rogerbarton

The S*n cover the story of the blacklist (2+ months out of date). They come to the headline. Needs to be clickbaity. Can't say 'Premier League added people from the same country as some people involved in Newcastle takeover to a blacklist two months ago'. The headline they came up with isn't backed up by anything in the article. Story over As Hope states, this beoutQ service doesn't even exist anymore! The PL would really need solid grounds to block this, and I can't see any solid evidence.

Kenedy an excellent start. Need to see some proper movement on the striker front ASAP though.

Heard a lot of people having a pop at Phil Jones. Just a stat from this season: Man United with Phil Jones playing the 90: 10 goals conceded in 21 games (0.48 goals per game) Man United without Phil Jones: 18 goals conceded in 17 games (1.06 goals per game) Most Man United fans will tell you he's their first-choice centre back and has been itnegral to their defensive solidity this season.

Clark and Lejeune did not look pretty as a pairing when Lascelles was out like. Makes you wonder if we could do with some cover. Perhaps Clarko is simply a good Championship player but not cut out for this level? He did okay alongside Lascelles like - even in that Palace game (the last time he played I think) he stopped a number of certain goals.

Matt Le Tissier: "You've got to ask what was going on at West Brom before Moore got the job." I watched Soccer Saturday the weekend after Pardew was sacked, and they unanimously said he never had a chance because the players had already given up...

And, if the Fat Man does stay, it's pretty obvious that he's going to need to put some money in. Right?!?!

God that was dreadful. Only caught last half an hour but there was precious little to enjoy. Still, at least we did enough up until Monday to be safe. I bet WBA wish they'd sacked Pardew a lot sooner now.

You have to say that the only rational reading of all Ashley's attempts to sell are that he uses it to get the fans onside. He has no intention of actually selling unless an offer that's over-the-odds comes in. It's obviously difficult to quantify how much the club is worth - we've got more potential than Southampton, but you'd have to value us lower than, say, Everton, mostly thanks to the relegations and mismanagement that came due to Ashley.

Fuck me, having watched 180 minutes of the absolute turgid shite Everton serve up under Allardyce I can see exactly why they want him out. How we lost both of the two games I’ve got absolutely no fucking idea. Hope he stays there mind, cos that tinpot club deserve someone as shite as him.

I made the point to someone on Twitter earlier that Real Sociedad spent £16m last summer. They're further away from challenging the Spanish elite than we are - especially with the right owners - challenging the English elite.

Didnt realise that. Explains why they didn’t want a clean sheet

Did anyone see the crunching tackle from Young on Aguero? It was the kind of tackle where you normally analyse to see if it should’ve been a red, but they didn’t even get the penalty Great game like, even if City should’ve been 6 up at half time.

What a transformation from before Christmas. Absolute pleasure watching us play at the moment. We don’t just look solid or functional, but there’s a bit of flair about us going forward. A lot of that is thanks to Kenedy. We’re safe for sure, and 10 clear at the end of the weekend if Arsenal dispose of Soton. Aim now has got to be a top half finish!

2-3. Gayle hat-trick. Anyone else noticed how much better we've been since Joselu got dropped after that penalty miss?

I must admit I'm surprised quite how badly he did there. Even Megson had them playing reasonably well in his two games. Pardew normally seems to be able to get that initial bounce from man-management, even the likes of Nolan/Barton said he was decent in that respect. It's just when that fades, he's found out to be tactically inept. Clearly here he came in, senior players were totally unconvinced by his appointment, he failed to win them over and then alienated the younger players too.

Agree with what people have said about us looking like a much better team. I've posted before our records with Lascelles / Dummett in the team vs without. But a couple more stats I came across today - 3 clean sheets in 5 for Dubravka (Elliot got 3 all season, Darlow 2). Three clean sheets at home in a row, six home games unbeaten for first time since 2014. We've looked so much better since Christmas. And Slimani impressed me when he came on too.

Yeah, I might be one of the few who actually thinks that, as much as Carragher and Neville do come out with some shite, they offer a lot more insight into the game and their careers than most other pundits. I find Monday Night Football a decent watch when I get the chance. He's obviously over-reacted, but the bloke provoking him has a lot of questions to answer too. Especially not seeming to give a shit that his daughter's just been spat on. He's more bothered about getting Carragher into trouble even then. They've suspended him now, which is probably the right move from their part to let it die down. Hopefully they'll bring him back in a few weeks.

I haven't watched many of their matches, but I don't actually think their squad is that bad. I mean it was enough to have them comfortably top half last season. I imagine if Pulis had stayed he'd probably have kept them up. He had a couple of bad starts to the season at Stoke and turned it around. I have to say I am a bit surprised Pardew didn't have the usual impact he initially has. But when it became apparent that wasn't going to happen, they really needed to make the change a few weeks ago. They've lost a run of winnable games and their run-in doesn't look great. They talk about a lack of alternatives, but then you look at the impact Carvahal has had at Swansea, who quite possibly have a weaker squad than WBA, and wonder if they could have plucked someone from the lower leagues.

As for Lascelles, he's come on so much under Benitez. Even last season, when he was carrying that injury, there were some doubts about his ability to cut it in the PL. Now he looks to be by far our most important player. We'd definitely take £50m but it's another situation where he's probably worth more. Remember he's an incredibly influential captain as well.

Disgusting. It was me posting it both times. I want my fee.

Jamaal Lascelles: the first ten games of the season, where Lascelles played the 90, we got 14 points. For the next six, when he was injured, we got 1 point. Since he's returned, we've picked up 17 points from 14. So 1.3 points per game WITH Lascelles, 0.2 points per game WITHOUT. To put that into context, we'd be on for 49 points over a season with Lascelles playing. And in that spell without him, we had some very winnable games - WBA away, Watford, Everton and Leicester at home. I do think the entire backline's looking a lot better now like. Dummett's a huge improvement at left-back, Lejeune thrives next to Lascelles and Dubravka's proving a bit of a revelation.

Has this been shared already? "He's a Sunderland fan, be careful"

Gayle's really come alive, particularly since the Man United game. Getting involved in the play a lot more, hassling and harrying defenders. I agree that he's just needed a run of games to get his confidence up. And, due to the nature of his game, the whole team playing a lot better helps him a lot. Since Kenedy's come in and Shelvey's hit form again, we're a lot better on the ball.

Darlow's been getting on the bench lately, so I think the plan might be to keep him as the number two. He's got a few years on Elliot anyway. Personally think Rob is the better keeper like. Would definitely get shot of Sels first.

Or drawn 1-1 when we should've scored 5...