themanupstairs

A 4 lines post from Crumpy! Agreed 100%. Not sure if anyone watched the way Fulham dismantled Wolves yesterday. The way they delivered the ball to Pogrebnyak is exactly the way we should be getting it to Cisse. They tore through Wolves like a hot knife through butter.

any way to make MON's mouth rumble a la Tiote?

I'd hazard a guess that good football would do just that.

What bothers me about Pardew the most isn't the long ball tactics, or his handling of Ben Arfa. There are points for and against those arguments, and we can be here all day hashing them out. What I find most irritating, if not worrying, is what I perceive as a lack of sincerity in the way he addresses the media and the fans. He has the look of a used car salesman/dodgy chancer. A shiny gold incisor wouldn't look out of place in his gob. He is ineloquent, and often does not use proper English when speaking to the press, and for some reason it grinds on my nuts, and makes him sound out of his depth. Maybe all that is trivial, but what I'm trying to say is that I don't have a good gut feeling about this guy in the long term. Absolutely no denying the great job he's done taking over mid-season last year, and making us a solid outfit. But he talks big, as if he thinks he can lead us onto bigger things, and for some reason when he does that it sits a little uneasy with me.

Tbh, I think the wrong decision was appointing him. It was all a bit flavour of the month. He'd attracted a lot of attention as a really talented, up and coming manager, but it looks like this appointment was the wrong one for him at this stage in his career. In fact, it would have been tough on anyone. There's a streak of amateurism about Abramovic's decisions. Guardiola would be another one. His judgement came off spectacularly well with Mourinho and I wonder if that gave Abramovic too much faith in himself. The fact that he had worked under Mourinho at Chelsea previously, and knew the club, was certainly in his favor. Don't think he was a "flavor of the month" appointment, as he wasn't unknown to Abramovich. I think it was wrong to appoint him and expect instant success. It was the right appointment if they were to give him charge of the entire rebuilding process. It all came down to a personality clash between him and the dressing room. He'll go on to bigger and better things than Chelsea in the future imo.

Wasn't as bad as is being made out. An unsung hero's performance imo in the 2nd half. Turboshit the first. Kept pressing and harrying, moved it quickly and attacked the ball ferociously a few times. You could tell he wasn't on his game (or didn't have the space to play it), but his heart was fully in it.

Not disagreeing. But if you make this sort of move as the Chelsea hierarchy, you must be doing it knowing that it may not necessarily be overnight success. When you've paid that sort of money to get him out of his contract at Porto, surely you're thinking long-term? Bananas

Despicable tosspot of a club. Why hire someone like him if you're not going to give him time? It's not like they're languishing down the bottom! This player power shit is ruining football. Hope they completely fizzle out and finish 9th or summat.

About 3 minutes after the final whistle went, i found it fitting that my phone reminded me that it was time to check my heart rate. Fuck me what a relief!

Take a bow son! Take a fucking bow! Thank the lord for Mr. & Mrs. Ameobi

How this lad has not yet been unleashed on this league is beyond me. Can understand it slightly if he's kept on the bench in games where we want to keep it tight. At home however, and against the less spectacular teams (home or away) he should be playing every single time. Wonderful talent. Wish he'd scored the winner.

Can't decide whether i'm like this Or this

Beatez Les Peuples de Mackem

Love reading your posts man. Always make me feel like everything will be ok

Woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday. Took all of 5 seconds to realize it was not and relax. We best beat these spackems to a pulp or our season could fade into oblivion. Officially shitting it since the afternoon games ended.

Nice to read an article that's actually interesting for once, without all the cliches. Really starting to warm to this lad, and one really hopes we can use his technical ability in a way that allows him to have more impact on games. Certainly does look like a special talent.

Can't under estimate four more years of captain Colo continuity. Brilliant news

Absolutely wonderful news. IMO this signing is bigger news than Coloccini's - by a hair's diameter - but still.

Willy Boly it or willy place it, that's the question

Was having a chat with a guy I met recently, and we got talking about football. He asked who I supported and when I said NUFC, his reply was, "you lucky b******"! I asked him who he supported, and he went on for about 20 minutes trying to justify why he supported Sunderland. Apparently went to uni there, and met his wife to be, who was a Mackem, and promised to support Sunderland for life if she went out with him. Rues the day apparently As far as the game is concerned, I hope the new lads truly understand what a win would mean to us, and I'm relying on the likes of Coloccini, Krul and Tiote to make sure we don't slack whatsoever. High scoring game, with the lead changing back and forth, and a 4-2 win to us eventually. Ba, Cisse x2, Simpson to score.

Thanks S Korea for posting that win. Means Lebanon reach the final round of qualifiers for the first time in our history despite going down 4-2 in the UAE KSA knocked out at this stage has me feeling very good

Cyprus: Big derby yada yada Not as big as Liverpool - Everton or Manchester derby yada yada (which they never seem to fail to mention when talking about the Tyne-Wear) They also always like to remind the viewers that cypriot legend Nick Papavasiliou "starred" for Newkkasol, as did legendary cypriot league player and coach Temuri Ketsbaia.

Just noticed Cisse in that