Stottie

They have filled 54,000 seats before, but it might be a push for them to do it in 2016/7....

His big cross came with him pelting down the right touchline. Well played by him, but I don't think he's capable of doing that on the side he spent most of the match.

Maybe the problem was that Thauvin's agent heard Pardew talk about attractive attacking football and then checked out some of our games.

It's almost Ronaldo's trademark expression, but Colo is so weak now. He really is a soft touch. So lucky that Yoshida didn't score or Mane after Colo let him cut inside. Janmaat was beaten far too easily for #2 as well. Wiki has him at 6'1 to Shane Long's 5'11, but he didn't get much of a challenge in. They ran us ragged in the last twenty minutes, but let's just say that was fitness and the disruption from Anita going off. All in all, a good point!

I'm second guessing other peoples' thoughts a bit, but I got the feeling watching the game that it demonstrated what the Pardew Out campaign was all about. For anyone who didn't know, that is. We've still got Ashley and a squad with plenty of problems, but we got a glimpse of our players playing closer to their potential than they have for a long time. It was heartening to see.

If Obertan is not going to help Haidara into the bargain, we might as well have kept HBA.

I don't rate Haidara as a defender, or as much of an attacker for that matter, but at least he might get some decent coaching now.

Pretty good on the whole. Positive going forward and 60% possession against a team not on its holidays for the first time in ages. We conceded the second most goals in the league last year and needless to say it still shows. Still lots of work to do, but three weeks in the window to get someone else in. They've got a makeshift/depleted-by-transfers/new-boy back four and keeper out and that shows too. Miskicks galore and a handball. It looks worth going for the win, esp. if they played away in Europe on Thursday. Obertan off and Ayoze or Aarons on for starters.

Pretty much out of nothing and against the run of play. Great header. Bright start on the whole, should have had a penalty.

I'm disappointed with Obertan over Aarons or Perez but no Gouffran or Williamson after the preseason games is a relief. Good to see Chancel go straight in too.

Yoshida is a big step down on Alderweireld. Bertrand out too, and Schneiderlin was part of the midfield screen. Defensively they'll probably be weaker. Rodriguez back starting. He only got a few minutes in their Europa League games.

No Ayoze/Aarons but otherwise pretty good. They're tough opposition who've already played competitively, so maybe err on the side of caution. Howay the Lads!

From their viewpoint, if they think he can get them promotion, they should keep him and let him walk for free next summer. Promotion will be worth what 50M?, four times what they'll get by selling him. From our time in the Championship, the biggest difference looked to be in the quality of strikers. You can make defensive mistakes and not get punished. See also the number that Nolan and Shola scored. You'd expect Austin to get 25 plus if he plays 40+ games. If Spurs have ended up with no cover for Kane this late in the window, I can see him going there though.

In fairness to Keano, didn't he ship out all the players involved in that sex video straight away? Now they just make you captain.

My view is that McClaren is not incompetent so it takes "the manager" out of the list of things to be especially concerned about. It means we can instead focus on what Ashley is doing to the club. All of the inept set pieces and set piece defending under Pardew and Carver were only Ashley's fault in so much as those two were Ashley appointments. It will be easier to focus on transfer policy when its not a case of Williamson playing because the manager won't pick MYM.

I can see us losing, but not as badly as we would have done at the tail end of last season. We'll be better than under Carver, and I think they'll be more weakened by the players they sold this time than last time. Maybe 1-2.

My main prediction is that Man U will still be well short of challenging for the title, and Liverpool will do better than last year. I rate Clyne, Milner and Sturridge, assuming he plays. Benteke too of course. Gerrard was a millstone, as was Balotelli, easily the worst signing of the season. Gerrard->Milner and Balotelli->Benteke is worth 9 or 10 points, even with Brenda calling the shots. For Man U to do well, they need to sort out the keeper situation and get a top class striker in. Man U have loads of money, so they still may make bids at the last minute, as with Falcao last time. As things stand, their squad looks even more unbalanced than the one LVG inherited (Rooney RVP Hernandez Wellbeck). After di Maria, Falcao, Herrera, and Valdes, there are also doubts over whether LVG is the right man to handle whatever marquee signings they can get in. Premiership Winners: Chelsea (by a smaller margin) Runners Up: Arsenal (add a striker and they'll win the league) 3rd-6th: City, .......big gap......, ferk it, Liverpool, Man U, Spurs Relegation: Leicester, Sunderland, one of the promoted teams Overachievers: (relatively speaking) Liverpool Underperformers: Man U Top Goal Scorer: Costa/Aguero too injury prone, so Kane. Looks far too good to be a one-season wonder Break Out Year: Milner back to Villa form? Season to Forget: Van Gaal PFA Player of the Year: Hazard or Alexis Sanchez PFA Young Player of the Year: Kane, possibly Sterling Manager of the Year: Wenger (for winning or going pretty close) First manager to quite/be sacked/'mutual consent': Ranieri Newcastle United Where will we finish?: 11th/12th, which sounds meh, but we'll score a few more, concede at least fifteen less, and do much better at set pieces. I think we'll see identifiable progress and won't be worrying about relegation Top Goalscorer?: Cisse if still around, Mitrovic if not How will we do in the cup competitions?: Maybe win a tie or two before the draw gives us Chelsea in the fourth or fifth round as normal How will we do in the derby games?: Win one of them Other: How will Bournemouth fair in their first outing in the Premier League: Dunno, but good luck to em! When will Crystal Palace fans start to resent Alan Pardew: Haven't seen their fixtures, but I guess there'll be doubts by Christmas How many goals will Balotelli score this season: None, he'll be off How will De Jong get injured this season: Collision with Tiote?

In the Prem, Chicharito has played 102 for 37 goals, 12 assists. A pretty good output. But then, he's only played 4,840 minutes in those games. The equivalent of 53 whole games. 37 goals and 12 assists (for a "poacher"!) in 53 games. That's elite striker level. Maybe only Aguero (Sturridge?) will be higher over more than one season. Okay you can discount some of the goals as number 3 or 4 coming on as fresh legs in a four goal win, but not that many. Costa and Aguero get meaningless goals in one sided games too. In the CL he's got 8 in 32 games, but only 1,689 minutes. Less than 20 games equivalent. In La Liga, he got 7 goals and 7 assists in less than 10 games (!) worth of minutes. The boy deserves a bit more love.

He looked like a useful player to me, but he didn't get a proper run thanks to Pardew and injuries. With McClaren as Graham Carr's apparent choice, hopefully the prospects we sign from now on will actually get a decent chance and will be signed because they are the type of player the manager is likely to use. Anyway, good luck to the lad from now on.

Depay scored lots of goals last year, but it's the Dutch league and his total was only a couple more than team-mate Luuk de Jong, who even beat him in assists. It sounds like a big ask to expect him to hit the ground running with title-winning form in the Premiership. The same goes for Pedro, given what LVG got out of di Maria, who did actually hit the ground running for five or six games. Given the money they've been spending on midfielders, having no established cover for Rooney is indeed madness.

The first one was a genuine thunderbastard but it was Cacapa on ice for the next two. They were just nudging him out of the way.

I think there's a good chance that the Conor Wickham signing and the recruitment of Andy Woodman signal a turning point toward the Pardew we and fans of all his former clubs know too well. Even more so if Colo goes to them.

Just as something for McClaren to work on, we scored a grand total of five goals in the first half hour of all our league matches last season. In the same period, we conceded 21. Easily the worst in the league. http://www.statbunker.com/competitions/LeagueTable?comp_id=481&start_date=01-08-2014&end_date=24-05-2015&start_time=0&end_time=30 .com have it in graph form here. Only two in the first twenty minutes of 38 matches. http://www.nufc.com/html/2014-15html/goaltimes.html

The only finishing problem that struck me last year was Riviere. Cisse was fairly clinical on the whole, and Ayoze scored enough difficult ones to let him off with the easier ones he missed. The overall lack of chances, especially from pointless set pieces, was the main memory. More than that though, it was all the stupid goals we gave away. Krul passing it straight to Ashley Young after 93 minutes at 0-0 being a representative example.

New lads look promising, but the old problem of gifting goals to the opposition is still apparent, and that is the lingering taste. You can only do so much with better organisation/can't polish a turd etc. It's hard to judge the meaning of the game, but you'd normally expect more from a team that finished third in the Bundesliga. Maybe we are due some credit for that. If Cisse stays, I'd like a CB, an LB, and a better backup keeper than Elliot. Haidara as LB leaves two new CBs too much to do.