colinh9

Santon has been one of our worst players for the last two months. This is where you need a few players in rotation. Give him a bit of a rest and tell him he needs to prove himself in training. He's an automatic choice at LB because there is nobody else we could realistically put there unless forced to through injury

I still don't understand how anyone could have resentment towards Demba. At 27 years old, with knees that aren't great- he is supposed to stay at a club that's showing limited ambition and paying less money? As I've said before, being a footballer is not a long-term career. You need to make as much money as possible now, because in 6 years he will most likely be retired with limited options to make money. Most of us will never make that much cash- I get it- but most of us didn't dedicate our lives to being a professional footballer. He earned it, you don't just to that level with luck. So, there is every reason to try to make as much money as possible. And as far as ambition in terms of winning things- he has every right to go do that too. If Ashley were serious about winning things as an owner- we would have spent 10-15 million this summer on new players. Instead, we made a profit of ~3 million. For a club about to go into Europe with a lot of midweek matches ahead- that's utterly pathetic. He had a choice to stay with a club that was showing limited ambitions and has a history of selling it's best players for the right price- to a club that has won the ultimate club honor (no matter how fortunate it was). At the very least, you are talking about playing European football on a consistent basis. People talk about him rotting on the bench but that's nonsense. He will get his matches and if he performs he will be chosen. The only other out and out striker he has to compete against right now is a torrid Torres. Lukaku will be back next year- but Demba could easily be first choice if he's knocking them in. It's a shame to see all this misguided anger. Against Pardew, against our players, against Demba Ba. Mike Ashley is the main culprit here and there isn't a doubt in my mind. Never once has anyone asked him for a 30 million pound signing, never would I. But considering the new TV money, it wasn't much to ask for 5-15 million investment over the summer so that we could have pushed on a bit. The league has never been worse/more open in 15 years, that's a fact. English clubs are getting destroyed in Europe and honestly the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal are the weakest they've been in ages. There is a legitimate shot for new clubs (Spurs, Everton) etc to get into those European spots. We are moving backwards because of a lack of investment.

I'm happy about this injury to a certain extent (obviously I'd prefer to have a healthy squad but...) We need cover at full-back and at least now they won't off-load Simpson for some stupid fee like 1 mil. It's worth that to keep him around til the end of the season and then let him go off on a free. Santon has been absolutely awful the last month or two so having competition for places is a good thing. Not saying I like Simmo or think he's a good footballer mind ya

Lmao

The fact is, Ba holds all the cards now. When he signed for us- we had a lot more wiggle room to maneuver a dael that worked in our favor. Now, as he should, he's trying to get the absolute most guaranteed money he can. I'm sure there are clauses on both sides that are absurd- but honestly why would Ba take incentive based pay now after being forced to play wide in the past (and seeing Cisse in that role now) I'm always weary of folks who start throwing out the loyal card and all that nonsense. Some of these guys have 5-6 years at the prime of their career....of course they want to make the absolute most amount of money they can in that time....because face it- what are they going to do when they retire? No club is loyal to a player either, everybody looks for a way to get the absolute best deal for themselves. What does Demba Ba owe Newcastle? The same as Newcastle owes Demba- absolutely nothing. Ba has said all the right things all along, has kept his head down and has scored tons for us...

Ibra has it written into his contract that his wages are guaranteed POST-tax. Insane $$ really

Just totally gutted. no analysis at this point becase I just want to go hide under a rock

Brilliant start. GTFI

At least they are playing Scholes and Giggs but I sitll see us having a lot of difficulty winning the midfield battle. Valencia might expose Santon (he's not in the best of form) and Van Persie is obviously going to cause us problems. That said if we can get some quality delivery into the box early, BA and Cisse could wreak havoc on that defense.

Yeah, I use Dortmund for the most part. Switch it up to Napoli, occasionally PSG. I want to win the title first and then I will expirment a bit more but there really is a period of gettng used to playing with a new team. I've probably already played more matches on 13 than on 12- because I didn't have online gaming for the majority of last year....where I lived the connection was just shit and wasn't worth playing.

30 million pound offer. Too good to refuse honestly. Allowed me to bring in 3 very promising players. I play a 4-2-3-1 so I really only need three strikers for cover. I had the same tactics as Andrew for a bit, using them as inside forwards but Cisse never got it done. Ba did. I'll get to play a bit more tonight/tomorrow. Hoping my strategy pays off

It was 10 mil for Remy first, now down to 8. Familiar tune, we won't go higher than 8 and they won't accept lower than 10. Adios to another deal (pure speculation mind you)

What team do you use primarily?

on a better note- who is that girl in your avatar? Good god

Yeah, I think I read a week or so ago some quotes that he wasn't going anywhere. I'd really be shocked if we did anything other than make a profit in this transfer window.

Would you do international shipping? I'd be happy to pay for it.

Yeah. He's still started a lot of the league games this year- just no real CL action. I'd be shocked if he were valued at less than 15 and like I said, no way Ashley would pull that one

Up to Division 1 online- though it took longer than it did last year. Hoping to snag the title here in the near future- 2 seasons finished with ~17 points. Still haven't bothered doing a career yet. Will probably start one up with Newcastle eventuall.

Finally started playing 13... finished first season in 10th. Pretty disappointing. Large overhaul of my squad. Cisse was absolutely miserable last year (1 goal in like 27 apperances) so I decided to off-load him and Cabaye to rebuild the rest of my squad. I think Anita is ready to move into Cabaye's role and I only play with one striker- so Demba it is. Lots of changes. The UI is so enjoyable in this one. Really enjoying playing it- feels like a lot of massive upgrades on even the simple stuff.

Kendrick Lamar's is a great bit of work. I'm a bit of a freak and could probably list about 50 albums I liked from this year. At some point I'll be getting around to doing that- not as if anyone cares. I'm a huge Jack White fanboy and I wouldn't put Blunderbuss in the top 50. No joke

Fallen off a bit. Even last year before Thiago Silva he wasn't playing as much. I'd think he's going to command a pretty big fee still, and I doubt Ashley will pull that off.

What would you do differently then?

See, now this is the sort of stuff I'm willing to discuss. Tactically, how can Pardew do better with what's currently at his disposal? First, defensively. Colo is back but Steven Taylor is out. You are forced again to use Mike Williamson- especially against Stoke. No good options but to swap Colo for Taylor in what was at best a mediocre defensive effort last time out. It's a good question re: attacking/midfield- and frankly not an easy one given the dearth of talent that is available currently. There are really no options for creativity in the midfield. Though Wednesday, maybe the more important thing is to be physical in that part of the pitch since I don't see it being a pretty one. The best option seems to be to allow Anita to push forward a bit more than he has. I suppose you could argue for a 4-3-3 with Anita pushing forward in a triangle of sorts. Who sits behind him? You'd need to use Tiote (obviously) and Jonas- who has shown to be a real liability in this role already this season. Or you could try a youngster there, though none of them look up physically for the challenge that is Stoke. That leaves Ba playing the wing, and who plays the other wing? Shane Ferguson certainly unable to play at the Britannia in this sort of match- and I can't see Sammy or Marveux being up for it either. Cisse looks all out of sorts, but I think given we have no alternative he has to start. Marvuex in the whole in a 4-5-1/4-3-3? Still again you have the problem of a midfield that is going to be absolutely overrun and doesn't offer creativity. There are a lot of questions. I don't see a lot of easy solutions if I'm the manager of this football team.

See, this sort of stuff really makes me laugh. I asked, literally, for alternatives. You came up with nothing concrete relating to Newcastle. Instead, you offered a pedestrian comparison that holds no relevance whatsoever to what I said. So, in one country a team in the bottom five pulled off a cup miracle- and without any context whatsoever we are supposed to believe Pardew could have never pulled off such a feat? What an absolutely useless post by you.

I'd like to put down a few things, and this is all ad hoc so I thank you in advance for bothering to read. This all boils down to one thing: Lack of investment. Beating the dead horse. -3 million in transfers over the summer with an added campaign in Europe to a team that was already pretty short in the depth chart. It's not Pardew's fault, at least nowhere near the point where we need to think about changing managers. Let's look at the match against Southampton, what could have been done differently? You can argue the tactics weren't great- and I'd agree that playing Cisse and Ba together hasn't worked out- but what choice did he have? Revert back to a 4-5-1? With Ferguson and Jonas on the flanks- thus putting more of an emphasis on them creating chances? Or start Sammy and move Jonas into the center where he is useless? Subs: Harper, Tavernier, Bigirimana, Ranger, Marvuex, Sammy, Perch. Really, what would you have done differently? He has nobody pushing the first team to the limits, if anything, it's more who can I put out there that might give me a shot at winning. It's not how you should think in football, but when you have nothing to work with- what can you do? Now, I'll concede that Pardew has had his moments this season that could have been better. The first XI hasn't done it's job and that's partly down to tactics. Yet, it's also to do with their attitudes and performance. Maybe Cisse slacked in the off-season, maybe Cabaye came back too confident after the Euros. Who knows? It's all speculation. Saying the team was "lucky" last year means a few different things. In the last 15 years (since I was 9 so I'm sorry I can't speak past that) we've had tons of injuries. All the time. So much so that it was, what's wrong in Newcastle? Why are so many players on the injury table? Is it their training methods? The point of this is that we've been just as unlucky in the past- so has every single team in the BPL. It happens. What we had last year was a bit of an anamoly- for the most part we kept the core group healthy- and those that were playing their best never really succumbed to injury. Say what you will, but this is "lucky" It was unlikely this would happen again this year...lo and behold we have a "crisis" We just don't have the depth to deal with injuries and unfortunately this is what happens, you lose games you could possibly win with more investment. Now, we also had some results that went our way last year that maybe were a bit fortunate. That doesn't mean that credit isn't due to Pardew or the players- because good managers, and good teams, find a way to win games they possibly shouldn't have. That's the point. We WERE a bit fortunate to push on into 5th, the whole point of saying that was to emphasize that we needed investment to spur on the players and the coach that got us there. You think Cabaye, Ba, Ben Arfa etc are happy we didn't add any real talent to the team this off-season? Nobody expected us to sign Messi- but we didn't sign anyone (Anita was a good signing but doesn't fit the mold) to show real intent to push on. I didn't expect Ashley to spend 20+ million (I wished for it) but we could have had 3 more players in and spent a total of 10 million. Completely reasonable, especially given the savings we've had in wages since he took over. The players need to start performing when they are out there. Pardew needs to adjust and figure out where to go from here. They are not absolved of all blame- rightfully so they should have plenty of it. The core problem is the lack of investment. I don't expect this team to be fighting for relegation, nor did I expect a Champions League campaign this season. I don't think any of what a lot of people are saying is unreasonable though.