Blackburn v Newcastle

[Guest Your Name Here]

No danger of relegation, ASM? Much as I'd love to believe that...

Pardew has been in charge for ten league games now and we’ve managed 13 points from a possible 30, which isn’t anything to get excited about. However, we gained 9 of these points in the first five games. Over the next five we’ve secured 4, which is relegation form. So is he slowly undoing Hughton’s good work or are we just shit without Carroll?

 

His overall record is P11 W3 L4 D4. These three wins were against two of the bottom three on a bad day and a Liverpool team dying a death under Roy Hodgson. Needless to say I don’t rate Pardew and unless we spend all of the Carroll money wisely we’ll be in deep shit next season.... assuming we don’t completely fall to pieces this time round and go down.

[ULSTER MAG 0]

Take the last five games, of those, we should have won at sunderland, spurs and today. Don't rate pardew but I don't see relegation oa possibility this season, too many other shite teams around us.

[Monroe Transfer 0]

The one thing that impresses me most about us this season is that in all honesty - in terms of the season as a whole up to this point - we've rarely been genuinely poor.

 

Truly bad performances are Man Utd away, West Brom away, Bolton away, most of the Wigan home game and the first half of the Arsenal match. Other than that we've done alright. Defensive lapses cost us against Stoke at home and Blackburn at home. We've drawn games we deserved to/should have won, and won games we should have drawn.

 

It's been a weird season but for a newly promoted side we've shown real quality at times.

 

Don't forget that 4 of our 5 summer signings have done next to nothing for us (Perch, Campbell, Ben Arfa and Gosling), and we've got a weaker strikeforce now than we did in the Championship with Carroll gone and Shola injured.

 

I just hope things settle down in the summer, and we can build on what hasn't been a smooth first season back in the Prem. This is assuming we survive, which I think we will, but honestly try not to think about too much in case I get too nervous.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Tecato

[harrynufc 0]

The one thing that impresses me most about us this season is that in all honesty - in terms of the season as a whole up to this point - we've rarely been genuinely poor.

Truly bad performances are Man Utd away, West Brom away, Bolton away, most of the Wigan home game and the first half of the Arsenal match. Other than that we've done alright. Defensive lapses cost us against Stoke at home and Blackburn at home. We've drawn games we deserved to/should have won, and won games we should have drawn.

 

It's been a weird season but for a newly promoted side we've shown real quality at times.

 

Don't forget that 4 of our 5 summer signings have done next to nothing for us (Perch, Campbell, Ben Arfa and Gosling), and we've got a weaker strikeforce now than we did in the Championship with Carroll gone and Shola injured.

 

I just hope things settle down in the summer, and we can build on what hasn't been a smooth first season back in the Prem. This is assuming we survive, which I think we will, but honestly try not to think about too much in case I get too nervous.

 

This.

[Kevin 1]

Can anyone give me a quick summary of the game? Wuz at work

[David Kelly 1260]

We played really well today, Ricky, barton and tiote were all class. But we will struggle to score with strike force I don't care what anyone says. Don't think we'll be in too much trouble by the end of the season though.

We need a massive overhaul up front in the the summer though.

[Guest Your Name Here]

Take the last five games, of those, we should have won at sunderland, spurs and today. Don't rate pardew but I don't see relegation oa possibility this season, too many other shite teams around us.

But didn’t. A goal is goal whether it’s scored in the first or last minute.

 

I don’t think we’ll go down this season. We’ve got plenty of points in the bag and the players have shown a lot of character. The bottom three are highly unlikely to make up five points on us over the next 12 games.

[Exile 0]

I think that Ranger should have been on for Lovenkrantz about 10 mins before he was today. Our midfield and defense were brilliant today, but unfortunately our lack of quality up front cost us the points. I lost count of how often I heard "perfect cross, if only someone had been on the end of it."

 

The Carrol situation is irrelevant as he would not have been fit anyway, although if anyone had told us in September that going into the last part of the season that Leon Best would be our first choice striker, he would have been laughed off the board.

 

I think we will be OK this season. There is enough fight in the lads to take us through, I think. What is worrying is what happens next season if we lose Enrique, Tiote and Barton

 

On the positive side - we get Ben Arfa back in a few weeks for the last stretch.

 

Might be better to bring him back after the Man City game mind

[NobbySol 7]

Enrique was easily the best player on the park today. Some fucking brilliant spraying of the ball was on show

[toonotl 3128]

The Carrol situation is irrelevant as he would not have been fit anyway.

 

Why does this dribble keep getting spouting?

 

'The Carroll situation' is having a negative effect on the our performance because we sold him without any plan for replacing him before the end of the window.

[Christmas Tree 4858]

Enrique's clearly taken CT's thread to heart.... fantastic run into tjhe box and great ball.

 

 

In a nutshell skippy, a fucking nutshell.

 

Clearly and without any shadow of a doubt, Enrique or Pardew has been on Toontastic reading the Enrique thread, hence the absolute total turn around in his game that has you all reaching for the Kleenex.

 

Oh wait, I guess you are all going to claim its purely coincidence that Enrique pulls out his best attacking display, this week of all weeks.

 

Make no mistake. Pardew reacts to my threads, Simon Bird copies them and Enrique uses them as motivation.

[Kitman 2207]

Enrique's clearly taken CT's thread to heart.... fantastic run into tjhe box and great ball.

 

 

In a nutshell skippy, a fucking nutshell.

 

Clearly and without any shadow of a doubt, Enrique or Pardew has been on Toontastic reading the Enrique thread, hence the absolute total turn around in his game that has you all reaching for the Kleenex.

 

Oh wait, I guess you are all going to claim its purely coincidence that Enrique pulls out his best attacking display, this week of all weeks.

 

Make no mistake. Pardew reacts to my threads, Simon Bird copies them and Enrique uses them as motivation.

 

If by motivation you mean toilet paper, I fully agree

[Rob W 0]

Take the last five games, of those, we should have won at sunderland, spurs and today. Don't rate pardew but I don't see relegation oa possibility this season, too many other shite teams around us.

But didn’t. A goal is goal whether it’s scored in the first or last minute.

 

I don’t think we’ll go down this season. We’ve got plenty of points in the bag and the players have shown a lot of character. The bottom three are highly unlikely to make up five points on us over the next 12 games.

 

Because no team has actually fallen into complete disaster (yet) its going to be tight at he end of the season - I'd like to see 45 points in the bag for us

[Monroe Transfer 0]

The Carrol situation is irrelevant as he would not have been fit anyway.

 

Why does this dribble keep getting spouting?

 

'The Carroll situation' is having a negative effect on the our performance because we sold him without any plan for replacing him before the end of the window.

 

 

For me the thing that bothers me most is that we didn't get another striker in regardless of Carroll's situation. I was asking for the same thing in the summer because I knew we couldn't rely on Carroll, and that our other strikers aren't enough on their own.

 

 

I realise that the market makes it difficult but a good 5 Premier League strikers moved to other PL clubs on loan in January, all of whom would have improved us. I imagine only Keane would have had extortionate wages, but perhaps we should have taken a risk and paid over the going rate just for a few months. We seemed to be concentrating on wingers (Larsson, Bentley) and then ended up with a ACM in Ireland. I don't believe that Pardew really placed that much faith in Best et al, or that he realised Carroll would be out for so long (which of course became a moot point in the end anyway).

[toonotl 3128]

The Carrol situation is irrelevant as he would not have been fit anyway.

 

Why does this dribble keep getting spouting?

 

'The Carroll situation' is having a negative effect on the our performance because we sold him without any plan for replacing him before the end of the window.

 

 

For me the thing that bothers me most is that we didn't get another striker in regardless of Carroll's situation.

 

I agree we already needed another striker, it doesn't bother me more though, since having Carroll and no one else is better than having no one at all.

 

Surely though the club, or at least Pardew, should have had targets in mind as a partner/replacement for Carroll.

 

This is what confirms my belief that selling Carroll so late in the window without replacing him was always the intention of the board.

 

Doesn't bode well for any future transfer windows in which Ashley is involved in my opinion.

[PaddockLad 17744]

The Carrol situation is irrelevant as he would not have been fit anyway.

 

Why does this dribble keep getting spouting?

 

'The Carroll situation' is having a negative effect on the our performance because we sold him without any plan for replacing him before the end of the window.

 

 

For me the thing that bothers me most is that we didn't get another striker in regardless of Carroll's situation.

 

I agree we already needed another striker, it doesn't bother me more though, since having Carroll and no one else is better than having no one at all.

 

Surely though the club, or at least Pardew, should have had targets in mind as a partner/replacement for Carroll.

This is what confirms my belief that selling Carroll so late in the window without replacing him was always the intention of the board.Doesn't bode well for any future transfer windows in which Ashley is involved in my opinion.

 

Nail on the head that like......its widely claimed he was being offered to clubs well before and for the duration of the window so its pretty plain there were no plans to bring a replacement in. Somebody on here said that we may all regret Best's hatrick v West Ham and I think whoever said it has been proven correct.

 

There shouldve been a new striker leading the line yesterday at Blackburn. Thats what normal football clubs do. They dont replace the best young striker in England with a 34 year old fat bloke who nobody else wanted and who is only fit for the bench. And we only got him because of Shola's injury.

[LeazesMag 0]

No danger of relegation, ASM? Much as I'd love to believe that...

Pardew has been in charge for ten league games now and we’ve managed 13 points from a possible 30, which isn’t anything to get excited about. However, we gained 9 of these points in the first five games. Over the next five we’ve secured 4, which is relegation form. So is he slowly undoing Hughton’s good work or are we just shit without Carroll?

 

His overall record is P11 W3 L4 D4. These three wins were against two of the bottom three on a bad day and a Liverpool team dying a death under Roy Hodgson. Needless to say I don’t rate Pardew and unless we spend all of the Carroll money wisely we’ll be in deep shit next season.... assuming we don’t completely fall to pieces this time round and go down.

 

I have never seen a more one sided 0-0 draw in all my life.

 

Which is what is worrying. We will pick up some points, but how many goals are we going to score now ? Barton and Tiotte completely bossed the midfield, supported by Enrique going forward and we still only made a few chances and missed them. You could say it is just one of those days, but when you look at the strikers realise it is going to be the rest of the season.

 

We will prob stay up this season but next season is scary, I don't think we will see anywhere near that 35m quid and who knows will also leave or say [privately of course] that they want to leave the club and go somewhere where they can play for a club with real aspirations to be successful.

[ChezGiven 0]

Paddocklad, I reckon if we were actively trying to sell Carroll, there is no way we could have got £35m for him. Liverpool and Spurs were chasing him and if they hadn't been able to match his valuation (in the case of Spurs) then they wouldn't have sold him. I guess there is an intention to sell any of our players if their asking price is met.

 

On that note, if they intended to sell him in the summer anyway and they knew he would not be playing many games in the second half of the season then they knew he wasnt going to be much use to us. By the summer Liverpool would have spent the Torres money this last window, so the opportunity would have gone.

 

That Best hat-trick as you say was a double-edges sword but I think the circumstances of the transfer market with abramovich's injection of finance drove the decision. Whether an assessment of Carroll's fitness from the Swedish specialist also played a part, we'll have to wait and see.

[PaddockLad 17744]

Paddocklad, I reckon if we were actively trying to sell Carroll, there is no way we could have got £35m for him. Liverpool and Spurs were chasing him and if they hadn't been able to match his valuation (in the case of Spurs) then they wouldn't have sold him. I guess there is an intention to sell any of our players if their asking price is met.

 

On that note, if they intended to sell him in the summer anyway and they knew he would not be playing many games in the second half of the season then they knew he wasnt going to be much use to us. By the summer Liverpool would have spent the Torres money this last window, so the opportunity would have gone.

 

That Best hat-trick as you say was a double-edges sword but I think the circumstances of the transfer market with abramovich's injection of finance drove the decision. Whether an assessment of Carroll's fitness from the Swedish specialist also played a part, we'll have to wait and see.

 

The thing is some on here were predicticing his sale despite all the assurances issued via Pardew. I thought as soon as Joorabchain was mentioned in connection with NUFC that it could only be facilitate Carrolls sale. He's hardly likely to be concerened with Routlegde going back to QPR . He's a "superagent", only concerened with the top of the market. These paracites make sure deals go through, and they make sure theres a lot of money involved for everyone, including themsleves. The Carroll transfer was always going to happen, but you're probably correct with the timing of it being inspired by Chelsea's move for Torres.

 

But if Ashley had said "no" yet again on deadline day, did Liverpool have a plan b?...or armed with the knowledge that they had 50million swimming around did Ashley just bide his time and make a killing when he knew they were desperate to get someone in? Karl Henry can throw some light on this:

 

Liverpool sold Torres for £50 million to Chelsea, but Henry explained that fee would have been greater had Newcastle asked for an even higher price. The Liverpool owner insists the eventual valuation for Carroll was only important in relation to the fee recouped for Torres.

 

"The fee for Torres was dependent on what Newcastle asked for Carroll," Henry told The Guardian. "The negotiation for us was simply the difference in prices paid by Chelsea and to Newcastle.

 

"Those prices could have been £35 million [for Torres] and £20 million [for Carroll], 40 and 25 or 50 and 35. It was ultimately up to Newcastle how much this was all going to cost. They [Newcastle] made a hell of a deal. We felt the same way."

 

Torres threw in his tranfer request almost a week before the end of the window, which means Chelsea had made their move in the week before that. So we knew about the bid for Carroll I'd assume a fortnight (certainly at least 7 days) before the deal was closed. And we knew the size of the fee being payed for Carroll then too. I think its inaccurate to say all this happened on the 31st of January.There was plenty of time to identify a replacement and bring him in, another agent would've facilitated that too, had there been any intention on Ashley's part to do so. As I say its what normal clubs do, bring a replacement in. A replacement who would've been playing and possibly winning the game for us at Blackburn yesterday.

 

A lot of ifs. But we're going nowhere without a cutting edge up front and could possibly be going backwards. 5 points clear of 18th as we speak. But Ashleys has stripped our greatest asset away with no intention of replacing him, all to increase any profit/get his money back.

[Monroe Transfer 0]

The Joorabchain thing was paper talk.

[ChezGiven 0]

I think Liverpool did have a plan b as that kid from Lille was mentioned, Aguero and a couple of others. Its interesting what you say about Joorabchian though as the way i look at the window just gone, there were a lot of people who needed these deals to go through from a footballing perspective and a lot of agents who were going to profit every time Abramovich's money got spent. The deals were as you say probably all thought through from before Torres hands in the request but the one thing that can stop all that happening is what the player wants. This is where the agents come in. For me, i couldnt be any unhappier with the cunts who run our club but there are more despicable people than even them involved in the game. The agents are the ones persuading players to move for their own ends, not the players. Everyone knows it and a few people say it too but mostly it goes unmentioned as its the filthiest part of the modern game and everyone is complicit in the money side of things.

 

Just put it in perspective, Carroll's agent is now set for life money wise. Obviously he will carry on in the game but that deal will have secured his family's future and his retirement in one. Its clear to me who was agitating for the move and why Carroll believed the club were 'forcing him out'. Carroll hasnt got the brains or the experience in life to think that for himself.

 

As for not spending the £35m, i doubt we'll see all of it but dont worry, there is money to be made from NUFC and that will only happen if some of that money gets spent again. If we survive that is of course.

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

I think the Liverpool move may have been set since Carroll's trials; he used the same lawyer as Gerrard.

 

"So Mr. Gerrard, you repeatedly punched the DJ in the face in an unprovoked attack, then left as your associates set about him?"

 

"errrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yeah"

 

"Right, I think we've heard enough now; this is clearly a case of self-defence"

[Kevin 1]

cant believe we're fighting over an overgrown ape. come on lads hes gone, accept it. hes a judas cunt and he would be injured anyway. end of.

[The Fish 10978]

I'd be interested to hear from our resident Rover.

 

Billy, what're your thoughts?

[Billy Castell 0]

From what little I gathered from the unbelieveable SSN, it sounded like a pretty poor game that you controlled. Nolan, Barton and Tchoite (however you spell it) are probably a far better midfield than whoever we had. At least Kuqi didn't score.

 

And did Rochina or Formica play?