acrossthepond

Getting a little sick of this fat bastard having a go at us. I wonder how long he'd be given here

Takes a fairly critical view of Ashley's tenure so far but Murphy has always shown fairness towards us and you notice there is little nonsense about "leaky defence" "fickle Toon Army" "toxic environment" etc in here. Decent read.

How long will you give them? Until ESPN shows a game which we lose? Hilarious. ESPN doesn't show Toon games if you're wondering, but clearly you know it all. (Fox Soccer Channel shows them, and I don't think we've won a game on FSC since Roeder v. Liverpool last year. They usually show us v. top four teams.) And I hardly think I've been vocal about wanting rid of Allardyce. Yes, I have consistently predicted his demise - it was always going to happen after the Derby defeat, in my opinion, and it was just a question of when - but I'm not happy about how farcical it makes us look, the greater sense of instability it has generated, and the (likely) appointment of another shite manager. But no, go on, keep having a go, you and your US Nazi flag. We drew with Derby. It might have felt like a loss to the crybabies lamenting the death of "their" club as they know it, but it was definitely a draw. Unless you're suggesting he was done for 5 games into the season. Oh no, I meant the first Derby game. That was the first game where his truly shit team selections began to show. A defensive team (against Derby!) with 4 central midfielders (Smith and Geremi among them), no width at all, no creativity, and Ameobi playing. And this after we were unbeaten to this point, not like we were trying to stop a losing slide or anything. I thought to myself (mystic ATP) "This isn't the man who will succeed at Newcastle. If he can't prove this game wasn't a blip the fans and press will eat him alive." As it turned out there were many many more blips. The media only needs a few "unattractive/unappealing/defensive" games that we lose or draw badly in order to begin the whole "Toon fans want attacking football" line again and when it became apparent that he wouldn't be providing attacking football, some of the fans began to believe it. His awful selections didn't help either. The formation against Liverpool I think was the low point of his "tactics" with us but there were many other occasions for ridicule.

How long will you give them? Until ESPN shows a game which we lose? Hilarious. ESPN doesn't show Toon games if you're wondering, but clearly you know it all. (Fox Soccer Channel shows them, and I don't think we've won a game on FSC since Roeder v. Liverpool last year. They usually show us v. top four teams.) And I hardly think I've been vocal about wanting rid of Allardyce. Yes, I have consistently predicted his demise - it was always going to happen after the Derby defeat, in my opinion, and it was just a question of when - but I'm not happy about how farcical it makes us look, the greater sense of instability it has generated, and the (likely) appointment of another shite manager. But no, go on, keep having a go, you and your US Nazi flag.

I'll have Hughes if and only if he brings Roque Santa Cruz (or Bentley) with him. Otherwise, I've resigned myself to 'Arry. It'll be interesting, if nothing else.

What we definitely don't need is another messiah. Had plenty of those.

Should've waited to give him the push after Man U if I'm honest, unless as has been speculated someone has given us the green light. Hughes no thanks, Redknapp I'll have, Shearer I'll have (it must happen sometime), Jol no thanks, McClaren etc. piss off.

Horrific. I'd rather have Enrique as captain - lack of English notwithstanding - than this hotheaded Yorkshire-pud-eating bastard. In most of his games it's as though we've been playing with ten men and some of the tackles he missed v. Stoke for example were truly shocking. Exactly what we don't need is another Butt with far less skill, far less guile, and far less self-control. Why has Sam picked two sad wallies as captain? The former I'll write off as an honest mistake. The latter...well, I don't think there's any coincidence that our new captain has his name on wor Ashley's replica.

I could hardly believe my eyes, the guy is one fat bastard. We call him "the bear." Could stand to drop a few pounds to be sure but he always looked dangerous yesterday.

I think we've seen this tie somewhere before... As some are saying, might not even be worth it to beat Stoke except to deny those sad pseudo-mackems their most important win of the last decade or so.

All tiresome 90 minutes. All we really disagree on is Enrique's performance, which I really think was lacking. His defending wasn't too bad but his passing looked hopeless and he never really looked involved, I thought. I do agree about LuaLua...is that his first appearance for the senior team? I can't remember. He looked lively to say the least.

Terrible performance, they want shot with shit if I'm honest. Smith may as well have not been on the pitch, and he's to be our captain? Christ. Rozenhal was dire and for some reason kept appearing in the final third with the ball for no good reason. I can't fault his committment but Butt is not exactly a sharpshooter. I'm at a loss to explain why our strikers and wingers kept laying it back to Nicky Butt for him to take shots. Faye and N'Zogbia were solid, Viduka looked vaguely in it but never had the support, Enrique was awful, England's Michael Owen was anonymous as ever save for his token attempt (doesn't it seem to you he always has one 1v1 a game and usually muffs it before going AWOL again?) A bright point was that Duff appears to be regaining some of his game. And that we didn't lose. But people saying "oh we'll turn them over at SJP" forget Birmingham. I can't help but see the same happening in the replay.

Couple of famous ones in there, Oldham beating Everton, Coventry thumping Rovers, and of course the SMB being slaughtered is always fun. Come on Havant and Waterlooville!

Depends. From a UK perspective you'd say Portland, USA (city, country) or Lagos, Nigeria etc etc. But you wouldn't say Leeds, England, would you? You'd say Leeds, Yorkshire. A yank might not have a clue where Yorkshire is, so he'd want you to clarify it as Leeds, England, same as you might not have a clue where Oregon is and you want it clarified as Portland, USA. When talking about your own country you use state/county designations in general I'd say, and when talking about foreign countries you don't since you're not likely to know them. p.s. there are lots of Londons in the USA. Lots of Yorks, lots of Carlisles, lots of Newcastles, lots of many English town names. p.p.s. you do say New York, New York. the first is the city, the second is the state. not just in songs after all

Carrick's very out of favor at Man U if the reports are to be believed, Hargreaves/Anderson keeping him out of the first team from what I've heard as well as Scholes returning from injury at some point. We might have an outside chance there. I'd certainly have him.

Ridiculous I know, but whenever I think of Carroll I think of him scoring seven against my QPR side on FM2008. Not sure why he hasn't pulled his weight over there, Preston have lacked a solid goalscorer with the loss of Nugent. But that's what loans are for I reckon, gaining experience. Krul's doing well apart from a thrashing off Celtic if I remember correctly.

He's done. This particular match could've gone either way but we really look hopeless, can't see Sam in charge next week and it won't be too soon. I do think we'll beat Stoke however.

Name two players from our current squad you'd like to see sold and two players you'd like to see us buy who we could realistically get. OUT: Duff, Barton Barton was a mistake as is becoming clear. I want Duff flogged so that Sam can move the Zog up to LM where he is one of our better attacking players. Duff's prime is past and he'll never be half the player he was at Chelsea, but with luck we can get some dosh for him off a club who still puts some stock in his reputation. IN: Arshavin, Kanu Arshavin most of us can agree on, he seems to be the most likely buy out of the players we've been linked with and we direly need creativity, although he'll probably turn to shit as soon as he pulls on the black and white. Kanu is a player I admire greatly and he might suit Sam's "hoof it up" style, as well as having deft control himself. Linking up with his international teammate Martins might help too. feel free to criticise mine or add your own.

Great play by N'Zogbia but surely not MOM, his defending was truly shocking. It appears Big Sam finally got a clue however and let him push up because he was doing nothing for us at LB. Lot of positives to take from this game - Duff started slow but got better, Cacapa and Beye were solid, Milner and Martins were lively although Martins surely fluffed some that he should've put away (his flick to Butt was sublime however). Negatives - Smith did little, Taylor was in my opinion dire, Martins had little support although he certainly did more this game than v. Derby/Wigan, and the subs were again terrible, in a game we really had a chance at winning Big Sam elected to go for the draw - fair play to him - but Rozenhal for Smith was ugly, Owen for Martins killed off any chance we might've had, and Viduka came on too late. Sam still needs to go. I hope this "improved performance" doesn't help his case with the board any. EDIT: How could I forget - Kalou was miles offside. I didn't expect anything less at Stamford Bridge however.

Get lost you fat bastard, who do you think you are? Clearly still sore over that loss and losing Shearer to us. Just what we don't need - the peanut gallery chiming in on our club. I mean, Jesus. Could this guy get any more condescending? Of course the moral of the story is that we've made ourselves this laughingstock with our awful signings and near-constant managerial changes over the years. Sam isn't the man to stop it though, so I'll put up with the ridicule of one more swap if we can get the right guy this time.

If there's one kind of whingeing I really can't take, it's this "we're not that good after all" type. I am honestly sick to the gills of hearing how NUFC have fallen from grace (we know) and shouldn't be expecting to beat Wigan, Birmingham, Reading, etc (we should). Look, it must be 4 points MINIMUM from Wigan, Birmingham, Reading, Derby and Fulham. I'm not sure how anyone can say otherwise. These are truly dire sides if you look at some of the dross they have in their first team (Melchiot/Bramble, Forssell/Jaidi, both Derby keepers and most of their strike force, Bocanegra/Dempsey/that godawful defender who conceded the penalty, his name's escaping me). We have the quality on paper to be beating these sides day in and day out. So something is missing and I'm tired of hearing that it's our squad. It isn't. Look at all the millions spent on players, some of whom have succeeded (Faye/Beye/Cacapa somewhat) and some of whom haven't (Barton/Smith/Enrique from not being played.) We have a strong squad and I know a lot of (mid-table admittedly) clubs who'd give their two front teeth for some of the defenders and wingers we have on our books. So at the end of the day it falls on the manager to inspire the players, play his best squad in position, and get the results. And here we are: Wigan: 3 points from 6 pos. B'ham: 3 points from 3 pos. Reading: 0 points from 3 pos. Derby: 1 points from 6 pos. Fulham: 3 points from 3 pos. Throw in the Mackems at 1 from 3 and maybe Boro at 1 from 3 and we've got 12 from 27 possible points against the bottom seven teams. Less than half. Compound that with losses to Pompey, Rovers, a draw with Villa (3 mid-upper clubs we should consider our main competition) and it all adds up to a shabby mess that needs sorting out in short order. I've lost faith in Sam, I think many on this board are losing faith also and from the numbers it isn't hard to see why.

Demote to bench and flog in the summer. Should never have signed him, he hasn't done anything of note besides score a penalty (and he has never looked like scoring off open play.) I was against the thug from the start.

He's lost the plot. Let's get rid before we lose it too. Not sure what else to say, the guy is clueless and whatever he did at Bolton counts for sweet bugger-all here. I'm sick of hearing about it. All he knows is negative football which would be fine if it worked. But playing for draws against Wigan, Reading, Derby (??) is unacceptable no matter what depths we have sunk to (not to mention we didn't get draws against any of them.) Everyone talking about "the Keegan era is over" etc etc - fine. We know. It's been over for a while. I wonder when the "shite football era" will be over. I think we could make a start of it by offloading the fat bastard now before he can scrape through another couple of lucky wins and deceive people.

after the Arse game I said the next four against Birmingham, Fulham, Derby & Wigan would decide Sam's future. I said 9 points from 12 would be just enough. We've had 7. I think the fat man's time is up. He's just not willing to do what has to be done to succeed at this club. He needs to drop Smith, drop Geremi, start playing the LB that we paid good money for, and in general change things at this club. If there's any need for proof that things never change at NUFC you need only look at the scoreline and hearken back to how we lost exactly the same way in this fixture last year. Different squad, different manager, same bullshit.

Given Beye Faye Taylor N'Zogbia Milner Emre Geremi Duff Smith Viduka? Wonder if he's given into fan pressure by dropping Rozenhal and Barton and moving Milner to RM. by the looks of it in your formation, milner's still playing left mid right right, fixed that. got allardyce on the brain maybe. We seem to be doing better.