The Fish

That was all the emotional baggage I was carrying. I'm better now. Svelte, even.

I'm appalled. I have 50% of the weight and 50% of the marriages!

You heard it here first. Good post.

More like Yellowstone Club vs Blyth's Wetherspoons

So much has happened Chayton. It's been a whirlwind and no mistake. I'm still verbose and an arsehole though.

You're painting a very inaccurate picture of TT, mind.

We sussed "Ugly Mackems" and t00nraider within a couple of posts. essembee fooled us for a while, I couldn't believe anyone was that obsessed with the mackems, but yup, there he goes, relentlessly reminding us where we heard it first.

I'm married with a kid now. No, not to Lou. I'm the thinking man's Fish. Diego is just a little better, that's all.

Was it Skol who peed in someone's offices after a night out?

Surely the first time there's been 2 Champions League winning managers in the 2nd tier of English football?

Good to hear, gives me confidence that there's a longer term plan.

"delighted"

Yeah because that's how the world works.

Dunno about that like

This one? http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00201/91742991-football2s_201994b.jpg I also recall this, going unpunished http://www.nufcfans.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/nufcfans_larsson_ameobi_high_boot_sunderland_newcastle.jpg

Fancy a laugh? http://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/anger-as-sunderland-apply-to-fa-to-change-name.847118/ Fury, so much Fury :'(

https://twitter.com/chelsey_harwood/status/411067748589252609

I don't think it's a question of generating revenue at all. It's control and brand-promotion. the "exclusive" interviews with players will feature on Sports Direct News 1st and foremost, any paper carrying those quotes will then have to print "Sports Direct" in their columns and boom Mike Ashley's real love gets greater penetration. Who actually gives a sh!t about the majority of fluff interview pieces? The most read articles will be opinion pieces by Caulkin, Bird or whomever and generally the only quotes that're carried in those pieces are from the Pressers, or the pre/post-game interviews that are contracted into the TV, Radio and Highlight deals. I can't imagine Newcastle are going to eject all but Sky, BBC etc. from the pressers. And say for example the Sun pays for access, then run a story condemning the behaviour of the owner, will their access be revoked?

Score draw. Whoscored.com predicting a 2-0 home win, but I think that Cabaye will be a massive miss. Not just because he's in form and all that, but we haven't a like for like replacement. Hopefully Ben Arfa will look to regain his starting place and put in the kind of performance we all know he's capable of.

If we're lucky, we might get Hitzfeld...

So, work was quiet so I figured I'd see if my concerns about the weakened side were valid. I think it's fair to say that the following was our 1st choice team for the season we finished 5th With N.E.Other filling the final spot (there wasn't another who really made the 11th place their own). The formatting on boards isn't great, but the columns are fairly self explanatory; Name, Apps, Subs, Appearance as a percentage (subs being 1/2 an app) Krul 37+0 97% Simpson 35+0 92% Colo 34+0 89% Williamson 20+1 54% R.Taylor 23+7 60% HBA 15+10 52% Tiote 23+0 60% Cabaye 33+0 79% Jonas 36+0 95% Ba 31+2 83% and for this season going off Wiki and .com and given Santon hasn't missed a game I'm assuming these figures will tally, "assuming"... Krul 22+0 81% Simpson 15+1 57% Williamson 18 +0 67% Colo 19 + 0 70% Santon 27 100% Perch 17+5 72% Anita 16+5 69% Jonas 23 85% Ben Arfa 13 48% Ba 19+1 72% Cisse 24+1 90% You've got 6 players on the 2011/12 season with 80% or higher compared to 4 this term. The players last term? Krul, Simpson, Colo, Cabaye, Jonas and Ba. So that's our 1st choice 'keeper, our 1st choice CB and captain, our 1st choice Right Back who lead the league in goal line clearances, our 1st choice central midfielder who Pardew has described as our Quarterback stating faily plainly that the man is integral to the way we play, a grafting winger, and the clubs leading goal scorer. This term we've been missing our 1st choice CB and captain, our 1st choice central midfielder who Pardew has described as our Quarterback st... you see where I'm going? You swap Colo for Williamson, Cabaye for Perch and see how your team performs. It's a sign of how unsettled and disjointed the team has been that Ben Arfa has only made 13 appearances and he's one of the players that has taken to the Premier League fields the most. Long winded, but the underlying point is fairly simple; Last year we were so f***ing lucky with injuries it's startling, this season we've been utterly f***ed by them. Last summer the management had the opportunity to strengthen and they didn't, this season we've suffered for it. Last season Pardew was able to get away with being an average manager because of the ever present tools at his disposal, this time He's not had half as many tools and the ones he has got are rusted, s*** or not working properly.

You're right, it shouldn't. It also happened to be the period where in every one of those games we were either without Colo, Steven Taylor, Ben Arfa or Yohan Cabaye. Most of them we were without three of the four. Our 1st choice centre halves and our 1st & 2nd choice midfielders. You apply those same injuries to any other side and see how they fare? Nobody is saying Pardew is blameless. Just that the majority of the faults lie with the men who decide what and when to buy. Which has been admitted by those men themselves (or their spokesman). The compromise is to say that Pardew's undoubted limitations were exacerbated by the failures of the owners, but to apportion the majority of the blame on Pardew is just plain mental.

Last year we benefited from a perfect storm; we had a few unknowns, we managed to field a mostly unchanged side for most of the 1st half of the season which gave us a consistency at the back, Ba and Cisse, etc. Add to our fortunes the misfortunes of Liverpool and Chelsea, Bolton and Blackburn, the unexpected performances of Norwich and Swansea.. All of these things contributed to a false (imo) 5th finish. This year we'll finish back around where we're expected to be somewhere between 7th and 12th. Given our awful start it's more likely to be the bottom end of that field, but that's the price you pay for not strengthening a paper thin squad on the off-chance you once again don't get injuries. There are worse teams above us, but how many of them have had the injuries we've endured and how many will still be above us come the end of the season? It was only really West Brom, Stoke, Fulham and Norwich who I'd say had a worse squad than us at the beginning of the season, and who are now still above us. Now, I'd say with some confidence that we'll finish above at least two of those. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that we'd have picked up least 2 more points if we'd signed Debuchy and (say) Gouffran, putting us (goal difference aside) 11th. Pardew said we'd erred by failing to strengthen and even Llambias went public to admit as much. If we'd strengthened would we be fighting for the Champions League spots as we were this time last year? Most likely we wouldn't. However, we would have seen much better league performances (by virtue of fielding better players in their own positions), and an improved league position. Perhaps aiming for the last Europa spot? Who knows? I don't believe Ferguson would have had us 10 points better off, with the squad we've had this year. Do you, honestly?

We have underachieved. However I'd say the lack of strengthening in summer had more of an affect than you seem to suggest. Perfect example is the Taylor injury at the end of the Southampton game in November. He missed 12 games, we lost 9 of them, conceding 26 times. If we'd signed Mbiwa in the summer it is highly unlikely that we'd have conceded that many. Not simply because he looks like an absolute gem of a player, but instead because we'd not be relying on a Championship centre half. I'm not blaming it for everything, just most of the things. The injuries we've endured this season were the quota for this year and last in one go. Pardew must still shoulder some blame for limited tactics but he's a limited manager. He's got this job because he's happy to accept that he'll only have a small say in transfers in and out, he's accepting a small basic wage (presumably incentivised for cup/league success), he's going to toe the party line and he's a competent enough manager to do well enough in the competitions to keep us content. I think even Ferguson would have struggled to do much better with the 1st team that's been available for much of the season.

This season has more to do with those holding the purse strings than the man in the dugout imo