acrossthepond

It was a flagrant foul and a nailed on yellow but I didn't see any more in it. I'm almost glad we didn't win as any signs of good performances or results might increase the chances of Geordie Pardew getting the job.

Reminds me of the first half against Burnley, and we all remember how that second half went....

A flagrant foul on Perez there, commentators only call it a "connection" and "contact." No, you cunts, it was an obvious foul. The defender trod on his heel.

How are we meant to do that? Send round the Muslim whip and tell those crazy backbenchers to get in line? Islam isn't a monolith and it doesn't have a front office. Everyone always makes it sound like we've got some great private army of terrorists waiting by the phone for the latest slight to our religion so they can go out and kill people. The truth is that apart from certain well-organized and well-funded groups like the obvious al Qaeda and their spiritual successor ISIS, and Hezbullah, and Hamas if you want to lump them in although they're a bit different, the people who do these things are usually loonies or already damaged individuals who become susceptible to certain charismatic figures. As time passes, I feel confident that these brothers and whatever other kid they had with them attacking Charlie Hebdo will be discovered to be loners, slightly unbalanced people who at some point developed links (they're never members of terrorist organisations, they're just 'linked' to them) with some sort of extremist mullah or imam who himself was a front for a terrorist organisation. The same way, in other words, that so many of these crimes occur. The trigger happened to be radical Islam in this case. Transport these brothers to the American South and it might be the Klan or some other white supremacist group. Transport them to L.A. and it might be the Latin Kings. To Mexico and it might be a cartel. I don't have the answer to this problem. Certainly the rise of Islamism is the result of many factors that are not simple to deal with - inequality in the Muslim world generated by autocratic rulers, imbalanced societies, and a core-periphery relationship which they are on the wrong end of (all of which were caused by colonialism), a continuing inability to reconcile the secular and religious domains of society which is the result of the Western world's 400-or-so year head start on us (remember the European religious wars of the 17th century? That's pretty much where our society is right now, except the rest of the world has moved on and doesn't understand why we're still working those problems out), etc etc. i just know that terrorist incidents like this are always misrepresented as somehow being indicative of Islam (by right-wingers) or of part of Islam (by well-meaning liberals) when really they aren't, and are just indicative of the actions of crazy people who get access to weapons and a cause, the same as has been going on since Herostratus burned down the Temple of Artemis.

We were literally in the process of getting relegated when Allardyce was given the boot, 11th or not. He was diabolical and we'd never have survived if he'd lasted much longer. Anyone who ever saw us play during that time period (Cacapa getting subbed after 18 minutes at home to Pompey, anyone?) knows that. EDIT: Howay beat me to it, but aye that Fulham away game was utter dogshit. On par with the 6-0 loss to Liverpool for how bad we were, just we were up against an equally dire team.

I'd prefer that to a Pardew-style "Never heard of Carr's players, but can you buy me Rob Elliott and Gabriel Obertan?" relationship.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/temuri-ketsbaia-wants-newcastle-united-8379286#rlabs=1 Temuri Ketsbaia wants the Newcastle United job - and here's his plan for glory

Bolded the most worrying. Only at this club would someone think a home draw and a loss against two of the division's worst teams would entitle them to "throw their hat into the ring."

Fond of Palace as far as London clubs go. Good luck to them, they're going to need it. I doubt their fans will prove any more tolerant of his bullshit than we did, should their relationship last as long as ours has, but no doubt they'll not get the "fickle" treatment from Pardew's mates in the media. Wherever we go from here, Kinnear or de Boer (someone on the Kinnear end of the scale is far more likely), I doubt we'll turn up a worse human being than Pardew. Ta-ta you gormless cunt. Do forget to write.

Is "Cor, he was a good manager, he was" meant to be his attempt to 'do Geordie'? Although the innumerable amounts of dickheads claiming to be toon fans posting on the Chronicle comments pages seem to disagree, I don't think any of us will ever reckon Pardew was a good manager. We had periods where we were good, yes. He was placed under many limitations, yes. We may well end up with a worse manager, yes, I don't dispute that. But was he a good manager? No chance. We plucked him out of obscurity and he managed to get us to Europe once in 4 years before the word came down from upstairs that we weren't to do that again, heaven forbid. The rest of the time we ranged from mediocre to dire, and that's leaving behind the baggage (headbutt, linesman push, Ashley arselicking, guarantee Carroll will not be sold, etc etc) that other mid-to-low Premier League quality managers wouldn't have brought.

Carver until the end of the season, Tuchel in at the season's end according to both of those. Do want.

But Stevie's not banned...

Aye Ayoze standing out as one of the few bright lights of yet another crap season. The lad is pure quality and constantly gets us out of trouble. Too bad we will be selling him next January.

Like I said, Carver is just Pardew with a Geordie accent. The same shit formation and selection, the same over-reliance on cloggers/"water carriers" rather than attacking players, the same suspect defence (what in fuck was Dummett playing at? How about Williamson's suicide header late on?), the same dogshit substitutions (Armstrong has contributed nothing so far at any point he's been on the pitch, Haidara was abominable, our 12m signing rots unused on the bench.) 2 points hoyed away, fanks Mike, fuck off Carver and Stone and take Alnwick with you.

He's been diabolical. Sissoko and Janmaat driving the team on, great goal from Colback, Riviere is a donkey who on current evidence will never make it in this league.

Riviere :lol:

Tiote conceding possession 35 yards from goal almost immediately, augurs well.

Carver is just Pardew with a better accent. Same cowardly selection at home to a team of Championship cloggers.

He'll have to stop posting soon anyway, somebody else at the Pennywell library's going to want a go on the computer.

ASM isn't missing, he's ClubSpinDoctor/DesmondTutu/Thompers/etc etc etc. Never been fully exorcised from this board. There's loads of great posters on here. Someone who always makes me crack up is @yourservice. Doesn't post much as of late but I've been a fan since the Stokoeshops. The Lee Ryder diaries are fucking hilarious too. Actually nearly everyone on here is good crack, there's a few posters missing I'd like to see back, like ScottishMag, Craig, Jimbo (seems like he is back though) and Billy Castell.

I'm convinced whoever replaces Pardew is bound to be a trademark Mike Ashley disappointment. Someone like Curbishley would fit the bill perfectly - English, desperate, cheap, nobody wants him. Bearing that in mind, I'm just glad the man himself has left. Setting to one side the dogshit football and the lickspittle attitude toward Ashley, neither of which are likely to change with the next appointment, he was just so dislikeable as a human being that he lowered the tone at the whole club.

Agreed completely. Every midfield needs a water carrier. The problem is that our entire midfield has been nothing but water carriers since Cabaye went. Sissoko has been trying to fill the role (when he's not wasted out on the wing) but he is a different type of player to Cabaye entirely. All graft and no craft in the midfield means our strikers are not getting service and are forced to fashion opportunities out of nothing, which Cisse and Perez can do, but they can't be expected to do so every game and repeatedly. Tiote, Colback, Anita, and Abeid are all serviceable players (Tiote perhaps better than serviceable but not on current form) but they all perform the same role. I don't think de Jong is the answer either, not that anybody really knows what type of player he is or where Pardew is going to play him. Ryan Taylor is a limited footballer but he at least offers some form of creativity. Cabella is not a central midfielder. Basically I don't think we have anyone at the club currently who can fill the midfield role we need and haven't had for nearly a year now. So our strikers, such as they are, continue to feed off scraps/wait for Sissoko to do something good/wait for our opponents to screw up. Not exactly a recipe for success but it's the same one we've been following all of 2014, with predictable results.

More of his expert man-management and player improvement. Mishandle the player for more than a year, then start playing him in his correct position and claim the improvement is down to his own management. Genius.

The same reason that Pardew does anything, desperation.

Another terrible first half performance. If we were playing a more clinical side we'd be well behind by now. Gouffran off for Cabella, Tiote off for Cisse, go for it in the second half because whatever this approach is, it isn't working.