Armchair Pundit

Fuck the media's obsessive push to get Eddie sacked from our club. From what I've seen it's only really them trying to shit stir, along with some mackems and a small minority our fans that want him out. I'm sick of hearing it personally, I hope Eddie stays for years to come, there's no way he can be judged on this season's outcome as a follow up to last summer's transfer mess, all the extra games and no investment in January, especially considering how far we got in each cup comp we were in.

I'm just pleased that Liverpuke are getting dicked up the teatowel holder, dry... the scummy, thieving fucks.

I bet the Saudis are absolutely quaking at the thought of a £8m fine - that said, if it causes further bother with restrictions around other club finances... ahhh, it's a bag of dicks anyway

Marco Materazzi saying he thinks Sandro should stay at Newcastle and build a legacy, with fan's that have stuck by him and believed in him - Sandro should listen to him.

What annoys me the most is that they're allowed to offer way more money than us, yet their club as a whole is in masses of debt that just gets kicked down the road indefinitely. On a different note to that though, if Sandro's agent keeps coming out with all the stuff around gentlemen's agreements and pushing for him to go to Man Utd or Arsenal, it strikes me that if Sandro doesn't sack the agent he's showing that it's probably true. Why would any player let their agent kick up that sort of ill-feeling and aggravation, without reigning him in publicly?

Well it looks like the media have decided it's going to happen, so that's it then, they'll keep pushing and pushing and trying to unsettle the player until it happens, most likely to one of the septic six media darlings that are obviously the most important teams in the Premiership. Cunts.

Fuck this 'gentlemens agreement' shit, if it's not in the written contract then it shouldn't be said or entertained. It'll be shame if he leaves, a much bigger one if he joins another Prem team and at that point he'd be dead to me. If he goes abroad I could just about stomach it, whatever happens the figure needs to be around £100m.

There's no way I'd want Emery, he's a greasy, pound shop Dracula lookalike, who's team thrive at play-acting and playing dirty. He's not a likeable guy and neither is the way his teams play imo, I couldn't imagine him having anything in common with Newcastle or it's fans.

Haha, good point, not sure - meant Ashworth ofc (fixed the original )

Definitely oversimplifying a lot there imo, I'm not having some of them as being fact either: The argument against: He only has one playbook (by his own admission) and when that doesn't work, it's more of the same. Fair enough, but hasn't always been the case. High intensity press which was successful for us was a lot easier when we had less games. We are as defensively disorganised as we have been for a very long time and nothing seems to be changing. We've had far less available training time due to more games and more travelling, something that needs addressing. We have had two European seasons now where our league form has suffered, suggesting his style is not suited to an intense campaign on two fronts. It suggests nothing of the sort, more that we've completely over-stretched with a squad lacking in quality in depth, than anything else. The signings made in the summer were not good and have set us back significantly. How was that Eddie's fault? Having to bring in two strikers at short notice, essentially emergency choices, following the loss of two established strikers, one of whom Eddie was trying to build the team around. We are not seeing the individual player improvements we have in the past. Maybe due to lack of time on the training pitch, but if our only answer to a congested fixture list is to not train, that points to a bigger, overarching problem. So again, how is that down to Eddie if there's been no time to train and a thin squad on quality? Our away form has been shocking for a good while Not idea, but probably leads quite easily into the aforementioned reasons of squad depth and lack of training, again and maybe the one failing around trying to stick to a preferred setup. Our performances in second halves of games this season have been consistently poor. That one, maybe fatigue, maybe mental fragility, definitely needs looking at. His plan A only approach means in-game changes are largely limited to substitutions, which often come too late Generally, it's been more around the players being like for like than being too late in a game, but then, it's been hit and miss on whether they've been successful or not. There's been an equal amount for me where subs have paid off. We cannot close out games Covered by numerous previous reasons potentially, all can have an effect on it - whether that's a lack of quality depth, a lack of decent training time, issues around burn-out. It is one area though where I'd like to see us be stronger defensively. We cannot retain possession, which is the key reason for the point above Not really any different to the previous answer. Teams are routinely getting beyond our midfield and into our defence with 1-3 passes and it isn't being addressed Only really during the poor second half games from what I've seen - reasons previously mentioned affected that. He doesn't seem good at working with a DoF Where's the proof of that? Dan Ashworth got on alright with him, until he dicked the club over to go to Man Utd. Mitchell was a prick that just caused problems all round and there's nothing really to show Eddie isn't getting on with the current DoF. We have consistently struggled to break down stubborn defences due to a lack of technical prowess and guile in midfield Not sure I agree with that, the biggest problem for me has been the lack of strikers that can finish, just like at the other end having a reliable goalkeeper. We have 'some' issues that Eddie needs to address, but nothing unattainable, the majority for me is outside of his control or certainly mitigated by factors outside of his control. Regardless of the amazing overachieving we've done since Eddie came onboard, the things holding us back isn't the manager. For the record, if you read the above and it sets light to your hair, it's just the way I see it, in opposition to your views perhaps, but after seeing the shit times of losing managers like Keegan the first time, Sir Bobby, some of the better managers we've had, then seen them replaced by dross and regretting it massively, I'd hate to lose Eddie under similar circumstances.

I'm happy for the most part with Eddie tbh, I'm certainly not going to judge him based on playing the season we've had, with the squad we've got. The latter stages of all comps with a team outside the established, septic six and a severe mess of the previous summer transfer window, being forced to make emergency signings late on after being stitched up with our main striker being turned. That's without mentioning the lack of continued training all season, where we've actually had any weeks where there's been more than three days to put schedules together. None of the 'bad' results we've had this season have been totally unexpected to me, albeit some being more sickening than others. The things that have wrong have been a perfect storm, combined with unfortunate realisms imo.

I just don't get mackems trying to have a go about a loss in Europe, they've only ever been in European competition once, and only lasted until the second round of that! The mind boggles.

Has anyone ever seen a mackem 'in' Barcelona??? Sweaty mong

Indeed. Plus, why on earth do Chelsea need yet another striker? Or is it their usual annoying bollocks off snapping up loads of players just to stop everyone else from having them and then ruin any potential they had?

Adrian Durham on Talksport calling for Eddie to hand in his resignation (Link) Sickening levels of delusion and extreme overreactions there. 7-2 is a bastard of a result, but we've still over-achieved in most competitions with what we have in the squad this season, especially with all the mitigating factors. The only one we can't comment on yet will be the final position in the league, but even with that, if we finished mid-table it'd be breaking par all things considered. It's not where we want to be, but it's also not been as straight forward as just blaming everything on a manager who's done more for this club in joy and success than many have seen for several decades.

Midds talking the most sense. We outplayed them in for a game and a half, they had more given to them than they should have, but we just couldn't keep it up for the second half of tonight's game. UEFA and the FA stink of corruption, but at the end of it all, we tried for the most part and didn't put out a bad effort apart from the last 45 of 180. The gulf of strength in depth, especially in the season we've had off the back of a god awful summer last year, combined with the expected 'assistance' from the officials - there's reasons not to get carried away of a result like this as things stand. I just hope we use it as motivation to destroy the unwashed at the weekend. On the upside, we were no worse on aggregate that Chelsea and only marginally behind Man City. And who knows what Spurs will end up with.

Hopefully we have one eye on the weekend's match and it doesn't affect us too much - it'll be a kick in the confidence knackers this.

I'm not watching the rest of that. We were the better team in the first game and got robbed by a corrupt ref, then this shit. We were the better team in the first half tonight, yet got the majority of cards for lesser fouls than Barca and pulled back without cause. Second half we're done, out of steam and the after all the help Barca got they're now running riot. Fucking corrupt bollocks, it's rigged, they can all fuck off.

FYP (hopefully)

I've no fucking idea where four minutes injury time came from, let alone the extra half minute he game Barca to get the pen - absolute shit-weasel of ref

I'm starting to get less and less enjoyment from football. It seems that every single match is more about the officials than the game itself, every single match's outcome decided by the referees rather than the players. I mean, what's the point? Why have a sport where the supposedly impartial official, whether it be through them being shit or biased, has more of a impact on the outcome of the game than the actual skill of the sportsmen playing it? Every single fucking game.

Cunt of a ref

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! At least we got knocked out by one of the world's better teams... the Mackems have been bloody flukey all season, it's about time their luck evened out at last.

More bloody jam than Hartleys that lot. Still, same old shit in every game, shit officiating causing more talking points than the actual game! Because that's what everyone wants, a sport that's more about it's referees than the sport itself.

Bloody commentary love City too