Shays Given Tim Flowers

So Bimpy said he would begrudgingly back Pardew at the start of the season. Still wants him to resign and doesn't like him. Bimpy makes sense to me.

Wullie is right about assets in an accounting sense.

Say what you want about our recruitment policy and see the positives too. Fact of the matter is we have signed one player on loan this summer. At the moment that makes our recruitment policy look fucking shit. Specifically as someone was brought in at the beginning of the summer to sanction signings. We may well sign more players (just as likely not to IMO), depending on how good they are that could make it an ok or even a good summer. Irrespective of this we have not brought in players with sufficient time to bed in. Another shortcoming.

Heroin does give you a high tbf.

Colo is going to go full on radge-packet this year. Him and Mapou will be fine.

Yes he does. He can create chances for our strikers. Something very few of our players seem to be capable of doing. If he isn't starting he should be the first change at around 60 minutes. None of this 85 minutes nonsense.

Have just seen the Carlisle manager was complaining about the lack of experience his team has. Average age of 23 in their last league game.

http://www.death-clock.org/

It's a fracking insult. Yohan Cabaye is not for Shale.

Its about minutes on the field in the time he is out on loan. Rather him go to Carlisle and play every week than go to a stronger team and not play as much. Plus playing in a struggling team won't do him any harm.... All we should be bothered about is him returning to us in January after playing lots of games. he ought to get plenty of time at Carlisle and that's the most important thing. He's still young.

http://images1.mtv.com/uri/mgid:file:docroot:vh1.com:/sitewide/flipbooks/img/daily/01_03_2007/72914978.jpg?enlarge=false&matte=true&matteColor=black&quality=0.85

5/2 favourite in the Sack Race.

Finger Injury? E.T. Healed it.

Good job he kicked those free-kicks in this season.

Meh my opinion your opinion.

He's better than what you have got. 30m seems too much for someone playing in Russia and previously the Ukraine.

Wish the papers would stop publishing this tripe.

A pictorial representation of our transfer policy.

Exactly, look at Villa, it took a while but they finished above us with a young squad playing some decent football. Dire first half of the season in terms of results.

Stand out performances perhaps not, match winning moments is certainly true for Marveaux however. Following his assist against Stoke Pardew rightly recongnised that he was one of the few players who could break down a solid defense with an incisive pass. It's about getting your best players on the pitch. Many people would say that Hatem blows hot and cold but he has the ability to win you a match. The same could be said of Marveaux. He might not boss a game as such but his talent means he should be on the pitch and the team set up to accommodate his ability. This is particularly so when you consider the other options. Last season he had 10 starts and 12 sub appearances in the league. He managed 4 assists and 1 goal. May not have been a stand out performance but it is a significant contribution.

Anyway you look at it, signing those players for massive fees, having them flop, and selling them for massive losses is idiotic. Obviously speculating would involve signing some big ticket players, some of which would inevitably fail. Basically that's what we used to do under the previous regime. If you look at Liverpool's revenue compared to ours (and indeed most other clubs) it doesn't matter. A big gripe of mine is that the money Liverpool have wasted in recent years should have seen them in real trouble. Instead they don't really have any consequence to this mismanagement. A few years ago they were looking like being in trouble and then new owners come in and all their money problems got solved. This is despite not having any real relevant success. We do parts of business the right way, but we are suffering due to a lack of ambition that starts at the owner and runs down to the manager. Football is a poorer sport by virtue of its failure to provide financial equality.

Both Anita and Marveaux had spells in the side (around Christmas IIRC) where they looked like they were worth persisting with. Both summarily hoyed out when other players returned to fitness.

I just remember it coming up in commentary during a match of ours. May well have been before Bale hit his rich vein of form.

Out of interest isn't he the top scoring 'outside of the box' goalscorer in the league since he signed?

Pardew's handling of Ben Arfa has arguably been his biggest success at the club imo. You only have to look back to his games earlier in that season to see his situation was going to require a bit of patience. It was frustrating at times because Obertan seemed to be the only alternative on the wing, but incrementally allowing Hatem to mould into that wide role was a massive reason for why we came 5th. I really, really liked that 4-3-3. It was solid, efficient and ruthless. You don't win 6 games on the bounce without a formation that isn't absolutely water-tight all over the pitch, even if some say we championed that system too much. I wish that serious off-day at Wigan never happened; it had enormous implications imo. I'd compare it to the likes of Partizan Belgrade in the way it sparked a downward spiral. I never understand why he refuses to go back to 4-3-3, it works and it clearly suits our players. It's strange because he's not actively thinking "I'm not playing the best formation for us that worked in the past", he genuinely thinks 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 is the best solution despite it not working last season. 4-2-3-1 when away or playing anyone half decent 4-4-2 at home against weak sides, I guarantee this is how it'll go all season until he's sacked. I was hoping he would go for the 4-3-3, but I have to admit it looks like you're right. He didn't even try it out in pre season. He really needs to start well or he is fooked. He claimed to have tried it at one point last season (can't remember what game it was but I think we lost, obviously). It wasn't anything like the 4-3-3 from the season before; Cisse was on the wing for a start. Swansea http://www.nufc.com/html/2012-13html/2012-11-17swansea-h.html "We played 4-3-3. We were 4-3-3. Sammy (Ameobi) was on the left-hand side, and joining with Demba (Ba) and I thought he did a good job. Shola (Ameobi) came on at half-time and upped us again. We had our best spell when the two were together" The scoreline flattered us that day too.