Chizzletooth

This is only our fourth season back in the premier league. I didn't expect us to be challenging for a champions league spot and we're not. Ho-hum.

It's canny annoying, this line. If you want to talk about transfers or ambition or anything like that you have to also talk about money. At one point no one was arsed about transfer fees - it was just about getting the right players. I wish the board and supporters put the same level of concern into the teamsheet as they do the balance sheet. Possibly, but that's just a sign of how football is organised now. Obviously if you ignore money we should always make more and more signings, pay whatever wages and every time we don't do that it's a massive failure. But surely you're just being willfully ignorant of reality if you take that view? You're being 'willfully ignorant' of what I said. I don't mean to go and splash out and spend absolute fortunes whilst spending ridiculous wages. Just something would be nice. Someone with a bit of flair, a bit of excitement for the suffering fans. How can Southampton, Swansea etc afford to go out and buy players for £10m plus whilst we can't. We'll never ever compete with this current regime yet you seem to almost accept this as the norm. It's wrong, it's all wrong. We're not *really* suffering though. We're eighth. We've won at Old Trafford, White Hart Lane. Beaten Chelsea. Sure, there's been some poor performances too but after last season I'd have taken this position. A lot of clubs would love to swap with us and bear our suffering.

Not necessarily. We're a good stepping stone as Cabaye proved. We may as well be a league one club selling players to the championship. We're a decent premiership side selling players to Champions League contenders. But why do we exist? To win things or to develop players for the teams which do win things? that very question can be asked of a great deal of clubs not just us. Name me another premiership club deliberately trying to get knocked out of cups and avoid getting into Europe. And yes, it can be said of loads of clubs. They're all in the lower divisions though. Even the likes of Hull and Palace attempt to win cup matches! They buy players to improve, not to sell on. Think one thing everyone agrees on is that we should make a better fist of the cups. It's our only shot, slim though it is. Won't stop us being a stepping stone for the likes of Cabaye though.

Not necessarily. We're a good stepping stone as Cabaye proved. We may as well be a league one club selling players to the championship. We're a decent premiership side selling players to Champions League contenders.

Not necessarily. We're a good stepping stone as Cabaye proved.

might it not have been prudent to source alternatives before hand? rather than one player? A bid under the valuation and wages half of what cabaye was getting? He said this 2 days ago, man: Bloke doesn't know where he's at. polemic viewpoints "we won't spend anything!!" / "lol at you fake bid crew!" So we bid £10 million and it didn't work, either because the fee was too low, or possibly because the player was never that interested. I reckon it was more the second one. Low bids tend to work when the player actively wants the move no? I'd have liked to see a few alternatives yeah. But replacing Cabaye is not an easy job. Personally I don't know who those alternatives would be. I trust in Carr's judgement. I'd rather hang on and get the right player. There's little left to play for this season. I don't love our transfer policy but you'd have to admit, we've brought in some superb transfers. Not enough obviously, but the days of spunking £6m on the likes of Bramble are over. This is the only username I've ever had. Now that I'm done talking, you may bring the rage. You're proper suspicious. Replacing Cabaye isn't an easy job, but we've had half a season to line up the right guy, so there's nothing to "hang on" about it - if we'd intended to replace him, we would have - and we'd have done a Spurs-style replacement of doing as or before he left. There's nowt to play for this season, but we'd want his would-be replacement to settle into the side so we could attack next season properly - unless that is... that you didn't give actually give a s*** because a) this season was safe (almost at 40 points joy of all joys); and b) you would only even consider investing in a replacement in the summer if a second-half-of-the-season decline without a Cabaye replacement (and Shola as the best striking option that the club owns ) would be so bad that it'd indicate our 2014/15 season would be a relegation season You think I have a suspicious nature? Or you think I'm a mackem? Beren, your viewpoint is understandable. You could well be spot on. Ideally, yeah, of course giving the right guy half a season to settle in would be brilliant. But suppose the criteria for replacing Cabaye (similar quality, or with the potential to be, affordable, and interested to come) only threw up two names, Grenier and Cabella. And neither want to move right now. Worth hanging on for? Maybe. I saw enough chances created against an admittedly poor Norwich side to not give up completely. The real problem has been taking chances and hopefully De Jong can help with that.

Dissed by Ronaldo. Now I know I'm on to something.

might it not have been prudent to source alternatives before hand? rather than one player? A bid under the valuation and wages half of what cabaye was getting? He said this 2 days ago, man: Bloke doesn't know where he's at. polemic viewpoints "we won't spend anything!!" / "lol at you fake bid crew!" So we bid £10 million and it didn't work, either because the fee was too low, or possibly because the player was never that interested. I reckon it was more the second one. Low bids tend to work when the player actively wants the move no? I'd have liked to see a few alternatives yeah. But replacing Cabaye is not an easy job. Personally I don't know who those alternatives would be. I trust in Carr's judgement. I'd rather hang on and get the right player. There's little left to play for this season. I don't love our transfer policy but you'd have to admit, we've brought in some superb transfers. Not enough obviously, but the days of spunking £6m on the likes of Bramble are over. This is the only username I've ever had. Now that I'm done talking, you may bring the rage.

Maybe he doesn't fancy us because our offer was laughably bad? That wont sit well with the "Fair play to Ian W. The amount of s*** he takes for the amount of sense he talks is amazing" brigade. Come now, two people hardly constitutes a "brigade".

Sounds a hell of a lot more like him not fancying us than Ashley failing to pay up. That wont sit well with the fake bid brigade.

We played well and hit the woodwork many times. How on earth is that shameful?

Fair play to Ian W. The amount of s*** he takes for the amount of sense he talks is amazing.

£20m or £25m it matters not a jot. We'd be lucky to see £10m of it reinvested in a future window.

Agreed. That and the hatred. So Shola's not very good, yes, brilliant observation. Is there any need for such nasty abuse? Would love to see some of these keyboard warriors say anything to his face. It's racism like that that really drags the place down imo. So he's black, does that mean he's hard like? Ye gods. You really wanna go down this road? Or was that an attempt at humour?

If we had a more positive manager and played Ben Arfa every game, we'd be top four at least. Obviously.

Agreed. That and the hatred. So Shola's not very good, yes, brilliant observation. Is there any need for such nasty abuse? Would love to see some of these keyboard warriors say anything to his face.

pardew? Of course he's not. i guess there will be no concurrence on this matter then, 'cause he's out of his depths imho top tier championship manager in charge of international footballers and our position and performances reflect this fairly accurately tbh Remit - League : Finish Top 10 FA Cup : Not Applicable League Cup : Not Applicable To say he's out of his depth is utterly laughable. People also have a habit of massively over rating our squad. We could probably this year 7th at best and if we had a really bad season 13th-14th. You know when people talk about ridiculous expectations - they're talking about you. The irony is the expectation is a product of Pardew's own high performance but that's no doubt lost on you. Ridiculous expectations is expecting the 7th or 8th best squad in the league to present a challenge to the top 6 and maybe not go out of every cup at the first or second hurdle every year. If you want to point fingers, then people like you are why those running NUFC have been able to get away with taking the p*ss out of fans for so long. Our squad isn't as good as you think - but we are challenging the top 6 - obviously. You're just helping me make my point. Oh and that highlighted section ;D ;D ;D I'd say the squad is better than many give it credit for. Plenty of experienced internationals (Colo, Debuchy, Santon, Cabaye, Tiote, Jonas, HBA, Remy, Cisse, Sissoko, Anita, Yanga-Mbiwa) and some solid, experienced pro's too (Willo, Saylor, Raylor etc). If you think what a positive manager could do with them it's gutting. SBR or KK would have us battling the top 4 every year with this squad purely by going after teams and putting them on the back foot. AP worries too much about others and overlooks our own strengths. We've got the same issues now as we had two years ago. No fluidity, no attacking mentality and no cohesion in the approach to the game. That's a very bold assertion to make. I couldn't see any manager challenging the top four with this squad personally.

Why even post that? Make yourself feel better? Take the sting out of a defeat does it?

If those quotes are real than that's absolutely staggering stuff. Quality side? Containing them?!

Pardew deserves the bile today. Poor starting line up, made more baffling by his pre match quotes about resting players like Cabaye. Trying to find a positive, sounds like Ameobi put in another compelling argument for how badly we need a new striker in the window.

Why do people put so much stock in these disposable managerial soundbites? Mourinho has been playing down his Chelsea side all season, yet look where they are. His quotes, entertaining as they are, mean nothing. All managers use cliched excuses in the event of a loss. The alternative is calling out Santon in public for poor marking Di Canio style. Our squad isn't that good like. The teams above us all have superior squads and managers.

Here's a handy cut out an keep guide to the two Ben Arfa factions: Fanboys: Ben Arfa should start every minute of every game regardless of form, opposition or system. When Ben Arfa is mint, it's down to Ben Arfa. When Ben Arfa is ineffective, its down to the clueless mismanagement of the world's most cowardly football manager. Haterz: Would like Ben Arfa to work on his decision making. Can see the logic of how we are *sometimes* better as a team without him.

Delusional fan boys FOH with that s*** man Nah, people who criticise Ben Arfa get labelled as "morons" all the time. We all want him to succeed like. He's our most exciting player no doubt. But most exciting does not equal best.

Even the most delusional of the Ben Arfa fan boys must be a little concerned about his decision making. For all his talent he's 27 and still making the wrong calls too often.

Yet you come in and read it. Yeah well, masochism is a big part of being a Newcastle fan, as you well know.