Rayvin

Wait what?? After all the Guardian's celebrations they can't possibly have brought it back?

Revenue isn't profit mind... if we're run really badly then we could quite easily be spending all of that just keeping afloat. Of course we know that Mashley is looking at taking about £50m out of the club this year in dividends, so... Is it naive of me to think that this is just our 'Arsenal phase' and that in years to come once the debt is paid off we'll be bringing in players like Ozil and Sanchez?? I think I know the answer to that.

What was the bet?

It was. He confirmed via his preferred medium of communication - gifs

Being honest though, the bookies clearly have no idea what's going on.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/jan/21/the-strange-world-of-professional-footballers-websites This link is a page of the Guardian's favourite footballer websites. Some are quite bizarre. Tom Cleverly had one back in the day when he was trying to make himself a brand (like Beckham, one assumes). The site has closed down now, for some reason... Andrei Arshavin has one where people apparently were able to ask him random crap and he'd answer. Someone asked him if he liked bears. Apparently he thinks bears are pretty good.

Understandable. Without hope there's no conceivable reason why any of us would continue with this I suppose.

He's probably rich enough to be one of the first people to benefit from life extension technology, knowing our luck.

He did state in there that Ashley selling up wasn't on the cards at all...I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything but even so.

This is what gets me. Man Utd fans were flying fucking planes over old trafford to get Moyes out, Arsenal fans wait for Wenger at train stations in order to abuse him personally (and throw wine at people, of all things), Villa are organising protests and demonstrations, Chelsea fans hounded Benitez on a hugely personal level despite him doing a good fucking job for them, and Man City fans don't even fucking turn up; and yet we still get all the shit about being abusive and impatient.

Yeah but Pardew just came out with any old bollocks as long as it took the heat off him a bit. There does need to be communication from Charnley or his appointed representative about what's going on, and this interview at least represents a step in the right direction on that front. Has it changed any of our views on anything? No. Has he mentioned any sort of ambition or concept of where we want to be in the next few years? No. But he's at least said something, and for once it hasn't been done by an underinformed manager who doesn't have a fucking clue what's going on above his head. As for relegation - yeah we'll get sucked in, but Ashley and Charnley might take the view that they can pull Garde in at any time if things start going really pear shaped. Whether that'd be enough to save us, I don't know. EDIT - I'd like to stress that I can quite readily believe that they'll relegate us through incompetence. I'm just hoping that they'll do a good job to protect their investment more than anything.

He will know better, it's just something he's able to throw out there because it sounds plausible.

It sounds like the board have written this season off as much as we have tbh. The thing that'll really bother me is if we risk relegation to bring in someone over the summer who actually turns out to be another Pardew sort of appointment.

That suggests he's English I guess, as the big four would normally pick up English keepers and not play them...

In fairness, who could possibly have expected that another team would actually pay millions for Pardew? It was always much more likely that he'd be sacked.

I'd take a clue now unless anyone else has any legit guesses. Maybe give it until 10am?

Can't for the life of me remember the West Brom one...they've been such a nothing team for so long that I'd struggle to name most of their current team...

Was it Robinson for Spurs back then..?

Hard to disagree with this, despite using them myself. It does rather defeat the point if you're using them to save time, but then have to explain what they are every time they're used. Especially since in my case that means I have to google them to make sure that they are what I'm saying and I haven't just made a fool of myself. We should produce a glossary of terms or something! Or y'know...just not use them, I guess.

I'm still just taken aback that they decided to communicate with us at all...

Being totally honest, that's the best interview i've seen come out of the club in some time. Maybe my life is overful of management speak, but I dont see the harm in waiting till summer as long as we get the right person. My guess is they'll want to emulate Southampton...

I still stand by the view that changing Pardew was either a short term win or a long term win. It's short term if we get a better manager It's long term if we get relegated due to Ashley's poor decision making, and he's forced to sell us on. Of course that doesn't mean that he'd be able to, but at the same time we become a lot less attractive as an asset in the Championship. The worst case scenario for me is that we get no change at all (i.e. someone of Pardew's ability) and stay midtable cannon fodder. But then we've not lost anything in losing Pardew.

FM has him as a Shadow Striker (hence my earlier comment) but I can't say that I've cross reffed that with his actual abilities. The implication is that all of our attacking will be channeled through him (rather than going down the wings and being crossed in I suppose). Being honest, he might well go some way to rendering our rather ineffectual possession game a little more potent. That's if he's actually capable in this role of course.

Does sound similar - 23 though, so quite a bit younger. Plus he's been injured, which is perhaps why his strike rate has declined.

Reads more like he's a Cisse esque goal poacher to me, but the German doesn't translate very well through Google translate. Had a good season last year but lost his way a bit this year through injury.