gbandit

This is the internet, sometimes people's opinions are stronger than they should be, more honest and more direct. I didn't see the guy play but my attitude is, say what you think but don't go overboard until they've played at least ten games. Take a look at Dzeko, a mate of mine told me he was absolutely superb before he came to the PL. I'd not seen him really other than in clips and most people were saying he couldn't make the crossover but he's turned out to be exactly the same player

I thought some of his timing on tackles was fine, his movement was a little off and his passing was very very poor. Can't see the passing continuing like that as it just seemed to be a lack of concentration. I'd be more worried if his tackles and reading of the game were falling through. Yes, the passing causes anxious moments but I only expect it to get better

I have to say I disagree with almost every point here. Shola, in my opinion, is anything but a vital cog in attacks. I'd say he's agent #1 in breaking them down by either making a terrible pass or being dispossessed when under little pressure. His ball control is appalling and he gets offside far too often. Another unfortunate characteristic is the amount of fouls he gives away when trying to get his head on the ball. Sometimes he gets unfairly treated here by referees but the main ovrerriding problem is his flailing limbs. The only time he has knocked them in consistently and looked like a decent striker was in those first ten games or so in the championship. What does that tell you about him? Carlton Cole is doing the same thing now. He can strike the ball well when there's little pressure like in the championship. When he had more time on the ball he really did strike the ball well. But that just doesn't happen in the PL, maybe it happens on the training ground and instils confidence in Pardew but he is a very poor footballer in my opinion. I don't really know whether I consider him lazy, I just think that's another excuse along with all these injury excuses to try and disguise the fact that he's nowhere near PL standard.

Worrying that he didn't replace Raylor with Santon at half time. I was sure they'd score a couple down that side after a couple of his 'efforts'. Thankfully he realised Shola was throwing up all over the pitch with his sick play but should have realised this in Dec '10. He must play Ba/Best up front together next game, he must play Santon and he must give Marveaux at least thirty minutes if not a start. What does worry me a little about Pardew is some of the claims in the press about the players he wanted to bring into the club. A lot of the names were awful and it makes me wonder whether he sees things in players which quite obviously aren't there or aren't there on matchdays. I think he's a solid tactician, a good motivator and communicator but his understanding of player's abilities seems to be way off. Best was so much better than Shola and Ba was better even in only a cameo appearance. you'd have to be an Ameobi or fucked in the head to keep giving this guy chances again and again only for him to mess it up

Ryan and Shola were trying to out-shit each other in the first half. Ryan shaved it with some disgusting positional play. Just awful, truly awful. Never again at LB

I phrased it poorly, I meant the Blackpool game at St. James's

If Joey does score, I expect him to completely downplay it and look solemn. Not necessarily out of respect for NUFC or our fans but because he thinks it's honourable. Aside from this, I think we may well lose. Normally I'm really positive but it's always these games which f*** me over. Edit: I remember before I went to our home game against Blackpool last year how up for it I was and then that sinking s*** feeling when we lost to a side where we really should have picked up a point at least

When he scores his first PL goal it'll be amazing. Especially if it's at St. James', there's something really exciting about him even though I barely know what his game's like. I'd love him to get fifteen minutes tonight

Most clubs I couldn't care less about until it comes round to the week we're playing them then I develop an acute hatred of them. QPR in general I don't mind as Warnock can be comical and I know they're odds on for relegation. What's most amusing about them is that once again they're being praised in a number of quarters for how they've spent when I think they've spent absolutely appallingly. If they don't relegated this season then they'll need loads of re-investment over the next two-three years just to stay stable. The only clubs I consistently hate are Liverpool and Aston Villa for that disgusting farce at the end of our relegation season. Would love for both of those clubs to disappear

In fairness, Bendtner will turn out (imo) to be a much better player than Gyan, whether he achieves that at Sunderland remains to be seen but I reckon he'll have some good games. I won't miss Gyan's shit dancing, seemed like a nice guy but a total idiot. If Bendtner doesn't come through quickly for them with goals they're going to be in the shit scoring wise

Yup, can't see what else they could have said. I didn't think it was patronising, just clear and open without really going into much depth. Fair enough, I'm just thinking about the QPR game at the moment, can't fucking wait I wonder what an 'unbelievable offer' is for MA though, not that I expect anyone to come close.

sit back, get the popcorn ready and enjoy the forum rules http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,19161.0.html

What exactly is this based on? 6 decent months? Not arguing with what you've said, but you've said it as if it's going to be fact. He has a lot of work to do. Would you say Sturridge was a great player on his six months or less at Bolton? I rate Carroll on his performances in our 2010/11 season and our 2009/10 season. I followed him a bit before that but what mainly makes me think he's going to be around as a top striker for the next decade is the way he influenced games so directly for us. There was all this shit in the newspapers all the time about him and yet he'd come onto the pitch for us and just drag us through games no matter what. He had that way of scoring which only happens for players who want it enough, like Cahill has done in the past for Everton, Gerrard for Liverpool and Shearer for us. I really believe (and yes, there's not years of evidence to back this up) that he'll score a bucketload of PL goals

He's a great player, fantastic hungry attitude on the pitch. Will be a massive striker in the PL for the next decade, can't say how successful he'll be at Liverpool but the lad is incredible in the air, brilliant on his left foot and will get better and better. There's a lot of bullshit being spoken, he's a quality player and will make me feel sick with some of his performances for other team(s) over the next few years

Balotelli is a great footballer, doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks of him and constantly gets involved in ridiculous scenarios. He's a genuine maverick. Nile ranger is a poor footballer, doesn't give a shit about anything other than himself. The lad is sickeningly self-obsessed and a troll to the world of football. I wouldn't care about his bullshit if he was good and I wouldn't care if he was funny or likeable but he's none of those things. He's just a pest

Watched the Liverpool-Exeter game. He looked pissed off the whole game, even when he scored he didn't even celebrate at all. Was a decent goal but no smiles. I used to absolutely love his celebration, was absolute class. Loved the way he dragged us through games too, he'll never do that for Liverpool. He'll have great games, score great goals and get a hell of a lot better than he is right now but he'll never be as important as he was here. He was the main reason why I started to feel we were going to push on as a side and I felt absolutely sick on deadline day. When we rejected the £30m offer I was out on my lunch break and was telling these guys in an italian restaurant there was no way he was going, we'd rejected the £30m offer. I got back to work and he was on a fucking copter. Gutting, but we're in good shape now, better shape as a team, just need a top striker and we'll be a quality side. Still can't bring myself to dislike the guy, followed his progress from when he was sixteen and always wanted him to do well, just wish he hadn't gone to that shithole of a club

I like your signature VaVaVoom, brings some much needed positivity to this place. I think everyone on here hated Pardew to begin with. I read through the start of this thread the other day and he just gets torn apart but he's definitely done far better than most expected

Shit effort by Leyton, in their cup game he played well, scored a nice goal then gets sidelined while Orient play appallingly. Hope they get relegated. In their first six games they won twice, lost four times and only scored twice. One of those goals was from Richardson (in the second game). After that he gets a couple of late sub appearances then no games at all. As I said, I hope they get relegated

This, he's trying to run transfers as a business. It means that he's only going to buy cheap players to fill gaps or potentially excellent players who can be sold later. The point is though, it can actually work both as a good business model and a way of improving your squad over a period of time. Unfortunately, it's a very slow way of improving a team and can create these windows of time where we have weakened areas (especially strikers) until we find another good deal. I've always accepted it will take time to see where we're at, not just in weeks or months, but in years. They keep saying their strategy will take several years to implement, I accept this and realise that in the future we may be able to hold onto players much easier if we manage to achieve success without burning cash to get there. There's next to no point in overspending until you're in the shit to get to Europe, only to fall out of it for several years and potentially enter relegation battles. Be frugal, spend the money wisely but at all times keep a core of good players in the side and try the utmost to create a core which is reasonably stable for three-four years, I fully expect to get slayed and slated here for being a wanker apologist and maybe I'm wrong, maybe all they care about is lining their pockets and fucking us over but you can argue it both ways. The haters have a more aggressive way of talking about it but we'll not know who's right until MA's ownership comes to an end. Let me add finally, that whatever does happen, I still think he's a disgusting cunt for what he did to Keegan, for lying and for being a fat, pathetic pansy of a man who desperately wanted to be liked only to become one of the most hated figures in the UK. Llambias is a greasy pig who should be roasted on a spit and served to the sewers but yes, I can see logic and sense in the way club operates

It says on wiki that they live in Moscow and get a 1000 mile flight for their home games. I imagine the 'players in public' thread on anzhi's forum is still struggling to get past the first page

No need to slay the kid, this is a pointless argument. You can't tell if someone's happy at a club by what they tell newspapers, especially when they first sign. Good signing, credit to Sunderland for getting it 'over the line'. Will be interesting to see if they can turn it around, personally, I think they'll do their typical.... run of awful results, run of really good results. Alternating between the two all season. That is unless this start of awful results goes on for much longer, if so they're in the shit.

Just go away Barton, take your plague of locusts and your river of blood and go fuck up another team's PR set up. I liked you when you played, I liked you when you were funny. I hated you when you were an idiot and I hate you when you don't shut up

Think we'll finish 8th. Window gets a 7. Nolan - couldn't care less, Barton - it's a loss in a sense but we'll play differently without him. Would have preferred him to see out his contract mainly for his attitude on the pitch, Enrique - Gutted but was inevitable, Routledge - a player who will never make a mark in the PL, Xisco - ......, Forster - clears the way for Krul to dominate him, it's quite obvious who the better keeper is. Cabaye - Will be instrumental in how we play, the main driving force forwards along with Ben Arfa, Obertan - think he will collect us a number of points in games simply through his pace on the break, I like him, Marveaux - obviously hasn't started his nufc career properly yet but he's a quality player and will show this off, Santon - I've only seen clips but the talent is obvious, Ba - Absolutely positive that he'll make an impact and score between ten and twelve PL goals, Abeid - very quick feet, very tidy technique, will step up at some point. We don't have the striker we need, thank fuck we didn't sign Macheda. It's a joke we didn't get a striker in but the men at the top care only about not being ripped off in transfers. They should have realised that you're only getting signings for top end money on deadline day. We should have addressed our striking issues as soon as possible and should have done everything possible to get Loven out of the club, I include Shola in this bracket too as he will continue to hold us down like a dead weight. One of our strikers needs to come through with the goals, if not we're in a bad position but Ben Arfa (when fit) will make a massive difference here, Ba has proven his whole career that he's a goalscorer and I've always rated Best as a goalscorer. Window gets a seven

We need this lad, splurge the cash on him. He's the only transfer so far where I've just wanted to fire money at him

I don't like to knock people, happens too often on here but Rupert Communicator is a disappointment