acrossthepond

Not another one. We shouldn't sell Jonas this season. Even if we buy a better winger, we'll still need competition and backup, and Jonas has also shown the ability to make a difference off the bench. If we're going to progress, we're going to need to build a squad (and I'm struggling to think of someone who's better than him who we could reasonably get...N'Zogbia, I suppose, but with all the baggage (and 10m fee, and mega wages) that would come with him.)

Have I ever mentioned that bringing Insomnia back would be a horrific move and one I certainly don't want to see happen? We've just signed a player who's described as being solely left-footed, and who therefore will have to play on the left wing. Why would we want to pay 10m for one of our castoffs who has a terrible attitude, who fucked off and left us in the lurch when we needed him, and who plays a position that we're now definitely covered for? Or is he to play in the centre of midfield? Along who? Tiote and Cabaye? Can't see him displacing either. Please, don't let this be true. We do not need Charles N'Zogbia.

A celibacy clause We'll see how this goes. Definitely has the potential to be another Gosling or Campbell, aka chronically unfit players, but he could be a good signing as well. Certainly we're in need of wingers.

Yes, they are more likely to qualify, but I am saying that they will not (and neither will we.) Only a mackem would take this long to understand something so simple. You can disagree with my prediction, but you're not even getting that far because you're too thick to properly understand it. Last time (only time) Sunderland AFC were in Europe: 1974. Last time NUFC were in Europe: 2006. It's better to have walked the heights and fallen then never to have risen, my good mackem.

Fair play, nobody is expecting you to turn on a club legend, but I think you are in for a tough time of it this season. Your fortunes improved last season because the players and fans both wanted Dalglish and got him (and because you sold Torres.) But your squad has a lot of dross that needs shifting and is weak in several key areas, and meanwhile King Kenny is blowing 20m on an extremely underwhelming midfielder who wasn't particularly good for club or country, and of course he has something of a history of being pretty awful in the transfer market. I think it'll be a while before you're having those 'magical European nights' again. You have that in common with us. Erm..... other than the fact it's only 6 years since they won the champions league, and have won it a total of 5 times, then... hang on....... :D DELUDED!!! Did you misread? I didn't say magical European nights were in common with us, I said it'll be a while before either of our clubs are having them again. And then there's your lot, who...hang on.....

Pleased with that, sensible contract by the sound of it. Bit of paranoia here - has it been confirmed anywhere that he's coming on a free?

Do you reckon? I thought he was class, personally.

It's the financial situation where Patron Saint Mike has paid off all the crushing, would-have-destroyed-our-club 'debt' and 'overdraft' and 'expenses' with 'his own money' but we still inexplicably talk about the need for fiscal conservatism and financial responsibility, as though we're in danger of going under. The gravy train has stopped. That's good. We all know it is. But just because we are no longer giving long and expensive contracts to players who are past it/were never worthy of them, doesn't mean that we should stop paying for quality. The truth is that Enrique wants to be off and Pardew can't stop him. Fine. I accept that and there's no blame attached (although if the club had been better run over the past 4 years, he wouldn't be wanting to go at the moment, but that's an entirely different story.) The 'financial situation' bullshit is just more doubletalk intended to lower our expectations. Net spend of only 10 million this summer despite the massive haul from the Carroll money? 'The financial situation was tough, but we tried as hard as we could to invest in the team.' Yeah, OK.

Hmm, actually CT posted that yesterday, so never mind.

And now for something that isn't from some bullshitting 'ITK' on twitter. Can't find where the original quote is from, but ESPN is running it. Look at 16.17 below. http://blogs.soccernet.com/onthemove/archi...sneijd_move.php

Fair play, nobody is expecting you to turn on a club legend, but I think you are in for a tough time of it this season. Your fortunes improved last season because the players and fans both wanted Dalglish and got him (and because you sold Torres.) But your squad has a lot of dross that needs shifting and is weak in several key areas, and meanwhile King Kenny is blowing 20m on an extremely underwhelming midfielder who wasn't particularly good for club or country, and of course he has something of a history of being pretty awful in the transfer market. I think it'll be a while before you're having those 'magical European nights' again. You have that in common with us.

40k or less if the clowns in charge have any sense at all. Of course, when you consider the contracts West Ham were handing out in their desperation, he might've already been on silly money and we might've had to match that.

From their website: 'The club actually wanted me.' Says it all. Goodbye Kevin, you will be missed, not least by those who claimed this was 'good business.'

No need to worry, gentlemen. This is all part of the Mike Ashley Five-Year Plan For Greatness. We can challenge for the top half every season!

"Sell your best players and replace them with relatively unknown ones that might be better" is a bad enough strategy, but I don't think we'll even be doing the "might be better" part. This is an astonishingly bad idea. How much will we get for him? 5m? A relative drop in the bucket when in the hunt for a player of proven class, although it's good for buying 3-4 Perches or Williamsons.

Fuck me, this is really becoming intolerable. CT is a troll, same as Nick, and you morons keep giving them what they want - endless attention. The board is going to complete shit. Every thread turns into a CT-fest where he unveils his latest idiotic know-nowt/wind-up combo and people line up to prove him wrong. The joke is on you, though, because you think you're 'scoring points' when in reality you're just feeding his attention-seeking behaviour. There's no points to score. He will never admit he's wrong, and meantime you are dragged down to his level. Ignore him. This isn't even a NUFC board any more, it's a Christmas Tree board. Just what he's wanted from the start. [cue him quoting 1-2 sentences of this post and making some kind of 'witty quip' complete with a safety wink. I don't give a shit, he's on ignore, but reading all of your replies to him when I'm trying to read about NUFC is soul-destroying.]

Seriously are you a Newcastle fan? Everything thats gone on in the last week and in one full week you manage two posts, both about me. The one above and....... "I'm honestly dying here! What a mentalist! CT man, get help". Both in this thread ffs Get a life man and join in the discussions, the comings the goings, Barton etc etc Rather than stalking, start a few threads yourself, chip in, keep the place going. You and people as fucking stupid as you are causing me to gain little to no enjoyment from this board, which is why I hardly read or post at the moment. I don't look forward to a summer full of your crowing that every insignificant link to a player who you have never seen and know nothing about vindicates both Fat Mike and your unending, illogical support of him. You are either incredibly stupid or just a WUM but either way you are a cancer on this board. You prate on about Alex and the 'negs' being the ones who are ruining it, but I look to them to provide actual rational debate based on facts, whereas you prate endlessly about how right you are despite the fact that you have never been able to back up anything you say. Baseless optimism is just as idiotic as the baseless negativity you're always banging on about. Unlike you and also unlike the people forecasting a terminal summer, I'm going to actually wait and see before making a judgment. I think that our summer will be a poor one with several core players leaving and some replacements coming in who are either of equivalent or lesser quality, while major weaknesses of the squad (full-back cover, strikers) will not be adequately addressed - but none of that is set in stone. Nothing is in the history books yet. This summer could go either way and I'm going to wait and see. So I'll be back in August. In the meantime, don't pat yourself on the back too hard, you insufferable cock.

The 'pozzy's' and the 'negs'! ;) What a complete and utter lunatic!

:D I'm honestly dying here! What a mentalist! CT man, get help!

Why does he have to be brought in to replace Carroll? We need two strikers, he's supposed to be good and we've been linked with him for quite some time. He can be the new (better) Lovenkrands, while we move for someone else to take the big man role.

Best wasn't fit and should never have come on. That was a job for Ranger, with the perfect benefit of hindsight (although I said so at the time as well.) I haven't seen almost any WBA matches aside from the two against us, but that Tchoyi did a number on us at the Hawthornes and he always looked WBA's best player yesterday too, even before scoring any goals. Seemed to have a bit of trickery and guile about him and could play others in as well as have a powerful shot himself. I think the commentators mentioned his last 18 or so appearances had been as a sub? Wouldn't mind going in for him if he's looking for more playing time...

Yeah, bringing on Smith was nothing less than a kick in the balls. He hadn't played in months, he was fucking shit to start with, and we took off one of our best-performing players to put him on. LuaLua was shit too compared to Ferguson. All around, the subs were brainless and we remain unable to preserve leads (Mackems away, Spurs home, this game), which cost us a place in the top half.

Heaven to hell in 45 minutes. They should tape the second half and show it to our youth players as how to throw away a game. Fuck off Pardew.

I'm using the link TN posted, works fine in Firefox, fix your shit. Christ, that kit looks horrendous.

They're absolutely everywhere in New York. Their signs are plastered all over the subway, they're at all major street corners standing around in sandwich boards, they're handing out leaflets everywhere you look. Even the local media are taking the piss out of them now. Some news station ran an ad that said "Watch Eyewitness News at 5 on Saturday if it's the last thing you do!" Etc etc.