Away Toon

From the BBC Former Newcastle winger Sylvain Marveaux says he is "co-operating" with investigators after he was arrested in a tax fraud case. In a statement, the 31-year-old said he knows "few" details about the investigation but it involves his 2011 transfer from Rennes to Newcastle. The Frenchman, one of four people arrested in the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) case, has now been released. He made 39 appearances for the Magpies before returning to France last year. French authorities said secret payments made to players and agents during deals between French and Premier League clubs are the focus of the investigation. Newcastle and West Ham's grounds were raided on Wednesday, as HMRC deployed 180 officers across the UK and France. 'Business as usual' at Newcastle Newcastle's managing director Lee Charnley was also arrested, but later released without charge. The French Prosecutor's office says 10 searches were carried out in France and four people were placed in police custody.

Actually french speaking players of west African origins, whether they be french, Belgium, Senegalese, cote d'ivoire, etc. have most of the most promising players in the world.

Quite honestly if Rafa doesn't get Anita off now and Yedlin on he has know more idea about what he's doing than I do.

We are so slow all over the pitch, no dynamism, no athletism, no energy, nervous and altogether not very good.

If the Preston player up against Anita is so quick how come we didn't know and played Yedlin instead?

I thought Rafa specialised in a strong defensive backbone for his teams. We are diabolical both individually and collectively

Anita is so slow what is wrong with him?

Where the fuck were the defense

Let's do it.

What is the top earner at the club on? 60 maybe 80k a week. Rooney apparently gets 250k.

I'm not convinced the squad is better that it's performing, not much better anyway. We've got 4-5 very good players, the rest in reality are bang average. This is another misconception imo that is regularly posted on here. We have a small number of players who look good at this level but very good players they are not, even in the championship. Gayle and Ritchie have scored plenty of goals but have often looked anonymous, Ritchie today was very poor. Shelvey has as many good qualities as terrible, the rest are as you say bang average. Clark who was pretty diabolical as a premier league defender has been by far our best player.

The problem is however that this goes beyond purely today's game and there's a more valid criticism of the way we've been playing for months now, even though you've been insisting on here that we've been playing well. Our modus operandi is attempting to grind out narrow results, in a way that more often than not has had me either bored f***ing shitless or frustrated and on the edge of my seat. There's only so much you can do with a rigid system lacking width or movement, and relying on a prolific striker and a watertight defence. This has finally blown up in our faces as the pressure of the season has cranked up, but honestly it's been threatening for a while. There's an argument to be made that we lack the personnel to play a more expansive way, and I am inclined to agree with that, as I posted on here a couple of weeks ago. I don't however think that a rigid 4-2-3-1 is the ONLY f***ing option we have. Rafa has been taking the p*ss with his stubbornness and way of playing and honestly if we do end up not going up there has to be serious questions asked of his position. That said, that's IF we don't go up. Rafa is stealing his wage at this moment in time. Agree with pretty much all that was posted. The football is s**** and now results are matching performance. That was embarrassing today. Give it a rest man! Name another manager who would have had this squad promoted this season? I keep seeing this argument put forward. We will never know but for starters I would have thought Rowett, Hughton, Wagner and probably Monk, possibly Warnock and that's just from the championship. Howe, Dyche etc absolutely.

Dummett is dire.

Maybe Huddersfield will save us yet.

Maybe for the play offs

So another puncture or the wheels off completely?

And that's way Atsu should always play

I don't think anybody made as many changes as we did today. Ipswich made 0, Leeds made 0, Brighton made 2, we make 5.

Ipswich didn't.

Should have picked the same team as against Leeds, this is just rotation for rotations sake, Rafa trying to prove he's in control and knows what he's doing. Apparently he doesn't.

Well deserved, wheels are coming off.

I just saw Dummett do something useful, followed by Ritchie messing up the header.

How come Ipswich can play the ball around nicely and all we have done is hoof it? If it's Rafas instructions he's maybe not the tactical genius his fan club thinks he is.

The performance against Leeds is looking like an aberration as we back to being seriously shit again.

Ipswich well on top. I couldn't see why their goal was chalked off.