acrossthepond

Oh, the "already" made it sound like he'd been dragged back here.

Injured, or recalled by the club for other reasons?

Fixed that for you.

I agree, there is a worrying lack of movement. Movement of funds from your bank account to the SBR foundation's, that is.

Ameobis for the win! Great finish.

Should have taken Marveaux off, he's useless.

Another nightmare miss.

As usual we have no intention of taking this competition seriously. The kids may scrape by Morecambe or may not, but either way it doesn't matter in the long run as we'll not make a go of it this year (or any year.) Premier League survival is all we play for.

It's become a chore to watch to be quite honest and I feel for the people who have season tickets and go for the bairns/family. Watching free from across the ocean is wretched enough, but paying to have your hair come in and be told it's Christmas (© trophyshy) is beyond the pale. It's one giant piss-take now and has been ever since Keegan walked and Ashley threw a strop when we told him, in essence, that the honeymoon was over. But I understand the opposite viewpoint that says back the team no matter what. Why should we allow this fat chancer and his cronies to suck the enjoyment out of something that we own and have always loved? I can't blame those who walk away or those who stay and try to support the lads. It's a desperate position and one that shows no sign whatsoever of changing.

Utterly dire. We will go down playing like that. I want that ninety minutes of my life back.

Much like the match they're about to display.

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.