David Kelly

Anyone watached Justified? I've watched the first couple of episodes and quite enjoyed them but it also seems too much of a basic prodcedural to keep me entertained for long. I can see some of the characters have been in it for most of it's run though so I don't know if it develops into something more.

Carver never has or ever will be a manager though. And JFK was a dinosaur. Pardew's shite but of course their are worse but that isn't a reason to keep anyone in any job anywhere.

I still find it difficult to switch off to it but I find myself caring less and less about the results and getting far less worked up at the match these days.

Up to the last couple of games of the season we finished 5th bottom we were right in the mix no matter how shit the other teams were. We definitely skirted with relegation there but you're right he'd learned from the relegation season and made the signings that kept us up that season. I don't think he wants to just stay up, I think he wants to stay up comfortably but he's got no interest in more than that because it costs more than he's willing to pay. But as you said he's williing to gamble on it if he sees an oppertunity to make money (like with Cabaye) or he think's we can get by without spending (as he's done this seaon). I don't think we spent anymore last summer that what he thought was required to do that and I don't think we will this summer either. I don't think we're that likely to end up with a squad that will get relegated next season I just think we'll have another season of the shit we've had this season.

He wants to do just enough to keep us out of the relegation battle and that is a dangerous strategy to begin with. If you are doing just enough to remain comfortable and you lose a few players or have a particularly bad run then you can get drawn into that dogfight at the bottom. He might have learned a bit from when we went down but not enough to push us into real security. The likes of Swansea and Stoke have fairly comfortably been able to manage that while he still wants to do it on the cheap and that prevents us from moving on at all.

Our squad seems to have been getting thiner and thiner each season and this season we have Raylor, Jonas and Sammy who have regularly been around the starting 11 when fit, along with a few others who are all out of contract. So we will lose them without even trying to sell anyone for the profits he likes.

The Overnighters. Doc about a pastor trying to help out desperate blokes heading to North Dakota to work in the oil field by giving them (including a couple of registered sex offenders) shelter at his church. Pretty interesting although revelation at the end does somewhat change your perception of what went before it.

I never said that I expected us to go into next season with the same squad (we'll lose a fair number out of contract for a start) but what I don't believe is that we'll do anything other than sign mediocre players to do just enough again. I also think that we are likely to be even shorter in terms of squad depth than we have been this season. We might get a new coach such as Garde who might be better but isn't really proven but I still don't think that's a forgone conclusion (although I do think it's now likely). I just think that all of that offers very little optimism.

Just being competive against the oposition would be fine by me. I've had a season ticket since McFaull's first season as manager so I don't expect anything more than that. But at the minute that seems far beyond us. Of the players you mention there only 2 of them (Ba and Cabaye) have been an unqualified success. Sissoko has been wank more than he's been a star and Remy (to his credit really) fucked off at the first oppertunity. Anyway I think you're kidding yourself if you think we can pick up nearly a full team of bargains like that. I can't see him allowing us to spend £30m in the summer unless he recoups all of that by selling Sissoko, Krul and Cisse.

You're mixing up your Christmas movies there. Surely it's a Scrooge type experience he needs? Unless he were to have an It's A Wonderfull Life experience without the angel (ie he actually goes through with the suicide unlike George Bailey).

Just replacing the numbers is no where near enough though is it? We need quality and I'd be amazed if Ashley comes close to sanctioning enough spend to make us competitive. He might now just about be ready to admit Carver isn't capable of running the team but I've very little confidence in his lacky's finding a particularly competent replacement let alone furnishing with a reasonable squad of players.

To be honest your not far wrong. The other areas I mentioned are alright (I've had to spend far too much time around Sunderland for work and the ex wife) but a lot of the town centre is a right shit hole. In the interest of balance I would say that there are some nicer parts of it though.

Newcastle city centry is a million miles better than Sunderland town centre. Around it they have Cleadon which is classed as Sunderland which is nice enough as is a lot of Boldon and the area around Barnes Park. Do any of them compare favourably to Ponteland, Jesmond or Gosforth? Not at all. To be fair you can probably compare Pennywell, Southwick and Hendon with Benwell, Walker and the Ridges as they're all (at least in parts) equally shit.

I think going on strike to try and force the club to accept a derisory bid when they're paying you a good wage isn't something that should be accepted but I certainly can't blame him for wanting to leave.

Probably getting paid a fortune at a ridiculously early age gives you a sense of entitlement that we don't have.

It's right next to the Stadium of Shite so about ten minutes walk from the town centre. Not that it makes much difference like, their high street is packed with second hand shops and the bridges is full of utter mongs in holey slippers and pyjamas. It's like Wallsend High Street 30 year ago!

This is spot on other than for those players who are supposed to support the team they play for. None of us support our employers but if our employers were Newcastle United I would like to think it would be a different scenario. Personally I can't think of anything I would have ever wanted to do than play football here and I would have accepted a lower wage to do so as long as I wasn't getting arse reamed. Even with the current cunt that's in charge I'd still want to be here more than I'd be bothered about winning things. I think Shearer sort of had that attitude but of course he was fantastically paid to do it. I doubt that would be the case now as Ashley would actively try to get him sold. But I can't see why anyone would expect any player who isn't a died in the wool supporter to show any more loyalty than is showed to him by his employer and we all know that's very little. Jonas's situation has just proved why we in particular are mental to expect anything other than a player jumping ship at the firt sign of a pay rise or a higher standard of football.

That is fucking gold. If some tramp had posted that on RTG it would have been an embarassment (well to any of them with an IQ over 10) but to put in a paper is beyond comical. Even the knight ryder can claim the high ground on them now!

I've been to every home game, 1 away game and seen every match except for the Gillingham and Leicester cup games so I'm definitely still a supporter. I'm just one who's sick of what the club is now and who becoming less and less bothered when I see us conceeding and losing games.

The bait's quite canny at Lidl actually. It's much better than the product we get served up from Newcastle United these days!

I didn't see much of the Real game but Riviere looked really good preseason so we can't really count them. I've checked and he actualy didn't start a league game until the draw away to Swansea and if memeory serves he was nothing special that game. He then played against Leciester, Citeh, a half (after which he was taken off when we'd been shite) against Spurs then 27 minutes against Liverpool. He's been pretty shite since he came back too. It's really surprising how a couple of good games can change so many peoples impression of him (I suppose it's a good thing for the players as it leads to them getting another chance) but for me he remains one of the worst players I've ever seen play more than 10 games for us.

Not having a go at you here (more just at the misconception that seems to have built up around a piss poor player) but can you name the games early season when Squidward was one of our best players? I'm not saying he didn't have any good games but I think you'll find it amounted to a goal and not much else against Liecester, a good game against Citeh in the cup and a promising 20 minutes against Liverpool. It shows just how bad most of our season has been when his performances are being held up as any sort of positive.

I think it's highly likely that Tiote, Jonas, Gouffran, Raylor, Williamson, Anita, Sammy, Campbell & Colo will be off in the summer with a reasonable chance of Krul, Cisse and Sissoko too. Tiote has effectively been replaced by Colback and Abeid, and Sissoko could be replaced by SDJ. Gouffran/Sammy could be raplced by a combination of Perez, Cabella, Aarons and Squidward. Williamson could be replaced by Taylor. We have Darlow as a replacement for Krul and Lascelles as a replacement for Colo. The only one who would need replacing really would be Cisse as we've clearly been short of firepower this season when he's been missing (even our management couldn't be blind to that). The others haven't contributed much this season. So really all we need to spend any money on is a replacement for Cisse and some squad filler. We can easily do that and maintain our profit position. No need for any revolution at all man!

Not like you to make a mistake

Aye he stayed probably as ewerk says, because Freddie is here. One of Pardews other cronies went.