Tales from the Toon. The ups and downs of an NUFC supporter....

[mulhuzz]

the pay off in the contract is, it's reasonably well reported, to be 1 year.

but we still won't sack him, unsure if we should, either. because then basically how can any manager ever take Ashley seriously.

next season is the real test, with the lack of euro competition we'd better be 10th+ or Pardew has to go then, imo.

[77dave]

Do you think signing so many French/overseas players has paid off?

What ins/outs are you expecting over the summer?

Will Carroll be back?

[mulhuzz]

carroll almost certain not to come back. we won't pay more than he is worth and liverpool don't want to admit they massively overpaid for him by selling him back 'cheap' -- at least not to us, else it feels like they paid £20m to loan him from us.

[mondatoo]

Do you think signing so many French/overseas players has paid off?

It certainly didn't in the Derby!

I don't think it's fair to judge any of the January signings just yet. It's fair to say the initial excitement surrounding Sissoko has died down a lot due to non performances since Chelsea/Villa. Gouffran looks like a bargain, but we paid a bowl for him, I think Debauchy will be v good and Haidara and Yanga-Mbiwa also look very promising.

What ins/outs are you expecting over the summer?

Ben Arfa seems to want away, as does Colo, and Krul is getting interest from Milan, if we lost all three it'd be a bit of a disaster, if them staying or going was determined by whether Pardew is at the club then I'd sack Pardew ainec. I'd happily sell Cabaye, Tiote and Cisse for decent prices, don't think anyone good will want Tiote though with his joke disciplinary record. Cisse is actually a pretty terrible overall footballer tbh, he does one thing reasonably well and that's snap shots, he doesn't know the offside rule, he can't pass, he can't score if he has more than 5 seconds to think about it, he could work as a 2nd striker but no way can he play as the leading man, he's not good enough. We desperately need to ship out players like Williamson and Gutierrez who've not been good enough for a long time if at all, definitely Williamson has never been good enough.

Will Carroll be back?

I'd have him back but don't expect to see it happen.

[mulhuzz]

don't selllll cabaaaaaye imo.

Sissoko will be an absolute beast next year, no doubt about that. Agree with selling Cisse for reasonable price, but don't think we'd get one -- he will score us goals though, eventually he'll come good -- looking at his record in bundesliga it's inevitable.

Haidara and Yanga-Mbwia look absolutely immense, I think Haidara is a ready made Santon replacement (might even be better than him already).

inside line on Colo is that he wants to stay, has no interest in going anywhere that isn't San Lorenzo and they can't afford him yet so he's content to see out his contract. Krul may or may not leave though and that would make us look silly if he did because we've not offered Harps a new deal and got rid of Forster to Celtic for pennies recently(ish).

As for the interview with HBA I read, the reporter for Le Parisien basically set him up, he's a PSG fan and has been since a boy so ofc he said he'd love to play for them, but what wasn't widely reported is that he also said that it's a dream of his but his full focus is on Newcastle and repaying the club's faith in him. Not worried about HBA leaving at all.

Think we'll get a couple of strikers and a centre back in over the summer, maybe a new young GK as well.

[DMorgan]

Purely as an interested observer, why would a premiership club offer a manager an 8 year contract?

[Cf]

FWIW, I don't really have an opinion either way, pretty tired of the same ol' same ol', things are going bad lets sack the manager. At the same time though some of his post match interviews, more so when we win than when we lose, tilt me no end and he's made a lot of bad decisions this season, he got off very lightly with our abs joke performance versus Brighton in the cup for instance. Variance has very much evened out for him though this season.

His interviews really are tilting. These days he has taken to giving the excuses before the match has even started.

I think he is lucky this season that he has essentially been given a free pass due to last seasons result, europe, and injuries. Given those things I don't think the media have looked into it too deeply but the simple fact is that with what he has at his disposal we should be doing far better.

Even with the Liverpool game I think he got off lightly due to most of the focus being about the Suarez incident.

And I still think he makes his substitutions by pulling names out of a hat.

[Cf]

Purely as an interested observer, why would a premiership club offer a manager an 8 year contract?

Presumably to make it harder for other clubs to get him. Not that I think we need to be worrying about that.

[mondatoo]

Purely as an interested observer, why would a premiership club offer a manager an 8 year contract?

Think Ashley was trying to make the point that it was all about the long term, really it means nothing though, just like most contracts in football.

[77dave]

Nice of Sunderland to concede enough goals to allow Villa to move above Newcastle.

[mulhuzz]

Purely as an interested observer, why would a premiership club offer a manager an 8 year contract?

Think Ashley was trying to make the point that it was all about the long term, really it means nothing though, just like most contracts in football.

yeah think this as well but he's put himself in a spot now where it looks like he's never serious if he sacks Pardew and how can a new manager believe a word he says if he says 'long term' then sacks the bloke a year (less?) later.

also fwiw I think it's an absolute million that we sack him in the summer, but if we did -- who we backing to replace him? how much better can we (realistically) do?

[mondatoo]

Purely as an interested observer, why would a premiership club offer a manager an 8 year contract?

Think Ashley was trying to make the point that it was all about the long term, really it means nothing though, just like most contracts in football.

yeah think this as well but he's put himself in a spot now where it looks like he's never serious if he sacks Pardew and how can a new manager believe a word he says if he says 'long term' then sacks the bloke a year (less?) later.

also fwiw I think it's an absolute million that we sack him in the summer, but if we did -- who we backing to replace him? how much better can we (realistically) do?

I agree with giving him another year, one thing which I worry might happen and will be beyond tilting is if he stays and we start next season poorly and he gets sacked after 4/5 games which you see happen pretty often in this type of spot.

That said even if we stay up I won't be sad to see him go but like you say, who good is going to want the job anyway, I'll take Mourinho, I guess.

[horseplayer]

Purely as an interested observer, why would a premiership club offer a manager an 8 year contract?

Think Ashley was trying to make the point that it was all about the long term, really it means nothing though, just like most contracts in football.

yeah think this as well but he's put himself in a spot now where it looks like he's never serious if he sacks Pardew and how can a new manager believe a word he says if he says 'long term' then sacks the bloke a year (less?) later.

also fwiw I think it's an absolute million that we sack him in the summer, but if we did -- who we backing to replace him? how much better can we (realistically) do?

i am sure there was plenty of chat at the time about how giving an 8 year contract was a great idea and the way forward

not saying on this thread btw just in general

[The Baron]

I've been hearing that we want Ben Arfa a fair bit.

[pleno1]

Purely as an interested observer, why would a premiership club offer a manager an 8 year contract?

Think Ashley was trying to make the point that it was all about the long term, really it means nothing though, just like most contracts in football.

yeah think this as well but he's put himself in a spot now where it looks like he's never serious if he sacks Pardew and how can a new manager believe a word he says if he says 'long term' then sacks the bloke a year (less?) later.

also fwiw I think it's an absolute million that we sack him in the summer, but if we did -- who we backing to replace him? how much better can we (realistically) do?

huh, anybody who isn't blind?

roberto martinez/laudrop/matteo/poyet/DICANIO /


I used to stand up for the guy, but this season he has proven he is tactically inept and a bottler.