OTF

The joke is blatantly on him with that. The biggest failure of his career and he names something after it as a kind of desperate and pitiful 'aha, but I had the last laugh' gesture. Really though, if someone wanted to get rid of you so badly that they'd spend several million pounds to do so, you'd hardly want the constant reminder unless you were as deluded as Sam Allardyce. He blatantly thinks being a good manager is about crunching numbers, performing clinical analysis and pretending that you have a well conditioned squad - under his stewardship our team were obviously far from well conditioned despite him harping on about the opposite with his team of sports physicians, conditioning coaches, nutritionalists and whatnot. Anti-football Allardyce, whom in reality we were all glad to see the back of after the dross he subjected us to. Casa St. James indeed.

I'm not quite sure whether Barton is talking about Kevin Nolan getting pictures on his phone, Andy Carroll being ridden in the pool room, or just the team in general. Whatever the case

Australian NUFC site for supporters down under. http://www.aussiemags.net/home.html

I've got to put my hand up and say that I've wanted the club to get rid of Joey Barton on several occassions before this season, but I'm very thankful that they haven't. A run of good games and a seemingly genuine change in his on and off-field demeanour have done wonders in helping me forget the shite that he's put us through in the past.

With our strike force Carroll is worth vastly in excess of 12million to us. Considering we sold Martins for 9 million Carroll's value should be 25+. If he is sold though the ill-feeling that will immediately return to Ashley and his cronies would cost the club millions in ticket sales alone, before considering merchandise and the likes. I'd like to think that even Ashley wouldn't hold the supporters in such contempt to make an ignorant sale like that. The not for sale sign should be well and truly on display for Carroll.

The club should increase his wage on his current contract as a sign of good faith and as a thankyou for the fantastic job that he has done thus far. When the contract is nearer completion the club will be in a better position to renegotiate and Hughton will be more likely to sign. Even with a big increase in his current contract he'd still be amongst the lowest paid managers in the league. Hughton's rumoured 250k/year is under 5k a week, which is probably less than Best and Perch are on. That's absolutely ridiculous. Granted Best and Perch are overpaid, but Hughton is vastly underpaid. The likes of Harry Redknapp would be getting more than 12 times what Hughton is, and Redknapp has the advantage of an 'ambitious'* board that really backs him in the transfer market. * - That's for you Leazes

Looked good for Everton, but doubt he would go anywhere else tbh.

If I was the company providing Ranger's boots I'd have him cover the logo with black tape before every match. Ridiculous the amount of times he slips over! Now onto Colo. His passing has been fantastic. Can pick out a midfield player nicely from the back time and time again. Wonderful technique for a central defender.

How many yellows has he picked up so far? He does seem to pick up quite a few for what should be some relatively innocuous challenges. Not looking forward to the match where he's not available and Alan Smith steps in to deputise.

Don't even joke FFS.

10m as a player, but if he keeps this up his value to us will be well, well in excess of that.

Absolutely fantastic. Couldn't ask for any more from our players. Both Shola and Carroll were immense out there, both of them (but particularly Carroll) doing plenty of defending when required. Our defense was great, Enrique nullified Walcott's pace, and Williamson and Coloccini were simply faultless. Simpson again played well and wasn't overwhelmed by the situation. Tiote showed the same compusure and close-control that we've seen from him against all oppositions, he has been a fantastic purchase and you cannot understate the value of a player like that who is so assured in posession and a good tackler and overall reader of the game. Off the ball he always moves into great positions and is aware of opposing players around him as well as the position of our players. Krul was fantastic, that save from the Nasri shot was a pivotal moment. Quite remarkable that we've gone to the Emirates and left with three points having committed less fouls and having more posession of the ball. You'll be able to count on one hand with fingers to spare the number of teams who do that there this entire season. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/e...rem/9150002.stm I wonder what Mr Wenger will have to say after this, we were deserved winners and to rub salt into the wound Hughton was clearly the better dressed of the two managers (though with that ridiculous coat it wouldn't be hard).

Yeah, keeping him out in wider areas helps to keep him out of the muck that can happen in the middle of the pitch. He honestly seems much more level headed and calm now, but deep down we know he's potentially a bad tackle away from doing something stupid so the less likely he is to get involved in hard play the better.

OI! Don;t be draggin Luque into this... Luque was just a little unlucky.. Scored in a derby if i remember correctly... iirc in case there's any geeks out there... Fourth goal in the 4-1 win at Stadium of Shite. Skipped away nicely to finish. Game was well and truly over by then though. He also scored away at Palermo in UEFA cup, and got the assist for Shearer's 200th (I think) goal.

Squad's not bad if they're all fit, but if we have our typical NUFC injury crisis then we'll fall away very quickly and will struggle to score goals.

Clearly a fucking mong. Case closed, move along, nothing to see here.

Anyone else think that Hughton may choose to rest a few with the Blackburn encounter at home 3 days later in mind?

Agree. With him Barton, Tiote, Jonas and Nolan our midfield is top half material. Decent subs with Guthrie, Gosling, Vuckic, Routledge, though a little lacking in depth out wide.

I take it the bird died then?

Highly doubtful that the suffering of a probably season ending injury will actually increase his price. Chris will no doubt still be keen to sign him assuming his recovery goes according to plan, but at the same time I could see the club trying to renegotiate the transfer for less.

We played ok against Blackpool IMO. Their keeper had a blinder, and they took the game to us away from home credit to them, but we still had enough chances to win the game. Honestly speaking I think performance wise we have been relatively consistent. The results may not have been, but the effort seems to always be there. It's a long season though so I'm not getting carried away, but if we can maintain the current level of team spirit I don't think we'll be drawn into a relagation battle.

He's a picture of concentration as he climbs on board...

That's immense. Plus it looks like he's riding an invisible bull!

Given where we were two years ago we're not in a bad position now in my opinion. Ashley somehow got lucky by appointing a dirt cheap manager who has done a good job, including the purchase of some handy players (and some not really worth talking about). The problem is that it doesn't seem at all likely that Ashley will be willing or able to build on the good year that we've had and so it will all be for nothing. All indications are that under his ownership our forward momentum will come to at best a grinding halt. We're reduced to hoping otherwise. The manager and the players will hopefully be somewhat of a motiviating factor to Ashley in wanting to push to the next echelon, however in the current climate where you have half a dozen teams (Chelsea, Manu, ManC, Liv, Arse & Tott) spending big money and some other clubs not too far behind (Villa) it's unlikely that we'll see the level of investment in players that will have us competing with them on an ongoing basis. What I hope is that the bottom falls out of the big spending clubs because their practices aren't sustainable. If at that point we're in a decent position, with some smart investment we can slide back into the top 6.

Xisco's a forward and hasn't played enough to warrant being there. Needs to be in our worst signings team, that's for sure, along with Luque, Nacho Gonzales, Michael Owen, Claudio Cacapa, Olivier Bernard MkII, Hugo Viana, Carl Cort, Jean Alain Boumsong, Andersson , Mercelino..