Deuce

They've been awful. De Rosario is finished, Pontius and DeLeon have done nothing this season, their defense is terrible, they lack a CM, and they haven't had a true striker since Luciano Emilio. Winning the U.S. Open Cup is a small (and miraculous) consolation. Ownership is sticking by Olsen, but you can't have much worse of a season than he's had this year. Good news is, they've got some good young players to build around. Luis Silva, Jared Jeffrey, Collin Martin, and Conor Doyle (if they can sign him on a full transfer from Derby County). Along with Kitchen, Kemp, and DeLeon. They could use a good veteran player like Jermaine Jones if he makes the jump. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how keen he is on living in D.C. or if they can afford him.

Who goes down instead though? Not exactly a race to the bottom at this point.

Gouffran Remy Ben Arfa Cabaye Sissoko Anita/Tiote Six of one, half dozen of the other. Their roles don't change.

Gouffran Remy Ben Arfa Cabaye Sissoko Anita/Tiote It's really that simple.

poop

He's been played out on the right the majority of the time under Pardew. He'll have an unreal game one week and totally disappear the next. He's not nearly as good as he's given credit for. Still, at least we have a chance of a decent performance from him at RW. Hopeless when played centrally or out left.

Would we have paid the going rate for those players? Certainly not for Downing or Carroll (pre-West Ham) and I don't think we'd have dropped the 12mil on Sturridge either. Clyne I'll grant you, as we were damn close a couple seasons ago apparently. Perhaps Lallana after the 11/12 season and Shawcross back in 07/08. No guarantee they'd have turned out as well as they did though.

As if we'd get an improvement at manager upon relegation too. based on what? certainly not any evidence based in reality with Ashley in charge

Well said, ikri.

So which English players could we realistically add to this squad who'd be an improvement over the current lot? Not many. Teams that have done well in the league may have done so with English players forming a core of their squad. It doesn't hurt that those English players include the likes of Rooney, Lampard, Terry, Lescott, Cole, Ferdinand, and Carrick. We're not exactly close to attracting English players of that caliber.

Nah. We'll take at least a point.

Ashley sees this as a close away loss, nothing more. We're still mid-table. Pardew isn't going anywhere for the time being.

As if we'd get an improvement at manager upon relegation too.

Wish I could limit press freedom when it suited me.

then bring it on.

Green has accepted the call-up.

Shut the f*** up, retard. jozy didn't score. deuce is gutted right now. Not even bothered by what he does any more. He scored for the national team in his last match, that's all I ask of him. Rather than fishing for cheap points against fellow Toon fans (cough, TT, cough), I'm more concerned about a pathetic Newcastle performance against the worst club in the league.

Shut the fuck up, retard.

Terrible performance from start to finish. Tiote was the only decent player on the pitch for us. And another tactical masterclass from Pardew. It's really not difficult, Pards. Remy left, Ben Arfa right, Gouffran center.

This is what we get for our hubris. NBCSN was too good to be true.

Ben Arfa moved to the left.

Well I for one think the white socks look great.

You fill your team full of Foreigners and this is what you get in games like this. Fair play to the Mackems. They're not very good but at least they're desperate to win it which is more than can be said for our spineless lot. Yeah, that explains things.

Tiote's been the best only player for us. That should tell you something.