OTF

You're right, we should judge him on what didn't happen, rather than what actually did.

It's like punching the air in celebration, then getting charged because you could have potentially hit someone.

You're wrong. You've heard it from referees, etc. It's not a tackle and it's not a challenge, Tiote is going for a ball that noone is in possession of. He gets to the ball first. End of story. The above challenges are completely different as they all go directly into the player. Tiote goes directly into the ball, then contact occurs because the Stevenage player is continuing on his run. Factually it is the Stevenage player that initiates the contact against Tiote who is in possession of the ball. I can't see what Tiote's history and tackles by other players have to do with this?

... or he should beat his man, and get his head up so that he can make a pass instead of putting in a blind cross. There's plenty of value in being able to beat a man even if you can't cross. Mentally it will make their players back off and will give us more time on the ball. Beat your man and make a short pass. It's defensively that I worry about Routledge, he seems to do quite a bit of running in defense but has no patience, diving in too often and is poor positionally. Larsson from the half that I watched reads the game a hell of a lot better and is good positionally in defense, not overcommitting himself in attack and picking up off the ball runs.

Some more images of the incident. ..and some decent footage of it from 12:00 minutes... http://rutube.ru/tracks/3966724.html?v=f68...;bmstart=720240

I was really hoping he would be in by Sunday to play on the right with barton in the middle! Yeah, Routledge isn't the right man for a derby match, without a new player down the right our options are extremely limited. I don't like the idea of anyone but Tiote playing alongside Nolan in the middle, so perhaps play Nolan in behind Carroll with Barton and Guthrie in the middle and Routledge on the right and Jonas on the left.

Routledge was good for us in the second half of last season. Larsson would improve us.

What are the motives and benefits of those conducting the experimentation with contrails? ...and does your tin foil hat heat up on a hot day, or is this not an issue because you don't leave your bunker?

If he's not going to play him it makes sense. It's only a month and Jose is over his virus. I guess what puzzles me is why Lee Clark could see him in a left-back position but Pardew prefers to play Perch there when Jose is out. Tis annoying. I was hoping that we'd have seen more of Kadar thus far. Enrique out was a good chance for him to play, so was the FA Cup match. Those couple of looks at Perch should have showed Pardew his value.

About 5 times the player Smith is then....

More likely to be Guthrie I'd say, but Gosling might get on the pitch.

Would have improved our squad that's for sure. Not being held to ransom on wages is one thing, but if they keep scrimping we'll end up with noone.

Should have locked him in a room with Smith when he was at his worst with the flu. Having Enrique back makes a huge difference as he is confident in possession and is of course our best defender.

He's over the injury, had been back in full training for a few weeks, playing his first behind closed doors game shortly... unless you mean it will take an additional 3 months to get match fitness/sharpness like it did Michael Owen constantly.

From watching the first half of that game if Jerome is on 25k then Larsson deserves double that.

The other thing is that it's all just media speculation. I can't see them wanting Larsson to be too distracted ahead of this Carling Cup semi, considering that they were intending him to play. David Bentley will be there for the second semi so he won't be required for that. Therefore I can see his destination being sorted quickly now that this match is out of the way. If true rejecting him at 20k is like a second kick in the balls when you consider we're paying Smith 3 times that.

Guthrie was down right embarrassing the last time he played, but Smith is that just about every time he plays. Either that or he's non-existent. Guthrie has it in him to play ok, Smith clearly does not. Tiote's a different sort and a different class of player.

Shame he wasn't back a few weeks earlier, woudl definitely prefer to see him in stead of Alan Smith against Sunderland. As it is I can't see Pardew playing anyone else in central midfield. Here's a list of players I'd prefer to play there than Alan Smith: Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Dan Gosling, Haris Vuckic, Kevin Nolan, Brad Inman, Fabricio Coloccini.

Birmingham's attack was horrible, if they're not lumping it forward to Jerome innacurately Hleb and Dann are dicking about with it in the midfield doing nothing. If it gets to Ridgewell bombing forward on the left his last touch is often an embarrassing turn over. Carr loves to get up the pitch as well, seemingly for no reason as their central midfielders distribution is pathetic.

I hate Alan Smith.

No surprise here, further proof that the FA will sit on their hands in defense of their referees.

Definitely doesn't shirk his defensive responsibilities (judging from this carling cup semi). Hasn't been involved a lot in attack.

yup. getting bentley would have showed more ambition if you ask me. this is typical ashley. Personally I would rather have Larsson than Bentley, Larsson's always looked commited whenever I've seen him, unlike Bentley who seems to only play when it suits him. Of the two I'd think Larsson will fit in better with the players already at the club in terms of attitude too. I'm not defending Ashley's buying policies but I much prefer us actually making the effort to look for these sorts of bargains than paying over the odds for a trophy signing that can't be arsed to play without a massive paycheck. Well said. I think with Larsson we're more likely to get more consistent performances, and in general a player who's willing to do more grafting and hard work. Bentley on his day is good, there's no doubt about it, but as to how many of those days he has it's anyone's guess. it would take a lot more cash to get him here permanently, and he'd also be on a much higher wage. Without knowing the motivation of the players it's hard to say for sure, but I reckon Larsson would be much more keen to come to Newcastle from Birmingham than Bentley would be to leave London for Newcastle.

Thoughts from Birmingham forums: Just our luck he goes up there and becomes top notch. A bit of bitterness from the first poster, the second obviously knowing that he has the ability. Interesting. Sounds like he does put the effort in... This put's the 1m pound figure into perspective

Noone would deny that, but a good deal is a good deal. 1m apparently. Several of us mentioned that he would be a good pickup when someone posted a list of players on the final year of their contracts some time ago, so it's good that the club were of the same thinking. Birmingham resigned to him leaving so are glad to be getting something for him.