Shadow Puppets

Protests won't get him out of the club. Untill some one pays him his asking price he'll stick around unfortunately And what affect do you think anti-SD protests have on his asking price? Do you think it will raise it? If we hammer SD, that decreases the value of the free advertising he gets from the club. It's not hard to follow the logic really, don't be intentionally dense. Protests have never worked with this man.. it will have zero effect on his asking price.

I'm very much of the opinion that Rafa and the players need our support, so I'm all for people continuing to go to the games. However, I love the idea of focusing protests on Ashley's main business interests other than NUFC. We have to become such an inconvenience to him, where it's actually affecting the running of his other businesses, before he really commits to leaving, in my opinion.

Perez gets abused in the ground by all the old cunts who think they know best like. So he should. Barring a good 5 games at the end of the season, he’s been woeful for 2 years.

Not a chance, but I do believe he’s on there to get even closer with our fan base, ultimately helping his cause when he starts to inevitably turn the screw on Ashley and co.

Outstanding!!!

??? “Jewels remain still cleaming”

I've come round to this guy. He actually looks semi serious about Iniesta ?

Where does he say that?

He was shite last night like. Miscontrolled everything. But I’m willing to give him a few more run outs to see what’s he’s got.

What a performance that was...probably our most assured away performance of the season I reckon.

Wow.

I remember the first half of the season being boring but effective football. Second half of the season we played some fantastic stuff. Yes, we had some great players, but Pardew definitely had them set up right.

I hated our football, the tactics and considered it a huge fluke thanks to the purples. I enjoyed watching some of our players, certain goals and beating Man Utd and Chelsea, but not much else. Beating Liverpool with Enrique in goal, that first half vs WBA, beating Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, those Cisse goals vs Swansea, Ba's hat-trick away to Stoke weren't very enjoyable at all I enjoyed the Liverpool match mainly for the pantomime villain roles of Enrique and Carrol. Ironically when he went in goal we faffed on and didn’t try and test him at all, sums Pardew up. There were those other games like you mentioned, but overall I detested our football and thought all the stars aligned that season. First 10 or so games we had a solid almost unchanged defence and Taylor was playing like Lascelles has been, plus Krul in goal was excellent then you had Ba’s goals and Cabaye in midfield. Second half Ben Arfa came into it and of course Cisse, but what could have been if Obertan didn’t feature so heavy at the start and if he allowed that 4-3-3 to keep going... maybe CL footy. He got lucky and the players deserved the credit that season, not that c***. Give over man ?

Lovely stuff!

Tell him he plays s*** dour defensive negative football at home and <b>he should sort it out or get out</b>. Mate, who has actually said that, seriously? You are the prime example of what I'm talking about... completely unable to have a conversation about things he could potentially be doing better.

Isn't it more a case of a lot of posters on here getting waaaaay too defensive at even the slightest mention of a negative towards Rafa? I may be missing something, but I don't remember seeing any posts saying that anyone wants him out? In fact, most seem to say the exact opposite. The vast majority of these "WUM" posts, as you call them, are simply putting out some truths about how Rafa could be doing better. It doesn't mean that they don't like him, that they think he's crap etc... just that there's things he could be doing a whole lot better. I'm in that camp to be honest. I love what Rafa represents, I love how he handles himself (for the most part), and still believe he's the key to the future of this club... but... 1) The quality of football has largely been poor (in the Championship too, despite having the most talented squad). Yes, we won it, but it's 100% undeniable that we were VERY poor for large portions of that season. 2) I personally feel like he handled the start of this season dreadfully, playing out his argument with Ashley in public. In my opinion, that only hurt the first few results of the season. 3) I still don't like our tactics at home. Happy with the way we set up away from home, but for the most part we've been way too negative at home. Let me clarify before anyone throws a hissy... I don't want Rafa out... I feel he is by far the best thing about this club in it's current form. I know he isn't the main problem, and if he was backed properly he would certainly be doing better. I'm not necessarily saying anyone else could be on more points either. I am not a WUM. Some people just have differing opinions and views of the game. I just feel that some on here are stupidly defensive (much like his tactics at home! )

Such a stupid thing to say man... in what job should someone ever be completely bulletproof? He chose to come here. He chose to stay here. He knows the job description. Therefore he should be culpable to some degree for mistakes and poor performances. Again, I'm not advocating getting rid of him AT ALL... I just think he's been to blame on more than one occasion this season. Clearly, 99% of the blame is actually at Ashley's door, but getting all defensive when people criticise him is ridiculously cringeworthy.

I agree but only to a certain extent - for fans that are losing/have lost faith with Rafa or never had it in the first place, that's pure madness. Pointing out mistakes he's made isn't like "arr hea that's a pure joke that like, Stevie Mc coulda done a betta job lyk", it's a lot of people saying "all the blame lies with the owner, he is the issue and the reason the squad is so limited, however I didn't like this what Rafa done and think him doing something different could have changed the outcome", that's simply just people analysing a game of football over 90 minutes and discussing it, which is the f***ing point of football and a football forum especially! Outrightly saying "you can't/shouldn't criticise Rafa full stop" is a bit daft, as he's definitely not perfect, but he's definitely 20x better than anyone else we could hope to attract. It doesn't "serve a purpose" but neither does whinging about players, neither do a lot of things. It's just discussion ffs. May as well shut down the forum if you can't even discuss a game unless to say "Ashley's a c***, players aren't good enough, but Rafa is God". (he is, but y'kna what I'm getting at). Exactly.

Christ, I don't know what matches they've been to, but it's been dire for years.

No. No what?

I mean, as usual, I think the truth is somewhere in-between. As we all know, Ashley has dealt Rafa a shit hand (yet again), but it would be stupid to suggest that Rafa isn't partly to blame for our league position. Of course he is. You all know that he has made quite a few mistakes this season with peculiar starting lineups, substitutions too late, negative tactics after going ahead, and the signings that he has been able to make have largely been poor. BUT, he is a class above anyone else we could hope to attract, has genuine quality when he has the right tools, is a revelation in his work off the pitch, and has brought pride back to our club. And I would hate to see us let him go without giving him a fair hand to play with. I wouldn't swap him for anything, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say he's done an average job on the football side of things so far (last season included - our final league position certainly did mask how largely crap we were for large chunks of the season).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37426290 I remember the game mate. Seems like a lifetime ago. What were the changes that, in your opinion turned that game around? I remember us scoring really soon after they went 3 - 1 up on us and then us being pegged back until Gayles equalizer then it was mayhem, I sit in the East Stand and I know what a s*** atmosphere is like, believe me but, everyone was on their feet and the place was rocking that night! The introduction of Mitro for Diame was a big change, not least because it was the first time we went 4-4-2 and because the long balls we were going to pump up towards the final few minutes needed an outlet. Mitro had a hand in both the equaliser and the winner too IIRC. Atsu coming on for Dummett just before the two goals helped too, a much more attacking and pacey player had them rocking even more than they were. Although we won the game, I was there that night and everyone was pulling their hair out at how late the subs were again though. Just to play devils advocate.

Spoke to the corporate hospitality person here (the boss, not the waitress), and he says it’s all done. Just awaiting announcement.

For what it’s worth, I’m in one of the boxes tonight with work, and I’ve just walked past Slimani in the corridors.