aimaad22

Yup, I just dont see us replacing him if he goes. The difference in the side when he came back towards the end of the season was massive. Perhaps Mbiwa can one day be the type of defender Colo is right now, certainly seems to have similar attributes. Comfortable on the ball, good at reading the game. I think he needs a couple of years though.

He's perfect for it. Just have to tell the lads to do the exact opposite of what he did.

Sigh, why do we have such short memories? The whole team struggles for a year, for various reasons discussed at length already. Yes, no doubt the players have failed to live upto expectations this year, again, for a variety of reason. Nevertheless they along with the coaching team need to look at themselves and ask the question whether they did all they could do ensure they performed at their peak for the team. But suddenly it seems we want to ship out everyone? Not speaking in terms of this forum only, but going around the net it seems people wouldnt mind us selling Cisse, Cabaye, Tiote, Jonas etc. What does that leave us with and are we really confident our management will go out and replace them? Players will always come and go, and you cant blame anyone for wanting to leave us for Man Utd, but lets not get excited everytime a journo comes up with a story because they dont have much else to do over the next couple of months.

I get your point Ant but its the same here. I can only once remember clicking on the sub form, thought I'll come back later to it and then just didnt. Just had a look at it now and its good fun! Would defintely be reading them next season if someone did them.

Dunno about the video but: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/kevin-keegan-describes-second-stint-4065119?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Interview with Sky apparently. Nothing that we didnt already know before though.

Which would also free up Cabaye to do some damage up front.

After reading Keegan's comments about Ashley and co, its just hard to gather any sort of confidence about the upcoming seasons despite the fact I like our starting eleven,

We tried to rectify the mistakes of the summer in January, so Im hoping those mistakes wont be repeated again the very next summer. Thats all. Anyway its not like Im saying we'll be getting 4-5 players again. Those reports about us being interested in two signings probably arent that far off the mark. If one of them is Carlton Cole or Spearing though.......

Because everyone can see we desperately need one?

True, not panicking, still a good few months to go. Even Ashley and co. should have enough sense to see we need some realy quality up front. Fully expecting an exciting forward to arrive Apart from that it'll be a bonus if we get anything other than the likes of Spearing.

Fernandinho set to join Man City for around 35M. Even the likes of Norwich have signed Wolfswinkle havent they? West Ham trying for Negregedo. We get linked with bloody Spearing

FFS! http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/01/newcastle-jay-spearing-liverpool-bolton

Must have gotten along well with him Wondering how long into next season before Sunderland implode. And who would want to join them in the summer given the stories coming out of the club?

Apparently Bramble has taken a few parting shots at Di Canio. Good lad!

http://www.football-analysis.com/newcastle-united-20122013/?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.football-analysis.com%2Fnewcastle-united-20122013%2F%3F Decent read that, although much of that has been discussed here at length already. An extract from above: "Minor details aside, personally, the most disappointing factor of this season is the fact that Pardew is concluding his 3rd season in charge at Newcastle and we are still yet to see the outline of a long term plan. When a team is winning it is easy to look past this, as was the case in last season’s distant memory. This year, with results vastly different, one naturally starts to look deeper to find assurances that there are positive signs of growth elsewhere. One only has to look at Liverpool’s current situation to see why a club of their size has become so acceptable of a 7th place finish – purely because anyone can see Brendan Rodgers has a clear philosophy of how he wants his side to play and they are forfeiting short term gains for what they believe will be long term success. Is this happening at Newcastle? After 3 seasons under Pardew’s leadership it’s hard to put a discernible finger on what brand of football we specialize in (besides officially becoming a second ball team). Pardew does not have full control over transfers and even so if he does want a certain style implemented, he would struggle to bring in all the players he feels are best suited to it. Questions of team selection, tactics, set pieces aside, when it comes down to a long term vision and style, under Alan Pardew’s management, what is Newcastle United?"

Thats true. Watching non nufc games I often realise how I hardly take notice of all the misplaced passes etc. Pressure does weird things to everyone including the fans.

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/6342?cc=4716 Some interesting points made there about Tiote's time here and his form last season.

EDIT: SPOILER ALERT http://insidetv.ew.c...he-red-wedding/ The guy is evil!

You cant underestimate the value of someone on the flanks who can regularly beat a man and put a good ball into the box for people to attack. We need that. Thats not Ben Arfa's forte, as has been said he drifts naturally into the middle. And thats where he is at his best at.

Nope but thats next on my list. Got an ebook reader almost specifically for it since I couldnt find the bloody print copy anywhere here. Have you read it? Wheel of time is pretty decent, and recently concluded. Not as shall we say, mature, as Martin's work but the politics/plots are just as extensive if not more.

That'd be me. Seemed to me he ended up a lot of the time playing down the wings even though he often started out playing behind Cisse. Im just hoping it was lack of other options as explained above, and not because Pards really thinks thats his best role.

I think him skinning Cole in that Chelski game probably gave Pards the idea Then there's the fact HBA was out, Jonas couldnt provide decent delivery if his life depended on it, and Marveaux has a touch about every 30 minutes in a game. Pards may be tactically senile but a some of what he had to do last season was down to him having little other choice.