Howaythetoon

It was his decision to leave but only because the club were prepared to give him a 1 year deal and not 2 years which he was afetr (presumably time enough to give him a chance to fight for his place), so I don't buy the he wasn't man enough. He being a Geordie knows only too well how hard it is to make it at Newcastle even if you are quite good given our ability to spend millions of forwards and our poor record of developing and bringing through talent. I bet it pissed him off not long after leaving, the club go and bring in an identikit player from Man Utd's academy.... because we were short in numbers. He probably asked for guarantees that he would be giving a fair chance, and was told, um, well, hmm, and thought fuck it. A one year deal hardly says anything does it. It probably took more guts to leave, take a look at Harper, the model of comfort.

Nah, what makes you think that? I'm just interested in weird stuff tbh, or odd things which is probably odd in itself 2 half hips? Do explain... Had a tumour on my right hip when I was 5. They removed it and transplanted half from my left. Had it be malignant, I'd probably have lost my right leg. Thankfully it was benign... Jesus, sounds like you were lucky then. Has that effected your posture/walking abilities? My mate was like Darren Peacock, had one leg shorter than the other.

It never really leaves you mate, I once gave up for nearly 8 years! before lighting one for someone and ending up smoking the pack. 8 years? Fuck me I thought after a good while, it leaves your system for good and only something daft gets you back on them, like stress or something. So it is like alcoholism then. You see with me, I'd always be tempted and have no will power, not strong enough to resist the urges anyway. Good luck though, it seems reading this that this is no whim so I think that could be half the battle, seems you're quitting for good reasons and not because hey, it's the new year like I always say to myself. I really enjoy smoking and I'm not the type to go around saying it's a stupid habit etc...But really at the end of the day enough was enough and if it takes 8 years to go back...I'll take that!! I'd take a year tab free, it would I know do me the world of good, I am naturally fit or full of energy but I've noticed as I get older that is on the wane. Today if I play football it takes me 20 minutes to get over the whole, my face is beetroot read, I'm sweating like fuck and about to keal over at any minute, smoke related unfit thing. After that though I can run about all day, oddly enough. As ever though it's having the will power to stay off them and all the crap inbetween, I've been there a hundred times and I don't like it. One day I keep saying, one day. I think if you stop for a week, the craving can only then be in the mind. All the associations of 'good times', the fag after the meal etc.. Atm I'm still fantasizing about special moments when I can allow myself 'one cigarette'...So clearly the mental battle isn't won. Do you know what I love? That first tab in the morning along with a cup off coffee, sleep was invented for that man. Ahhhh, bliss. I hear you. That 10-15 min with the radio softly in the background, sunlight flickering on the mug...The first two or three long drags... You're not really helping here.. Smoking seems to have done you some good, you can quote correctly Another thing about the tabs, when you haven't had one for ages and you.... I'll stop.

Couldn't agree more. I don't think he was giving a chance personally and while you could point out that he isn't Premiership standard, was Doyle when playing for Cork not so long back? Is Sibbers who is doing a job? Some players grow into a player if that makes any sense or take time and need that chance to prove themselves one way or another, I hope Cardiff go up and the lad does just that. BTW I thought he could have made a half decent right sided winger for us, I remember the Rangers game at SJP a few years back and he had a good spell in that game in that position, sent in some cracking crosses and looked real nifty. Only one game I know but given who was ahead of him and his stature, I thought it might have been worth trying him out as one, see if he took to it, rather than just let him go because we can afford to spend millions on new strikers. Quick question: Who would take Chopra now? I would.

It never really leaves you mate, I once gave up for nearly 8 years! before lighting one for someone and ending up smoking the pack. 8 years? Fuck me I thought after a good while, it leaves your system for good and only something daft gets you back on them, like stress or something. So it is like alcoholism then. You see with me, I'd always be tempted and have no will power, not strong enough to resist the urges anyway. Good luck though, it seems reading this that this is no whim so I think that could be half the battle, seems you're quitting for good reasons and not because hey, it's the new year like I always say to myself. I really enjoy smoking and I'm not the type to go around saying it's a stupid habit etc...But really at the end of the day enough was enough and if it takes 8 years to go back...I'll take that!! I'd take a year tab free, it would I know do me the world of good, I am naturally fit or full of energy but I've noticed as I get older that is on the wane. Today if I play football it takes me 20 minutes to get over the whole, my face is beetroot read, I'm sweating like fuck and about to keal over at any minute, smoke related unfit thing. After that though I can run about all day, oddly enough. As ever though it's having the will power to stay off them and all the crap inbetween, I've been there a hundred times and I don't like it. One day I keep saying, one day. I think if you stop for a week, the craving can only then be in the mind. All the associations of 'good times', the fag after the meal etc.. Atm I'm still fantasizing about special moments when I can allow myself 'one cigarette'...So clearly the mental battle isn't won. Do you know what I love? That first tab in the morning along with a cup off coffee, sleep was invented for that man. Ahhhh, bliss.

Nah, what makes you think that? I'm just interested in weird stuff tbh, or odd things which is probably odd in itself 2 half hips? Do explain...

Your avatar has that effect on me too. Nice.

Like Live at Jongleurs the neet

I suffer from sleep paralysis.Very rarely, maybe twice a year, I wake up, and can't move (sometimes can't even open my eyes), but I am aware of everything around me (sounds etc). After a minute or so, I wake up completely. Horrible, really scary. Happened to me once. And I agree, very scary!

BTW Chewing gum, whoever invented that idea wants shot, that just irritated me more and confounded my misery, chewing on something that loses its taste quickly and becomes tastless and rubbery for jaw achingly ever, give me a tab Mr Rigley.

It never really leaves you mate, I once gave up for nearly 8 years! before lighting one for someone and ending up smoking the pack. 8 years? Fuck me I thought after a good while, it leaves your system for good and only something daft gets you back on them, like stress or something. So it is like alcoholism then. You see with me, I'd always be tempted and have no will power, not strong enough to resist the urges anyway. Good luck though, it seems reading this that this is no whim so I think that could be half the battle, seems you're quitting for good reasons and not because hey, it's the new year like I always say to myself. I really enjoy smoking and I'm not the type to go around saying it's a stupid habit etc...But really at the end of the day enough was enough and if it takes 8 years to go back...I'll take that!! I'd take a year tab free, it would I know do me the world of good, I am naturally fit or full of energy but I've noticed as I get older that is on the wane. Today if I play football it takes me 20 minutes to get over the whole, my face is beetroot read, I'm sweating like fuck and about to keal over at any minute, smoke related unfit thing. After that though I can run about all day, oddly enough. As ever though it's having the will power to stay off them and all the crap inbetween, I've been there a hundred times and I don't like it. One day I keep saying, one day.

I saw someone get an accidental wack in the nose the other day and after that I imagined being wacked in the nose and thinking, ouch, then all of a sudden my nose become very sensitive as if it was preparing itself for a wack. Try it, close your eyes and picture your hand pushing into your nose, does it tingle or twitch? Mine fucking does. Odd. Now I can't stop doing this and have tried it with other body parts to no avail, although picturing a pair of nice tits can have my eye out. Another thing, which according to various Google searches could be down to a whole host of things, if I pick up a two pence piece, I can taste copper in my mouth, same with other metals. Odd. Deja-vu, I forever have that feeling and it bugs me that I can't explain what this thing is. Odd. Lastly, which spooks me and is probably common with many of you, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night suddenly as if something has startled me, draw some breath, give the room a once over to get my bearings, and then go back to sleep. Or at least that's what I think I've done, it could all be a dream, I don't really know. Odd. Is there anything odd about you, do you experience some odd things?

Since Roeder got the Toon job

It never really leaves you mate, I once gave up for nearly 8 years! before lighting one for someone and ending up smoking the pack. 8 years? Fuck me I thought after a good while, it leaves your system for good and only something daft gets you back on them, like stress or something. So it is like alcoholism then. You see with me, I'd always be tempted and have no will power, not strong enough to resist the urges anyway. Good luck though, it seems reading this that this is no whim so I think that could be half the battle, seems you're quitting for good reasons and not because hey, it's the new year like I always say to myself.

The problem we have here is small company syndrome, where there is no transparency or oversight in the affairs of the club. Deciscion making is reactive and often little removed from fire fighting ( ie fitness and transfer issues) when it should really be pro-active. Ultimately the only real way forward for this club will be if we end up with a similar structure to Barcelona. The Barcelona model would be fantastic but I can't see that ever happening at Newcastle.

What I want to know from those mega never smoked for donkies giver uppers, do you ever crave one these days? A mate of mine gave up and hasn't had one for a year, says after about 6 months the cravings stopped and he said that's the key to quitting, to get past the craving stage because once clear, you stop craving. But I've heard how people go back on after like 3 years without one. The cravings do it for me like, the first 24 hours is the worst, then leaving the house, then watching others, then going out drinking. They should just ban tabs, that would make me stop. Bastards.

Nowt but respect for nurses, doctors, anyone in that profession really, sterling job.

You'll quit one day. When I'm dead, I've tried hundreds of times, once going 6 weeks and I always end up back on them, often after a night out. And why do smokers smoke twice as many when out on the piss? I've resigned myself to being a smoker for the rest of my life, everyone I know smokes, I enjoy a tab and when I'm out on the drink...

That's actually a very good point, if it weren't for their fuck-ups in the first place they wouldn't be making these "we'll fix things" statements.

Ahrrrrrrrrr, these things just remind me I NEED TO QUIT, which I've tried to do too many times. Fuck it I enjoy my tabs, if they kill me, so be it. Good look to the oppressed in their fight, me... lights another one. *weeps*

Utter rubbish in my opinion. I've seen managers changing the style of play within weeks even though with limited players or players with limited talent. Roeder has had 12 months including a whole pre-season. Except of the very young defenders coming in most players who started are either internationals or wannabe-internationals or still players of a higher calibre. I can expect those players to understand and realise instructions given to them from the managing staff. And regarding our awful build up of the game from the back it was significant that actually it were the likes of Huntingdon and Edgar who were rather looking for doing the right pass than just hoofing the ball up front. Latter is something I easily expect to get restricted, but it isn't. You are correct, Roeder has had a full pre-season and has been in the job 12 months now but the one consistent theme of his tenure from day one has been, through no fault of his own, an inability to pick his best team week in week out, much less work with them on the training pitch. If you expect him, on top of every other thing he has to do in his role as manager, to put his energy and efforts into making a group of players who he would have mostly regarded as back-up or players he'd like to replace with the majority of players or players not ready (academy players), into a team that plays good controled football, I'd say you're not only being unrealistic, but unfair also. His first priority is results, not performances. Like I said, lets wait and see what manifests out on the pitch when he gets to work with his best team on the training pitch on a consistent basis, I'm positive when that happens, we'll see a team that plays better football. In the meantime I'll take 3 points thank you and to hell with performances. Yes, and I regard many results as lucky or if you want it the other way round, some of our non-results simply down to our performances. We were very fortunate to beat the likes of Tottenham away, drawing ManU, even the game against Villa was fortunate. But we dropped the points against teams like Sheffield, Fulham, Bolton etc. because of our poor performances. As I said I am happy about the results, but are not very optimistic in Roeder really being able to give a team any sort of shape. He hasn't been able to accommodate the likes of Parker and Emre for example - and there were plenty of opportunities. He hasn't been stopping the likes of Given and Bramble bumping the balls straight to the opposition etc. That's all things who have nothing to do with injuries or other exterior circumstances. In my eyes they are down to a lack of managerial ability. Maybe I am unfair, I like to get proven wrong in case he is really to get the best out of what he considers his best team (also I think it's unlikely that a manager will ever have this privilege). I'll use Parker and Emre as a fine example of Roeder wanting to change things and actually working on changing their games which to a point was having an effect, up until injuries. Now that plan or idea to work with them has went out the window as he neither has the time or resources to work on them and that area. BTW, I agree we don't play good football and it is a concern, but I'm not bothered by that at this moment in time because I don't think Roeder can do anything really, until he can work with his best team on a consistent basis, something he hasn't been able to do since he took over. For a lot of our players they are lost causes, players like Carr, I don't expect them to play intelligently or to suddenly be able to control a ball regardless of who was coaching them. Roeder is doing the right thing IMO by keeping things simple and getting by and to prioritise results over performances. Next season is the time to work on both together. I've read comments from him this season where he hasn't even been able to put on full training sessions due to the injuries, or had to modify training sessions. Sorry but good football, shape and tactics comes from the training ground and if your plans are being affected due to injuries and what not, what can he do? Anyway I'll agree to disagree

I've long been suspicious of our injury problems, more than meets the eye with a good few of them, Baba, Carr etc. I suspect Roeder is suspicious too.

Gemmill made an interesting point about Roeder's comments today, being similar to what he spouted in the Summer which impressed many, myself included. If you can't remember what he was talking about in the Summer he was talking about Directors of Football, better scouting, bringing through younger players, spending wisely, new training, diet and fitness medthods etc. Just what the club needs we all thought. Today though we now know this talk to be nowt more than that, just talk - none of those things have happened or look like happening. However, if you take that Roeder does indeed have all these plans and wants to do this and that which I'm sure at least in his own head anyway that he does (if not the actual skills to pull these things off), could it be he isn't being allowed to by the club who as we all know, don't like relinquishing full control? Even SBR wasn't allowed to do what he wanted to do. Remember the time he was blocked from bringing in ProZone and the issues he had with the pitch, not to mention having his assistant (Wadsworth) removed because the club wanted Geordie Carver in the mix, then there was Clarkie being given a job under Souness and Terry Mac being brought back. And lets not even talk about the club's interference in transfers. SBR's book is proof positive of that. I don't know where I'm going with this like but I just find it strange that what Roeder does is a lot different to what he says, and although I realise a lot of managers are like that, but I'm not talking about his inane we could have 2 players in within 2 days type comments here (all managers talk shite in that sense), I'm talking about his plans, his blueprint which I don't think he'd deviate from unless he had no choice in the matter. God knows we need these things (and so does he) Roeder talked enthusiastically and in depth about in the Summer, but we seem no nearer to these changes or even look remotely like adopting a few of them. Maybe it isn't so hard to understand why the likes of Big Sam and MON did turn us down afterall, and perhaps why Souness latched oto Shearer like a lovesick teenager in the way he did, as a means to wrestle a bit of power away from the boardroom, or an ally. Anyway it seems to me there is only one man who the board would give full control over to, Shearer himself, or that he is the only one who could stand up to them because he is bigger than them and in many ways, bigger than the club. Actually, you can now see why they choose Roeder, someone who despite his grande plans, is just happy to be given a chance to manage a Premiership club, someone who would never stand up to them and demand full co-operation, someone they can control.