Ste

Nationality is also about identity and where you feel you belong. There are some cases whereby a player should be allowed to play for a different country than where he was born, and some cases where they shouldn't be allowed. Hard to generalise and say let's cut it out entirely.

Absolutely embarrassing from The Sun once again.

Aye, there were a few exceptions back then. South American players seem to be doing a lot better in the Premiership these days compared to 10 years ago.

I think around the time of Tevez and Mascherano at West Ham, South American players had struggled to make much of an impact in the Premiership. I can kind of see Pardew's thinking, but the alternative to Mascherano at the time was Mullins, and I think it was Zamora and Harewood as the options up top. Perhaps Pardew didn't know much about them when they first came in, though they had been making a name for themselves and were quite sought after.

Tevez claimed he was a good football man but out of his comfort zone with foreign players. I think he didn't play him in the correctly or Mascherano at all because they were forced on him and he felt slighted. He perhaps also felt a loyalty to the players already there. Strange given he's probably been behind the signings of only a few players here.

Front page of The Sun. I hope people see the story for what it is.

Absolute nothing story and it's a shame it's come out at a time when we've just qualified for what will be the biggest World Cup for decades. The media in this country man, ffs.

We'll do pretty well in Brazil. I think failure to qualify for Euro 2008 and Capello's reign helped to lower expectations across the board. During Sven's tenure, most expected us to go far or believed we could. Under Hodgson, we recognise where we're at. Spain are unplayable at times, Brazil have the potential to beat anyone and Italy are a well drilled unit. We know our place now. We might be capable of a surprise because of this. What sticks in my mind is the headline by the Sun when the draw for the World Cup 2010 was announced. It was just daft. We are reasonably well organised now, and we carry a threat going forward. Hodgson has a bit more time on his hands now before Brazil, and the newer members to the squad will have more time to embed themselves in the set-up also. I think quarters would be an acceptable target, although this depends on the draw of course.

Spain scraped a win against Belarus at the beginning of the qualification process, Italy drew with Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, all away.. what does this say about them? The two finalists of the last European tournament struggle away from home. We do okay away from home.

Most teams do, to be fair.

Desperately need a second goal.

Still have a lot of faith in him, he'll come good. Just needs the right partner and some more time.

Only fair, they built the damn stadium.

The number of times Southgate says "there's no question about that."

The fans just want to see their own expectations and ambitions reflected by those in the power to influence this. This club isn't any different from any other in this respect.

I'm not convinced the contrasts are as stark as Pardew claims. The result at the weekend can effect the mood of fans through the week, but not on any great level.

I don't see the Poles getting 20% seating as a big deal, personally. Would much rather they were seats occupied by our fans, but I can't see it having a large bearing on the result.

I was watching his interview with my 7 month old son rolling around the floor. He found the Sky remote and switched it to channel 666. Kids are supposed to be really intuitive, aren't they?

With Blackpool in the play off positions, I wonder how much say Paul Ince will have in his son staying put through the January window? There is bound to be a club willing to pay more than us for a player with 6 months left on his current deal by the time the winter window opens anyway.

For those that missed it. http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/newcastle-united/8970793/goals-on-sunday-pardew

Pardew won't have to worry about the Ashley comments, as I don't think he would have said it if he wasn't 100% sure it was safe to do so.

Yeah, I really liked the bit on Ryan Taylor. Great for them to do that, and it sounds like he is good at it too.

He's been talking a lot of sense tbh.

It is going to be almost like a home game in a way for them. We can't ignore the number of Poles in the UK just in case it offends somebody. The building work comment could cause offence but howay.

Januzaj looks very good but it's so early to be calling for him to be in the England team. Both he and his father seem patient when it comes to international football, but he's ages away from being eligible as it stands. Isn't his preferred choice Kosovo if they become a FIFA affiliated team?