scoobos

For me, you can't follow that with sack the manager, that's the opposite signal to send. What you are saying to the squad AGAIN there, is don't worry too much about following current managers ethos, he'll be gone in a year at most. To be a good leader, you need good followers below you - e.g. whether his tactics are right or wrong, you follow him without question, respecting the leadership.

urgh, this puma stuff is awful. It feels awful too - My Virgin money shirt brought sneers of ick from my family.

To say Liverpool were no good is tosh. Yes we were awful , but Liverpool played very well in the first half - they might well put that down as their best team performance all year.

Say no to drugs. Mackems or not, that is complete bollocks.

I reckon you can say what you want to try and make yourselves feel better. It's highly unlikely that 3 seperate publications would run a complete cock and bull story. It was an obvious risk of our policy, now its happening - burying your head in the sand isnt the answer. I believe people are kidding themselves, because the alternative is (in my view) the truth - you accept that commercialism has ruined the top flight and that finally we are a victim of it. We will never get Ashley out for as long as he sees a personal benefit to himself. The problems lie much higher than the players or the manager, but we are powerless to do anything about it. So instead we'll pretend the media are liars everytime and everything is hunky dory. If you have a first team that comprises of the makeup of ours, cliques are going to happen. Maybe not 100% , but what I am 100% on is that you cannot buy 5 players all from outside the league, in January and expect them to turn the team around instantly. Next year, we'll see the quality of these signings, one way or the other.

No question that that (fitness) is Ben Arfa imo.

It's true then... damn it. I could have sworn I'd saw Cabaye and Sissoko laugh off some instructions a few matches ago - seems I did... They need a very hard kick up the arse if this is the case - I can't believe Cabaye is so involved and Pardews kept him as skipper.

Have we sold out on our allocation of tickets? I can't find jack on the official website.

Unfortunately it looked like his players did give a fuck, but more in a way of oh my god what the fuck have I signed up for - these are shit. That bothers me . How anyone can say think they had a good performance, but the team let them down is beyond me. From my perspective it looked more like a blame game and a total lack of playing that I've honestly never seen , a lot of our lads just stopped even jogging to press - just stood with hands on hips. I also agree that the defence was put under far too much pressure and the selection of defenders was right (e.g no williamson).

Gah! what a horrid topic header . We aren't getting relegated and we'd never be able to build an "English" team unless it was a crap one. No one can, thats the problem and thats also the problem behind our international team. The premiership does not encourage young players to do anything other than kick and rush football - I believe the German coach was spot on with his assessment. Sure its great to watch, but it doesn't produce quality technical footballers, that's why we have such a huge number of foreign players in our league. My opinion... So its right

I vote we lock this thread and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I think changing the back line is a very drastic thing to do , it also sends the wrong messages to Mbwia , who for me has had the best impact of all the new signings. (Sissoko had a good debut, but has fallen off imo). Williamson is a championship standard defender I reckon, I only want to see him when we are injured out of better choices.

I'm not so sure, I don't think Willo can handle Caroll in his current form.

Oh and don't knock Taylor He's a legend in the making - although he has his clangers - he's given us so many key tackles and goal line clearances this year - we'd be down already. I absolutely love the way he so obviously holds pride and responsibility when he puts on a toon shirt. I'd pick him over a want away liar any day.

will you stop coming into my threads and making me look an arse;-> Man City <insert blush emoticon here> I still reckon we're alright, but not comfortably obviously - but we're alright. we're alright....we're alright.... - keep saying it, it helps.

heh, yeah. I still dont think we can put that team out though either, as Colo + HBA aren't fit . It would be Perch and Williamson *Blegh* I'm not arguing mind, I think its much more realistic to add players to the team in a gradual manner, than throw them all together into a league they don't know and ask them to instantly play pardew's way.

I'm with you HF 100% - however the "2nd teamers" didnt perform and got put out on loan, who would fill all positions? I think we are in a tough place now where we don't even have the luxury of falling back to PLAN A , because the younger players got disgraced in the media by Alan Pardew himself as "Not good enough" after a handful of games - and then loaned out. ah christ, here's me thinking im optimistic - this post doesnt read that way.

I honestly still don't think Wigan have it in them to climb out. That's my bottom line , I'm not saying we are not absolutely shite at the moment - but it's not the same scenario as last time. And yeah, I would like the club to show some dignity, I'm not happy with us looking like clowns in the Southern media every time we do anything. He's effectively ROBBED 6 months wage out the club, saying hes too injured to play then sitting on a jet for hours and going to the local footie ground hes been linked to.. Nah, I'm sorry colo I did love you, but now I'll see you next tuesday. To be relegated we need to get 0 points to the end of the season, which is possible BUT , Wigan need to get at least 2 wins or a win and 2 draws from: West Brom Away, Swansea at home, Man City away and Arsenal away. Maybe I'm hopelessly optimistic, but I reckon the jobs done on 37 this year - even though it looks close, with all the shite just hovering above it.

I'm not saying that, but I am saying that due to the board mismanagement of the squad (Pardoo's got fook all to do with that) - we didn't have those players Colo, Krul, Ben Arfa, Cabaye and Tiote have all been out for horribly long periods. CT, calling for the managers head with 3 games to go is absolute madness. This kind of knee jerk "I WANT WIN NOW, WE ARE WORLD BEATERS WHY ARENT WE WINNING" crap gets this clubs fans a bad name. Any club, with a squad of 12 1st team players , 2 of which are long term injured in the first half of the season - would struggle. After January - with 1st team striker left (shola doesnt count) - I'd bet the majority of managers would struggle to get 5 foreign players to instantly fit and gel in the team and its ethos. You can call Man City or something stupid like that, but they are WORLD CLASS established players - not the players we buy. (Deb perhaps excepted) Sure someone could go out and ask them to attack, but the bottom line is we were playing with 6 or 7 1st teamers and the rest 2nd team who aren't good enough - they are still going to lose. We did well in the Europa league with effectively a 2nd team as we didn't have the players (until the end). Oh and given that Ben Arfa is clearly carrying weight, unfit and not all clear from his injury - I wouldn't play him in the 1st team against a team thats likely to beat us anyway. The last thing we need is another niggling long term problem a'la Cabaye. I'd love to see him come on for the first 20 mins though, then go off - than the last 20.

heh, that was quite the rant from me... tough fortnight.

nice post CT - agree with shearer 100%

I'll just add, I still love the toon though - through thick and thin - but this is the thickest in my entire time here. The closest for me, was when Bobby was sacked and the MAJORITY of fans who sat near me all thought it was a good decision... ROFL.

I brought up my feelings that this is NOTHING to do with management, and EVERYTHING to do with the owner and his motivation for the club. HappyFace replied with other people were complaining about Pardew, which is cool - none of my mates were though. Are we avoiding the subject of Ashley because its too depressing to accept the reality that the club is not tied to the city anymore? - its a business venture by one of the greediest and most sucessful capitalist retail magnets? Blaming Pardew is fine, hes not the best manager in the world, but I happen to believe we have no chance of getting anyone decent since the Keegan trial. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence is going to check the outcome of that trial and think no way. We've got Pardew, a wafer thin squad and no real aspirations to challenge for anything decent anytime soon - because we have an owner thats looking to make a profit making company that HE can take dividends on. Getting rid of Pardew will replace him with another puppet - and have exactly the same problems. If someone comes in with a decent offer for any of our players they are gone. Why the fans didn't believe Carolls explanation of his departure fuels this denial conspiracy for me. (though I saw it as good business, its the manner it was done) Ho hum, maybe I'm just hopelessly pessimistic - the manager is irrelevant to me - the business plan for NUFC is everything. You can talk about how being affiliated with Wonga is not so bad, but thats denial too - it will make us the dogend of so many away chants - who else would touch Wonga? some lower league team who can take the bribe? Its ironic that our sponsor will have the same business plan as our owner - I bet Ashley is laughing all the way to the bank with our fans who will continue to buy the newest replica shirt no matter what the team does. Makes Douglas's comments look tame.

I think that's so harsh, I believe hes looked as good as colo at times, even though hes just arrived... weird.

I'm with keegan on his apprasal of Jonas, despite some shortcomings in his game now - he gives everything he has all game long. I have no doubt he does inspire other players to try harder when they play alongside him on the left. It's a shame, I've been a great fan of him over the years - especially his attitude over the years , but I can't see him in the first team this year. To drop our hardest working player in the current situation though isn't something I'd do.