Wallsendmag

As good as the 1st half was, conceding 3 goals in the final 20 minutes to a team totally out of form and lacking in confidence is very poor. Clearly we didn't have the quality to call on off the bench to see the game out but even so that's a massive kick in the teeth. If anything I hope it's persuaded Rafa to start to play a bit more offensively though because we are definitely more effective playing that way.

:lol: All I'm saying is that you can't automatically just say he's going to be shite when the likes of Dubravka, Lascelles, Yedlin and Fernandez cost less than him and are all good or reasonable standard PL players. Obviously you don't have the intelligence to grasp that, and that's fair enough. Enjoy your day.

He cost £5M, is anybody really surprised he can't cut it at this level? He cost £6.75m which makes him more expensive than the likes of Dubravka and Lascelles for example. Calm down Mike. Just because we got a good deal with 1/2 players doesn't excuse the rest fact that 6.75m buys you fuck all. Don't be such a wanker eh? I've said all along he's no good but you can't just say he's no good because he only cost x amount when we have some very good players that cost less than him. If you can't understand that you're thicker than I first gave you credit for.

He cost £5M, is anybody really surprised he can't cut it at this level? He cost £6.75m which makes him more expensive than the likes of Dubravka and Lascelles for example.

As I've said all along he's stealing a living as a Premier League footballer.

That makes zero sense. Why would he need to loan the club money to outsource a function? Anyway, as said many times before, the 'debt' to Ashley is meaningless as a number. Surely if the football club owes him x that is added onto the sale price at negotiation time if a buyer ever comes forward though.

It's a shame the HMRC investigation has gone quiet. Surely they could have dug up some sort on him.

Currently neck and neck with Accrington Stanley in the footballing pyramid.

If Rafa leaves it's a Pardew/McClaren/Carver standard manager who's replacing him. Surprising how many people don't realise that.

Voted a 9. This rabble already look as good as down. We all knew deep down these players would struggle to stay in the PL and only the sheer fight and determination they had in them would keep them up last season but they seem to have lost all that now as well. Lost our first 4 home games for the first time in our history now so it's not looking good for staying up. However as I've said before Premier League or Championship, it makes no difference as long as Ashley is here do I'm very relaxed whatever the outcome.

https://twitter.com/AshleyOutdotcom/status/1045771393508536320

The advert is outside Sports Direct in Consett if anyone was wondering.

https://twitter.com/BenArfaChancer/status/1045656142192529408

It was last season. Used to show up as Sodexo Prestige on my bank statement. Never been to a match this season but assume they still do It.

The single most important person to be associated with NUFC by a country mile. As has been said further up it's sad that any fan under the age of 30 couldn't experience his 1st time as manager here and how important he was for our club. Can't wait to see him on Tuesday night!

Pretty sure I read not all that long ago that NUFC attract the 3rd highest TV viewing figures in England behind Man Utd and Liverpool and that is despite us being probably the most boring team to watch. Probably the reason Sky have us on so often as well. For supposedly not a big club we certainly attract a lot of interest, and always have.

Can't believe you sneaked their 3rd Divison title win in there in a list of their major honours

Sunderland have 6 English titles 2 Fa Cups and a big fanbase are they a huge club too??? They are a biggish club. Certainly the biggest in the 3rd Division by a mile. Nowhere near as big as Athletic Bilbao though. Can't believe anyone could say they aren't a big club. They literally tick every box in the argument.

Bilbao are a huge club. 8 Spanish titles, 23 Spanish cups and a huge fanbase.

There was a well documented argument on Soccer Saturday a few years ago regarding who is the bigger club, us or Villa, between Stelling and Paul Merson. Obviously Merson is thick as pig shit but Stellings case for us was far stronger than Mersons for Villa. Certainly at this moment in time, despite Ashley we are bigger than some middle of the road championship club.

He is really. Their last 3 fixtures have been Fleetwood Town, Burton Albion and Rochdale.

any other day we would have lost that 2 or 3 -0 very lucky to escape with a point he's the best coach we've had in my lifetime like, there's not a doubt in my mind keegan and robson did great things but in terms of pure coaching ability rafa is out on his own Have to disagree there. He's an excellent coach but I feel Keegan and Sir Bobby have the edge on him. Tactically Rafa was superb last season, but in our Championship season, with the best squad on the league I thought he got it wrong quite a few times, especially at SJP. Personally I love all three but my order of preference will always be Keegan>Robson>Benitez. Yes Keegan and Robson had more to spend than Rafa but let's not forget the starting position Keegan inherited. Dragging us from certain relegation to Division 3 to 3rd place in the Premier League in 2 seasons takes some beating.

This might turn out to be the most boring season in living memory. It's got a long way to go to get to the boredom levels of the 1990/91 season!

No game this season should be filed under "must win". Whichever league we are in is largely irrelevant under the current regime.

The lad they were racially abusing down at Burton last week is on a hattrick today!