scoobos

Aww stop it, I was getting a bit happier for about a second then Surely though, if Ashley wants rid of Pardew - he'd save money appeasing him, buying his targets then letting the fans tear him a new one when he still underachieves. (Although I'm not a pardoo hater tbh)

lol sorry for the multi post - but you do know that Islam, Christianity and Catholicism (sp?) are all really branches of the same religion right? to say Christians aren't religious is a bit daft, course they are - I am. I'd say people who "say" they are Christian aren't - cos its a stupid british thing for complete bloody morons to mixup religion and cultural identity. (e.g the "I'm British, I'm church of England" when they haven't ever been to bloody church.

or again, WHS in far less words than me.

Virgin Money do offer Islamic "friendly" services yes, (well actually they seem to circumvent it by giving the profits made back to Islamic Charity) . It's quite similar to the Halal food debate (Halal on the high street is not really Halal, animals are still stunned as its British Law) - sure there's an argument that "real Halal" is sold on the market by people who break the rules when no-ones looking. Another thing that isn't mentioned that supports the view that Cisse should STFU is that the Koran says that the rules apply only if there are no options available. (so , unlike Jewish peeps, its fine to eat NON Halal if it isn't available, and use services that ignore the gambling rules if there's none available (still cant go down the bookies though of course, or lend to family members with interest). That's what its really getting at, don't make money out of lending to friends and family. The argument for me would be that "normal" banks have many arms and services , while Wonga has only 1 - which is directly against Islamic culture - it aggressively lends and lends only. Perhaps if Wonga was a bona-fide financial institution it would be fine. Lets make no silly assumptions , I lived and worked in Malaysia which has more Muslims than any other country in the world and its banking system isn't much different to ours. It's also an incredibly tolerant country (Sharia law is there, but its OPTIONAL to Muslims only, its never enforced on anyone who is not a Muslim). As a side note, I used to go to a Mosque there (for social reasons not religious) and as soon as they found out my wife was Prestonian they were talking about how the Muslims they knew who were "trouble" going to Preston because they could be much more intolerant there!!! weird huh. Wonga and high interest "Payday loans" will never ever ever be accepted there though and for me, I'll never accept them either. I fully expect the a PPI type backlash in 5 or 10 years time.

Let me assure you, there is nothing false about my outrage on > 50% APR companies. I admire your loyalty to the club, and you're as entitled to your view as I am mine - but for me , being associated with Wonga is shameful - it's an almost universally hated institution (you know its got a FAKE debt collection agency within Wonga? - that's legal apparently!!!) which does act like a loan shark - just cos its a business it seems to get leeway . I would chance my arm and say if they were Sunderland sponsors you wouldn't defend them quite so enthusiastically. I was going to post and say I had a bad night last night, but your personal experience is your own. There are many people who seriously don't have a choice. Given the opportunity to feed your children vs taking a risk on borrowing - it's a no brainer for most mums. Is it an individuals fault if they are not very clever? Not in my view, its just luck of the draw both genetically and geographically. (I work for a charity and studies at UNICEF have proven this - the UK scores very very poorly nowadays on child welfare) I would buy the argument that its the governments fault for not regulating, but not that its the individuals - for me the individual is doing the RIGHT thing if they use whatever means necessary to look after their children (which is legal). Perhaps a bit of an unfair example, but Tyne & Wear is pretty rich compared to some areas , that have never recovered and continue to be punished - such as North wales, fringe Scotland etc. Apologies to all who want a decent un-derailed thread!

In all seriousness, I'm not Muslim, but theres no fookin way I'm buying a shirt with Wonga on it - its a despicable company and I'm entitled to that view as much as the people who don't think its a problem. A mother with 2 children who's husband has died in the war went public on not eating for a week to feed her child and having to go to Wonga to buy school equipment - yes its a bit worlds smallest violin, but I don't buy that people "choose" to use these sharks, they do it through desperation. I think living down south has opened my eyes to the horrible stereotypes that a lot have of the north. Newcastle and Wonga sends an awful message imo, it's embarrassing. I take the argument of "people choose to use Wonga" the same way as the people I work with who seriously believe that if people don't want to be "dole scum" they should move to London... Sounds great, but has no value on Family, Friends and social responsibility to your area of birth. This whole line to Leeds/London is just an excuse to continue to deprivate the North for "the City's" wealth and GDP. In 10 years time it will be, well if Leeds if fucked, you've no excuse to come down to London etc. there are 2 masseratis and a Ferrari on my road - recession my arse, redistribution of wealth more like - Bank bailout cost us about 6 grand a head. In Australia , they bailed out the people with a 2000 dollar "stimulus cheque" that had to be spent not banked for each and every tax payer, we just took out of the public fund and gave it to the richest institutions in the western world. Oh gawd, I've gone on a rant again.... <--- exit stage right. I'll edit most of this rant out tomorrow

Better news though.

Fuck me, its coming to something when we are getting excited over buying Darren bloody bent . He's bench fodder at best.

Cheers for the link CT, much appreciated!

They will be on the usual hooky streaming sites on the web. I assume we can't post links here, but you should be able to google them.

cheers for that, great vid. I don't mind the statue myself - sure its not a great lookalike of him in our time, but I still like it.

Ok I'll bite - 10 mil EURO < 35 mil GBP . But, I dont think Cisse was even funded by the Carroll move, I suspect he was funded by the sales of: Nolan , Routledge, Enrique , Lua Lua all went for fees before we bought Cisse and Cisse alone. Same pattern, only this time we're getting nothing for the players we are selling. Cisse didn't even come in on 10 mil GBP despite them barking about it, he came in when the euro was around 80% of a GBP so 8 mil tops , he's never spent that before and also its still officially listed as undisclosed at both clubs, the media was saying 10 mil Euro. I think given the pressure he was under, he'd be shouting from the rooftops if he spent 10 mil. Also, the next player we bought for any money was Anita at 6.5 or 7, can't remember , funded by sales of Best, Fraser Foster and perhaps 1 mil or 2 mil of the "carroll money" Keegan knows best, and told us exactly how it was. I've yet to see a scrap of evidence that goes otherwise.

I hope you're right of course, but I think not. History has proven how this will go. You buy before you sell (ok 1 or 2 exceptions such as 35 mil for Carroll, but that was not re-invested). Selling when we are as poor as we are at the moment is far far too big a gamble. It's not like there's anything to lose on putting some of the departed on rolling monthly contracts. to say that only 1 is doubtful is a bold statement saying that no offers have been made, yet alone medicals, agent negotiation and player preference. I hope you're right , mind.

Gah! Getting painful now, we're going to have to kick them out of the club. VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!.

You're a man who usually speaks sense - my feeble mind doesn't understand this. Why would it be a bad thing?

Seriously, can we have just ONE transfer please?

"And then that money would be reinvested in the team." Seriously Mike, Fook right off. How stupid do you think I am , using the same bullshit you've used for over 4 years running. Keegan "Sorry Alan, you're not seeing a penny of that". And while I'm at it , stop banging on about your "Oh so big spend in January" - you still haven't spent the Carrol cash you git.

well wind up or not, there's a lot of optimism here. 3 clubs that need to spend 60 mil to be as shit as us? Really? I remember being the optimistic one here last season categorically saying everyone was shitting the bed over relegation for no reason - but with Perch, Simpson and Gosling gone we're now thinner than a nestle whores knickers.

Well its not his fault admittedly, but he is offside too much. Some of them are silly - like Tiote's redmist challenges. If cabaye is playing and doing those lovely diagonal attacking passes it works, without him no one else seems to do it, so Cisse just runs offside.

Sure mate, sure. Not the fact we only have 1 and he doesn't appear to be able to stop running offside ? Miaow, saucer of milk, table 5.

I don't get it really. The FA has done loads of retrospective stuff. Perhaps this is done just to indemnify them from some possible litigation or something. I'm pleased mind, just seems a bit fishy.

You said in 8 words what took me a paragraph. Do you do forum posting courses?

I'm not sure as I was a teenager , but I think the punditry was a bit more impartial, calm and certainly not as sensationalist as it is now. For example the "last man rule" - not many people know this, but it isnt a bloody valid rule - there's no rule saying if a last man tackles an attacker its a red card - the media invented it to add drama. E.G http://flawsofthegame.blogspot.co.uk/p/last-man-red-cards.html That's what my resentment is really, the artificial drama that conditions kids to swallow it all and then pass it on. The game has gone to shit as far as behavior of players goes, for a reason. There's loads of examples of this, I feel that the tackling from behind rule was a similar thing due to Italian media . We aren't far away from having a game where you seriously cannot tackle , I thought the game was better when people could go for 50/50 sliding tackles rather than the 90/10 they might dare at now. All this pulling shirts etc is a new phenomenon brought by foreigners imo and I'd much rather see rules to stop that. The rulebook is the rulebook, so I really don't like this "It's the Premiership - its different" argument , no it isnt, its FIFA football the same as every other bloody country. You would never in a million years see the sort of crap that goes on here be tolerated in the US league (and they are crap!) It is certainly nostaliga though - but Saint and Greavsie (sp?) did a cool tactics type show that will never be beaten as far as I'm concerned! That said, I still love watching NUFC - but that's about it - oh and international football as a whole has got better I think (which is a better indication of if football has progressed, as you can't just buy anyone in) so that's a positive. Shame it hasn't for England, but I'm not surprised when we've sold our top league to a TV company.

Quote "Or is he going to play on the side where he played for France and Toulouse?” There's your fucking clue Pardew. You bought him - did you buy him as a number 10, cos if you did you're totally lost.

Going by his chronicle article yesterday - here's my bet. GK - Krul LB Ben Arfa, CB Colo CB taylor CB Gouffran LM Santon CM Tiote CM Cabaye RM Deb Sissoko , Mbwia although I'm not sure how comfortable he'd be with 5 players in position.