Super Duper Branko Strupar

If we had the resources I'd say give him 2 or 3 weeks off. He needs it. He doesn't seem like the most resolute of characters, nice guy, but not thick skinned. He'll be kacking himself about his kid and the arguments with his wife, he won't be able to 'turn off' from that for training and matches etc. Shame for him as he is the next player in line in the team to be upgraded, timing is terrible. He deserves more from us as fans though. We're applauded up and down the country for being supportive fans, that needs to be the same for players with problems as well as those playing well. Reading a lot of the comments on here, especially about the likes of Simpson, we sound like a bunch of internet geeks happy to rip in to players and call them worse than s****. f***ing dispicible sometimes. He's still our RB and if he's down about whatever then we are exposed at RB in games. Isn't it our job to help strengthen/improve performances through support? Or get giddy and excited about being c***s and making him feel even worse therefore being even weaker at RB, then he makes more mistakes so we slate him more. Canny pathetic imo.

This. Freshen it up a little with the new boys, they'll be desperate to play so should turn in a performance to try and make sure they keep their place.

To see Del Piero in a Newcastle shirt would make my wet dreams come true. Get Pep Guardiola as boss too, maybe Luis Enrique as Assistant...

Arsenal. And it may have been the final. Fuck knows the specifics, I was no older than 5 or 6. It was a good interview regardless.

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere bur Gazza was on Radio2 on my way home. Was a quality interview. He was talking about his free kick against Liverpool for Spurs in the FA cup semi and said somethign along the lines of "Aye but it was David Seaman in goal, if you'd hoyed me mother in goal she would have done better." Funny stuff

Not sure we're going to see HBA on the side. Pardew's already said he see's him in the centre, I also reckon that's where he want's to play as well. If we're making changes and resting players get fucking Marveaux on ffs. More than deserves a fucking start!

It's not the football they're interested in, it's their business investment. It was a joke, but, aye. Never said it wasn't. Twas more of a point in agreement rather. But, aye...

Keep getting an unloadable page containing :8080 when I first try and load the site, seems to be only happening from work, though. It loads as http://www.newcastle-online.org:8080/nufcforum. I just delete the :8080 and reload it and it's fine, however. Not sure what the curl is.

It's not the football they're interested in, it's their business investment.

SHOLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

GFTI WEDNESDAY!!!! 2's Up?

Just had to turn this on. It's painful to watch.

Fuckin' Terrible today. Dzecko & Nasri on bench, Nani only getting 1 point... Thankfully Hernandez scored

“You only have to look at one wing and you are going to have Gareth Bale flying down one way, and then we have Obertan’s pace on the same side going the other. “That match-up alone should whet the appetite for most fans.” Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/10/14/pardew-s-eager-to-boost-nufc-points-total-72703-29593828/#ixzz1akwSWzAa Hmmmm Simpson and Obertan vs Assou-Ekotto and Bale. Spurs fans must be drolling over this. Dunno whos worse Simpson or Ekotto. Tiote will be drawn out towards Bale as he tends to V good quick wing players. Ekotto's a good player, man.

I reckon we've struck gold a bit with Pardew, like. Never expected him to take this club to heart as he has done. I think he deserves much more of the credit for the players settling in and the group being a welcoming 'group of lads' for others to come in to. His resolve seems to be solid and he has been quite obviously against a lot of the shit he has had to put up with from the board yet manage his team of staff and players well enough to do their jobs to the best of their ability despite the nonsensical hoohar from those above. Even his tactical nouse has surprised me, and he's honest enough to say he got it wrong. I think the confidence the players get from his confidence as a manager of those players is priceless.

Well, it all depends on the very reason we bought those players and if we would have bought similar quality had they not been available. Ashley decides he wants to be very tight with the purse strings and we have a scout at the club who seems to be very good at spotting good players. After so many avenues he found going the wrong way, he turns to Carr and frugality to save money and bring in players under that can hopefully perform to see if that would work. If not we'd have been absolutely fucking livid. Like I said, for me at the minute it is another gamble he is taking. The more tennis balls you throw at a fucking coconut the better chance you have of winning one. If it turns out okay then fan fucking tastic. If it improves us enough and he fucks off then great, if it improves us enough and continues in the same vein he can stay as long as he is doing so. Luck doesn't even exist I suppose, but if you win on a long bet you'd consider yourself lucky. His 100 -1 horse is ahead after the second hedge at the moment. After all the other trucks he's thrown his money at I'm not going to listen to any of his tips just yet.

I think you might have missed the point I made in the OP: Not sure I have. Even if I'm adding something to it, I think it's a bit of a pointless post without those additions. You've said that it "Definitely looks like the new owners have become more and more successful in identifying players who 'turn out' OK or better" under this 'new transfer policy' which, really, only came fully in to effect this summer, yet like I said, the likes of Gutierrez, Colo, Ben Arfa weren't bought under 'this policy. You could even argue that the likes of Simpson, Williamson, Routledge and Best were not purchased under this policy. Yes they were cheap but probably the best in those positions we could have hoped for at the time we bought them. All in all you're making a comparison between 2 apparent transfer policies that contain so much more than you are claiming. To clump those 2 lists together like that is just a bit silly. This summer is an Ashley gamble that is paying off, contrasted to the several other gambles he has made that certainly have not. To jump up and shout 'he's got it!" now is a bit of a gamble itself, going on the guy's track record. 7 games in and it sounds like this new policy is being hailed as a stroke of genius almost. Its cynical, but he was very lucky to nab well known good players like Cabaye, Marveux and Santon on the cheap. does that mean clubs likie man utd and real madrid are lucky in that other clubs realise that when they come sniffing round their players they'll naturally want to go so have a mega bargaining tool to start with........or maybe we were in the same market as everyone else and we were better at getting those players and luck had very little to do with it ? No, because if teams like Man Utd or Real couldn't identify those quality players for cheap they will spend more to ascertain a good enough player. Ashley wouldn't, that's my point. but they have took many players on the cheap, and worse they have took many youth players purely by bullying because of who they are. they use their strengths, we are finding a one to use, why knock it ? I'm not knocking it, I just don't think you can praise it yet. I'm sure people thought signings like Owen were a great idea 3 months after we had bought him.

I think you might have missed the point I made in the OP: Not sure I have. Even if I'm adding something to it, I think it's a bit of a pointless post without those additions. You've said that it "Definitely looks like the new owners have become more and more successful in identifying players who 'turn out' OK or better" under this 'new transfer policy' which, really, only came fully in to effect this summer, yet like I said, the likes of Gutierrez, Colo, Ben Arfa weren't bought under 'this policy. You could even argue that the likes of Simpson, Williamson, Routledge and Best were not purchased under this policy. Yes they were cheap but probably the best in those positions we could have hoped for at the time we bought them. All in all you're making a comparison between 2 apparent transfer policies that contain so much more than you are claiming. To clump those 2 lists together like that is just a bit silly. This summer is an Ashley gamble that is paying off, contrasted to the several other gambles he has made that certainly have not. To jump up and shout 'he's got it!" now is a bit of a gamble itself, going on the guy's track record. 7 games in and it sounds like this new policy is being hailed as a stroke of genius almost. Its cynical, but he was very lucky to nab well known good players like Cabaye, Marveux and Santon on the cheap. does that mean clubs likie man utd and real madrid are lucky in that other clubs realise that when they come sniffing round their players they'll naturally want to go so have a mega bargaining tool to start with........or maybe we were in the same market as everyone else and we were better at getting those players and luck had very little to do with it ? No, because if teams like Man Utd or Real couldn't identify those quality players for cheap they will spend more to acquire a good enough player. Ashley wouldn't, that's my point.

I think you might have missed the point I made in the OP: Not sure I have. Even if I'm adding something to it, I think it's a bit of a pointless post without those additions. You've said that it "Definitely looks like the new owners have become more and more successful in identifying players who 'turn out' OK or better" under this 'new transfer policy' which, really, only came fully in to effect this summer, yet like I said, the likes of Gutierrez, Colo, Ben Arfa weren't bought under 'this policy. You could even argue that the likes of Simpson, Williamson, Routledge and Best were not purchased under this policy. Yes they were cheap but probably the best in those positions we could have hoped for at the time we bought them. All in all you're making a comparison between 2 apparent transfer policies that contain so much more than you are claiming. To clump those 2 lists together like that is just a bit silly. This summer is an Ashley gamble that is paying off 7 games in to a season, contrasted to the several other gambles he has made that certainly have not. To jump up and shout 'he's got it!" now is a bit of a gamble itself, going on the guy's track record. 7 games in and it sounds like this new policy is being hailed as a stroke of genius almost. Its cynical, but he was very lucky to nab well known good players like Cabaye, Marveux and Santon on the cheap.

Totally agree. It was the likes of being lumbered with what was left from earlier managers Smith, Geremi, etc that we couldn't/struggled to shift in the Championship who had no value and were on ridiculous wages but it didn't take a rocket scientist to tell us not to buy s*** players. wouldn't disagree with either of these, I think once Mort had overseen the in-depth review of the finances they realised that the 'competitive wages' Allardyce had requested in order to attract these 'established' players were unsustainable. Throw in the fact that they weren't even doing it on the pitch and the football was the very definition of dull (Man City away IIRC?) and the new strategy was being swiftly put into place. Think they also looked at player turnover and the costs involved in selling/buying such a high % of the first team squad whenever a new manager had been brought in. Remember thinking at the time of Wise's appointment that they were trying to go down the route of a 'coach' to train and pick the players that the 'DoF' figure identified for transfer. Might have been a half-decent strategy but only if they didn't balls up the personnel involved that then led to the 12months of freebies and loans while they sorted out the wage structure and identified suitable targets. Like Disco said, buying players that aren't s*** isn't rocket science and the strategy of having a lower wage bill and lower costs due to turnover is Ashley's wet dream. I think we've been very lucky in the improvement we've seen and the main priority was saving money for Ashley, hardly makes him a good person for the club. The players that are established in the team and are pushing us forward were nothing to do with his transfer policy and were the result of scouting he had nowt to do with and it could quite have easily gone a different way for us and the new players in these few games, we wouldn't have this thread if that was the case. I still think the comparison in those '2 halves' is ridiculous, the time scale difference is beyond f***ing massive. Even if it all works out at the end of the season it's hardly that black and white (no pun). It's the guy's f***ing mindset and intentions that are the bone of contention and ultimately all that matters as long as he is our owner.

I think he means its yet another story on information that has been bled dry

...apart from the FA Cup they won last season. Aye, in my eagerness to have a go I discarded that. Seriously though, he's a right fucking pleb. He has no control or authority over his players, the majority obviously can't communicate with each other, his subs are horrific, Aguero blatantly needs a rest yet he subs Dzecko, there is no obvious leader on the pitch, no plan or tactic, no fucking idea.

Mancini is fucking useless. Either that or he gets orders from above. Shambolic manager throughout his time there. City can spend whatever they want, they'll win nowt with him.

So glad I watched this game tonight. :lol: Honestly man. Does Bruce have any idea at all?! Fucking Larsson, proper gutted we decided to get a better player instead. Fucks sake

What on earth was that from Hutton?