acrossthepond

What did Santon, Ba, Cisse and Simpson get done for? And how does a mackem fan know more about our players than I do?

Although my comments in this thread have been somewhat miserable I was really, really pleased with this result. We looked cohesive as a team and strong on the counter attack. Even though two of our goals resulted from major errors, we were on hand to capitalize on those errors, which many other times we've failed to do. So, an excellent win, far better performance than last Sunday's shit, and hopefully this marks a corner being turned.

Very, very poor, broke, skint, empty-pocketed, all-his-shit-repoed-already man's Yaya Toure.

Gosling's key contribution: falling over and letting Dummett get the ball.

What a fucking idiot. God, isn't this club embarrassing enough without our manager playing at handbags?

I was with you up until this sentence. It'll be a summer of negativity because we won't spend 50-60 million? The past two summers have been oppressively negative without cracking 10 mil, let alone 50! Nobody who follows this club is going to be "negative" because we're not spending Man City money. Then in the same breath you suggest we'd "better" spend at least 30 mil net. Tell me how likely to happen you think that is, then tell me who's being "negative." Most of what you're saying makes sense, but this part came across as hopelessly out of touch and is reminiscent of media coverage of NUFC circa 2008 - "sad, divine-righting Geordies kicking off because their new owner didn't splash enough cash."

Top post overall. The continuing issue, however, is the lack of investment. I don't think anyone on here is morally opposed to the idea of letting the club grow itself rather than spiraling wildly into debt through chucking away money we don't have on players as we have done in the past. The problem: we make plenty of money but we don't spend any of it on the team, which then begs the question "what exactly are we doing with it?" Hence the borehole jokes, etc., but what's a lot more worrying is the thought that our surplus is being built up solely for Ashley to enrich himself off. He's taken money out of the club, ostensibly to pay himself back, but the accounts do not reflect a commensurate decrease in the amount of his interest-free loan to the club. So even nonpartisan observers (who can view Ashley's regime with parity, considering the well hasn't been poisoned for them by Ashley's horrific treatment of club legends and blatant lies to the fans) start to wonder where the money's going. We sold Carroll for 35m. Some would say we then needed an equivalent spend on transfer fees to show we had re-invested the money. Llambias popped up saying it had gone on wages, training ground improvements, etc, and was an investment into the club entire rather than just new players. OK. Let's say we buy that for a minute. The Carroll fee went into defraying our expenses. Wonderful. So all the TV money, prize money, income from the sales of other players during that time period, etc. should therefore be profit rather than having to be offset by the wages and other expenses that Carroll's sale has just paid for. We're in the black! Great! Time to use the TV money to invest on players...but that didn't happen either. So where has it gone? An almighty cleaning-out is coming this summer, I think. Remy returns to QPR, Colo, Jonas, and Cisse are likely to go, Ben Arfa may as well (and may be sold anyway as he's only a year left on his contract), Shola and some other deadwood are sure to be shifted (ex. Marveaux, Obertan, Amalfitano, R. Taylor) - and all of that is notwithstanding the possible sale of key players. A major net spend will be required to offset the imminent and substantial weakening of our squad. Now we'll really see whether these "positive accounts" and "signs of growth" are good news for the club, or only for Ashley, because there's no way we'll stay up next year with another summer of loans and freebies.

Use the force, Luuk?

Whoop-de-do, we scored. Still finding it hard to give a fuck. Consider the cracks firmly papered over. That game was utterly dire and we look bereft of any plan or creativity whatsoever.

Let's not forget that utterly embarrassing free-kick from Gouffran. Give Dummett a go already, it's not like anyone else looks vaguely likely.

Anybody just hear their commentator saying, "Get the famous Sports Direct Arena atmosphere going?" Fuck off you utter cunt.

The sad truth. I know he's not been backed and has been thoroughly undermined, but he made his bed as far as that goes and needs to lie in it. He hasn't been good enough this season. Probably should've gone at the end of last after the 0-6 to Liverpool; certainly after the 0-3 and 0-4 home defeats this season. He looks completely out of ideas and desperate. Obviously he won't go as Ashley doesn't want to pay him off (or to have to deal with someone who might not be a complete crony like Pardew is.) But there's no question that Pardew has taken the club as far as he can and we'll need someone better in if we're to improve.

Why are you biting? Everybody knows Ashley is to blame for our situation. There's nothing even to discuss.

There's only one person at the club who is responsible for our pathetic also-ran status and it's Mike Ashley. For him, and him alone, this season is going exactly to plan. Pardew can't be happy at the complete lack of backing, support, or any investment in the team whatsoever - he keeps spouting his bullshit so he can keep the biggest job he'll ever get. The players can't be happy at seeing our best player sold with no replacement and the absolute lack of any interest in the club from higher-up surely percolates through to them. They're on holiday already, Pardew is out of his depth and has been hung out to dry, and Ashley doesn't give a fuck as long as we stay up.

I'm also considering going 'on loan until the end of the season without an option to buy.' NUFC will always be my heart and soul, I was born into this club and can't escape it, but it's so soul-wrenchingly wretched at the moment, and the fact that there's no end in sight whatsoever is what makes it unbearable. It was a real chore to turn the match on today. Normally with a 2:45 (for me) kickoff like this one I'd be busting a gut to get home from work, but not today and not since the transfer window closed. I'm thinking about following Palace as a second team as well. An interesting mix of players there, some of whom have a bit of class about them, and much more spirit than we're showing at the moment.

I don't think there's a team in this league who wouldn't fancy playing us. We look truly dire, despicably so, and I feel for the people who pay to watch those disgraceful imposters who stroll about in black and white, the fraud who picks them, and the fat cunt who has dragged us down to this level. This club needs to be rebuilt from top to bottom in the summer - owner, manager, coaching staff, and playing staff. We're going nowhere but down at the moment.

What a magnificent 45 minutes of football. Welcome to the rest of our season.

Speaking of comedy, that finish from Cisse.

Comedy defending from Santon there.

But when his prickishness is affecting his game, then it does make a difference. The local-hero centre-of-attention crap is what causes him to do his pointing routine, try improbable touches/controls, carry the ball miles out of defence for no good reason, argue with refs, take the piss out of the opposing keeper, and spend more time on making himself look good than on executing the basics of defence, which makes him an unreliable and therefore shit defender. All of that is IMO of course.

How many times have City beaten them since the takeover? I might just be selectively remembering here, but I can't shake the feeling that the mackems always seem to get a result against City.

Taylor is a known quantity. He's fucking gash and has been for years. Mbiwa on the other hand is still adjusting to a new league (it's been a full year now, but we all remember how awful Colo was in his first year) and hasn't had a settled run in the team in a while. I'd play Mbiwa every day of the week and twice on Sundays before Taylor got a sniff. That's not to say Mbiwa has been a defensive colossus, because he hasn't, but Taylor is a rent-a-quote moron who's been coasting for years on a decent season and his "local lad" rubbish.

And the mooslims.

Whoop de fuckin do. The damage is done. Fuck you Ashley, nobody is fooled by this blatant scapegoating.

He gives it both barrels now that the Ronnie is banned, but he used to be a run-of-the-mill Ashley lickspittle as recently as last season. Don't be fooled. Ryder just scopes out N-O and toontastic and writes what he thinks the best-informed posters are saying. Not that he needed to do any 'research' to know the fans' opinion on that disaster on Saturday.