has been taken is: ‘where one of the officials has seen a coming together of players, no retrospective action should be taken.’ But hang on, we’ve already established from the first quote that the official didn’t see the full extent of the challenge. I thought the decision makers and press officers at the FA would be able to cobble together a statement over the course of 48 hours that didn’t contradict itself in the space of roughly 20 words. There’s me and my crazy thinking again though. Going by this statement, maybe in the Tyne-Wear derby we could get Steven Taylor to dance around in front of the ref whilst Cheik Tiote slowly approaches Lee Cattermole with a sawn-off shotgun. Then at the last minute, Cheik goes on the blind side of the linesman and blasts Lee’s face off. The ref didn’t see it (nice one Steve) and the assistant saw Cheik approaching Lee with a shotgun and his face spread all over the East Stand, but didn’t actually see the bullet make contact with Lee’s lovely face. Play on lads, no retrospective action to be taken here. A ridiculous exaggeration but the principle remains exactly the same. What else did I want to say? No-one has probably bothered to read this far given the fact that it doesn’t suit one of the FA’s agendas but I’ll carry on regardless. I was wondering though if the situation would have been different if a French youth international had made that challenge on someone the FA was bothered about? Someone like Wayne Rooney, Jack Wilshere or ‘Stevie’ Gerrard. I somehow doubt the FA would have had the balls (excuse my French) to let that go unpunished if it was on one of our own over-hyped, over-paid, under-performing superstars. Which begs the question, what does the FFF make of all this? I don’t know what the relationship between the FA and the FFF is like, but I imagine it is no longer a good one. After all, this is a football federation who actually take retrospective action on terrible tackles (such as the one made by Valentin Eysseric on Jeremy Clement a couple of weeks ago which resulted in an 11-game ban)and protect players under their jurisdiction, whether one obviously inept official half saw a challenge or didn’t half see it. Sounds like a plan, eh? I’ve been told that football these days is all about politics. I think I’d rather have the Monster Raving Loony Party in charge than you lot. I honestly hope that some good comes of this, and that in the future tackles like this that can have no defence (despite what a senile chairman may say) are justly and correctly punished. I live in hope, but after what has happened I don’t think anyone believes in the FA any more. And I hope the next unlucky set of players to be officiated by the same officials can feel safe on the pitch, because I’m not sure I would. Anyway, I know no-one read this and probably never will, but at least I got it off my chest. I’m off to sharpen my studs for my five a side match tomorrow night, I’m thinking of throwing a neck high challenge in. ‘Don’t do that!’ you say! Don’t you worry, I’m taking my iPad with me. I’ll pull up a video of a certain assault and a certain statement of some inept fools. No arguing with that is there? I’ll leave you with this from Steve Froggatt: ‘From someone who lost his career through a bad tackle I find the decision from the FA shameful, embarrassing and above all gutless’. Well said Steve. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

I'm absolutely certain that there was an article just after Pardew was appointed where he was talking about Tiote, and how he needs to be more expressive and adventurous with his passing. Can't seem to find it after a quick Google search though, anyone else remember it or have a link to it?