acrossthepond

Cabaye is sitting on his own in a room somewhere in the bowels of St James's Park, wrapped in twelve layers of cotton wool. There's no way it's his decision not to play. As soon as bids started coming in, Fat Mike will have ordered him to be pulled.

Fat Sam was abysmal in both match preparation and tactics, and his signings were, by and large, rubbish as well. Anyone remember Rozenhal, for example? But nobody could forget Alan Smith. Allardyce is a fraud of a manager who deserved everything he got here. Nowadays I wouldn't even blink at the level of embarrassing shambles he brought to the club, but at the time, we were still relatively well thought-of and he made us a laughingstock with 4-1 home losses to Pompey and conceding 4 points to Derby (the most they got off any one club that season as I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone.) Every time we face him I hope we stick it to the fat cunt but I doubt it'll happen today. 1-1.

This is the brutal truth. Pardew's grass is looking pretty brown and sad at the moment, but the grass is most definitely not greener on the other side. We're better off sticking with him. At the very worst, you can say that he's kept us up, which Kinnear has not done (and will not do.) I've been on holiday so I've not been posting or reading much, but the gloom that pervaded this board before I left has not lifted whatsoever. Maybe a win tomorrow will help with that, but I doubt it. We look fucked this season unless new players, specifically goalscorers, come in over the next week.

He always makes our position clear, which is that our key players won't be sold until silly money comes in for them (ex. Carroll) or until we no longer require them (ex. Nolan/Barton.) So far they've been consistent about that. The only exception really is Enrique, but he wanted to go and was entering the last year of his contract, plus we replaced him. There's no point in Pardew saying we're not a selling club because everyone knows we are. He'd just look even more of a stooge than he already does if he went out there and said "Hands off our players, you're not getting any of them."

Because we've sold so many first team players since January 2011, right? We sold Nolan and brought in Cabaye. We released Barton on a free. We couldn't keep Ba because of a cheap release clause. So much for "putting players in the shop window." That talk that Pardew always puts out is to lower our expectations just in case a superbid (which Ashley will surely accept) does come in. But for all the talk of us being a selling club, we haven't sold the crown jewels yet. We'll see if that changes.

Gomis wouldn't have been my first choice, but I'm pleased enough if this comes off. Cisse has been crying out for a strike partner for months now and hopefully Gomis will pair well with him.

Does anyone think we're getting a world class player here? Daft article.

No need for apologies. Personally I think that 2m (with a view to a permanent deal) would be good value for Remy, however distasteful I find the idea of going in for a player accused of rape who already knocked us back for more money in January. We could certainly do worse.

Today he's changed his tune and is saying it'll cost us 2m to loan Remy.

Seeing is believing. The Lyon president is a class A clown and there's been so much bullshit surrounding our transfer activity (or lack thereof) that I won't believe it until I see him in black and white. P.S. Anyone from the club who's reading this: 1 striker is not enough.

We're sure that the reverend isn't Ashley's Skid Mark/Thompers/whoever else? Looking increasingly likely iyam.

How are you watching this? Or just following twitter/SSN updates/etc?

Like a new signing! Striker problem sorted. No need to get anyone "over the line" now.

Also not in favour of buying him. We need strikers, but we don't need them so badly that we have to stoop to buying alleged rapists (and mercenaries, as though we didn't know that already) from relegated teams. Ba was one thing but this is beyond the pale for me.

1-1 full time. Positives: Gouffran looked really good (but then came off with what looked like injury), Vuckic was also promising and brilliantly saved a goal at the end, Campbell is one speedy little midget. Negatives: We are toothless in attack. We need new players desperately.

Shola scored. Striker situation sorted. simples.

This is the least friendly friendly I've ever seen.

Anyone reckon that Kinnear is so utterly clueless that he needs Harford to actually do his job for him? Kinnear was actually given the job as a sinecure (either to piss Pardew and Carr off or just as a "jobs for the lads" situation with Ashley) and now he wants someone of similar philosophy (that is to say, a relic) to come in and put in some graft?

It's an allegory, like most religious stories. The Night Journey is meant to represent that Islam followed on from Judaism (Moses) and Christianity (Jesus) like climbing the rungs of a ladder. It's easy to take the piss out of religion nowadays but you have to remember that most of it is common sense and decent morality dressed up in the trappings of mysticism in order to convince early pagan populations who had long believed in similar mystical events/things that it's real. However, Wonga's predatory lending is morally offensive no matter if you believe in God, Santa, the FSM, or nothing at all. If that's really what Cisse is taking a stand against, then I support him.

By the letter of the law, desmondTUTU is right. Loans which generate interest of any kind are forbidden in Islam. Some scholars have tried to argue that interest-bearing loans for "consumption" or usage are unacceptable because they would put the borrower in a desperate position (like Wonga loans, for example) while commercial interest-bearing loans are acceptable because the profits of the business started with the loan would enable the borrower to repay it, but as the Qur'an makes no distinction, they are very much in the minority, and in countries where the Sharia is strictly observed, the system of "Islamic banking" which does not involve interest in any way is prevalent. If Cisse is framing his objection on purely religious grounds, then I agree he doesn't really have a leg to stand on because Virgin charge interest just like Wonga. But I think there is both a moral and an ethical difference between what Virgin does and what Wonga does. I'd be all right with wearing a shirt with a bank's name on it, but not one that promotes Wonga. In my religion there is no difference between the two, but in my heart there is, and if that's the same way that Cisse feels, then I'm proud of him for taking a stand. But as I already said in my previous post, I wonder if it really is.

Because a bank and a payday loan service are equivalent, right? You can tell by the different reactions on here to the Virgin Money deal and the Wonga deal that they are not the same thing. One provides a useful service to everyone and the other preys on the poor, weak, and stupid by taking advantage of their financial predicaments.

Tough to decide where I come down on this one. For my part, I would find it incredibly uncomfortable to be asked to play in a strip that advertises alcohol, pork products, or, yes, usurious interest such as Wonga - but I can't shake the feeling that Cisse's beliefs are not what has actually prompted this dispute. He knew Wonga would be sponsoring us well in advance, and that meant having their names on our shirts. If that wouldn't work for him, he could have made arrangements to leave at the end of the season, not raised the issue two days before our pre-season tour began. The cynic in me wonders if this issue will be resolved with a nice new contract for Cisse and (perhaps) an unbranded shirt. If it's a play for more money, well, he absolutely has the club over a barrel, so he'll get what he's after.

Tessa Fowler: KateeLife: Thank me later.

From the BBC: The Football Association announces it has changed the retrospective action process ahead of next season. Callum McManaman's tackle on Massadio Haidara From the start of the new campaign, the governing body can decide to take action against players when match officials are not in a position to fully assess an incident. The amendment follows a tackle last season involving Wigan's Callum McManaman and Newcastle United's Massadio Haidara.

Derek fucking Lambese? The director of football? Resigned? And that's all in the first minute.