Rayvin

HAHAHA What the fuck indeed!

If it's the same Spurs who've been pretty shit all season, I think we'll win. If they suddenly remember that they're good players we're in trouble. I think it'll be a tight win for us or an absolute hammering.

The point about him being crowded out. If we had another player of his relative quality on the other side, thus preventing teams from doubling up on him, would he be a better player? I think that's the key thing for me. If he's just horribly inconsistent then he has to buck his ideas up or continue in this stop start way. If he's being prevented from operating, would he improve if we prevented this?

I don't think anyone's questioning his ability to run a business - or indeed a football club as a business when you look at how solvent we are. It's more that he carries on in such an offensive and disgraceful way, that it's actually embarrassing to be in any way associated with him. He does not represent the region, he represents money and cheap retail. That and the fact that solvency isn't what we're all in this for. When Arsenal scaled back spending you could see they would eventually come good and be able to spend with heavyweights due to careful management of funds and smart investments. Ashley has no such plan.

If it's a sewerage issue then they must have to sort it out, surely. There's actual an act passed by Parliament for this stuff: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/repairs_maintenance_and_minimum_physical_standards.html I'm not sure on the extent to which your situation will be contained in the above, but if you even start talking about it, it should light a fire under them. And if not then definitely Citizen's Advice. No reason at all you should have to put up with it. I'd also argue that they aren't acting in the landlord's best interests either. I'm also fairly certain I could guess which agency this is, based on what sounds like quarterly visits, and if it's who I'm thinking of, they really do suck.

Take photographs and document proceedings. The fact that you're dealing with an agency should make this easier. The first thing I'd do is look at your tenancy agreement to see if there is anything mentioned specifically with regards to upkeep of the apartment (especially on hygiene). After that, if you can't find anything to force the agency to take action, I'd just start telling them that you believe that the current premises contravene the minimum standards for rented accomodation (specifically the provision for the hygienic storage of food - if you're saying the flies are everywhere), and that you're noting down the issue, taking photos, and will seek further information on how to proceed from citizens advice. I've not been in this situation so y'know, disclaimer about legal accuracy of the above - with that said, you can typically threaten most companies into action by looking organised and having a next course of action lined up if they don't sort themselves out.

That may be true, but he almost forces the team to adopt a long ball style (usually because he's the one playing them) as he lacks the confidence to play the ball on the floor under pressure. Whereas if you watch Colo, he has enough technical ability to shield the ball and then pass it on. As for the other point on Pardew - at least he went for the win against Chelsea rather than a draw. We tend to either win or get hammered, but we're not really a parking the bus team. Although sometimes our dearth of quality up front makes it seem that way.

This for me - he desperately wants to succeed so you can't really say he's just coasting. I was going to liken him to WIlliamson who is limited but always tries (and so can't really be disliked), but he's actually better than that, and strives to succeed more visibly. He isn't perfect and definitely costs us points on occasion, but sometimes I wonder if anyone could come in and do a job with this team given the limitations of the senior management structure. For all we know, Pardew could have been asking for better coaches for months but has simply been ignored. My great fear is that he's a decent manager undermined by those above him, and when he goes we'll see a crap manager being undermined with a much more damaging outcome. I think if we replaced him with someone like Mourinho, who seems to be the current PL benchmark for capable management for one reason or another, we'd still not see a significant upturn in fortunes.

I agree with this almost entirely. I do think that the local press coverage on Newcastle is of a fairly poor standard mind you, but they should be aligned with the fans.

I know it's totally irrelevant to say things like this BUT, had we beaten Hull and Sunderland, we'd be 4th...

We need Hull to get another goal so that they don't even have "Well we hung on with 9 men, that's pretty good"

Without a doubt... It's gonna end up 7 or 8.

Beautiful isn't it? - MOTD is gonna be a good one tonight! Thoroughly looking forward to it for once!

That's painful, but maybe the team/Pardew feel like the press are on at them as well. I dunno, but he did well today in how he played out that game.

Haha, wouldn't surprise me. Credit where it's due though, his game plan sounds like it went perfectly. At least we don't have to worry too much about the next couple of games. Especially given that ManUtd look back to normal...

Would be good to see Sunderland lose today, just to remove any positivity they might have had from last week! Norwich are going to get caned today by the looks.

What in the damn hell. How on earth did we manage this? Sometimes I think we must actually be a good side. And Pardew personally intervened for the first goal..??

Yes but to be fair, Remy replaces Ba. We need someone to replace Cisse.

You know what, if we seriously had a decent striker, we'd be fine. Like for those glorious crosses from Ben Arfa that no one gets anywhere near.

We haven't embarrassed ourselves here, I think we've looked ok. Just need someone who can score.

I know what you mean, but take heart in the fact that if we had drawn Hull in the next round, history suggests we would have lost.

Media attention will be drawn to that ahead of this? Schadenfreude? I dunno, I'm scrambling around for anything.

On the plus side, Spurs are now losing to Hull.

And then offside.

Cisse.... what if there's no hope for him?