OTF

At an insane 90% off who can argue with it?

Unicef. The signs are clearly there. We're Barcelona Mark II... Pardiola.... Ferguson....

Hopefully Cabaye's back and Pardew starts Ben Arfa - surely they'll be extra keen knowing that the match will prominently feature in France. Obertan too, to a much lesser extent and making a big assumption that he's capable of producing with additional effort. Marveaux could also be back out there.. he's looked poor so far but has shown glimpses of what he's capable of. This will be a big test.

Why must it mean that? If Ashley has decided that having SD on the Newcastle shirt is worth more to him that the money coming in from Virgin's deal then who could stop him from going ahead with it even if it means a reduced revenue for NUFC? I'd wager that revenue from stadium advertising at the moment could be increased if the SD monopoly was removed. At the end of the day Ashley is entitled to do whatever he thinks better represents his collective interest, whether or not it's at the detriment of one entity seems to largely be irrelevant. At least there will be continuity between our stadium, the seats in the stadium, the advertising boards in the stadium and our strips. Can anyone explain why they would announce the premature end of one sponsorship deal without also announcing the details of the new deal? The only possible explanation I could come up with is that it's a condition of Virgin Money allowing the deal to end early without financial penalty?

The detail in the window itself is excellent... The content however...

I don't believe that Ferguson should start, but I do think he should be put out there at some point. His effectiveness is a combination of a few things, two of those being his freshness and the conditioning of their right sided defenders to expect out left sides players to cut back onto their preferred right foot. Ferguson clearly has a very good cross on him - the aforementioned factors make it easier for him to get clean and dangerous balls away. Starting him would negate some of that effect, and in addition other areas of his game seem to be relatively weak at the moment.

4-4-2 doesn't have wingers. I think the timing of this match is actually good for us. I'm convinced it will make us play better though I has no expectations in terms of a result.

My bad, I wasn't watching particularly closely - and it seemed a very Bassong thing to do.

2-0 Tottenham. Great run and finish from Bale.

Reading weren't particularly good IMO. Far the better team, but I don't agree with Pardew's comments. They dragged us down to playing a championship level game and did enough to beat us simply because our defense was woefully bad.

Agree. In this game there was even a disconnect between the defense and our midfield at various stages. When Taylor went off even our defense had a disconnect and no leadership. In general we lack direction and leadership. Coloccini back out there will make a huge difference, hopefully we see Cabaye come back into form as well. Ferguson looks like being an excellent option to bring off the bench - it's painful watching Jonas and Santon avoid crossing with their left foot and subsequently preventing any early dangerous balls into the box.

Tottenham 1-0 up in the third minute.

No justice for Reading. We deserved nothing.

Off the post for them.

Hooly fook... Lucky not to concede there Harper did well. Our defense is shambolic.

Haha at Ba's celebration... Patted his hand and shrugged his shoulders.

And wow... It was a blatant handball from Ba.

Yes! Ferguson lovely cross Ba still had a lot to do... Ferguson's direct play is a revelation CT

Really offering nothing. Never at the races.

Jason Roberts coming on. Hate that guy.

Tiote going off at Tavernier!

Yellow for Jonas - embarrassing.

And Ferguson to come on for Bigi.

Shola being readied to replace Cisse.

Indeed, and yet no sign of changing things up.