durhamunigeordie

Tried that. She's been to a couple of the Europa's already, thought i'd managed to sort that, but then bang last night she said 'well you can still go, but I don't want to.' Problem is, i'm based in Somerset at the moment so if it wasn't for the match I probably wouldn't be staying up that long!

Why did the first leg have to be on bloody valentines day?! I thought i'd managed to get it accepted that I was going to the match, but then last night I get 'oh you know when you said about going to the football on valentines day, were you joking?'.

No league game in between the two legs so might as well give it a good go at least. Home leg could be the game for Hatem to get some match fitness.

yeah that's what I'm worried about If that lineup is right with Gouf over Jonas I can hack it just about. At home it should be Anita/Cab/Sissokho though.

Not that bizarre. 'We need a tackler out there.'

What's this blatantly obvious team then? Krul; Debuchy, Coloccini, MYM, Santon, Sissoko, Anita, Cabaye, Gouffran, Marveaux, Cisse. I like it, but it's not blatantly obvious. It's any 11 from the above mentioned and Jonas & Taylor. Sounds obvious to me if they're the alternatives. I'd agree, but we all know that isn't necessarily how the man picking our team sees it.

What's this blatantly obvious team then? Krul; Debuchy, Coloccini, MYM, Santon, Sissoko, Anita, Cabaye, Gouffran, Marveaux, Cisse. I like it, but it's not blatantly obvious. It's any 11 from the above mentioned and Jonas & Taylor.

He's also said he's told them that they need to hit the ground running, no time to ease in. Pardew has made some shocking selection/sub decisions over his time here, but I honestly can't see him being stupid enough to start Shola and Willo. One of his assets is his man management skills - coming out and saying 'yea well the bloke i've needed to start at CB most of the season isn't up to it so he won't even be on the bench on tues' would be ridiculous, even if it is true. Perhaps it's just me being naive and hoping.

Great goal to be fair. Edit - or not!

Sad thing is he's not far wrong. Sammy has not shown much more than Nile did 2 seasons ago.

I hope so. Really needs it.

Peter Odemwingie losing the plot on twitter.

He adds a new dimension to my FIFA online side. Very quick.

Taylor is alongside Colo in the snippets you get of training in Pards press conference.

Purple, purple everywhere...

What a week.

I'd imagine they will train at least one of Sat/Sun this weekend as well as Monday.

Anyone else seen the club's wiki page?!

If they aren't done in the Jan window then they are classed as 'emergency' loans aren't they, meaning we can recall quite easily? Hope to see quite a few go out. Always enjoy having our players in the lower leagues to look out for. Sad is it as, it means I take more interest in the results of other teams on a Saturday.

Gosling must be very frustrated. I'm not saying that he is good enough, in fact chances are he isn't, but if he was ever going to get the chance to show what he can do it would have been over the last couple of months. Injury prevented him from doing so and now i'd be surprised if he starts a first team game this season, particularly if Sissoko comes in.

Tweeted about needing to brush up on his French an hour ago! (Can't be Giggs as there is no mention of it in this thread!)

If these two signings happen then hopefully Tav and Dummett can go back on loan - preferably to the Championship.

Him, HBA and a new CB all playing for the rest of the season will keep us up.

Being pedantic, but that's not a proper apology. Take the bit about obviously taking it the wrong way out and it sounds better.

Great tackle in a way.