PaddockLad

Luke Edwards is. This is by Simon Bird....possibly the club think that if you treat journos as well as they appear to (Edwards has almost certainly been treated to all this too) then fair criticsm of team affairs is ok, printing shit stirring tittle tattle when the club is staring relegation in the face is just taking a fuckin liberty and they acted accordingly.

This may give a few clues as to why Luke Edwards was banned for acting like a tit: I enjoyed the European trips. Being paid to travel to cover football is an enormous privilege, and one that is never lost on me. The scale (and inebriation) of Newcastle's support in Bruges was staggering, and there was a chip museum to visit! Marching at 4am in Red Square, Moscow, after a night boozing at the team hotel was a fantastic evening. A revealing seafood lunch with Derek Llambias in Madeira talking football and his plans for the club, was extremely pleasant and interesting, and shows relationships with the Ashley regime are being built up. Travelling on the club's luxury charter plane to these trips, which had a bedroom, enormous seats and tables, was a joy. As was the way the likes of Jonas Gutierrez, Coloccini and Cheick Tiote, thought nothing of sitting next to journalists and mingling. Despite the bad season, Pardew remained very quotable and is still one of the best at communicating with fans, and explaining what is happening. How Pardew reacts to continued adversity or criticism will be revealing. Newcastle players also rarely shirked their media duties, which is appreciated. I do have one favourite press conference moment, from last week. Pardew handed out a gift to Brian McNally, Sunday Mirror North East man, to mark his retirement after 37 years doing the job. After a kind speech Pardew turned to the rest of us and said: "40 years... none of you lot will last that long." It was an open goal. Especially for those fans who have turned against Pardew I heckled: "Neither will you." He took it in the good spirit it was intended. I think. Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co...8#ixzz2TqSQc7io Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook http://www.mirror.co...otballs-1900638

Is it fair to say labels are less important now than 20-30 years ago?...."when ah were a lad" you could pretty much buy most stuff from the likes of 4AD, Creation or Rough Trade and be fairly assured that it would worth at least another listen. Now you can preview and download individual tracks they don't seem as relevant when buying music.

Have a count up of the players who are definetly leaving, and then look at how many we signed in Janaury. Then picture Mike Ashley looking counting how much money he could end up conceiveably shelling out if he was to get rid of perfectly serviceable members of the squad who just need the correct handling. Its not going to happen iyam.

Mostly agree, and in a narrow 3 in midfield we should be able to accommodate him if he was to stick to the basics. Theres issues in every area of the team, but this one is possibly the most glaring. I think Cabaye is off, and I think this was only after he was persuaded to give it one more season here last summer. I also think that Anita was signed with this in mind. The player we need in there is a Carrick or a Huddlestone type iyam. Someone who treasures possession and then you can build the team round them. But neither of these are either young or French. C'est la vie, as Dekka and Mike would say...possibly...

He's limited to a certain job on the pitch, but hes shown he can do that job very well. Nobody slated Makalele because he wasn't Zidane...

Nowt wrong with the way we are trying to play.....how many times did Tiote lose the ball yesterday?........he's lost all the confidence he had 18 months ago because he's been told to stop getting booked if he wants to play at the top level iyam. Maybe it is Pardew's job to help the player find the middle ground where controlled aggression is the name of the game. At the moment the poor fucker is like a lost soul in most games. This may be where Pardew lacks a bit, but he did get Ben Arfa playing the way he wanted him to, so we'll see. Thing is he may not have a lot of time next season to sort things like this out...I think he's on borrowed time tbh if we don't see a distinct improvement from the off next season.

Well I don't in fact slaughter Ashley too often and I'm guilty of praising him at times too. All I hear though is how shit his manager is. I just dont understand why you and others cant see that if the manager is at fault then the man who appointed him is ultimately responsible. Who is the greater fool?...(I don't mean you or CT, before you start! ) Listling Pardew;s faults is irrelevant to me, as I've said before he's the symptom, not the cause.

] Am I? whats the point of slaughtering the bloke for a poor season when its quite clearly recorded that this is what has happened at most of the clubs hes managed?...its not me with my head in the sand, and its not me that needs to dissect everything he does to prove some spurious point. He's a poor appointment. Now remind me who made it?

"Shasta Ground Sloth".....walked on the "soides of er feet" apparently....

reckon you're right mate....changed days...too much riding on things financially nowadays probably. He'll be out in town tonight, not a bother on him, having seen us lose the last 3 home games of the season, 2 of them fuckin disgracefully...

In the first half, I kept on waiting for top quality international rightback Mathieu Debuchy to do his job and help the fucker out....he'd gone awol....even if he was playing as instructed, it was the last game of the season, why not throw caution to the wind?...

They're writing a strongly worded dossier on Newcastle Online, so that's good Look on the bright side, if we carry on like this, Pardew will be sacked by the end of October.....but who does the fatman see as a replacement?....doesn't bear thinking about...

Is he as clueless as the clueless bastard who has the power to sack the other clueless bastard?.... #knowyourenemy

this is how we used to roll..."sack the board" anyone?....no?..thought not..

If we win it could end up being 8 million...6 if we stay where we are....Fist nails it though, Ashley's a self regarding ballbag http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2326007/Premier-League-prize-money-table-final-game-2013-season.html

No Willo,not even on the bench.....started last week, is he injured?...

For me, the "one off" players, the ones who do things on the pitch that no one has done before and we're not likely to see again....until the next great comes along and does it in a slightly different, but equally thrilling, way.Its also important to say its those who made the most of their talent, actually achieved honours, trophies and trinkets. So its the usual suspects; Pele, Maradonna, Bobby Charlton,,Beckenbauer, Cruyff ,Di Stefano, Puskas, Gerd Muller, Platini, Zidane, Fat Ronaldo, Skinny Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Messi etc etc....for me, Beckham doesn't even make the next tier down.......he wasn't as good as Gullit, Dalglish etc etc...he's been a very good player and achieved a hell of a lot, fair play to the bloke. But he will never be more than a very good player for me.

Not for me. As I said, I can think of half a dozen of his peers who could do as much or indeed more on a football pitch than him. His gift was a great one, no doubt about that, but for me to be a truly great player you need more in your locker than great delivery of the ball. I liked the way he played, am sure Fergie told him not to overcomplicate things so he never really tried to take his full back on because he didn't need to. Robert Pires would annihilate his marker, apart from being an awful diver he was a thrilling player to watch, I much preferred him tbh, but he wasn't "one of the greats" either. Polls and awards are pointless tbh, theyre about as scientific as our opinions on here.

Novmeber 88....Ralph Milne started the game for manu who?...I hear all those under 40 cry....

Giggs could and still does things on a football pitch Beckham couldn't dream of doing and I notice you didn't mention Figo If you were to do a completley unscientific poll of the best footballers who got a cap for any country between 1995 & 2005 I bet he wouldn't be in the top 10 am sure we could all give it a bash....think about it...

And of course, we got rain for tomorrow

Watch the dates son...don't do what I did, sorry, what Mrs PL did and miss the start of the season Was it you who went last year?...was it full of hairy arsed contractors drinking 17 pints in the camp bar of an evening?

top tip for Jill: move to Dorset, 19 degrees and bright sunlight

Are you too posh for a bus Jill?....