Rayvin

That's probably true to be honest.

Heh, so maybe they're thinking we'll be so grateful to be rid of Carver in the summer that it won't matter who they hire.

WTF is he actually doing there... It looks like he's holding his hand up for some instruction to the team, but that he has to keep staring at it in order to be sure his hand is doing what he thinks it is. FFS...

I'm still pretty convinced that Cisse got us to 5th...not that it would have been a bad year without his goals, but he was definitely highly contributive - it's not like the sorts of goals he was scoring were a direct result of Pardew's tactics. That said, to his credit, our defence was well organised that year, up until Taylor got injured. Perhaps an argument could be made that if we'd properly replaced people that we lost from that season, Pardew would have had an easier time of it, but at the end of the day he was representative of a regime that brings mediocrity and failure, and that was his choice. Where I think he was undoubtedly a failure was in player development. It's quite telling that the 5th season was the one where we had a sudden influx of good players, before Pardew had the opportunity to train them down to his style and results starting going awry. As such, replacing Pardew with someone who can actually develop and improve players makes a lot of sense (assuming you consider that the club actually cares about this philosophy). That person isn't Carver, which is why I find his appointment incredibly tedious.

I think the bubble will burst soon tbh, and maybe once it does we can get something back of the sport we all grew up with. The longer we have an impenetrable top 4, the more likely it is that people will simply lose interest. Looking at it this season, for all the heroics of Southampton, they aren't gonna get a CL space, I mean get real. Arsenal will get in there somehow, Man Utd look like they'll get it and we'll have the same top 4 that we normally have, once again.

I am not visiting that website, if it even exists...

Where do you find this stuff

I would have said this was the most likely reason too. If it had been in Britain I would have expected to hear about it (but only because three people died - I don't think we hear about every murder over here by any stretch of the imagination).

Probably also vitally important for commercial revenues globally.

Now that the immediate frustration has worn off - are we being too hard on Carver? Yes we were shit, yes he pulled off our attacking players, but he is clearly a limited manager and perhaps his defensive actions salvaged us a point in the end. I'm not saying that makes him worth keeping around as he most definitely isn't, but if he didn't have it in him to work out a strategy to win the game, at least he didn't lose it.

Yeah you pretty much had this spot on. Not sure how much of a consolation that is though...

That's Carver by the way - what really fucks me off about him is how he keep referencing other managers like some kind of schoolkid as if their comments give him the legitimacy and attention he craves. "I was fucking brave to play two strikers away from home, Alan told me so - picking up 6 points out of a possible 18 is really impressive as well" God I hate this club sometimes.

It's another game unbeaten, that's one win, three draws and two defeats now, which is not bad in this league. We said before the game we knew we were up against a big physical side and the pitch was quite lively, so we knew it was going to be a bit of a battle. "I stuck Papiss Cisse in. I was brave to play two strikers away from home, but he's a fox in the box and if he keeps scoring he has to be in the team. "It's a bit strange [facing Alan Pardew] because I worked with him for four years but once I got off the bus I went into professional mode. After the game he said to me: 'Well done, you deserved the point.'

We aren't going to get relegated man, he'll pick up another flukey win somewhere and that'll be that. Really hope he doesn't get the job longer term though.

That was like Pardew vs Pardew. Fucking terrible. At least we didn't lose.

On the up side, the coin thrower has been soundly criticised on Palace's forum. Nice to see that tribalism doesn't trump everything.

Haha awesome Stepped away to do the dishes (yes, this match is that bad) and came back to this.

Burnley seem to be giving ManU a game and a half...

The Allardyce love in is a bizarre one to be sure, but he's clearly getting something right this season.

Swiftly followed by him claiming that he wasn't interested.

Didn't they just give him a four year contract like...2 months ago?

Lambert sacked...

Pardew in his pre-match notes: "Much was muttered and written during my time in the North East," Pardew wrote. "As this is the first chance I have had to talk directly to the Newcastle supporters and the players who worked so hard for me since my departure, it is a great opportunity to reflect on a period that was much discussed and unfairly judged in my opinion. "If you look at the net spend we had in my time at Newcastle, you can only conclude it was a successful period because the club I left are established in the Premier League with a platform to go to the next level. It is a legacy that I am proud to have on my record."

Ah fine. We're going to lose 2-1, Shola will get the winner and Pardew will do some kind of lap of honour at the end. Then I'll have to read all the comments in the Guardian about how delusional we all are.