Wallsendmag

How a 70 odd year old dinosaur with a track record of mainly bringing in failures can still have so much imput at a professional football club at this level is beyond me.

McClarens tactics should be to get at us from the first whistle and go for the early goal like they did midweek. Then it's game over.

I think he probably is.

Not a go at you personally here but I still find it staggering that after 10 years of Mike Ashley's lies and deceit, and a few years of Charnley the tea boys incompetence, people were still prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. It was clear from Rafa's interview on deadline day that not only did he want new signings, but he expected to get them, and it was clear last night, as it has been for a while, that they were needed. Could well turn out to be another one of Ashley's failed gambles. The biggest failure of the lot.

Don't rate him but bigger problems than Gouffran in our team. The centre back partnership of Clark and Lascelles is shaky even at this level and we continue to concede an alarming amount of goals from speculative balls into the box that should be easy to defend against. I keep saying it but take Shelvey and Ritchie away and we are a bang ordinary Championship team. The last time we went up we had Enrique, Simpson, Coloccini, Butt, Routledge, Nolan & Carroll who were all excellent players at that level and at that time. This team is nowhere near as good.

Guardiola probably wants s proper defence anarl. Let down badly. It's hardly the Man City boards fault that he spunked £50m on John Stones and £16m on a goalkeeper with no hands like. Similarly a say Reading fan would look at us and consider us hysterical dweebs for claiming Rafa 'hasn't been backed'. I'd be interested to compare Rafa Benitez net spend to Jaap Stams mind.

You're giving him far too much credit tbh.

I wouldn't be surprised if that Dangermows is already on the police radar like. Definitely something sinister about him.

Guardiola probably wants s proper defence anarl. Let down badly. It's hardly the Man City boards fault that he spunked £50m on John Stones and £16m on a goalkeeper with no hands like.

Pretty much sums it up for me. Really hoped we would have brought in a quality central midfielder given how poor we looked in Shelveys absence. Even this afternoon Rafa seemed confident of adding to the squad. Who did you have in mind like? It's not really my decision but I wouldn't have minded us bringing in someone like James McCarthy.

Pretty much sums it up for me. Really hoped we would have brought in a quality central midfielder given how poor we looked in Shelveys absence. Even this afternoon Rafa seemed confident of adding to the squad.

We're in the Championship. Have you seen how s*** we are without those two man? Think we've managed OK without Gayle, given how well Murphy has played. We look hopeless without Shelvey but another key to us having a good end of the season is keeping Ritchie and Yedlin fit because those two look superb together down the right hand side.

Nah, thankfully internet hysteria is largely kept away from SJP Aye, the wongaloids like yourself will watch the match in near silence as per usual. Gerrin. Fwiw I'm in the corner, rarely in silence. Enjoy your night crying on here though to be honest, we moved right next to the corner from the millburn paddocks and have always had a decent time at home games. just a shame the noise doesnt carry to the rest of the stadium. The noise would carry if the rest of the ground actually joined in. The only time there's any movement or noise in the Leazes End is when an away fan chucks a flare down onto them.

Sean Dyche just been interviewed there. Said there's no value in the transfer window now. You either pay the money or you don't. Rafa wanted Townsend, those above him wouldn't pay what it would have taken to bring him here. Simple as that. We'll know in just over 3 months if it was a gamble worth taking. Personally with the transfer profit we made in the summer I would have invested most of it just to more or less guarantee being promoted. Now we're sweating on Shelvey and Ritchie being available from now till the end of the season. Do you think maybe that that transfer profit isn't held in a kitty just for transfers but is hoyed into the kitty with all other incomings to pay all other outgoings ? I think it's been used to cover the losses occurred by being relegated, yes. Let's not forgot the reasons we've been relegated twice in 7 years though.

Don't be silly.

Sean Dyche just been interviewed there. Said there's no value in the transfer window now. You either pay the money or you don't. Rafa wanted Townsend, those above him wouldn't pay what it would have taken to bring him here. Simple as that. We'll know in just over 3 months if it was a gamble worth taking. Personally with the transfer profit we made in the summer I would have invested most of it just to more or less guarantee being promoted. Now we're sweating on Shelvey and Ritchie being available from now till the end of the season.

Not when you look at the bigger picture of money to be gained from promotion. Sure, tell Villa that. We spent in the summer, and on course for promotion. Sure Andros would be a good signing, but Rafa should get that squad promoted with our without him. My slight problem with all this is Rafas reaction, but I take the meltdown when/if it happen. How good is the squad though? We all seen what happened when we lost ONE player for 5 games.

3-0 Palace. Townsend hattrick.

Ritchie would be a bigger miss than Gayle imo. Murphy is a more than an able deputy for Gayle. Frustrating that we haven't gone out and got the two players who would have rubber stamped promotion with the chasing pack strengthening, but as we all know Ashley is a risk taker, amongst other things.

John Karelse and Dave McKellar were pretty bad as well.

They're set up to defend and then try to hit it long for Defoe. Working so far. Can see them nicking it 1-0 like. They employed the same tactics v Man City which worked for years.

Need to wrap Shelvey and Ritchie in cotton wool and hope for the best.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if they win tonight. They always seem to up their game against the better teams.

The man's a loon. He had the worst predictions for us, for over a decade. His problem is that he allows himself to be blinded by bitterness which, as a (bad) pundit, he shouldn't do.