OTF

Stevie for me for the entertaining balance of knowledge, passion and controversey. manc-mag has posted some good stuff. Getting past the chip on Leazes shoulder is just too fucking hard, and has denied the board a proper Papa Smurf figure. Noelie has deputised which isn't too bad because he brought us the classic 'Wilson'.

I reckon we may make one token signing. I don't hold any hope of it being a good signing as January is notoriously tough for doing good business. I don't think anyone will be sold, though they'll be desperate to get rid of Xisco, and possibly Best.

Just on Allardyce, it's refreshing to know that this Indian Chicken group seem to have as little idea about things as our owners do. To sack him when they're in a relatively strong position in the league for the squad that they have, only to replace him with a first team coach in Steve Kean who is talking about 5 million pounds as though it is a large amount. At least when Ashley sacked Allardyce he had Kevin Keegan lined up (admittedly that was a compromised role that Keegan took). They clearly had no-one pencilled in for the job and so have settled for a yes-man style appointment. The insinuation from that is that the footballing side of affairs will be controlled from the top by a bunch of people who have little idea about the game, let alone the intricacies of the Premier League. The pressure will be heaped on Kean who will just be a glorified trainer/coach operating under the illusion that he's manager. Oh, and Rafa is funny.

Do you think that would be the Best option?

He's got a debt to work offf so will go to the club that pays the highest wages I would imagine. Ergo, that won't be us, probably somewhere in Russia, China or the Middle East

Can't see him being sold, Pardew has already come out saying he wants to keep him. Nothing here is impossible, but there's not even any financial sense in trying to sell him to reduce wages because we don't really have anything to replace him with, and bringing someone in of that level would cost much more than the rumoured amount that Barton will go for, which will effectively negate the lower wages.

How annoying.

Much more pleasing to read than Bent rambling on or whatever Pardew said. I really hope Jose is still getting English language lessons, with that said. I hope he's not getting them from Danny Simpson and Wayne Routledge....

As I said, best I can be bothered with. You however seem the ideal person to take this baby on and make it your own. Have a sook..

Where's Damien Duff on the outgoing lists? And Bassong didn't cost 2m.

Worth more to the team than 20 million easily.

If you're looking at how well they've performed in their positions you have to have Enrique in there also. I'm leaning towards Tiote, but I really only hope that come the end of the season we can have a similar discussion with several viable candidates available.

Concise but pretty on the money there Besty. Jonas is going through a poor patch of late. Previously he was one of our best players at retaining the ball, lately he's one of the worst. Struggles particularly when he's up against a pacy fullback like he was today. Tiote's positioning and movement off the ball is great. With him and Barton in the side everything fits together nicely in the midfield. Wasn't a perfect match, but was a great result. Briefly was thinking here we go again when they got the equaliser. Ranger coming on was like an extra player because of his enthusiasm in stark contrast to Shola's.

What was the general feeling/attitude at the match? Ashley was spared some agro by the result on the pitch. Classic that you busted your beak during the celebration. Fantastic goal that deserved that sort of celebration.

Fantastic effort from Ranger. When he put the ball on his right I thought he'd curled it in past Reina for half a second. With that sort of play he's a great impact player if only we had someone half decent that he could be coming on to replace.

Have to hold onto him obviously. Barton, Tiote, Carroll, Enrique the core with Nolan a healthy contributer.

That's not Vuckic. Absolutely classic that Hodgson gif. His face rubbing antcis were hilarious. Very early in the piece he was rubbing his lip, with the camera man deciding not to cut away until he was finished. Thought we could have missed a few minutes of the game the way he was going. Great result for Chris Hughton's team.

Seldom does good come from deep hartred and disgust, but it's tough to be anything but. Obviously as an "outsider" I'm in a different position to many of those on here, but going into the match on the weekend I'm really not sure how I'll feel about the club, the new manager or anything once the whistle blows.

Thats because he fucking knew if we went all out attack with this squad we'd get shit on. Unbelievable. I need to calm down. Liverpool so obviously now quaking in their boots!

A consistent boycotting of games would have an effect, however there's no way that it can be organised as we saw with the whole Keegan affair.

Fucking unbelievable. You can just tell he's an odious cunt looking at him. Five and a half fucking years. He's not going to know what to do for the last six months

100% certain that they won't answer the pertinent questions. Pardew will only comment on team related matters which he'll obviously know nothing about so it will be a case of trotting out the old cliches. There will be a mild shit storm and that's it.

Last time this happened we played and lost to Hull at St James' this time at least it's against a side who routinely spank us. Don't know how the players are going to react seeing as the vast majority of them seemed extremely disinterested against West Brom already...

Not at all. This explains where all the first lot of speculation came from when it was earlier rumoured that Hughton would go. The results he was getting made it impossible for them to sack him so they simply waited for what they deemed to be an acceptable time. No doubt they would have been hoping or expecting it on the back of the Chelsea game, but having garnered a creditable draw there the inevitable was put off for another week.

The statement is already floating around out there.