The Fish

Kone has signed a new deal, but will that be enough to keep him there if Everton revisit their interest later in the season? Khazri looks out of favour and Kirchoff can only last 60 minutes by the looks of things. Can't imagine what will happen if Defoe attracts the attentions of someone like Everton, Palace or Stoke around January. A midtable side looking to strengthen their options up front with a reliable experienced pro. Could sunderland convince him to stay? I can't imagine Moyes' football will get Defoe's pace racing and for all his faults, Allardyce knew to make sure Defoe felt he was the focus of the team. If our players start getting attention, I fancy us to be able to fend off all but the biggest of clubs. I can't see Ritchie swapping Newcastle and Rafa for West Brom and Pulis, but I can see Kone swapping sunderland and Moyes for Boro and Karanka.

2-0 Whoscored says They've only beaten Birmingham City and Cambridge United, they've dropped points to Barnsley, Burton, Huddersfield and Ipswich. Should be a fairly straightforward win, but this is still Newcastle, despite Rafa's influence, there still flows an undercurrent of insanity and chaos.

Kone, Kirchoff, Khazri, Ndong, off the top of my head. No, they're not great, but they'd definitely not fancy a season (or longer) in the Championship.

Eight games in (and I know we haven't had the game time to properly assess them; Yedlin, Lazaar, Gamez, Murphy.) what are your thougths on the new boys? For me Atsu looks tricksy, but selfish. I'd not be surprised if he was another LuaLua type. All fart nee shite. Clark is Paul Dummett. Not that there's anything wrong with that in this league. Diame is powerful, clever on the ball, and committed. Everything Sissoko should have been. Needs more game time and needs the players around him to get used to what he can add to the team. Gamez, in the brief glimpses of him I've caught, looks classy but needs to quickly get up to Championship speed. Gayle, I'm worried he'll get frustrated with the rotations, but when he's on the pitch we've a goal threat. He's working hard across their back line to disrupt and annoy the defenders and he's picking up nice little pockets of space. Love to see him, Mitro and Perez on the pitch at the same time though. Hanley looks exactly what I thought he'd be, a big old Championship bruiser. Likely to give away a penalty or two, but unlikely to give up much ground to the big lumps that Championship sides favour up front. Hayden is a very promising player. Definitely one I'd want to keep hold of when we go up. Last game he started stretching his play a bit, and joined Shelvey in trying to find the runs of the fullbacks with searching balls. Lazaar hasn't featured yet. Murphy hasn't featured yet. Ritchie is a gem. Lovely control, quick feet, a variety of quality final balls and (that apparently rarest of commodities for a left winger) heart. He'll be so important for us this season and for next too. Sels is taking time to settle, but with each clean sheet he grows in confidence and assurance. I wish he'd catch a ball, but that's not the continental way I suppose. Not sure which of our 'keepers I'd have as 1st choice if they're all fit and at the club now. Yedlin, hasn't played much but has unbelievable pace, seems to be enjoying his time at Newcastle too. Only being kept out of the side by Vurnon Anita which brings me onto my next question for you; Which old players have been Rafa'd?

Which of the old lads have been successfully de-Pardewed and most benefited from the Rafalution?

Aside from the promoted sides, it is hard to look at any Premier League side and see a sure-fire 3 points going to the mackems. It could be that's down to my bias, but there can't be many teams that fear entertaining them. Boro, Burnley and Hull must surely identify sunderland as fixture that they can get a precious win? Were we ever seen as whipping boys? They'll be reading this and calling us deluded and arrogant and all the rest of it, but honestly, scraping survival every season is embarrassing for a club of their fanbase and history. We've been relegated, sure, but as someone said on twitter, We'll be back and when we are, our aim won't be to secure safety in the final couple of fixtures. Honestly think they'd do well to go down, clear out all the shit (might take a while) and make root and branch changes across the organisation and come back with an identity that isn't the "turd that refuses to flush".

Well, most of us...

Git.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_records_and_statistics#All-time_Premier_League_table If you copy that into a spreadsheet and filter out teams who've not been in the Premier League for 10 seasons or more you'll see Sunderland and West Brom at the bottom of the pack. And when you stack that performance against their spend... http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-1992-to-date/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-1992-to-date Makes me think, they give us shit for "delusion" but our ambition means that survival isn't enough for us and we protest (sometimes in embarrassing ways) and strive to affect change. They meekly renew their season tickets, rock up in their thousands, and fuck off when their team is capitulating once more. There seems no anger towards the way their club is mismanaged, their seems no desire to progress? Are they afraid to appear too demanding?

They're misunderstanding the question. It's not which teams were particularly shit in one season, it's which club has been most guilty of stinking out the Premier League.

Hey, that's a point a game, should be enough for survival.

? it's a pretty reasonable question like. If you're making your own way to the game it's good to know which pub will likely have the majority of the away fans in it. Plus there's a load of pubs that will turn away people wearing colours so to save an arseache trawling around for somewhere that will let you in, it makes sense to ask people where the away fans usually go.

I'm enjoying this thread http://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/we-must-be-the-worst-premier-league-team-ever.1275967/ Makes a point about his side by asking a fairly reasonable question and is, on the whole, lambasted. It'd be fair to say they're the worst Premier League side on average. They scrape survival every season, despite spending much more than other clubs, as the OP says, they never paste anyone and are often on the receiving end of pastings. Other teams may have had worse seasons (Villa springs to mind) but to consistently finish 16-17th is pretty fucking shocking.

Agree, but Gayle has done enough to get plenty of starts. There'll be games we can play all 3 as well.

Plenty of twitter accounts that sort away day travel, @@Ugly Mackems on here does stuff like that too. Away day pubs are pretty easily googled, but again, Twitter is a good resource for that kind of thing.

By all accounts he was far more physical last night. Once he really gets used to this league he'll piss it because his technique is good enough to make up for his size. Just like Armstrong. or Ritchie. I wonder what odds we can get on Newcastle scoring 100+ goals now?

I've got to stop being a pussy by always predicting we'll concede.

I had been convinced that the Championship was much stronger this time round, but this is like Accadacca all over again. There are still some decent sides in this league, but honestly, there are some absolute shite. We put 6 past QPR at their place, what are we capable of doing to Leeds, Preston or Burton Albion at St James'? Thing is, when Shelvey is rotated/injured I trust in Rafa to modify our approach so that his absence isn't disastrous. I'd imagine Diame would be given more license to attack and he'd carry the ball rather than launching it forward. Apparently Hayden was pinging the ball about too, so perhaps he can help out? Fucking Hell this is brilliant, isn't it?

I was hoping to see Yedlin start at least. Perch isn't quick at all and Yedlin's pace would terrify him.

Lazaar, Yedlin, Gamez still not getting ahead of Anita and Dummett? Don't understand that line up and can only think Mbemba and Diame have picked up knocks/being rested.

To be fair, they didn't specify which table they would expect to be in the middle of.

Look, I think we can all agree I'm having a nightmare. So lets brush it under the carpet and move on, deal?

Didn't mean point, meant... I dunno, it made me laugh. Fuck the pair of you, I'm tired. The point is that Moyes had a top striker when he was at Everton, in Lukaku.

I think Rafa said as much. The plan was to keep the ball in the corner, then Shelvey saw Perez and Yedlin's movement.