geordiemonster

I don't think any of our creative players did much today, but as Stokes tactics seemed to be to stifle the game then it is not surprising.

It's probably too early to talk about "must win" games, but I've had Wigan pegged for the drop since early in the season so if we don't beat them then I fear for us. Our home form is what is going to decide if we stay up or not and to be honest I would have expected 4-6 points from the first 3 games, so we are well behind that.

The rumour I heard was that Tiote was injured, which was fair enough but we fell apart when him and Ben Arfa went off. Also, you have to ask the question - just how shite does Kevin Nolan have to be to get subbed? His sumo impression for the free kicks was just embarrassing!

Although we lost today I don't think I could be arsed watching stoke every week. They have no tactics, other than launching it into the box - fair enough they won, but....

He was utterly awful today. Apart from the fact he was at fault for the first and scored the second his all round game was not that of a premier league defender.

Well, I'm sorry I could have wikipedia'd it, but I simply couldn't be arsed and I don't see why it is ridiculous when it was 5 years before I was even born...

Nah, we would have gone down, I was terrified. Turns out we got relegated anyway, but that's another story. It was just such hideous anti-football, I honestly wished I wasn't a football fan at all for most of his reign. What came after wasn't much better, but with Sam we wouldn't have gone anyway. This is what really pisses me off about fans of other clubs and their perception of Newcastle. For me (and I know there are many who disagree) trophies aren't that important. Christ knows we haven't won owt since 68 or whatever so we can't be accused of being glory hunters but I don't think its asking much to be entertained and not have to sit through games where pigeons on the pitch provide more entertainment. Entertainment first for me, trophies second,

I never thought I would say it, but I hate Sam more than I ever did Souness. Its a combination of managerial arrogance and god awful football that did it. As an aside, I was arguing with a Mackem a while ago who was adamant Sam would have kept us up. Apart from the fact I think we were heading for the drop when he got sacked I don't think I could watch 19 home games of the "football" he served up. He asked me whether I would prefer us to play Blackburn type football but perhaps win a cup or play Arsenal football and perhaps not win owt....errr let me think!

Hahaha. Real Madrid? Barcelona? How deluded is this bloke? I can just imagine the team talk "Alves - whenever you get the ball I just want you to hit it AS HARD AS YOU CAN up the field and David Villa I want you to try and be on the end of it. The rest of you, especially Messi just stand round and look useless."

That doesn't mean that it is not going to happen and with the level of debt clubs have now I honestly think its only a matter of time before a big club goes completely out of business. I think the days of ever increasing transfer fees and wages are rapidly approaching an end and we are going to see a massive contraction in both areas, very soon. The current spending is unsustainable - imagine if Man City's owners stopped their financial backing, they would be in trouble, very quickly. With regards to Ashley - my feelings have softened a bit towards him recently. I can see what he is trying to do, but he has gone about it really badly which is why there is so much resentment towards him. If him and Derek had been more open about what they were doing then I don't think the fans would have reacted as they did. I would say with 100% confidence no major football club will ever go our of existence in this country ever. If Man City's backers pulled the plug what would be their debts, wages and what? I don't really see what else they would need. They've invested all this money on massive, big name players presumably on massive salaries (if the 500k a week for Kaka/Ibrahamovic are to be believed). If they lost the backing then how would they be able to pay that? The gates they get ~40,000 certainly wouldn't so they'd have to sell people, presumably at knock down prices and then it all snowballs from there. I think there are a myriad of reasons why football has to change - less people are going. I was shocked there was only 43k for our first game of a new premier season and there are various reasons for that, but amongst them will be the fact that people are tightening their belts. I know I am, in case my company decides to make swingeing cuts. I don't pretend to know much about Man City's owners, but I presume a lot of their money comes from oil which is a finite resource and eventually they aint gonna have that money. Could be an overly negative view I don't think its a bad thing if the obscene salaries these people get for kicking a football round become history though.

That doesn't mean that it is not going to happen and with the level of debt clubs have now I honestly think its only a matter of time before a big club goes completely out of business. I think the days of ever increasing transfer fees and wages are rapidly approaching an end and we are going to see a massive contraction in both areas, very soon. The current spending is unsustainable - imagine if Man City's owners stopped their financial backing, they would be in trouble, very quickly. With regards to Ashley - my feelings have softened a bit towards him recently. I can see what he is trying to do, but he has gone about it really badly which is why there is so much resentment towards him. If him and Derek had been more open about what they were doing then I don't think the fans would have reacted as they did.

I hope Houghton isn't tempted to make changes to the Villa team to accommodate HBA, Tiote and especially Campbell. I'd like to see them all play, but hopefully once the game is safe (trying not to tempt fate!) For what its worth I'm intending to get their early tomorrow so I can put a bet on, which I don't normally. I have this idea (based on nothing whatsoever) that is gonna be 4:0...cue loss of money and being p'd off/skint on Sat night It's nice to continue going to games and expecting to get something, like we did last season rather than hoping against hope that we can get a draw against the likes of fekking Derby! (Thanks Sam, you useless fat twat for destroying my enthusiasm!)

I doubt he'll get an appearance at St James' as he is well down the pecking order, but if he does then I will boo the f**k out of him. I remember how excited I was when my mate texted to tell me we had signed him - not on loan, but permanently. Then I remember the photo call where he didn't seem to have much interest in the club. Then there was the crushing disappointment when you realised that the scores of Liverpool fans were right and he was a mercenary twat. Over the years we've bought some right s**te, but he is the only one that I can say I absolutely and utterly detest. I am glad his career has gone down the pan and I hope he is rightly remembered as an injury prone, mercenary b***ard!

I hope you are right. He is a player who has never really hit his potential and if he can cut out all this on and off field stupidity then he could be a superb player for us. I'm sick of all his bollocks about how sorry he is and how he owes the fans. Words are cheap - its about time he started proving it and this season has been a decent start for him.

I think it was yeah (Tino) cos' didn't he get booked for it as well?

I can't remember when it was, who we had as manager or who scored but there was a premier league match where we beat Man City 4:3 at home and I was literally two seats away from the division of our fans and the Citeh fans. We were taunting them, as you do and they were all going mental and trying to get across the sizeable police barricade. I'm not advocating violence or anything like that, but it was great to get one over on them cos', apart from Spurs they are my least favourite fans in any league we have played in.

I'd love to see Blackburn go down just to prove once and for all that fat Sam is a fraud, but unfortunately I can't see it. Realistically: Blackpool Wigan Wolves

I have to admit I am little bit worried about this one. From what I have read he strikes me as a bit of a trouble maker in the Nicholas Anelka mold and regardless of how talented he is, we don't want someone coming in who is going to disrupt the team. Saying that, if it is a loan we should be able to get shot of him quite quickly.

He would never have been my first choice as manager, but I have to give him credit where credit is due. He has signed some decent players under a very restricted budget but more importantly he has got the team playing for each other instead of for themselves like in the past. Part of that can be put down to us getting rid of scumbags like Owen, but not all of it IMO. For anyone who criticises him just think back to the days when Joe F**ing Kinnear was our manager!

Just back from the game. Totally unexpected, but totally deserved result - Villa are not bad team at all, but we made them look ordinary. Only negatives were Harper's dodgy kicks and Guiterez who didn't look on top form. Other than that we can take only positives into the next game.