Rayvin

I know he gets a lot of stick but I dunno, Pardew seems to make a lot of sense to me.. It'll be interesting to see where we are over the next couple of years.

QPR must be in some form of danger from this though... Haven't they spent about £60mill this year alone? Not sure what their revenue admittedly.

The joys of international travel...! Although I once saw a large Chinese guy walking down a road in Beijing with a Newcastle shirt on which quite made my day - didn't speak a word of English unfortunately. They're mostly all about Man Utd over there though. As for England - I think the grounding of expectations has helped massively; they look more relaxed these days.

I was in Beijing at the time, but I'm in Newcastle now. The Chinese were really up for the World Cup though, it was good; just a bit embarrassing that England were pants.

I'm not going to comment on the overall arc of the debate here, except to endorse this point. I work in academic publishing, and believe me, universities follow the money. As governments begin to invest more in particular projects, it has become harder for universities to remain impartial. If the only way to get funding is to take government projects (with government/corporate interests at heart), then you'll take it. On the wider note of the debate (flying in the face of my initial statement) - I don't think there's an overarching 'thinking' conspiracy; but I think the system is set up to protect the individual interests of those who know how to play the system. They all just play it the same way.

Not a good thing (the future Presidential candidate bit). Ever since she came out with that insane story about landing in the Bosnia under sniper fire, (with it later emerging that she was in fact greeted by a small child who gave her a flower), I've not been able to take her seriously. I mean, I know all politicians lie but I feel like once they're exposed doing so, it shouldn't just be ignored.

Yeah I found that a bit bewildering. I still haven't forgiven them for 0-0 vs Algeria in the last WC... stayed up till 4am to watch that shit.

Bale scored tonight...seems to be on fire at the moment, annoyingly. With that said, he's the only goal threat Spurs have.

I would far rather he went to PSG than Liverpool. I think if anything, they're trying to capitalise on our poor season.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/feb/05/liverpool-newcastle-hatem-ben-arfa How's that for bad news? Liverpool want to sign Ben Arfa. And we somehow come out of that deal with Carroll, as if that makes it ok. My hatred of Liverpool would be forever entrenched if this happened.

While I wouldn't seek to argue that the EPL is a world leader in quality, it surely must be considered more entertaining than the others mentioned; as evidenced by it's larger international appeal.

This is just hilarious. Why does everything seem to be going our way at the moment... I guess it's overdue but it makes me uneasy.

We should go for it - I'm all for consolidating our league status but really, are we going to remember a season where we valiantly strove to 9th place in the table after a poor start, or a season where we finished 14th but got to a Europa Cup final? (And won it?)

Could we not just sit back, go 2-0 and then bring Adam Le Fondre on in the last 10 minutes? Seems to have just worked (again!) for Reading... Of course we'd have to sign him tomorrow first...

I actually think Villa would have been all over anyone in that second half, it's like the penny dropped and they realised that they're actually going to go down. I think we did well to hold it, it was always going to be a containment job from then on. Hell of an entry to the new boys, if they didn't know what to expect from the PL, they do now...

Thank fuck for that!!! I couldn't breathe for that. If Villa weren't so shit going forward we'd have died there.

Fucking get in!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That in itself concerns me as well.

We should destroy them, our quality is apparent. Still though, I worry about their breaks...

Surely as well, we've got sufficient new signings for Villa to not really know how we're going to play - our players should be something of an unknown to them, making preparation harder. And we know how we have to play to beat Villa; Set pieces high into the box. If Bradford can do it...

Hahaha!! I sympathise with Hazard like, the kid was being a right prat about it. Don't think the referee could have done much else though...

Yeah but Gouffran isn't - I said one up front, him and Cisse. I concede that some of the players there aren't all signed yet however.

True from the first team, but with a bit of rotation you could get to a point where we had three French in defence, four in midfield and one up front. It's not worlds away (assuming these signings go through). Krul Debuchy Yang-Mbiwa Colo Haidara Marvaeux Cabaye Ben Arfa Obertan (in some formation or another) Gouffran Cisse Unless I'm missing something in there. They're all French right? I suppose the midfield would probably never happen though given the similarities of the players involved.

Really pleased with this one, by all accounts it seems we've signed quite a player. Nice to see some decent money thrown at our defensive problems - from here we just have to hope that he adapts quickly I guess. Is he eligible for Europa? Not that I think anyone is too worried about that any more given our league standing, but even so. Montpellier must have been in CL so I'm guessing he'd be ok?

^This - Has any team in the PL ever fielded an entirely non-British team before where they're all from one country?? We must be getting close! I'm a little concerned about how desperate this looks, but at the same time, I suppose I'm reasonably confident that we will have researched at all of them previously. If this turns it around it could be a really positive step for the future I guess, cementing some kind of relationship with France where all their good players 'graduate' Ligue 1 and join us.