Andy Carroll (now playing for Bordeaux)

[Teasy]

Once again a master class in planning from our owner. Keep Pardew and let his number 1 transfer target go to another club without even putting a bid in.

 

 

So you think if we keep Pardew we should also start allowing him to make the signings?  That sounds like a really bad idea.

[Vinny Green Balls]

Once again a master class in planning from our owner. Keep Pardew and let his number 1 transfer target go to another club without even putting a bid in.

 

 

So you think if we keep Pardew we should also start allowing him to make the signings?  That sounds like a really bad idea.

 

on the level of keeping Pardew.

[Skeletor]

Once again a master class in planning from our owner. Keep Pardew and let his number 1 transfer target go to another club without even putting a bid in.

 

 

So you think if we keep Pardew we should also start allowing him to make the signings?  That sounds like a really bad idea.

 

on the level of keeping Pardew.

 

[Mr. Slugworth]

I'd prefer us to sign someone that's good at scoring goals like.

[Zero]

I can't believe that someone think we are even worse than the relegated season. 

 

Do you ever read things and take it in? I said "With the squad he's got to hand he is easily the worst." Pointless trying to converse with some on here. Zero by name, ZERO UP TOP obviously

 

Easily the worst?  With a squad that we were even forced to play the likes of Sammy and Shane last Christmas?  Simpson as center back cover? Jonas as left back? And the all mighty Ameobi as our only cover for Cisse?  With only Obertan as our real winger? With 3 french imports who are thrown to the fire without any time for settling down and adjust to the league?

 

Are you serious?

[Beren]

I can't believe that someone think we are even worse than the relegated season. 

 

Do you ever read things and take it in? I said "With the squad he's got to hand he is easily the worst." Pointless trying to converse with some on here. Zero by name, ZERO UP TOP obviously

 

Easily the worst?  With a squad that we were even forced to play the likes of Sammy and Shane last Christmas?  Simpson as center back cover? Jonas as left back? And the all mighty Ameobi as our only cover for Cisse?  With only Obertan as our real winger? With 3 french imports who are thrown to the fire without any time for settling down and adjust to the league?

 

Are you serious?

 

Out of interest which squad in recent times is better than the one we have?

[BillClinton]

nufc.com were saying that since we allegedly have a 25% sell-on clause, we only need to bid £11.25m to match. It's a lot more reasonable at that price, in my opinion.. Liverpool still probably wouldn't want to sell to us though.

[Zero]

I can't believe that someone think we are even worse than the relegated season. 

 

Do you ever read things and take it in? I said "With the squad he's got to hand he is easily the worst." Pointless trying to converse with some on here. Zero by name, ZERO UP TOP obviously

 

Easily the worst?  With a squad that we were even forced to play the likes of Sammy and Shane last Christmas?  Simpson as center back cover? Jonas as left back? And the all mighty Ameobi as our only cover for Cisse?  With only Obertan as our real winger? With 3 french imports who are thrown to the fire without any time for settling down and adjust to the league?

 

Are you serious?

 

Out of interest which squad in recent times is better than the one we have?

 

On paper it looks like this year is the strongest.  In fact it isn't, due to the factors I've mentioned above.  I even forget to mention we got a captain who suddenly become "homesick" and tried to engineer a move away during January, and then further missed a few months after a stylish-but-meaningless acrobatic clearance.  You know what without Mbiwa we definitely would be relegated, imagine it's Williamson at the back instead of Mbiwa. 

 

Last year we were fuming that we only got Raylor as our back up side back. This year in many occasion we even hoped Raylor's there instead of Jonas. Oh yea we can have a starting eleven that looks invincible (in which I agree) but what's the cover for them? shits and/or amateurs.

[Beren]

When was the last time that wasn't the case though?

[LateRegistration]

I can't believe that someone think we are even worse than the relegated season. 

 

Do you ever read things and take it in? I said "With the squad he's got to hand he is easily the worst." Pointless trying to converse with some on here. Zero by name, ZERO UP TOP obviously

 

Easily the worst?  With a squad that we were even forced to play the likes of Sammy and Shane last Christmas?  Simpson as center back cover? Jonas as left back? And the all mighty Ameobi as our only cover for Cisse?  With only Obertan as our real winger? With 3 french imports who are thrown to the fire without any time for settling down and adjust to the league?

 

Are you serious?

 

Out of interest which squad in recent times is better than the one we have?

 

One could even argue the relegation season squad was on paper one with which we shouldn't have been relegated. Our strikers were Owen, Viduka, Martins, Lovenkrands and still had Carroll, Shola. If you look at some of the rest of the players the Taylors, Nolan, Barton, Beye, Bassong, Collocini, Jonas, Enrique, Duff, Guthrie.

 

Fair enough in hindsight its easy to see that some of the players were on a downward trajectory, some were much better after settling - Nolan, Enrique, Collocini. But we don't know whether the likes of Cisse, Tiote will pick up form, we don't know whether our recent arrivals will be better once they have settled. 

[Mole_Toonfan]

I can't believe that someone think we are even worse than the relegated season. 

 

Do you ever read things and take it in? I said "With the squad he's got to hand he is easily the worst." Pointless trying to converse with some on here. Zero by name, ZERO UP TOP obviously

 

Easily the worst?  With a squad that we were even forced to play the likes of Sammy and Shane last Christmas?  Simpson as center back cover? Jonas as left back? And the all mighty Ameobi as our only cover for Cisse?  With only Obertan as our real winger? With 3 french imports who are thrown to the fire without any time for settling down and adjust to the league?

 

Are you serious?

 

Out of interest which squad in recent times is better than the one we have?

 

One could even argue

 

Should have stopped there.

[Zero]

This is our squad for the relegated season:

Given, Beye, Coloccini, Bassong, Enrique, Jonas, Barton, Nolan, N'Zogbia, Owen, Martins

Covers: Harper. Raylor, Saylor, Cacapa, Guthrie, Duff, Smith, Geremi, Butt, Lovenkrands, Ameobi, Viduka, Carroll

Ignored: Milner, Xisco, Edgar

 

I don't think it was that shit on paper as well.  However we all knew what happened.

[Skeletor]

I remember us doing okay before the January transfer window. Not well granted but a repeat of the same form over the second half of the season would have seen us comfortably safe in mid table (same as the two seasons before). It's when we sold Given and N'Zogbia and had to change our manager twice that it all went to shit. We had 23 points on the 14th January 2009. We finished with 34...

[Zero]

When was the last time that wasn't the case though?

 

It sounds strange but i do think the team we were able to field out last year has better quality on average. Tiote, Cabaye and Colo were incredible last season, Ba, Cisse and HBA just cannot stop scoring goals, and Krul were having a career year as well.  Most of them were free from injuries and always available for league matches.

[Beren]

When was the last time that wasn't the case though?

 

It sounds strange but i do think the team we were able to field out last year has better quality on average. Tiote, Cabaye and Colo were incredible last season, Ba, Cisse and HBA just cannot stop scoring goals, and Krul were having a career year as well.  Most of them were free from injuries and always available for league matches.

 

For fairness, I'd like to point out in the season you've picked Shola got almost double the game time than he did this season, Sammy got more minutes, we had three centre-backs for the entire season (a touch more serious than Jonas having to play LB after two recognised left-backs in Santon and Haidara were unavailable I think you'll agree), we had to field Simpson-Perch as a CB pairing on one occasion (which, again trumps your 'Simpson as CB'offering) and we didn't have Debuchy, Sissoko, Haidara, MYM and Gouffran for half a season, or Anita for a full season.

 

Oh, and fucking Obertan got over three times as much game time. Leon Best was good I grant you, but he wasn't that good.

 

This is our strongest squad in a good while. Not perfect, but not even a a fifth as bad as some will have you believe*. We're not Chelsea/Man Citeh, and we've never in my lifetime (even under SBR/Keegan) had like-for-like replacements all over the park.

 

It's very easy to pick the odd game and say "oh but Dabizaz had to play right-back that game" in emergency situations - emergency situations will happen every season - the trick is to not be so catastrophically shit a manager, that your team isn't ready to adapt to new personnel, because your team will have an ethos and a strategy which isn't centred on individual performances bailing the team out. Pardew has a fantastic squad - even this season with injuries/absentees.

 

His complete failure to impose any kind of style on the team last season during our very fortuitous, largely injury-free season is the reason why we couldn't rotate players even if we did have cover all over the pitch. That's why he is a contender for shittest manager we've had.

 

* - I don't think Ashley will remove Pardew in time for this to be fully repudiated as it ought to be, sadly

[Beren]

4, 3, 2, 1...

[Ronaldo]

When was the last time that wasn't the case though?

 

It sounds strange but i do think the team we were able to field out last year has better quality on average. Tiote, Cabaye and Colo were incredible last season, Ba, Cisse and HBA just cannot stop scoring goals, and Krul were having a career year as well.  Most of them were free from injuries and always available for league matches.

 

I'm not having that at all. Cabaye and Tiote had good games and bad games. Tiote had far more bad than good, actually. But it was ignored because we were getting goals and winning games.

[Vinny Green Balls]

What a bizarre way of looking at things.  Saying that the 2008/09 team was decent enough on paper and shouldn't have been relegated as some sort of fucked up justification for making your case for Pardew?  Somehow this empowers Pardew because he avoided relegation by the skin of his nutsack?

 

Some people need to learn some simple basica programming to understand simple cause and effect algorithms.

[Zero]

Beren, that's not a fantastic squad. I would never call a squad "fantastic" with Shola and Obertan as "covers". My point is, last season we were fucking lucky to have most of our core players available and so even if we have to play the likes of Sammy and Obertan our system/performance was not massively affected. You should agree with this. We were able to put out a better team last season due to luck. This season we have a better squad but we were unable to put out a better team on average (nevermind Pardew's idiotic prudence).  Our squad is fucking thin that without Colo/Cabaye/Cisse we are done. This is not a fantastic squad, never. And the ultimate criticism lies on Ashley and Llambias, who refuse to gave Pardew long-dued resources until the last last moment.

 

Just to clarify, Pardew deserved the sacking because he should do a lot better even with the injuries.  I would not argue for this.  But then I definitely would not agree that "this is the lowest point ever". To say "we avoided relegation with this squad" is a lower point than "relegation a few years ago" is fucking ridiculous.

[Zero]

What a bizarre way of looking at things.  Saying that the 2008/09 team was decent enough on paper and shouldn't have been relegated as some sort of f***ed up justification for making your case for Pardew?  Somehow this empowers Pardew because he avoided relegation by the skin of his nutsack?

 

Some people need to learn some simple basica programming to understand simple cause and effect algorithms.

 

Read all the posts before replying, please. Don't tell me you agree with hobshobs that relegation was not the lowest point in recent times.

[Vinny Green Balls]

I will definitely agree with you there, Zero.

[Vinny Green Balls]

and yes I did read the posts.  I just thought the reasoning in that part was a bit off.  This is in no way worse than relegation though.  Anyone who actually thinks that has recently been chasing the dragon.

[Zero]

When was the last time that wasn't the case though?

 

It sounds strange but i do think the team we were able to field out last year has better quality on average. Tiote, Cabaye and Colo were incredible last season, Ba, Cisse and HBA just cannot stop scoring goals, and Krul were having a career year as well.  Most of them were free from injuries and always available for league matches.

 

I'm not having that at all. Cabaye and Tiote had good games and bad games. Tiote had far more bad than good, actually. But it was ignored because we were getting goals and winning games.

 

We have the best defense when we got Colo, Tiote and Cabaye together. As an individual Tiote didn't play well, but our defense deteriorated a lot when we played Guthrie instead of Tiote last season. Defense was the key for our 5th position, that's why I included Tiote there.

 

Not this season though. A complete disaster.

[Zero]

and yes I did read the posts.  I just thought the reasoning in that part was a bit off.  This is in no way worse than relegation though.  Anyone who actually thinks that has recently been chasing the dragon.

 

No problem then

[Guest hobshobs]

I can't believe that someone think we are even worse than the relegated season. 

 

Do you ever read things and take it in? I said "With the squad he's got to hand he is easily the worst." Pointless trying to converse with some on here. Zero by name, ZERO UP TOP obviously

 

Easily the worst?  With a squad that we were even forced to play the likes of Sammy and Shane last Christmas?  Simpson as center back cover? Jonas as left back? And the all mighty Ameobi as our only cover for Cisse?  With only Obertan as our real winger? With 3 french imports who are thrown to the fire without any time for settling down and adjust to the league?

 

Are you serious?

 

Forced to play the likes of Sammy and Shane last Christmas?

What are you talking about? In the whole of December and January, Sammy started two games, Shane one. They both stared against Brighton in the FA Cup and Sammy's other start was against Bordeaux away, that was it. Effectively what Pardew would class as reserve outings. So he wasn't forced to play them at all, he chose to. Any other games they took part in around Christmas (Start of December to end of January shall we say) they came off the bench. Didn't he make Shola captain for the Brighton match? Someone for the youngsters to look to for advice, guidance and inspiration but Shola got himself sent off. Another master stroke from Pardew. Make your most gutless lazy player the captain and get him to lead the youngsters. Laughable.

 

Simpson as center back cover?

We have Taylor, Coloccini, MBiwa and Williamson. That's four. You do know you only have two centre back positions. So saying Simpson was centre back cover is like saying Cisse is wing cover.

 

Jonas as left back?

Totally Pardew's doing. Sunday against Arsenal, MBiwa was outstanding at left back, Pardew took him off and put Jonas (again having a poor game) to left back. A lot of us gave up trying to work out what goes on in Pardew's head a long time ago.

 

Ameobi as our only cover for Cisse?

Cover? Pardew had him REPLACING Cisse in a good few games. Shola through the middle and Cisse punted out to the wing. Aye, he's a managerial genius.

 

With only Obertan as our real winger?

Wouldn't say he's a real winger by any stretch of the imagination. Hard pressed to say he was a real footballer. Again it's Pardew who has seen fit to play Obertan ahead of Marveaux. No idea why. Could be because he's bigger and stronger and suits the Pardew / Allardyce / Pullis style of play.

 

With 3 french imports who are thrown to the fire without any time for settling down and adjust to the league?

Any shortcomings that the our French additions may have shown since they arrived would have nothing to do with the managers formations and tactics of course.

 

Yes, I am serious about Pardew being the worst I've seen.