Hughesy

Lord give me strength. Where's the ignore function when you need it?

I think I'll cope just fine without your help. Thanks for the offer though.

What a wise idea... turn a blind eye to his strengths and just keep banging on about the same things ad nauseam. Great strategy... He never said that at all ffs. The post from toptoon however is gushing praise with little balance but lets not let any facts spoilt things eh? It's exactly what he said. Are you thick? Or in your mind are people only allowed to repeatedly go on about a players strengths rather than their all round game? 'Nobody' merely pointed out it would be a very onesided post which is was yet you cry about it? What is wrong with giving an honest view of Jonas instead of glossing over the truth to praise him like too many on here do? Edit: Its pathetic that Routledge often gets slaughtered yet Jonas is allowed to get away with anything on here. Wtf are you chuntering on about? You really can be a pretty objectionable poster at times. Of course it was a one-sided post, but it's a bit inane to then address it in a condescending fashion. It's clear to everyone that Jonas isn't a perfect winger by any stretch of the imagination - but he offers a hell of a lot to offer the team. As someone said earlier - this thread is genuinely on a loop.

What a wise idea... turn a blind eye to his strengths and just keep banging on about the same things ad nauseam. Great strategy... He never said that at all ffs. The post from toptoon however is gushing praise with little balance but lets not let any facts spoilt things eh? It's exactly what he said.

What a wise idea... turn a blind eye to his strengths and just keep banging on about the same things ad nauseam. Great strategy...

I don't see any marked difference in the amount of goals conceded under Pardew compared to Hughton. Hughton - 25 goals in 16 games. (1.56 goals conceded per game). Pardew - 13 goals in 9 games. (1.44 goals conceded per game). I'd love to know what you think Pardew has actually done to make the defence more porous (in your opinion). Do you think we have changed the way we defend? Has he told them to take more risks? Not bother with marking?

Always found it strange that 'Where's the passion lads?' equated to the angriest you could get on FM.

You clearly don't have loads of work on at uni... ;-)

Yeah - undoubtedly Pardew's influence. He probably told Williamson to start defending like a muppet and Williamson decided to follow his instructions.

Thousands? Can mackems count?

Odd rumour floating around that we might be the subject of a takeover bid... probably rubbish.

Wasn't sure where to dump this and it is written by Alan Oliver... http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/news/2011/02/06/mike-ashley-to-stay-at-newcastle-and-splash-andy-cash-102039-22902145/

Deserves so much overdue credit. Some people's opinions about him are just ridiculous.

Apparently has delayed contract discussions until we have guaranteed safety. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1353870/Newcastle-Sunderland-Andy-Carroll-Darren-Bent-departures.html?

Not sure if this has any weight to it at all but thought I'd add to the 'did Carroll want to leave' debate - but a work colleague (a Liverpool fan) says his dad works with Wraith's dad. Apparently there quite a few more texts from Carroll stating that he was forced to leave.

Not really sure how anyone can blame (as they have done) Pardew for this. Was he meant to start writing the cheques himself?

He was pretty woeful last night - but I have to say it was more the service than anything else. Think we need to work what he is going to be (above and beyond an impact sub). He certainly isn't strong enough nor his hold up play good enough for him to be a target man. I think he is much better playing off he main striker and playing on the shoulder of the last defender. Definitely needs to improve his positional play though and general awareness.

As if Jonas was even close to our worst player tonight.

As if any pundits are any good anyway. It's all blindingly obvious. I can count on one hand the number of times any pundit anywhere has ever said anything particularly enlightening.

I don't get what more could be done though? Carroll Tell him to f*** off and wait till the summer. What would that have achieved? Postponing the inevitable, as well as the transfer fee potentially decreasing? Meanwhile we've got a high-profile player unhappy at the club. So what? Give him a new contract when he earns it not when he demands it. Why would his value have gone down? Liverpool were gonna offer him it then and there. There's no way he wasn't gonna end the month without the contract he wanted. Eh? He can't go until we accept a bid. We don't give him another contract and we don't accept the bid. Carroll stays. Simple. Or we state that Carroll can only go yesterday if or when we find an appropriate replacement. If we don't get one, Carroll stays.

I don't get what more could be done though? Carroll Tell him to f*** off and wait till the summer. What would that have achieved? Postponing the inevitable, as well as the transfer fee potentially decreasing? Meanwhile we've got a high-profile player unhappy at the club. So what? Give him a new contract when he earns it not when he demands it. Why would his value have gone down?

I don't get what more could be done though? Carroll, presumably, wanted us to match Liverpool's wages. Damn right we refused and ended up getting a colossal fee in compensation for a pretty massive loss. The fact we rejected previous bids showed to me that no one at the club wanted him to go. The Ashley cartoon that people have constructed would have accepted the first bid of £23m. Reject the bid and refuse to let him go??

Not posted all day. Just not sure where to even begin. Just utterly bemused and confused.

No doubt, but Ben Arfa barely speaks a word of English and I doubt that they will understand each other that well and be able to develop a great understanding during just a couple of weeks. And I'm agreeing with you about Jonas, I'd sell him if we got decent money in, but don't change something right now. We're on track to finish top half and challenging for that Europa League qualifier spot, why change it now? Rubbish. Jose had the easiest afternoon of his career against Everton with Ben Arfa down the left because Ben Arfa was busy murdering Everton every time he touched the ball. Again, remember that it was also way to easy as they had no threat on their right flank. But again play Tottenham with Lennon - Hutton, Man Utd with Rafael - Nani, Arsenal with Walcott - Sagna and it will be much harder. Trust me I'd love to see Ben Arfa and Jose working together, and while i believe he'd be more effective (might be wrong) centrally behind the striker theres no doubt that if they clicked they'd be the deadliest left flank in the Premier League. It might be one of those cases then where we build the team to adapt to what Ben Arfa does, ala Ginola. Because if shows the kind of form he did against Everton then we'll murder teams, especially at home. In the case of Jonas, he links up well with Jose obviously, but remember Opta posting on twitter that he's only completed 15% of his crosses this season, which is f***ing dire. He's very strong on the ball, quick and a decent passer. I'd be half tempted to experiment with him in the hole behind the front man next pre-season just to see if he could play there. How did 15% compare to other wingers? I can't believe that any cross conversion rate is very high.

Genuinely don't get how anyone can object to this. He was excellent 2 seasons ago. Prior to that he was pretty good. He's had a couple of off-seasons (both where, for one reason or another, he's been frozen out). We have him on loan. We need bodies in the squad. Don't get the whole 'ruining team spirit' argument. If the team spirit is that great, the addition of Ireland is not going to disrupt it. If it does, the team spirit can't have been all that great to start with... So what if he doesn't fit into the current rigid system - we need more than 11 players and need to be able to adapt our team to different games and situations.