Chizzletooth

Like Ba we needed him to do well, but not this well in order to keep him.

Did you do a Muahahahahahahaha after that sentence

Pardew's here to stay, win, lose or draw. Bank on that. Set your hopes to crushed.

The hatred for Pardew has blinded people to the point where they would welcome Hoddle who would be a dire appointment.

A free pass? Do they f**k Guess its all relative.

Hmmm. Ben Arfa looks out of shape to me and Marveaux has never really done it here for more than a game or two at a time. Both have talent so you'd have to question their application. There's no doubt Pardew is failing to get the best of them, but they deserve criticism too and get almost a free pass on here. I really want a change of manager so we can see whether these players suddenly become world beaters when relieved from Pardew's negativity shackles.

Why doesn't Sissoko or Saylor then ? Because they "work hard". C'mon man you know this!

Strange line up. Curious to see how Cisse does with a strike partner. Amazes me people are surprised by the dropping of Ben Arfa. He's been rubbish by his standards so he didn't have a hope of keeping his place. He gets dropped after average matches by pardew.

Maybe instead of blaming the coaching staff or the failure of players around him for his no-mark performances, Ben Arfa could take some personal responsibility and grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Radical idea, I know.

Some of the lads on here act like it would have been different in sir bobby's day. Don't remember our away record being much to shout about in the capital back then either. We got done by a team superior in every position. Thats it.

I could well be missing something here but... Is it a case of Laudrup being that good, or Pardew being that bad? Laudrup's done a pretty poor job this season. His track record is decent but not exactly amazing. He seems to fall out with people a fair bit and can't seem to stay in a job for any length of time. Pardew is 13 points clear of him with no money to spend. Europa League (correctly) wasn't tolerated as an excuse for us.

I'm deadly serious. If we plummet down the table there will be pressure on Pardew and Ashley to do something. Whether it would result in him being sacked remains to be seen but it's better than drifting. Better than drifting? I wouldnt be so sure. Its hard to imagine us appointing a manager who everyone could get behind under Ashley. I have no faith in him getting anyone better. At least Kinnear is now, surely, out of the reckoning.

Look how hard Hazard works off the ball compared to Ben Arfa.

Everyone was absolutely useless today from Krul to Ben Arfa. Pardew got it all wrong. Again. I don't believe for a second Cabaye would have made a difference today. Unreal.

Spot on.

For all his athletic prowess Sissoko is infuriatingly headless at times. Unfortunately its a trait shared by many of our players.

Get Santon off for Haidara. Can't do any worse.

Taylor. Shocking. Colback man. Colback.

Not super confident but I think we can nick it. They've had a lot of games recently and their good run has been based around some of the jammiest goals you're ever likely to see. Stoke bossed them with ten men. Mannone and Borini do seem to be in decent form and that Alonso looks handy but these guys are still inferior in almost every position. We are due a win against them (obviously) and created plenty of chances against Norwich without Cabaye. Ben Arfa needs to start.

Yeah. Sorry! Point remains. The point remains devoid of context and not worth the bytes used to make it. Just shut up. I've provided plenty of context. You just don't agree with any of it. I won't be shutting up so you'd best add me to ignore or do whatever it is you do when you meet someone who doesn't share all your opinions on things.

Genuinely thick as f***. Unnecessary. Well start making sense then. What has the length of time we've been in the league got to do with where we can be finishing? If we kept Cabaye and signed another striker and a left winger earlier on in the window I see no reason why we couldn't challenge for a Champions League place? We're 9 points off 4th now and were 6 points off at the start of January. Because it takes time to build a quality squad, unless you're spending tons of money which we never will. And on your way up you'll have players poached, which sets back the process once again. People are frustrated because they feel we're not that far away. I don't rate our players as highly as some do and basically think we are where we should be give or take a couple of places. I'm not thrilled about where we are obviously, but I'm not going to be spending all my time following Newcastle in a never ending rage either. This is meant to be enjoyable! But, and credit to Ashley for this, we had the backbone of a very good starting XI sorted and had done for a while. Selling Cabaye has knocked us back a bit in that regard but with £20m in the bank we can definitely find a central midfielder, though it'll be difficult to bring in a true replacement. The problem is there has been numerous opportunities to really strengthen this side and we haven't taken them because we're too worried about paying over the odds. We'll happily go months, even years, without strengthening a weak position if it'll save us a few million. This has meant we've never truly had a great squad, we've had a very good selection of players spanning our current stint back in the league but we've always been left woefully short in a position or 2. Considering our net spend there's no excuse for this. As for players being poached, they wouldn't be getting poached if we didn't keep stagnating. And we stagnate because of the reasons I've said. I was surprised by that quote that came out from PSG that if we were in the CL Cabaye would still be here. That would seem to chime with what you're saying about ambition. But me, I still don't believe it. Tottenham have loads of ambition and got to the champions league but they've had plenty of players leave. We don't have loads of players leaving do we? Carroll, which caused similar levels of despair but proved to be the right call. And now Cabaye. Cant think of anyone else of much use. Nearly every team out side of Man city is short in a position or two. I agree about having a good backbone, but I don't like going down a list of targets. If Grenier and Cabella cant be got in this window, I'm not sure I want our third/fourth/whatever choice. The Anita summer was our real chance and that was blown, for sure. These posts make it sound like I'm some sort of apologist for the regime, when in actuality, I'm just not as militant as the majority on here.

Genuinely thick as f***. Unnecessary. Well start making sense then. What has the length of time we've been in the league got to do with where we can be finishing? If we kept Cabaye and signed another striker and a left winger earlier on in the window I see no reason why we couldn't challenge for a Champions League place? We're 9 points off 4th now and were 6 points off at the start of January. Because it takes time to build a quality squad, unless you're spending tons of money which we never will. And on your way up you'll have players poached, which sets back the process once again. People are frustrated because they feel we're not that far away. I don't rate our players as highly as some do and basically think we are where we should be give or take a couple of places. I'm not thrilled about where we are obviously, but I'm not going to be spending all my time following Newcastle in a never ending rage either. This is meant to be enjoyable!

Genuinely thick as f***. Unnecessary. True dat. I'm sorry you could have has access to some form of education if you wanted. I could have has access. Brilliant.

Genuinely thick as f***. Unnecessary.

Yeah. Sorry! Point remains.