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Andy Carroll on loan for remainder of season.

Quotes from Bendtner today give the impression he's already looking beyond Sunderland next season. It's the problem Sunderland will always have, the place is a shithole and no one is going to stay there if they can get out. Even living in Newcastle they can't escape where they have to go and play and the halfbreeds that frequent the ground they play in.

And not in the position they look likely to play him.

Don't think this list is right, QPR have 6 games (5 of which at home) listed on their site (i know this as my QPR supporting mate emailed me to abuse me that they were now a bigger club as a result!)

Paddy Power refunding all losing bets if Barca win in 90 mins which is probably the best offer I've seen out there. The tips guy on F365 has been shite all season but has called 4-3 Blackpool Bolton, 3-3 Us v WBA in the last 2 weeks, so third time lucky he's going 4-2 Barca w/ Messi 1st scorer which is available on Paddy Power at 225-1. Cheeky £40 on it in the hope Barca will win in 90 so even when it doesn't come off it's no loss. If it does come off it'll be circa £10k payout and I'll be having a good night out.

Agreed. He's off to Liverpool instead. You can be such a prick at times. You impressively manage it on a constant basis. You don't like the owners, you think the club is going to spontaneously combust and all good will turn to evil. We get it. Now please, for the love of god, shhhhh. I've sat on the fringes of this forum for 5 years and only NE5 surpassed the tedious predictability of the rehashed shite you post on the football boards. You are a walking advert to ignore the entire United for Newcastle campaign which is a real shame.

Bryan Robson just been announced being treated for throat cancer.

Probably been mentioned but the rob lee equaliser at wembley against chelsea was pretty special. David Kelly against grimsby for two too, that was fucking ace...

That's a joke, right?

Impressive that a French lass was perusing the online Chronicle pages and caught this news before any of the other resident news junkies... Almost as if you're not quite who you say you are!

Even without those 3, a midfield of Jonas, Ireland, Guthrie, Ben Arfa wouldn't be a disaster. Obviously dependent on Ben Arfa and Ireland being fit, but with the first fixture any suspensions could occur in being 5th March, and for Nolan and Barton (providing no red cards) over a month away, there's every chance we'll have plenty of cover for everyone bar Tiote.

Agree with the woodgate praise. I remember being at the game where we beat Chelsea 2-1 through Ameobi and Shearer, when Woodgate got injured after Bellamy had been recently crocked, genuinely believe if those two had stayed fit that season we'd have had a very good crack at the title. Woodgate was insanely good, just too often injured.

Just got this from a colleague (Southend fan), thought it was quite nice: Hello Pete, Bit of a bizarre one this weekend..................... Set off 8am Sat morn to watch the mighty Shrimpers attempt to equal all time record of 5 away wins on the spin (no idea how we had managed to chalk up four so far ).......................away to Accrington Stanley ! 265 miles later arrived at Accy's ground at 2pm , to be told the game had been called off at 1.30pm due to a waterlogged pitch ! No prior mention of any possible problem .......the look of despair on my sons faces wasn't really what I had put all that effort in for . Grabbed the newspaper and scoured the fixtures for anything near enough to still get to , and at 2.15 pulled out the Accy car park headed for Blackburn. Just got there in time and at 3pm dead took our seats in the home stand , right alongside a sellout end of Toon supporters in full voice, and I mean in full voice ........ There are some crazy ones in that travelling army , which was a good few thousand strong. Enjoyed the match , albeit 0-0 , and both teams hit the woodwork early on ........ but felt very odd being shouted at by thousands of Geordies that my support was , shall we say , 'not good' , to be polite ! The support they gave Newcastle was fantastic and I was hoping for a black and white goal as I would have liked to have seen the celebrations !!

I raised this to my arsenal supporting friend today and in fairness, the actual context was he was asked by a journalist if he was worth the money he was on and the full quotes were as follows: “I would lie, though, if I said I didn’t enjoy the money I earn in football. I think we spend an incredible amount of time, energy and focus on our football career, because when we are not training or playing matches we still have to live for football. “It is always fair to ask whether the players are worth the incredible amounts of money we earn and ask whether we earn too much. “I believe we must be worth our salaries because that is how the mechanisms of the society works. As long as I work as hard as I can, I believe I am worth what is coming my way. “There is a price to pay as well for us players and, personally, I think I pay a big price with my body, my time and with never being able to have privacy when I am out and around other people. “Understand me correctly, I do not complain about that. It’s a natural part of being a professional footballer, but there is definitely a price to pay, when, for example, you can’t go out to eat in a restaurant with your girlfriend without having people chasing you.” Bendtner yesterday refused to talk about his love split and said: “I have never commented on rumours in the magazines regarding my private life. And I certainly don’t intend to do that now, either.” I certainly wouldn't be arguing if my salary got whacked up 20 fold overnight and wouldn't feel like a mercenary if I accepted 3 times what I am on to go and work somewhere else. It's only when there is an allegiance involved where things become clouded, for example I genuinely feel in Carroll's shoes I'd have stuck where I was, but for Bendtner, he appears to be a professional footballer doing it as a job, so fair play I suppose.

photo is the first penalty, caption claims it's the second... small, but hey ho i'm a pedant That's what I meant?

fwiw Referee365s take pretty much sums up my thoughts on the game:

Also, petty gripe, but can the sub-ed not even get simple things like which penalty this is right? http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/07/newcastle-united-arsenal-premier-league (although rare praise from Taylor...)

Watched a bit of footage that was likely mentioned earlier in the thread but I thought was pretty interesting... Seems about 3 mins into end of first half stoppage time Barton intends to go two-footed at Arshavin, who turns, and Barton pulls out partially, eventually going through the back of Arshavin's legs with and almost on his own knees, looked like a foul but nothing more thanks to him pulling out. But as a foul wasn't given, Barton manages to crawl back to his feet and play the ball forward, at which point Diaby comes in massively late, seemingly intent on going for Barton's ankle and not anywhere near or with any intention of getting the ball. Barton looked to be pretty hurt by the tackle but Diaby did the whole 'play hurt' thing as well and we got a free kick but there was no caution. May have meant Barton saw him miscontrol in the second half and go in as full blooded as possible. Not saying it was a foul by Barton, but he may not have gone in with quite as much vigour had someone else miscontrolled. Know we can't post links but as someone mentions 101greatgoals.com hoping i can mention that this was at the arsenalist.com? If not, apologies, please snip away.

If they wanted to build a team to win things & keep their best players & had the means to do so then they should react to what other clubs are willing to offer the lad if they want to keep him ofcourse. Otherwise they would lose him, as realistically they likely will at some point. Its very simple, if you dont negotiate you'll lose your best players as the player will nearly always go for the money if its being offered & they are being much more highly valued elsewhere. How much would you be willing to give Carroll? However much Liverpool offered. Like, if Man Utd came in and offered him £200k a week to move, we should give him £210k, yeah? Makes sense, it's his market worth, init. Think you're winding yourself up mate by making assumptions about my argument that you've jumped into half way. Ive said we should have negotiated Carrolls contract, i doubt we needed to match what pool were offering to keep him here. It just needed to be closer to matching his current valuation in the market. Even if thats only 15m or 20m, 30k a week as a wage does not match that value. How do you disagree? Fair enough. But then if he has a shocking next 12 months, shall we expect him to drop back down to what he was on 12 months ago?

But it's the same with virtually every club sadly. I know this has been mentioned before but it's worth reiterating that in the last couple of years Everton have lost Rooney, Tottenham have lost Berbatov & Carrick, Liverpool now Torres, Arsenal have lost a load of players and same will happen again with Fabregas at some point, even the Mancs lost Ronaldo. Would you describe all of these clubs as selling clubs? The only two not listed are City and Chelsea, and City almost lost Tevez when he kicked up. These two are the only two, due to their owners, that have the power to ensure their best stay put simply through huge finances. So, do we start dreaming of a Qatari takeover? Then we have the opposite problem of having a bunch of mercenaries whose sole purpose on tyneside is picking up a pay cheque. I think you summed it up best in the other thread, football is fucked whichever side of the fence you're on for very different reasons. Being a fan is a pretty fucking miserable lot with the game as it is right now.

Really is. It's like when Partridge does his 'I'm a lad' act. Can't see how they can keep him after sacking Gray now. Bye bye hairy hands. I hope Stelling hasn't been up to any of this, he's the only one I like.

I'd say I was actually more devastated by the appointment of Souness than the actual sacking of Bobby at the time

Chelsea FA Cup Semi-Final defeat. Was my first time at Wembley, actually my first time in London and first time at a game on my own. Our fans were fucking amazing but didn't make it any less painful.

Not sure how selling up would constitute big transfer news. Also, highly doubt he'd have sacked Hughton and chucked Pardew a 5.5yr deal if he was intending on an imminent sell up, and who would be stupid enough to waltz in and buy the club without lengthy negotiations and proper due diligence...

Stopped reading there. I guess the rest was just as hilariously moronic. You're right, his strike rate of circa 1 in every 4 games is infinitely superior to Shola's 1 in 5. It's not like he gets a lot more chances in his games at Arsenal either... Bendtner's record is around 1 in 2.5 when you calculate based on minutes on the pitch. He also is a much better all-round player, has far superior technique and scores important goals. Infact it's not even worth arguing. The mere comparison is ludicrous to the extreme. Bendtner is a good player who often suffers from poor decision making, but to suggest he is 'shit' or 'not Premier League quality' is simply moronic. You appear to have applied quote marks to words I haven't used?! The white shola mark was flippant (although looking at the stats on wiki they don't appear vastly different. Not sure what minutes on the pitch per goal Shola has, mind - you know per chance?) and based more on Bendtner's ability to look like someone who has never seen a football before when presented with a vast number of scoring opportunities. He is, I agree, of Prem quality, but so is Heskey (and arguably Shola), and many other strikers who could be described as a donkey based on a fair number of displays. I wouldn't want us to sign him for any number of reasons - cost, attitude, ability (in relation to cost).