Happy Face

Isn't Ashley offering financial stability as long as he owns the club? I would say its better to have a debt to him than to a bank or the inland revenue. I think in the next few years we could see a few more clubs going the way of Pompey and Rangers Both of whom have less than a third of our "good debt". No reason Ashley can't switch that borrowing to a bank any time he likes.

And you'll not be able to quote Leazes saying it either will you?

That's what I said. We're stable only as long as Ashley guarantees that debt and we stay out of the relegation places.

For all the talk of improved finaces, I'd reiterate that the only thing Ashley has done on the financial side is cut and burn. Costs are down on the back of wages being axed. We're likely to break even this year, however debts are still well in excess of those inherited. The club broke even (or thereabouts) in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and no-one with a bad word for shepherd was claiming he had the finances in order a year before he sold up. "financial stability" is the wrong phrase for a club with £150m of debt. We're stable only as long as Ashley guarantees that debt and we stay out of the relegation places.

He admitted at the time that the Barton decision was out of his hands. Not sure about Nolan. I don't necessarilly believe what he said then or now, his agenda will always be what the effect on the dressing room will be at the time. Back then he didn't want to be seen as chasing the more effective players out of town, it could have gone tits up and he'd look daft. As it's turned out well he's happy to take the credit. That's not to say either way whether he made the decision or not, but whatever the case, he played the cards he was dealt perfectly.

Or the good management is making a decision that was always out of your hands look like it wasn't. Either way, worked out for the best, so dealt with it well.

Always pictured LM more as Jack Nicholson & Chez as Tom Cruise, but it's the other way round.

Oh, and which 31 year olds have we signed? Kilkline? I think he was 30. EDIT: Forgot Sibierski ...and big Sol ...and (Pass to) Kuqi (on the left hand side).

It was a bleak winter when Alan Pardew was appointed manager of Newcastle United. “I’m talking apocalyptic,” he laughs of the elements back in December 2010. “Forget about the reception coming into this job! But there was still a warmth, even in those frozen six weeks. "The usual Geordie quote to me was ‘good luck…anyway’. Which was almost good luck. Not quite. In London, it’s ‘you ain’t going to do nothing here, mate’. It’s a different kind of welcome! But when you come to any football club people, really, are just desperate for you to do well.” Suffice to say Pardew’s attempt at a Geordie accent in delivering those points is less successful than the Cockney one he also essays but he has tapped fully into what the club and the supporters expect and has seen the rewards. Newcastle sit sixth in the Premier League table, with a young, vibrant side who play what the manager calls “a fast-brand of front-foot football”. “There’s nothing I don’t know about what’s going on in the town – how they feel about us, how they feel about the club, how they feel about removing the sign at the ground, how they feel about the performance at Spurs [recent 5-0 defeat] and how they feel about this game,” Pardew explains. This game is the little matter of the North East derby at home to Sunderland on Sunday. “It’s good for the area,” he says of the resurgence of both clubs. “They are probably looking at our results and we are looking at theirs but it’s not about Newcastle finishing above Sunderland. For me, it’s about finishing higher than we did last year, to progress and have a great season.” There is admiration for his opposing manager. “He’s done an unbelievable job,” Pardew says of Martin O’Neill. “I saw him a couple of times in a social environment before he went to Sunderland and I thought he looked ready to return. Taking the job has inspired him.” Pardew, also, feels inspired having sold his “vision” to Newcastle owner Mike Ashley even if he knew he wouldn’t immediately be accepted. “In today’s age, as a manager, you have to be very single-minded, you have to be strong mentally to cope with some of the criticism, the personal criticism that comes your way - and it has become too personal,” he says. “I didn’t fear the job. But I didn’t know what I’d find.” Pardew shrewdly brought in as his assistant John Carver the man who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Sir Bobby Robson when he was Newcastle manager, and while the Geordie coach is among those who gently tease him about putting an ‘r’ in Newcastle, he has benefitted from that local knowledge. “He gives me the psyche of the fan,” Pardew says. “He’s generally grumpy about something, he will always come in and have a gripe, in a nice way.” There has been less and less to gripe about since Pardew’s succeeded Chris Hughton. The appointment was widely criticized but Pardew was confident in his ability and knew what he wanted. “I had a good record, good experience, I worked well with young players – and I want to win something,” Pardew, now 50, explains. “I don’t want to finish ninth in the Premier League. There will be a season, somewhere down the line, when ninth will be ‘thank god for that’. That season will come – a run of injuries, it’s not working, you get sucked into a war down the bottom and the middle of the table will seem like a haven. “But, for this football club, that shouldn’t be success. We should strive for better than that and we play in front of 52,000 fans, that will always attract players, we have to use that to our advantage. If I was a player, I’d like to play in our team. The most important thing is to have a team that looks like it’s going forward and we have that.” To achieve success, Newcastle adopted a very clear ‘model’. “We need to buy players who are going to have value, we don’t buy 31-year-olds,” Pardew explains. “Those players are not on our agenda at all. Newcastle have made mistakes in the past in doing that and we won’t do it again.” It means the club concentrates hard to attract young talent – the work of chief scout Graham Carr has rightly been acknowledged – and Pardew highlights, in particular, the success of Yohan Cabaye, acquired from Lille last summer for an undisclosed fee, thought to be £4 million, on a five-year deal and now someone who will “be a big player for France in the Euros”. “It was a no-brainer,” Pardew says of signing the 26-year-old international midfielder. “He’d won the double [in France) and not only that but he was the creative force. Zinedine Zidane gave a quote once when he said what made him special was that he never thought about his first touch because he knew he would control it. Cabaye is a bit like that. “We have got big players now. Demba Ba feels like he’s a big player, Fabricio Coloccini does, Tim Krul does. Now we are looking at the core of a team – Cheick Tioté, Cabaye, Papiss Cissé – and you are saying ‘on a given day, that team’s got a chance against anybody’.” There is excitement - but also professionalism, partly born of experience, and a clear discipline. “This is only our second season [back in the Premier League],” Pardew says. “In my second year at West Ham in 2006-07, I got sacked. I think a few players thought they’d cracked it. Last summer I was conscious of that, the second season, and I made a decision that I was going to change a few players and stir it up. "So we’ve not had the ‘second season syndrome’. We also have some good standards here and I’d like to think my players are not creating waves off the pitch the way they used to. There were too many stories.” There has also been a change of style on the pitch. “We are more in control of games,” Pardew says. “Last year we had nous and experience, this year we have looked the dominant force at times. Man Utd was the pinnacle of that.” That 3-0 victory, in January, was a raucous affirmation of what he is trying to achieve. A special night at the Sports Direct Arena. “Teams are going to be intimidated when they come here,” Pardew adds. “This is a big club. We are focused on players who can deal with that. There’s a next phase, of getting a way of playing right through the club, to give us an underbelly to the first-team. It’s what we are trying to do now. That’s also a lot of the unseen work, and a lot of investment.” This is being achieved with the support of Ashley, who is, perhaps, more committed than he ever has been. “Speaking to Mike he feels he will be the owner for a long time and that’s why I wanted a long [5½-year] contract,” Pardew says. “This is his football club and he’s taking a longer-term view now. It’s hurt him, this club, he couldn’t understand how it [football] works – the agents, the salaries, the industry. Compared to the (retail) industry he is in and is the main man and knows exactly how it works. "I know for a fact he can tell you the price of something on his shelves to the penny. That’s how thorough he is. But you can be thorough in this game and get it all wrong if you have bad selection, advice and that’s what he’s trying to cover. “He trusts managing director Derek Llambias to run the club, Graham Carr as chief scout, me as manager. Now he is feeling a lot better about the football club. He now understands the game. When we negotiate with clubs and players we are pretty tough and you need to be in this financial climate – as Rangers and Portsmouth have shown. The model we have got is a good model for these times.” But there has been aggravation with the supporters – not least over the highly-charged issue of re-naming St James’s Park to the Sports Direct Arena after the company Ashley owns. “He does what he feels is right, it’s not a conscious decision to upset the fans,” Pardew argues. “He’s quite bullish, of course, and people don’t like change and changing the name of the stadium, it’s about raising revenue. It’s still St James’ Park to the fans and will stay that way. “There are sound economic reasons [for name change]. We have to move with that otherwise we won’t be able to keep our players. For me, it’s difficult. I want to represent the fans, that’s what I do as manager, and I want to also say to the owner ‘I want the best possible team’ which is what he wants also.” A test will come quickly this summer. Will Ba stay? Will Tioté? Cabaye? “If I can keep the same group of players I wouldn’t worry [about raising expectations],” Pardew adds. “But will I be able to keep my best team? We are vulnerable to bigger clubs and you can’t get away from that with the salaries they offer.” There is the example of Liverpool who signed Andy Carroll for £35 million in January 2011 and who, Pardew says, have “double” Newcastle’s revenues. And yet when he looks at the league table this morning Liverpool are, of course, below Newcastle. Will it stay that way? Can Newcastle even qualify for European football? “We are not focused on that,” Pardew says. But there is a crucial addendum. “We are focused on the next six games because if we are in the running for a top six place in six games times then we will really give it a go - whether that’s the Europa League or even the Champions League. But the next six games are key. Now is the time when the top teams get into gear, so are we going to get into gear?” Starting on Sunday, starting against Sunderland. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/9116173/Newcastle-United-manager-Alan-Pardew-has-silenced-critics-to-sell-vision-of-fast-brand-of-front-foot-football.html Interesting to read his thoughts on a second season shake-up, which makes sense. It is true, most of the players that went last year were in the papers for the wrong reasons. If it was his decision, that's good, but what he says about Carroll later suggests he wasn't as worried about his off the field antics or second season syndrome, we just couldn't compete with the scousers to retain him.

The new Mars Volta album Noctourniquet has leaked.

I reiterate.... http://www.toontastic.net/board/topic/30942-importing-the-fixtures-to-your-calendar/page__view__findpost__p__1045409

Dizzy Rascal gets the final say then. I'll tweet the blend.

Tinchy Stryder says they'll win 3-2. Always thought he was shite. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17222269

Fifa has launched an investigation after former England manager Peter Taylor's Bahrain side beat Indonesia 10-0 in a World Cup qualifier. Bahrain needed to overturn a nine-goal deficit to stand any chance of progressing to the next stage. http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/17220640 Superb

Without a packed out pub, several pints of alcoholic beverage and a major tournament atmosphere, England games are always awful......even with all those things it can tend to be like that.

What?

Look!

An Idiot Abroad The TV show is better.

A win would see us equal last seasons total points tally... 10/11 - P38 W11 D13 L14 - 46Pts 11/12 - P26 W12 D7 L7 - 43Pts

1 point from this would take us equal with the home record for the entire season last year... 10/11 - P19 W6 D8 L5 - 26Pts 11/12 - P13 W7 D4 L2 - 25Pts

Happy Birthday Sally Brown btw. ....and Ketsbaia.

Didn't know we had a calendar. Snazzy.

This article is shaping up pret-tay- pret-tay pret-tay good.