Dr Gloom

worrying noises coming there like. similar to that stuff about us not needing to invest much that came out recently. hopefully a smokescreen

the one that was giving me the hardest time about it is a liverpool fan. guess where he comes from?.....stroud in the west country. typical glory supporting kid of the 80s. the other two are palace and west ham

i had this conversation with my southern mates at the weekend insisting that there shouldn't be one. i was mocked for being the typical newcastle fan, never happy with what we've got, always moaning and unable to enjoy some success when it finally comes our way. i argued a bus parade would be wrong because this isn't a major achievement, more a case of righting a wrong. last time we were promoted we came from nothing and deserved the parade. this time we never should have gone down in the first place - the only rason we did was because of poor decisions by ashley. they argued that the players and manager, if not the owner, deserve a parade this time. what do you lot reckon? in reality, i'm sure thousands would turn out if there was one

it's a democracy man. if you want to talk about rogue states, you should start first with iran

i'm quietly confident that routledge and jonas will do a job in the premiership. both have ability, pace and a point to prove after previous failures. i like that we're playing with two genuine wingers again now and that the defence seems solid. creativity and steel in centre mid, a decent striker and a right back should be the priorities in the summer transfer window.

best was a bit of a panic buy wasn't it to be fair to chris. we needed a striker urgently as he didn't get beckford. didn't someone else turn us down too at the last minute before the window shut? can't remember, i might be wrong there but it was best blatantly wasn't his first choice. agree that he shouldn't have been given a 3 year deal mind. would have been a half decent loan signing but we'll have trouble shifting him now.

no chance he never managed many goals in the first place, his best return on a season was 11 in 33 exactly. he's a centre forward that doesn't score goals or a centre midfielder that can't tackle, dribble or pass the ball forward. plus he's on a massive bunce. get rid, but only after we're shot of barton

no chance

Utterly staggering. Any sports editor worth his salt would sack a sports writer for that. So we're disloyal despite having by a considerable margin the largest average gate outside the top flight since Man Utd in 1974. I'll never buy the Express again. you bought the express?

I'd imagine that would be the mean spend last summer, which would be hugely skewed by Man City's outlay. I reckon anything upwards of £20 million spent (which is of course a very big if) would put us in the top 6 or 7 spenders in the league. Take out their £90m summer spending and it's still £360m between 19 clubs which would be £19m each. Course the top clubs (with their euro millions) skew it (probably moreso on the average debt than the average spending) but I'm being fair to Chez in that the numbers do work out about average across the PL. The fact that any club fighting relegation with those kinds of outgoings would be in serious financial doo-doo and Ashley's shown no propensity to throw that kind of money at mounting a challenge for the top half makes me sceptical it'll happen that way. Something we only managed in half of the Shepherd years iirc. mounted a challenge ? They ALWAYS attempted the challenge mate. Thats WHY we filled the ground every week, and qualified for europe more than everybody bar 4 teams.

i would have thought barton would be one of the first to go....if we can find another mug club to pay him the massive wages he's on here.

i agree that we shouldn't blow all our money on a big name player. i'd love to see us sign the sort of player that can light up st james park though. someone with the creativity of a ginola or a beardsley - the kind of player that will get bums off seats. the only problem is they don't come. we are long overdue unearthing a gem mind. we're going to need a goal scorer too if we want to stay up. carrol and lovenkrands deserve a chance to show what they can do again at the highest level but i wouldn't want to rely on those two as first chouce up front for the season. that would surely result in a quick return ticket to the championship.

whenever we're on sky, we're shit. still not sure how we managed to secure promotion so easily.

i'll miss being on the telly every week and winning. won't miss the woeful standard of football from us and the opposition teams. i'm hopeful that both will improve next season

I think this would have been close to being a sell out if it had been a Saturday 3pm kick off

is anyone watching this match? absolutely dire. i think our current squad would hold their own against either of these two. obviously there is a massive gulf between where we are now and the top clubs in the premier league but on this evidence, i think we might be ok next year with a few new faces brought in. i haven't watched many premier league games this season but if this match is anything to go by, we should be able to mix it with most of the bottom half of the premier league next season if we are promoted. or am i being overly optimistic?

it would be very harsh on hughton not to give him a chance in the premier league if he takes us up. agree though that hughes is the sort of guy we should be looking at if hughton isn't up to it.

he's had an impressive second half of the season but he's far from the finished article. no where near an england call up

apparently west ham have moved the advertising boards 2 yards from the touchline against stoke so delap can't get his long throws in

i'd give ashley an E. since the massive fuckup last season, he's done what is needed to make sure we fight for a top two spot. decent investment in jan. not selling our better players despite the fact they're on big wages. would have been a higher grade if not for the details of the of disaster last season, keeping Llambias on the payroll and the stadium name change debacle. hughton definitely gets an A*. not many of us gave him a chance. he's exceeded all of our expectations. if we go up as champions, even beter. Llambias definitely gets the failing grade. muppet. get rid

i would sell or release barton, smith, ameobi, butt, best, pancrate. maybe nolan depending on who we bring in can't think of too many others we can afford to get rid of

i'm not sure best deserves all the stick he's been getting. he looks a confidence player to me. carrol on the other hand looks like he's loving his football at the moment. he seems more thab just a threat in the air now. some good touches and link up play on the ground. you have to say we got the wingers in behind much more in the second half too. credit to hughton for a half time team talk?

i think hughton deserves some credit for moving jonas to the right wing. our best play came from him second half when he doubled up with routeledge.

should have won it in the end. bristol did nowt second half. good performance to come from two goals down. the indifferent away form continues