Problem Child

It was stupid. A red card was harsh, but a fraction of second later and the Stevenage player could easily have been looking for a new a career. After the huge fuss that was made about De Jong’s tackle (he got the ball too) on Ben Arfa any complaints about Titoe’s sending off are on weak ground. No doubt the hypocrisy on Nobs Online will be breathtaking. Either you've not played the game OR your talking shit... Im a CM and that there was a legendary tackle...he didnt go over the ball, wasnt two footed nor was it studs up....it looked reckless because the angle he went into the tackle but for the technique of tackling that was 100%. Nothing wrong in it at all. Your opinion is pish. Obviously not a very good one. What position do you play then? Goalkeeper? Seriously fella........that was a good tackle and i dont see how its otherwise. Perhaps at the level of football you play, or fifteen years ago in the professional game. Today though it was the kind of challenge that gives the referee the option of waving red. Personally I preferred the more robust version of the game but nowadays any lunge, no matter how well timed, is a potential red card. It was a stupid challenge; the best CM’s in the family friendly version of football don’t go to ground unless there’s is no other option. They anticipate and think. They weigh up the pros and cons and make intelligent decisions. In this instance they probably would have looked to cover the space the lad was running into, not jump in with all guns blazing. Tiote is a hothead, as his booking per game ratio shows. Good player, but it was only a matter of time before he got sent off. First bold....Dont patronise me...football is football whatever the level... Second bold...Aye i agree in essence...the modern game or should i say the modern governing body doesnt like these decisions because they are just that...decisions...and hard ones at that. But this is something that should be addressed. Any self respecting FOOTBALL fan knows how the game used to be played, how it still SHOULD be played and that THAT was a perfect tackle! Third bold...You backtracking and agreeing with me then? With respect, your opinion of a modern CM dropping off into the space, reading the game differently is also pish....when your 2 foot from a guy and have the chance to win the ball...you win the ball...simples. I really cant see where your coming from here....i like you are a newcastle fan but come on mate....look at it again...and again...and again until your brain clicks and you see that your actually talking shite.......want bet that the red card is recinded???? To be fair you’re the one who seems to think playing CM for some pub team / non league team makes you Helenio Herrera, which is as patronising as it misguided. A bet? OK, if Tiote’s red card is rescinded I’ll close my account on here. If it’s not you close yours.

To be fair Pardew did also blame the size of the pitch. Shit like this happens. I think it happened to us today because Stevenage are probably more used to playing big physical sides who play a lot of long balls, which is essentially what we are, than teams like West Ham and Arsenal. That and our lot thought the tie would be a breeze.

It was stupid. A red card was harsh, but a fraction of second later and the Stevenage player could easily have been looking for a new a career. After the huge fuss that was made about De Jong’s tackle (he got the ball too) on Ben Arfa any complaints about Titoe’s sending off are on weak ground. No doubt the hypocrisy on Nobs Online will be breathtaking. Either you've not played the game OR your talking shit... Im a CM and that there was a legendary tackle...he didnt go over the ball, wasnt two footed nor was it studs up....it looked reckless because the angle he went into the tackle but for the technique of tackling that was 100%. Nothing wrong in it at all. Your opinion is pish. Obviously not a very good one. What position do you play then? Goalkeeper? Seriously fella........that was a good tackle and i dont see how its otherwise. Perhaps at the level of football you play, or fifteen years ago in the professional game. Today though it was the kind of challenge that gives the referee the option of waving red. Personally I preferred the more robust version of the game but nowadays any lunge, no matter how well timed, is a potential red card. It was a stupid challenge; the best CM’s in the family friendly version of football don’t go to ground unless there’s is no other option. They anticipate and think. They weigh up the pros and cons and make intelligent decisions. In this instance they probably would have looked to cover the space the lad was running into, not jump in with all guns blazing. Tiote is a hothead, as his booking per game ratio shows. Good player, but it was only a matter of time before he got sent off.

It was stupid. A red card was harsh, but a fraction of second later and the Stevenage player could easily have been looking for a new a career. After the huge fuss that was made about De Jong’s tackle (he got the ball too) on Ben Arfa any complaints about Titoe’s sending off are on weak ground. No doubt the hypocrisy on Nobs Online will be breathtaking. Either you've not played the game OR your talking shit... Im a CM and that there was a legendary tackle...he didnt go over the ball, wasnt two footed nor was it studs up....it looked reckless because the angle he went into the tackle but for the technique of tackling that was 100%. Nothing wrong in it at all. Your opinion is pish. Obviously not a very good one.

Any news on the missile throwing? I saw one coin lobbed out of the away end on the TV but hopefully the other stuff came from the home support.

It was stupid. A red card was harsh, but a fraction of second later and the Stevenage player could easily have been looking for a new a career. After the huge fuss that was made about De Jong’s tackle (he got the ball too) on Ben Arfa any complaints about Titoe’s sending off are on weak ground. No doubt the hypocrisy on Nobs Online will be breathtaking.

The five and half year deal thing is a double edged sword. On the plus side it reduces the chances of players running down their contracts and being sold for below their ‘real’ value. On the down side if they get seriously injured or just have a permanent loss of form you’re stuck with them. Ben Arfa only signed for four and half years, which suggests he’s not as committed to NUFC as the other players who have signed contracts recently. Vukic has it all to prove.

What a load of bollocks. It's like people saying that Rooney wouldn't be the same player if he wasn't a mouthy cunt, it doesn't improve how he plays. Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. Bafra would be crap as well if he weren't moody and unpredictable. Agreed, though I don’t think getting pissed has anything to do with defining Carroll’s game. In isolation this would be a non-story. As the latest in a growing line of alcohol related incidents perhaps it isn’t. Carroll is going to end up being pigeon holed as a pisshead by the media who will spend the rest of his career hyping up his drinking. A bit like Barton who is now and forevermore a thug, regardless of what he actually does. Fair enough. I think we can forgive him a few drinks at his age. Maradonna was stealing cassette tapes from WH Smiths in his formative years. And twenty years later Deigo was getting kicked out of the world cup for failing a drug test and shooting reporters with an air-rifle. Gazza liked drink as well, did his career no harm at all. AC seems to be such and important player at NUFC that the club are scared to discipline him. It’ll do him no good in the long run.

What a load of bollocks. It's like people saying that Rooney wouldn't be the same player if he wasn't a mouthy cunt, it doesn't improve how he plays. Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. Bafra would be crap as well if he weren't moody and unpredictable. Agreed, though I don’t think getting pissed has anything to do with defining Carroll’s game. In isolation this would be a non-story. As the latest in a growing line of alcohol related incidents perhaps it isn’t. Carroll is going to end up being pigeon holed as a pisshead by the media who will spend the rest of his career hyping up his drinking. A bit like Barton who is now and forevermore a thug, regardless of what he actually does.

We probably wanted Spurs to pay half his wages. Now it’ll be a loan deal for SL with an agreement to buy him for £12.50 if he makes 11 appearances.

27 in the summer and on big wages... surely at odds with our transfer policy? Why did Ben Arfa only sign for 4 1/2 years when everybody else (Williamson, Ranger, Taylor, Beardsley) got 5 ½ years contracts?

Enrique - 24 Tiote - 24 Carroll - 22 Krul - 22 Simpson - 24 Ben Arfa - 23 Gosling - 20 Barton - 28 Nolan - 28 Guiterrez - 27 S. Taylor - 24 Colocinni - 28 Williamson - 27 Routledge - 25 Given that our starting 11 with no injuries is (largely maybe except Harps) going to be from those players, I wouldn't exactly say that our team isn't young or good. Also, we might not be as good as Arsenal at the moment. However, if it is following a model then we are at an early stage, we have certainly seen progress from two years ago. Furtheremore, if you change Harper with Krul our average age goes from 27 to 25.8. And if Carroll instead of Lovenkrands, it is 24.9. So stop making shit up. Edit: Also being a mackem, do you honestly have nothing better to do than troll a Newcastle board.... I’m not making stuff up. Those were the average ages of the respective clubs starting line ups. It might not be a fact you like but a fact it is. We’re a million miles from emulating Arsenal’s youth policy. We have two young players who have come through the youth system in the last few years who are clearly good enough for the Premier League (neither of which were brought to the club under Ashley’s regime) after that the cupboard is more or less bare. Ranger, Kadar and Vukic have been much hyped but only one of them has been good enough to challenge for a first team spot this season and he looked like a plank last night. Newcastle’s youth policy is no better than any other clubs. We are buying younger players on the basis of them retaining resale value, because it's the cheap option. Arsenal don’t do this, they pay big fees and pay top wages to secure the services of the world’s best young players. We are just scraping around looking for bargains, players who are available on the cheap because they have fallen out with their clubs. Emulating Arsenal? Swallowing the bullshit more like.

The average age of our starting line up last night was 27. The average age of Arsenal’s starting line up last night was 24. All the OP stat proves is that we have a lot of kids in the squad. It doesn’t tell us how good they are. Carroll is a good young player and so is Krul, but after that what have we got?

Marcus Stewart? I get your point like but Carroll's obviously got more talent than he did, first season form aside. He's come up against some of the best centre halves in Europe this season and made them into ghosts but he's good on the deck as well and has a bit of skill. His improvement has been scary and I think he'll be a top centre forward for a good while. Aye, that him. CG is missing the point. It’s relatively easy to make good defenders look like ghosts once, but next time they come up against AC they’ll have first hand experience of his game, have a better knowledge of his strengths and weaknesses. It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on during the second half of the season.

Got to say I think Carroll is being overhyped at the moment. He’s playing well and has a lot of potential but he’s still an unknown quantity to most Premier League defences, and a type of player most of them haven’t faced for years if ever. All it will take is for one team to come up with tactic for dealing with him and his effectiveness will be greatly diminished. I’m playing devil’s advocate but it’s not uncommon for PL ‘virgins’ to over perform in their first season. That lad from Ipswich who’s name I forget being a good example. Banged in loads of goals in his first season, was shit in his second and ended up at Sunderland.

Even Ashley must be able to see that without AC the team would be relegation fodder. I don’t think we’ve ever been so reliant on one player.

And scored one.

“On Christmas Day I said to Andy, 'I do not want to talk for you; we are talking together. If you remain here it is great news for us. But it is important that you want to stay. Wanting to stay was the case that Andy put to me and it is great news because we will make sure he does. That is why I am so confident there will be no problem with Andy in January – or, hopefully, next summer” Alan ‘Forked Tongue’ Pardew saying anything other than Andy Carroll won’t be sold in the near future.

That’s the way it is questionnaires. I share your concerns about this being a PR exercise not the first step to sorting the current mess out, but you never know. My view has always been that building up some funds over the long term so when the club does change hands the trust had something to bring to the table was the way to go. There is no way supporters could ever raise enough money to force the issue. Better to play the long game and have a chance of getting some kind of board level representation than chase pipe dreams. The problem is nobody trusts the trust. The sceptics have had a field day and the members are disillusioned. They really need to work out a long term strategy and come up with a short term project(s) that demonstrates supporters can make a difference if they get organised.

We’ve over performed against sides that play on the front foot and underperformed against teams that play us at our own game? BFC are a well drilled and cautious unit with a big lad up front, a narrow defeat seems likely unless Pardew comes up with a new approach to away games.

Getting bored hearing the ‘Pardew is confident he can squeeze some cash out of Ashley by banging assertively on the chairman’s door' line – he’ll already have been told how much he can spend in January. This media bum licking is clearly a pathetic attempt to make it look like he’s not Ashley’s puppet when he gets £5m to spend on a couple of squad fillers.

I love comments like these.... Did you see the results. He's made the city a fortune, shareholders a fortune and even his staff a very handsome profit share. The investors who bought SD shares at 300p when it was floated might disagree.

Some random quotes from a recent article about SD. “The poor meeting aggravated an already tense relationship between the City and Ashley, who has been accused of an almost total lack of communication with shareholders and analysts” "What has happened since the offer makes your toes curl. It is almost taking the piss out of the market," “Ashley is like a locust. He selects a brand, absolutely rapes it and moves on" If the first two sound familiar, the last one should ring alarm bells. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/migrati...-toes-curl.html

This debate always revolves around the position we were in when SJH/FF sold up, not what they achieved. NUFC were in deep shit when SJH bought the club. Languishing near the bottom of the second division, playing in front of 20,000 supporters in a fairly cruddy stadium and staring bankruptcy in the face. Fifteenish years later we were an established top flight club packing 50,000 plus supporters into one the country’s best stadiums. We’d regularly qualified for Europe, broken the world transfer record and been privileged to watch some of the world’s best players pull on the black and white. The cost of this transformation? A debt of £77m. Compare this to the Ashley who has increased the debt by £200m in three years and achieved nothing at all. SJH/FF were far from perfect but this is no contest.

No. £138m is the cost of the club which Ashley lent to SJ Holdings when he purchased the club. £107m is the net debt position in 2008, 4 months after Ashley took control giving a gross debt of £245m in 2008. This increases because the company continued to make losses in 2008 so that gross debt of SJ Holdings and the club became £282m in 2009. The money owed to Ashley by SJ Holdings fell from £138m in 2008 to £132m in 2009 because Ashley paid himself £6m back. This is the main idiotic thing i can see as far as i can tell. Precisely. He paid himself back part of the purchase price out of the club’s coffers, which implies he sees the loan to SJP Holdings as a loan to the club. I can’t belief anyone is falling for this holding company nonsense, even the FA have seen through that one. Yes but at the same time you see the bank loans reduce to £0m in that figure and it then states "Since the 2009 year-end, Ashley advanced a further £25.5 million to keep the club ticking over in the Championship" Not sure what you are trying to imply but him being personally £6m better off wouldnt be accurate. Accounts can be manipulated to tell any story and it’s only if you have access to every shred of data that the truth can be ascertained. As we don’t have access to these details keeping it simple offers the clearest picture >>> income down, attendances down, debt rocketing away into the stratosphere. Yes or No?