PRL

No it isn't. It is. They dropped the Borough last year.

Was rewatching MOTD2 from last week the other night, Liverpool v Bolton match came on and Gerrard played the through ball for the first Torres goal. Listening to Dixon and Warnock afterwards and I'm pretty sure one of them said 'Gerrard is pretty much the only player in the league who could have played that ball'. It's as if the only thing Barton has done all season is punched Pedersen. Bollocks to it though, long may it continue. As for Dalglish, I think it's a disaster waiting to happen. Not quite as bad as Wilkinson to the Mackems but he's done fuck all for over a decade, that's a long time. As someone above mentioned, if they didn't think Hodgson was progressive I reckon they're in for a shock. Still don't think they're out of the woods yet this season. Similar amount of points to what we had at this stage when we got relegated, no? Jonny Hall - Thank you very very much, hadn't even thought about betting on this until you posted odds last week / week before. A nice £170 net profit across the whole bet, much appreciated.

Somewhere in the depths of this thread I'm sure someone suggested this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKNO0qEbIDI Would love to hear the whole of SJP singing that, but realise highly unlikely!

In fairness they're both integral to the team. Wouldn't put either of them 'most important by a distance'

That was my immediate thought. It was just the subsequent conversation that ensued made me doubt myself!

Am I just being an idiot... I thought the article above was fake??

No chance at all that Ashley would pay ANYONE £100k a week! Micah Richards has said he might want out... Would be more interested in him, although Simpson hasn't done anything wrong this season

Yourself and Neesy have put me in a reasonable position. Got in at 15/8 on Roy when you pointed it out last week. £100 plus free £25 from joining Paddy Power, then got in on Grant at 4-1 when Neesy posted the story from SSN at £30 and took Ancelotti at the same price and amount (altho he has since gone longer). So, still hoping for Roy to go, but if Grant or Ancelotti go i've just about covered myself. If someone else goes, I'm fucked.

Worth almost 400 quid to me if Hodgson goes next, so undoubtedly it won't be him... Cannot believe how many are on the edge.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_6636327,00.html If I was a manager I think I'd actually ban my players from having these...

I would rather have Welbeck than Ben Afra on the footage I have seen this season and I'm not having a pop at Arfa as I haven't seen a great deal of him to make an accurate assessment but Welbeck is going to be a top player. I've seen Ben Arfa twice when Newcastle have been on the box,once was a Sunday afternoon game and he got took off early in second half(can't remember who it was against) and in all honesty thought he was very average and the other game was Man City when he got injured so obviously can't judge him on that. So you can't judge your attendances or Andy Carroll on half a season, yet you can judge Ben Arfa on one half?! Hmmm...

Cheers, I've had a punt at those odds. Fingers crossed

According to Twitter Benitez sacked...

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt41/soccermagnets/PapaWifeKeyring.jpg

how is pardew worse than JFK exactly? come on, help me here I'd say the situation is worse. When JFK came in we were a fucking shambles already. It was the icing on a shambolic cake. Up until Monday we were in a bad patch but a solid position after a good start to the season. The scale of change in outlook since Monday morning (48 hours ago!) is more dramatic

Nope, not me. Why not? You realise if the players have your attitude we are dead? Yeah, because had they had your attitude under Hughton we'd be top of the league.

I'm intrigued Ikon, are you a season ticket holder / do you get to many games? Because if you do, fair play, but if you don't, telling people who travel the length and bredth of the country, spending large portions of their disposable income cheering the team on, often pissing off their nearest and dearest no end by either not being around or being genuinely fucking annoyed when they are around following a defeat, is a bit fucking rich. As I said in another thread, I could never stop caring altogether, but i'll be fucked if I'm sinking in a massive financial and emotional investment into the club when it's owned by someone with absolutely zero respect for those of us who fill up the grounds. So, whilst it won't be 'the end' for me supporting Newcastle (I don't really think it would be for anyone on here. After all, we're all obsessed enough to sit around ranting and raving with a bunch of people the majority of whom we don't know) it will certainly be the end of me spending any money whatsoever going to the games and spending the other weekends glued in front of a tv or some kind of dubious stream.

When Pardew left West Ham he was arrogant enough to think he'd land another job in the big time. He's subsequently sat on the scrapheap and then was sacked by a League 1 team. I think his ego is suitably damaged that he'd take anything that involved managing a Premier League club, even with all the caveats Ashley and Llambias will want to place on it. After all, if they give him no money and make him sell players he's in a no lose situation: we get relegated, it wasn't his fault, no one could do the job under those circumstances. We stay up, he's performed a miracle, 3 and a half year contracts all round. No way out.

No. I'm finished with NUFC until he goes, not because I really dislike him, I've just had enough of Ashley now. It feels like I'm wasting precious minutes of my life on the club while Ashley is here. Never thought I'd ever say that. Never. I can understand that BUT as much as I hate Ashley, I still obviously want the club to win and do well I felt like that was being achieved, but that still stop Ashley changing the expectations. Clearly this guy is thinking outside of your typical Chairman. I'm with TM on this one, really tempted to shamefully stop attending games, as at the moment (and this could be over reaction!) I'm fed up with Ashley's Toon. Pretty much the same as this. I'd never be able to stop looking out for results, etc. but i'm not spending my weekend emotionally invested in the pre match, the game and the aftermath if it's this cunt in charge. I'm sure I'm the same as many in that my mood is intrinsically linked to what goes on at Newcastle and right now it's just not worth it. If Ashley is determined to fuck the club up, then what's the point in getting so worked up, investing so much time, money and emotion following the team? Just going to have to sit it out until Ashley fucks off.

Nail on head.

This is what happened. they both went for the same ball, not sure whose fault it was though. i was sure it was carroll that reached it. Different incident. That did happen, but there was another occasion where Shola nodded it down and Carroll had followed the flight of the ball and was in no mans land. I noted in the match thread it was one of those where it was commented 'if Nolan had been playing it'd be 2-0'. I'd likely agree, although I'm not sure Nolan would have got in the box that quickly.

But why 3 days before the vote? It's just sensationalist bullshit which the BBC constantly claim to be above. Mark Thompson is one of the biggest cunts in media and he is setting out his stall to create as much hype and controversy as possible. Whatever Blatter says, this could have an impact on whether we get the WC, or whether a fuckload of govt (ie tax funded) money gets spunked up the wall due to the vanity of Thompson. Just another example of the BBC dumbing itself down and seeking out viewing figures as opposed to genuinely wanting to uncover misdemeanours.

Agree with all of this. On a similar note, Zigic seems to be the same (although I'm only going off yesterday and Stoke defenders are probably the wrong guage)

Right... except he isn't, as virtually every ball that comes to him at chest height sticks to him and gets laid off. I do not recall berating Carroll at any point this season or at the end of last for persistantly giving the ball away. I'd say firstly, Carroll doesn't have Rafael Van der Vaart on the end of his knockdowns, making things a lot simpler for him. However, as Carroll now has almost as many (i may be wrong, it may be as many / more) assists as he does goals, he's obviously pretty decent at bringing team mates into the game. As regards attacking the ball / heading on goal, it's pretty crucial if you have a massive centre forward his key asset is going to be headed goals, Carroll is streets ahead of Crouch in this respect. What, you mean like cross body volleys from long high balls? Crouch was a Villa reserve when he was 21. He had half a good season at QPR in the Championship when they were relegated then a decent season at Pompey, before he regressed massively for 2 years and had to fight his way back at Southampton. He has continued to yoyo throughout his career, flitting between being just too good and just not good enough for the teams he plays for. I won't argue that Carroll is only off the back of 12 months of ludicrous progress and none of us know how it is going to go for him, but to somehow deduce that he'd be lucky to be as good as Crouch who hasn't really progressed from the player he was at 21, when Carroll seems to have the raw attributes to be a far better player, seems a massive leap to make and based purely on your opinion as opposed to any evidence to the contrary. I'm also sure he's kept awake at night by the fact you aren't convinced by him as a player