Shays Given Tim Flowers

What money has he been trousering, exactly? Hows about 60 million Sky money or haven't you been paying attention to the fact that the likes of Southampton, Norwich and Swansea have been blowing us out of the water in the transfer market. It would be hard for him to trouser the Sky money you speak of as it won't be paid out until the end of the season, or are you under the impression that Ashley is the new Dr Who? He's spent it all on Sofas, buy now pay next year.

Right on que. The fake bid! Classic stuff. 2m. I can imagine Joe and Fat Mike giggling like schoolgirls on the phone, "say two million joe, say two million!" f***ing prank calls. MA and JFK are having a total teenage girl sleepover experience. "On three, say who you like? Okay? *giggles* 1...2....3... (both) SHOLA! *laugh uncontrollably on the floor* " that's what's happening right now. "Mike, ring Yohan, and when answers, just hang up!" They totally did some high school s*** if they let him hear Arsenal call him a reserve player. That's some bitch s***. "Your crush thinks you're ugly." with the fake concerned face. You got some high school issues you wana talk about mate? Seems quite in depth, this knowledge. Grew up with two mean ass sisters, man. What were their tits like ?

http://s7.faceinhole.com/13/9/2/6eab67dd92f33026f.jpg Lie Another Day

It was probably just a cheap place for him to leave his helicopter.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/06/13/article-1192798-0548680E000005DC-580_233x259.jpg Dr. No (transfers)

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdr44qFIYr1rjolieo1_250.gif

More likely to be a positive than a negative. Probably would be looking at a March trial at this rate.

Except when fans sing he is a FCB then he gets all precious and disbands the singing section. That was just a petty squabble. He could be universally disliked by all fans but I doubt it would make him sell more readily.

Will be an interesting one, they are obviously spending this money to get Champions League. I think they will miss out on it myself. Despite Rodgers being a decent appointment a failure to get CL will probably put him under intense pressure.

Ashley has pissed off people all his working life. I think his skin is thick enough.

He's still working off his debt for those bacon sandwiches.

So Ozil to Arsenal looks to be off as the clubs agreed a fee but he doesn't want to go (according to the Beeb). Twitchy day on the Cabaye front.

Im going for Craig Bellamy in the Fake Bid Stakes.

It's crazy that people do this with their lives

'Hatem Ben Arfa believes that Newcastle United’s season reached a turning point at Morecambe.' Imagine reading that 5 years ago.

If there's a player who can see the future we should do everything we can to get him in regardless. Imagine his reading of the game. Why he'd just think fuck this and sub himself off.

I was with you yesterday.

Santon Campbell Cisse

Mkhitaryan -> Bernard Fernandinho -> Fred/Fernando Willian -> Wellington Nem/Facundo Ferreyra They've arguably added more depth despite losing 3 key players. They have the sort of team that could beat anybody/lose to anybody (at European level). Past few years have been littered with talent but the new influx of Brazillian's may take time to be as cohesive. On a side note Wellington Nem is my favourite player on Fifa. Shakhtar better be on the next Fifa

There's a joke about Cabaye and balls too deep somewhere in here.

Should rename the unpopular football opinion thread to Dropout's College of Knowledge to be fair.

unbiased shite is still shite.

Jesus, hopefully! Can he put in a tackle? King of the (Pard)Jews

Taken from .com's match report of the corresponding fixture in 2002. Written by Niall MacKenzie. Think it's one of their best write-ups. Kind of makes for a sad read and I feel its relevant given how Ashley's tenure has undermined our 'unconditional support'. Sorry if not suitable for the thread. "The Champions League has always been something of a misnomer ever since they allowed the runners-up of each division into the competition. So now that the top four of the Premiership can take on the cream of Europe, the name of the competition just looks ludicrous. UEFA seem unlikely to revert back to making it a cup just for the winners of each country's league, so why not just change the name? After all, it used to be the European Cup when I was a lad. But more threatening to the reputation of UEFA's blue ribbon event is that one of the sides playing in this game could actually take part in the Champions League. And to think it could be the one wearing black and white would probably break some sort of trade's description act. Hopefully we'll be Champions of something in my lifetime but games like this will have to become dim and distant memories before we can ever dream of topping the English league. As Bobby quite rightly pointed out, we have had a fantastic season and a UEFA spot is the minimum we deserve but our progress on the pitch seems to be like our play at the moment - one directional - and that direction is backward. The ability to break down teams through the midfield has seemingly evaporated and to simply blame the absence of Bellamy is ignoring the ten outfield players given the responsibility at the moment. Our midfield is currently misfiring badly. Whichever permutation has been used in our current spell of point-dropping, the line-up on paper doesn't look bad. I think we'd all struggle to leave Dyer, Robert or Solano out of our starting elevens and with Speed returning, dropping Jenas to the bench must have been hard for Bobby. However, a team with two out-and-out wingers who refuse to get stuck in leaves us looking very weak against teams like Fulham, Villa, Ipswich or even thinking back to Blackburn and Charlton. Nobby Solano is not a shirker but despite what any Opta statistics may tell you, his tackling ability is negligible. Laurent Robert must also be one conceited individual to think that the odd free-kick and cross from the left can excuse a night of prancing up and down the touchline. Not only does he not track back (apart from the odd token gesture) but his ability to lose the ball by running into the opposition is staggering. Whatever you thought of Ginola, he very rarely lost the ball, just his footing.... Kieron Dyer was probably the only black and white shirt-wearer who played with any purpose, strength or intelligence in this extremely forgettable encounter. That may be a bit harsh on Sylvain Distin who looked accomplished back in his central defensive role but as an attacking unit our six upfield players looked like they'd never met before. Alan Shearer went into the game looking for his 200th Premiership goal but to be honest he had more chance of finding Osama Bin-Liner than the back of the net. The vast majority of post-match column inches and comments during the game have been directed at Carl Cort. This is my limited view on the matter: The lad didn't have a good game, he knows that, Bobby knows that as does everyone in the crowd. He's not looked particularly clever since his comeback from injury - again that's something which is stating the bleedin' obvious. But shattering the lad's confidence is about the only certain way of ensuring that whatever ability he has (and most grudgingly admit he has "got something") is sunk without a trace. Whichever myth you'd like to believe about the "fantastic St. James' crowd" there's one thing which Newcastle fans have been exceptional at over the years - turning on their own players and hounding them out of the club. It goes on at most teams but we seem to do it in a particularly vicious and destructive fashion when someone's face doesn't fit. Did Cort play worse than Shearer? Did he put less effort in that Robert? Then why was he barracked from the first whistle to the last and jeered off the pitch? What should Bobby do? While Bellamy nurses his knee we have no-one else to play up front with Shearer. Should we have started the game as we finished it, with Jenas and Dyer sort of supporting Shearer from a shambolic midfield formation? Should we play Robert through the middle? Should we give Michael Chopra his first start at the tender age of 18? Or should we play a £6m striker who has just returned from a catalogue of nasty injuries and who recently scored a cracking goal? If we don't play Carl Cort then what do we do with him? Stick him back in the reserves to get match fit and confident? Err, we've already done that. Should we rest him until next season, shattering the little confidence he has left and heaping more pressure on his shoulders? Or should we just cut our losses and sell him? What price do you think we'd get £2m perhaps, if we're lucky. The only option in my opinion is to play him until Bellamy returns and GET BEHIND THE LAD 100%. Anything else does him, the club AND OURSELVES no good whatsoever. As this picture of Cort's second-half header shows in The Journal, then it might be worth remembering that we never bought him for his heading prowess. He must have leapt at least four feet off the ground to meet that and although a couple of inches off target is as useful as a dozen yards, it came pretty close to winning the game for us. He also controlled and volleyed a Dyer cross superbly into the back of the net, admittedly after the whistle had already gone. Perhaps Cort should take a leaf out of the Queen Mum's book - no, not croak but start doing Ali G impressions: "Is it coz I is black...?" If we don't get 4th spot - which still looks an odds on bet that we will, every time I look at the fixtures and league table - then the blame needs to be shouldered by many, not least those who refuse to encourage the team on cold Monday night's when we're having an off day. Do you think the players are lying when they talk about being motivated by the crowd? Do you think they're just looking for an easy life when they suggest that booing doesn't help them? I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that even after Fulham scored, the crowd could have lifted the lads to go on and win that game. Instead we threw away the alleged one-goal lead that our "magnificent 50,000 crowd" gives us. "We only sing when we're 3-0 down" should become our anthem. "We're Geordies we're mental, we're off our f***in' heads". Aye, because we never use our strongest asset when it's needed most - when the lads are having a bad day and when we need a lift from somewhere. Cast your minds back to Old Trafford and the semi-final against Spurs. The crowd won that game with the fantastic support that greeted Big Dunc's substitution. Singing when you're getting stuffed 3-0 at Highbury or 6-2 up against Everton is wasted effort. Save it for the remaining games, if we're struggling against Blackburn, West Ham, Charlton, Southampton or Derby. That's when the team needs to be encouraged not discouraged. St. James' Park gets more like Old Trafford every day. If we had a similar trophy cabinet then I could probably accept it but our club is nothing if we lose the unconditional support. Yes, I get frustrated and bad-mouth some players during the game but as much as I kid myself it's only me and the people around me who hear my rantings. It's just noise to the players. Shouting and bawling during the game is how I vent my anger and I won't applaud a performance that doesn't merit it - it's amazing how deafening silence can be at the end of a game. A chorus of boos is something different. It's been my belief for some time that the nation gets the media and politicians it deserves. Buy crap papers and they'll serve up more crap. Watch trashy telly and that's what you'll get. Moan that politicians are all the same and not worth voting for and.... you get the picture. I'm fed up of being told by SKY that we deserve something to match our tremendous support. As far as I'm concerned, the events on the pitch on Monday night matched our support perfectly. With five games to go, we will probably get the league position that our support deserves. Let's make sure that it's fourth.... "