Papa Lazaru

remember when we made a bid for Rooney? Quite a difference! Ours was a bid that was enough to get him and one which Rooney has said he'd have likely accepted if Manu hadn't been forced by us into buying him earlier than they wanted. If we made a bid for Ronaldinho oursleves that would be laughable! Didn't we do that too? Aye, when he was at PSG. Different again. Yeah in his time at Barca the papers have linked us with him, either Fat Fred making a cheeky inquiry about him or speculating Ashley when he took over would go for him as a big statement, but no actual bids!

remember when we made a bid for Rooney? Quite a difference! Ours was a bid that was enough to get him and one which Rooney has said he'd have likely accepted if Manu hadn't been forced by us into buying him earlier than they wanted. If we made a bid for Ronaldinho oursleves that would be laughable!

I remember that game, not only for their fans starting loads of trouble (luckilly i avoided any, though one fight broke out right next to me but i got away!) but also because Lou McCari being bitter at the stuffing they got was one of the first instigators of getting refs to never give Ginola anything by whingeing about him diving all the time. I'm not sayign he never overplayed things, but often he'd get the shit kicked out of him and be given no protection (Lee Dixon for Arsenal being the ultimate example) and McCari was the one who started it all.

Well, he's older than when Bobby Robson bought him, but this team is crying out for a Bellamy and a Robert to do exactly the same job they did the last time. For all the arguments that rage over both those players they would make a big difference to this team (obviously the Robert of then, not now!) though on the downside Allardyce would play Robert left back or right wing!

Totally agree. I hate going ot the match at times, as the atmosphere is just horrible and embarassing to witness and i just don't want to be there, and then you think you're actually paying a fortune for it! Like players have said the atmosphere is poisonous/venomous, that's the perfect way to describe it and its really awful having to sit there and be part of it. Whatever peoples opinions are on whether players should put up with it, or that fans have the right to do what they like, the bottom line is, this atmosphere makes the team play worse plus helps the opposition and it will continue to do so, so how any of the fans thinks its a good thing to do is beyond me. And like you say you don't feel an affinity with these people anymore, there's hardly anyone in there actually supporting the team alot of the time, too busy booing, shouting abuse, moaning and complaining.

There's certainly something in what Sam has said about all the new defenders being thrown in together and it not working out that well, he can blame that to an extent. But half the defences problems are coming because of his tactics leaving us offering nothing in attack and midfield so the defence have far more to cope with.

Been enjoying series 3 so far, Julian Barret is an amazing comedy performer, ably helped by Noel. One thing i can't quite work out is if the bloke playing Naboo isnt' that good and in there because he's Noel's brother or if that delivery is exactly what they want and he's perfect at it, or a bit of both!

Exactly. The intelligent fans knew the club needed changing from top to bottom and that it would take time to really challenge the top clubs to any degree, we were just looking for steady signs of progress and that we were goign somewhere whilst he instigated his revolution. But if you keep playing stupid tactics home and away that are patently not working, play people out of position for no reason rendering them useless, practically ask to get beat at home and make joke substitutions then people won't give you much time. I don't want a sacking as we just cant do that again leaving us in an even bigger mess and making the job look even less attractive, you can only do that if Ashley knows he has somebody top class lined up for sure, and even then its a big upheaval during the season.

I thought that, Beye did quite well considering the mess in front of him and Butt because of the fuckign stupid system was doing about 3 jobs as best he could!And obviously Given kept it from being 6 or 7, other than that, not much to praise!

I like loads of commercially successful films like. Just not this one He is right to an extent though as soon as any English person does well worlwide or particularly in the USA then what usually follows is a load of stick, accuastions of arrogance and anything they do afterwards is never as good! Same happened with Ricky Gervais. I'm a fan of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the dead and Simon Pegg who's a top comedy performer from his films, to thins like Spaced, Big Train and various other comedies he's appeared in, and he seems like a decent down to earth bloke to me, and like Edgar Wright a massive geek!

I was going to go for a few drinks after the match, but was too pissed off after that shite and went straight home instead!

Yeah, Liverpool started well, were in control and passingit well, but for a spell after their first goal they got decidedly poor as if we'd dragged them down to our level, and had we actually been playing to win instead of going for a defeat we could at least have made a game of it! After their 2nd goal there was no way to judge Liverpool as we weren't even playing anymore! They did enough to have scored 8 but Given and Torres combined kept that down!

Never thought I'd see the day you would support a manager that is prepared to play 3-5-2 (and badly at that)! It was 4-3-1-2 he was playing as best i can describe it! Basically everyone in the middle and no width, but a definite back 4, Geremi at no time got far enough forward to say he was playing anything other than RB in a flat back 4!

The booing had fuck all to do with him scoring, he scored because he screamed in a shot from range like he always does for Liverpool when given the chance. Booing a player may make them try harder, tackle more and run about, it doesn't suddenly give them ability they don't have. And he deserved it, he was a disgrace for England and not for the first time, yet we all knew he'd be running the game for 90 mins for Liverpool. And he plays for the opposition so who cares if he gets stick, because he certainly wouldn't have given a shit. And the toon fans showed they can be appreciative by appaluding Crouch onto the ptich as he and Beckham were the only two England players who could hold their heads up after the Croatia match.

Sadly to sack him would leave us in the same mess we end up in nearly every season and we'd have to scrap another season and start all over again once more for the umpteenth time. So as has been said, unless Ashley had a geunine top class manager nailed on to step in it would be mad to sack him. However today was an absolute disgrace and was management at a level Sounness and Roeder might struggle to reach! At home playign with no width whatsoever so that we didnt trouble them at all, but also allowed their fullbacks and widemen a free run to the halfway line to start attack after attack. We seemed to have Smith playing in some bizarre role ahead of the two central mids and behind the strikers where he really shouldn't be. We were wasting Zog in his role and both strikers as they got nowt all game. So Butt spent his whole time having to try and cover two positons as the formation was so shite and nobody else had a clue why they were put where they were. Then if it wasn't all shite enough he comes up with three of the most moronic substitutions ive ever seen. Taking of Emre the only one even remotely likely to create anything and Zog was farcial, it also took of the only left footers...which of course allowed him to slot Millner straight onto the left wing...genius! And to end it perfectly he brings Stephen Carr on, that'll change everything won't it!!! If it wasn't for Given and Torres that would have been 8-0 and thats the result Fat Sam deserved, but the rest of us didn't.

Saving himself for the dippers on Saturday. The twat. Whatever the result on Saturday i bet right now he'll be man of the match, whereas tonight was about as bad a performance as ive seen from an England player. I don't think he actually managed a single pass on target over 3 yards!

What a pile of shite! Can't knock Beckham, he came on and did his job and Lampard certainly showed some balls and composure with the pen, but that and Crouch aside they were bad. And is Steven Gerrard actually a footballer, that was one of the single worst examples of passing for 90 mins i think i've ever seen from a player. And come saturday the same player will be singlehandedly destroying the toon no doubt.

What a waste of time! More tactical genius from fuckwitt McClaren, playing a target man with no strike partner and hoofing the ball at him to flick it on for nobody! Has he paid any attention to the games we won well, ie the ones when he didnt emply his piss poor negative Boro tactics that bored teeside for years. Of course added to that the players have been shite sadly! Gerrard et al can't seem to deliver even a mediocre set piece, Carson has become Robinson and the defence were clueless on the 2nd goal.

Happy birthday Martin! *insert gay innuendo here*

I know, if he'd shagged a kids trike or something then maybe, but not with a grown ups bike!

Thanks for putting the link up Jonny, i've invested in one myself! My PC currently has a collossal hard drive of 120Gb i think!

Absolute bollocks. Roeder was slated for making poor team decisions. Now that KING Sam is our manager we should just accept it....shit. Whats all this ass kissing with Allardyce? He did well with one club now he is God.... i despair sometimes. So you genuinely think you know better then? That's amazing. Perhaps you'd like a crack at coaching them too? So you're advocating blind faith then? No. I've said that the bloke is making mistakes, with N'Zogbia and Milner on the wrong sides being the most glaring of these. But as I keep saying and it keeps sailing right over the top of people's heads, the bloke has sent a Newcastle United team out onto a pitch 12 times in the Premiership. You'd think he'd been making these mistakes (i.e. experimenting with his squad, tinkering with formations, getting it wrong sometimes....you know, the sort of stuff a new manager that joins a new club and adds 8 or 9 new players to the squad is likely to do in ohhhh say the first at-least 12 games) for years the way some of you fucking experts are carrying on. You try things, they don't work, you learn from your mistakes. But you don't necessarily just try them once or twice. If you think something didn't work because of a particular thing in a game, and you have faith that it can still work, you might try it again....maybe a couple more times. It's called trial and error, and I still expect there to be a fair bit of trial and error going on 12 games into a new manager's reign because I'm rational and realistic. I appreciate that some don't have this in their mental make-up though. Good post, he dismantled and completely reassembled the squad, has transformed the entire backroom set up and is only 12 games down the line, i'm not expecting to be at 100% yet! He will be trying things and experimenting a bit and also he doesn't/didnt know how some of the new lads would adapt and how quickly. However i won't defend any manager pissing about with our 2 wingers on the wrong flank, it does not and will not ever work as well as playing them on their correct foot/side. When injuries force it fair enough, when both are available play them where they belong. And whilst he does need time and should be given it by fans and the chairman, i do think we could have played better away from home even this early in his reign, particularly when Derby were there for anyone to beat.

Problem is, iirc, he's only got one year left after this one on his contract. True, much as plenty of people here hate him/think he's shite one way or another we want to get decent money for him if he's moved on rather than lose him for free or next to nothing where he could do what Chopra did in the championship and end up being sold for alot more later.

Since Viduka always misses games with injury, Owen could be out with soemthing at anytime and Martins will be in Africa we'd have to bring another striker in before letting him go i reckon. However i do think a loan move to the championship would be good for Shola and down the line us like Alex said in terms of selling him on.

Hows he racist Yeah, to be fair to Barton he'd have been just as happy to stamp on a white players knackers! I think he's quite lucky to get away with it perosnally, looked plenty of intent in it for me, but as a toon fan i'd rather he got away with it as he desperately needs games to get back to full speed as he's off the pace at the moment!