Alex

If only he tracked back. he does...now Massive oversimplification this notion he wasn't grafting and now he is (purely because of Pardew's input) and he's a changed player. I don't think his work rate was ever that much of a problem. It was more giving the ball away in dangerous areas. I put this down to trying too hard whilst still not being fully recovered from his injury. Even prior to West Brom away (the first game where he looked like he'd finally got that yard of pace back) he was still often our most dangerous player during our relatively poor spell. When Pardew would play him that is. He was often the sacrificial scapegoat during those poor performances, getting hauled off at half-time etc. I know he was shit away to Brighton but so was the whole team. I think Pardew has done very well overall but I think Ben Arfa could've been integrated into the side a bit earlier. He seems happy and playing well now though so that's the main thing. It would've been a hell of a shame if he'd just faded away and left this summer because talent like his doesn't come along very often. I think our season might well have petered out too.

I'd have been surprised if we weren't trying to sign him.

Shearer under SBR.

I think the club would do cheap ticket deals for the Europa League this time round as well as well which would help in terms of getting numbers at the matches.

Like you did when you said we'd never qualify for Europe via the league under Mike Ashley?

We've been very successful with our transfer policy of late so whether you agree with it or not it's simply not realistic to expect that policy to be thrown out of the window for a player like Samba (age, wages too high etc.). He's a good player but he's certainly not the sort of player you'd break a wage structure for.

Just about everyone has expressed those concerns at some point. Just some of us aren't obsessing over it when we're level on points with the team in 4th with 5 games left.

if you don't take a shot, you don't score a goal. You will have to understand, that not every transfer deal succeeds, nobody has ever had a 100% record. We could sign a duff player in August just like we could have done in January, so what is your point ? We took a punt on Cisse and he's been (so far) a massive success though. Not signing him and giving Watford an extra half a mill for Mariappa would've been a far safer bet so I don't see your point either.

Reading the OP is a bit like watching Stoke.

There's several potential reasons. We're reputedly after Douglas and Pieters. The former has almost completed 5 years in Holland, at which point he can play for the national team and the latter was just recovering from a bad injury. You call people naive on one hand then go on like it's a piece of piss to sign all the targets you want. It's especially difficult in the January window as good players will often be at clubs who still have everything to play for.

You can always improve on what you have but while a centre-back in January would've been great, Cisse has got us more points than we've lost due to playing Williamson (who's done ok in the last few games). Even Perch has played well there. We went for Mariappa as a stop gap and it didn't work out. We were just about the only top half side to improve / spend big in January and look where it's gotten us. Fair play to the owner on that score.

This is spot on. If we can't enjoy it while we're competing for a champions league place then what is the point of it all? I think everyone is enjoying it, I certainly am. I can't imagine any Newcastle fans are not enjoying this season. But it shouldn't stop us talking and debating where the club is going in the longer term. Its possible to enjoy it and still be very concerned that the excellent season we are having will not be sustained with the current policy of selling your best players and replacing them with lower cost alternatives. Aye, but that's all he goes on about. You only post to back him up as well.

I hate it when keepers time waste for almost the full 90 mins then get a token booking with about 5 minutes to go. The damage has already been done by then. Also, there are few things better than seeing a side who've been time wasting suddenly hurrying after conceding a late goal and going behind.

Anyone remember a lass streaking at a match at SJP (well, she was topless anyway) and running onto the pitch and giving Carl Serrant a kiss? It was probably the highlight of his Newcastle career.

Never heard of them but I'll check them out, cheers.

This is a good site: http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2011-2012/table Use the drop downs to select the table at different stages in the season.

Evra wouldn't even get in Man Utd's side of the last 20 years never mind the PL.

Is that directed at me ? If so, I agree with your last line completely, and I think others should read that comment and take it on board. If, or when, I'm convinced that the current owner will challenge the top clubs in the way that we ought to do, and he is only going to do that by keeping our best players and backing his manager, without withholding cash from the manager from sales, then I will be quite happy to admit that i am wrong. However, I still believe this will not happen, and as this course of action has only occured in one transfer window, it is far too premature to say anything has changed. Do you think, if he starts selling players and we don't build on this, the vast majority of people on here will then admit that they have also been wrong ? I don't care about the advertising if the money went to the manager of the club and he showed the ambition. If the money is put back into the footballing side of the club ie given to the manager, he can do what he likes for me. My problem is that this is not happening, meaning he is using the club for the benefit of the Sports Company and putting the sports company first, which is not what I want as a paying supporter. We're challenging the top clubs for the first time in about a decade though.

Do you like Basic Channel? Scion Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks is a great compilation if you like deep, dubby, minimal techno. Admittedly it's not the catchiest name for an album.

This is spot on. If we can't enjoy it while we're competing for a champions league place then what is the point of it all? Seasons like this are all too rare, you have to enjoy them. They were rare before Mike Ashley came along too.

Cheers, Tom.

It's absolutely mental that, with only a handful of games left, we're still in with a shout of 3rd place. That's what football is all about to me (in lieu of actually winning something), i.e. having something to play for (and not just survival) at the business end of the season. It's fantastic.

I think it's canny sad that this is the sort of crack people are having on a NUFC forum when we're having our best season in absolutely ages. If you can't enjoy this, you might as well hoy the towel in.