Hanshithispantz

In spite of everything over the past year or so I hope he sorts himself out, and most importantly, sorts his craic out.

"A reserve team that's not significantly worse than the first 11" :lol:

Our reserve team would probably struggle Championship tbh It's pretty good, and there's a few young players in there with a lot of promise, but I don't want to see many of them starting games in the league this year, and I don't expect them to get very far in Europe if playing them in there is the route we take.

Smug Dog Carroll

Cisse/Ba Affelay Cabaye Hatem I would weep tears of unbridled joy.

Enrique first restored and then shattered Geordie & Iberian relations, VI is doing the same.

Kagiso Kevin Lerutla @Kev_Ler "Ibrahim Afellay to sign for either Arsenal,Liverpool or Newcastle in the next few days" - report.

Is he leaving Barca on just a loan or with an option to buy too?

Fletcher apparently looked shite and was hauled off in the 65 minute.

We put good bids in for most (if not all) of those players so the point is pretty much void. They either didn't want to come (Gerv, Modric, Gameiro) or their clubs were after obscene money (De Jong, N'Zogbia).

They may have? Lille are a good club though at the end of the day and there's probably only a couple of dozen outfits out there that are a more attractive prospect to the player, and even less that have the money spare AND need a right back. That's why I've never understood the "why has nobody else put in a bid?" line, it suggests that there's hundreds of choices out there which there isn't. Also Lille clearly view him as being worth the price, otherwise they wouldn't be keeping him.

No, my point is that if we cave in once it increases the likelihood that in the future selling clubs will make further unrealistic demands, which could be much more detrimental to us over the long term than not getting Debuchy right now I just think that we can't have it all ways; if we finish as high as fifth in the world's highest profile league, selling clubs simply aren't going to believe that we can't afford more money. If we do it by buying players cheaply who increase in value dramatically, selling clubs simply aren't going to believe that it was an accident. If there's a new TV deal imminent that gives ludicrous sums of additional income, selling clubs simply aren't going to believe that it's not there to tap into. Once you step beyond signing only players that have contract clauses, club disputes or are unattached, you have to compromise at some stage. As with any endeavour, there is obviously a need to be flexible at times. But I believe that compromise has to come from a position of strength if it is to benefit us. Take the Debuchy case for example. We've apparently made three separate bids, each larger than the previous. Lille have not moved an inch from their original asking price. (If anything, they've moved the goalposts on us.) Are we the ones who are being unreasonable and inflexible? And what sort of message does it send when we just throw our hands up and pay them whatever they want? Tbf to Lille, they haven't moved from a very reasonable asking price, some would even say cheap in this day and age.

Pretty much my feelings Oldtype, and admittedly I've changed massively in regards to how I view the board over the past year and half. I don't think the next 6 months, or even the next year come into Ashley's mind when he sanctions the signing of a player, which is why we've seen us go into a season with players not replaced before and with a seemingly weak squad, long term stability and indeed resale value come first so he'll never cough up the cash for a quick fix (which is what we sort of need now). Ultimately I think it's a bit of a calculated gamble that should see us continue to steadily improve across the next couple of years. It's still a shame when we miss out on players like Debuchy though because of this model, they will know more than us but he seems to be a player in the Cabaye mould where Pardew and the board will/should be surprised that the player actually wants to come here, he could improve us tenfold going into this season, but at £6-7m they'll be thinking cheaper and/or younger if and when the opportunity arises.

So Krul, Santon, Perch, Cabaye, Cisse + the youngsters like Tavernier, Sammy, Vuckic, Abeid and Ferguson won't be a little more developed in their premiership careers? It's like foreign players and youngster settling in is some sort of myth I have made up, sorry I mentioned the first team, so all those youngsters are kinda irrelevent to my point. I also excepted a couple - Krul and Santon. Krul's been in this country ages anyway like. Can Cabaye and Cisse perform any better than they did last year? Unlikely, hopefully they'll be as consistent as they have been to date but asking for more seems like a stretch. It's not like they struggled to begin with is it? I stand by my point, I don't think I've ever heard it being argued before. The players from every other team also gain experience btw, we're not unique in this. Also on this point, a couple of the teams around us (Spurs and Arsenal) have lost their best players so it's not unlikely they are going to be significantly weakened unless their new signings instantly perform as well as those as they replaced where as we have lost squad players? Yeah, we've built a squad from the ground up over the past 2 year where as Tottenham and Arsenal are really trying to replace their losses. We'll still improve also (and have done this window) just maybe not as fast as we would like, Simpson is a prime example, he will be replaced there's no doubt about that, but he'll be replaced in an effort to create the overall squad we are aiming for and not necessarily in an effort to improve us for next year. I would prefer him to just splash £40m into the club to push us right on this season but it clearly isn't going to happen You post that as though people are demanding such figures be spent though; barring a very few mentals they most certainly aren't. Ner I'm not, I'm posting it as that's what I personally would want (figure pulled out me arse like), I would love to wake up to 3 new top quality signings. I don't really like the approach we're going for as it takes time and I'm impatient, it undoubtedly also saves money though which is why I cannot complain and why I think it's been a good window all things considered.

So Krul, Santon, Perch, Cabaye, Cisse + the youngsters like Tavernier, Sammy, Vuckic, Abeid and Ferguson won't be a little more developed in their premiership careers? It's like foreign players and youngster settling in is some sort of myth I have made up, sorry I mentioned the first team, so all those youngsters are kinda irrelevent to my point. I also excepted a couple - Krul and Santon. Krul's been in this country ages anyway like. Can Cabaye and Cisse perform any better than they did last year? Unlikely, hopefully they'll be as consistent as they have been to date but asking for more seems like a stretch. It's not like they struggled to begin with is it? I stand by my point, I don't think I've ever heard it being argued before. The players from every other team also gain experience btw, we're not unique in this. Also on this point, a couple of the teams around us (Spurs and Arsenal) have lost their best players so it's not unlikely they are going to be significantly weakened unless their new signings instantly perform as well as those as they replaced where as we have lost squad players? Yeah, we've built a squad from the ground up over the past 2 year where as Tottenham and Arsenal are really trying to replace their losses. We'll still improve also (and have done this window) just maybe not as fast as we would like, Simpson is a prime example, he will be replaced there's no doubt about that, but he'll be replaced in an effort to create the overall squad we are aiming for and not necessarily in an effort to improve us for next year. (We're probably onto our 10th 5 year plan or what not now.) I would prefer him to just splash £40m into the club to push us right on this season but it clearly isn't going to happen

This applies to every team like not just us, just we're very much still in the development stage so should benefit from it more. The likes of Sunderland go for experience and the likes of Arsenal are already past the stage we are at.

Ben Arfa, Santon, Krul, Cabaye, Perch, Cisse technically should all have benefited from a season, or half of a season in the Premierhsip, the same applies for our youngsters (who should play more of a part this year) so I think the years experience could be pretty big. Obviously it's not always the case like.

:lol: In stitches here like

http://i.imgur.com/GJAca.jpg :lol: His total meltdown starting from the middle of May onwards was brilliant, he went completely off the rails http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,63771.16475.html Such a great thread (well, part of this thread anyway).

I wish people would stop judging players from a game against probable title challengers on their own turf. Santon's fine, he can be brilliant, we would be better off playing 2 Danny Simpson's in a game like last night's though as we had 3 very technically gifted forwards doing what they wanted in our final 3rd, no attacking fullback is going to shine in a game like that.

hahahaha you're such a character man, prefab.

Hazard is depressingly good.

It's 1 game against a side who will be challenging for the title ffs

This analysis is painful to watch

Those screen shots of Allardyce