Newcastle 2-3 West Brom – Match highlights plus Pardew and Hodgson interviews

toonsy

Match highlights of the entertaining yet frustrating and ultimately disappointing 3-2 defeat to West Brom last night for you now.


szólj hozzá: N2-3W

Peter Odemwingie opened the scoring before Demba Ba levelled with a superb free kick although parity didn’t last long and Gareth McAuley nodded the away side into the lead at the end of the first half. Demba Ba levelled again in the 81st minute before Paul Scharner snatched the three points for the visitors who looked dangerous on the counter-attack all night.

It’s been said many times: Where would we be without Demba Ba scoring the goals? The answer to that one is 14th by the way. Random, but I just thought I’d squeeze it in…

Alan Pardew cuts a frustrated figure after the defeat.

Meanwhile Roy Hodgson is suitably delighted although he insist the victory cost his side.

That’s six games without a win now. I’m not surprised, it was always going to happen. Pretty much everyone has said that we’ve got a thin squad so it can come as no surprise that we are struggling when we have a few first-team players out.

Of course this will lead to calls to spend money. Again this is nothing new and is something we desperately need, but I’d like to point out that you can spend an entire oil well full of money and not be able to counter shoddy performances from key players. That is what happened last night.

The usually steady suspects turned decidedly shaky against West Brom. The usually calm Fabricio Coloccini looked awful last night as he got caught out for the first goal and then marked empty space for the second, while Cheik Tiote looked out of sorts and couldn’t pick a pass all night all while losing possession a number of times. You can’t legislate for that.

So it’s onto Bolton, on Boxing Day. A ground we get very little at on a day we generally struggle on. Nice. To top it all off Bolton seem to be picking up of late and Newcastle will have to play out of their skin to get something from the game. They need to as after that we have Liverpool away and Manchester United at home.

Luvvly jubbly!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

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96 thoughts on “Newcastle 2-3 West Brom – Match highlights plus Pardew and Hodgson interviews”

  2. As you say it was always going to happen, I just hope it picks up again soon. I really don’t want us to do a Hull though I think we’re way better than that.

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  5. Asim, Georgio nailed it on the previous post, we are carrying too many Championship players but what has been glaringly obvious in the past few games is how weak Simpson and Perch are especially defending the ball in the air, they get swatted like flies and its embarrassing.
    Williamson has to start v Bolton or Kevin Davies will bury our ” Mini” defence.

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  6. Since Saylor has been injured we have been very shaky at the back.we needed someone good in the air strong on the ground to replace him. luckely our reserve team captain was an ideal replacement,not only a full Hungarian international but young as well,pity Pardew didn’t give him a chance couldn’t have done any worse.We desperately need two QUALITY defenders in the January window and build from their.Lets have a go for the FA Cup and experiment a little in the league games.

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  9. Why the hell pardew took santon off at half time i’ll never know! I’ve defended him all season long but that was an awful choice – he only got caught too far up the pitch once and that was coz jonas ignored his overlap (which he did more than once in a below par performance) and passed inside to tiote who (again, did more than once) passed straight to a wba player. And why were we playing such a high line?? We were always going to get done for pace. A poor managerial performance as well as key players under performing.

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  10. Toonsy….remember it well, was there wi Jay jay 🙁 …….that said Bolton were on top form then.

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  12. I was at the match last night and i have to say our defence is simply not good enough!! Everytime west brom attacked we looked like we were going to concede!! Tiote and colo were all over the place , obertan kept loosing the ball and never beat one man!! 2 posotives out the game would be demba ba and benny comimg on! demba ba’s 2 goals were brilliant and benny defo helped our attacking ideas! We played hit and hope long ball all game against 2 massive west brom center halfs and it simply wasnt gud enough!! We desp need signings in jan and lets hope we can sort outselfs out for bolton , benny and willo to start on monday and drop best and perch!!! Hwtl

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  13. Toonsy, I made comment on Zoes previous post but following your boo boy post yesterday I think it’s only fair to say that other than Ba brilliance again, I thought Vukic had a really good debut and Obertan had one of his better games. Other than that, every poor I thought.
    People have made mention of Colo being poor but Perch was caught out of position on all of their goals and to his own admission, just isnt good enough.
    Georgio got it right in previous post, half our current team are championship at best and were clearly punching above their weight at the beginning of the season. I honesty think that if we do not stregthen properly in Jan then we could slip to a 10-12th place finish.
    With only 2 points from 18, the last 2 home games more than winnable, this blip could quickly become a crisis if we don’t starting winning again soon

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  14. Was thinking about Zoe last night when santon went off, hope he does just have a slight injury, though I thought Taylor did ok when he came on. Also think Perch is getting too much flack, Colo had an off day and Perch seemed far better than him last night. We can let colo have an off day every now and again, lets hope he’s back on form by Bolton and Liverpool.

    Now to upset Stardust, S Taylor has to be the one who controls and looks after the back 4, been lost since he got injured

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  15. Archie
    chill out ffs, Santon hurt his knee so Pardew took him off so it didn’t get worse. Poor managerial performance? I’d say that was a wise move.

    Few defeats and the arseholes are back out in force, pathetic.

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  16. Sharpy….just out of interest, which half that were involved in the good run at the start of the season are championship at best?

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  17. Simon yep Perch was better than Colo last night 😉 ……though Colo is still absolute class though, just had a bad day at the office.

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  18. its great when people go… ‘such and such’ was ****, and then don’t give an explanation.. Some people just like to jump on the Perch/Simpson bandwagon.

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  19. Nobby…maybe they’re like me and type with one finger and an explaination takes too long to type 😉 😆

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  21. Richie – ok maybe half the team was a slight exaggeration, but I dont think Raylor at LB, Simpson, Obertan, Best or Ameobi were good enough to keep us up there, then the likes of Perch and Lovernkands coming in to cover just aren’t strong enough either.
    I’m not being a hater here, giving my honest opinion. Our squad is not as strong as the likes of Liverpool and Spurs and now Stoke are breathing down our neck. Stoke have been rubbish so far this season, yet they are 3 points behind us.

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  22. Toonsey ,” shoddy performances from key players” but if we had more depth and dident rely on a handfull of players (all our eggs in one basket) that wouldent happen , we don’t need oil wells full of money just some even a little investment shane long ! Eventually the cracks will show . At some points our spine players will get injured and have dips in form and then we are reliant on players of championship qaulity ! Investment isn’t a bonus its a must as is retention !

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  23. Every derogatory comment about perch last night has been.. ‘he’s ****’ or ‘perch was awful’ or ‘perch didn’t have a clue’ but then having no back up with it. If you’re going to have a debate you need some knowledge on the matter.
    Apart from standing off his man a few times he was good… he made some brilliant challenges, so did simpson and I can think of 3 challenges between perch and simpson which were absolutley crucial to not letting in more goals.

    2 of the goals conceeded had more to do with coloccini… he was pushed far too far forward and our offside trap should have been tighter. That’s his job as head of defense to keep in check.

    People have argued that Colo was covering for Perch so couldn’t play to his full ability… well then if that’s true again that’s colo’s fault for not having faith in his teammates.

    Obertan’s game was a bit better.. hopefully he can play like he did at Stoke… he needs to learn that sometimes it’s ok to cross first time.

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  24. Just spoke to the 3 Legends at the metro centre.

    Supermac says that Spurs have tabled a £14m bid for Krul.
    Chelsea have tabled a £22m bid for Tiote.

    He says they are both in advanced stages and he has it on good authority they will be sold.

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  25. Sharpy….I thought it was a slight exaggeration 😉 and defo agree we need more quality in depth and agree some of those players possibly aren’t good enough to keep us top 7, though I think some are good enough to be squad players in the prem for us like Simpson…..although he wouldn’t settle for that imo.
    2 bloody games I was home for and havn’t won any, maybe it’s all my fault 😕 😥

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  26. I love mike@15 ( I dnt even like typing that ) do you like losing and watching players that are not good enough for the prem ! It keeps you upbeat ! Well if you love mike I’m sure you think there will be huge investment and all will be good as the masterplan slips up another gear !!!!

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  29. Right I’ll try and sum up last nights game from my perspective and keeping it real without wanting to overly crucify the players for what was basically a bad day at the office. I’ll score marks out of 10 as well.

    Krul…. Didn’t look his usual confident self and it showed and it was definitely one to forget for him but in his favour I have to say the defence didn;t give him much to be confident about but I still think he could have came for the free kick that shane long nodded back.. 5/10

    Santon, didn’t do too badly but never really got into the game as much as I’d expected, maybe due to carrying (hopefully) a knock, he did have one good opportunity to put a decent cross in unmarked but skewed it. 6/10

    Colo..Worst game I’ve seen him play in a long long time, so in all honesty I suppose he was due one and maybe the injury took it’s toll a bit with 2 games in succession quite quickly but even so, his usual well drilled mind deserted him and cost us big time. 4/10

    Perch..Hats off to this lad because I thought he played quite well and didn’t let anyone down considering his early days thrust into the centre back den but coped well and tried his heart out. 6/10

    Simpson, I actually thought this lad had a decent game as well and got forward regularly and although not a lot came of it, I still think he put a very good shift in and I genuinely think he gets better as time goes on 7/10

    Jonas..I’m sure Jonas is suffering some kind of fatigue because he’s not his usual self but in bursts he generally gives you hope, unfortunately it just seems to be small bursts and normally they only seem to kick in when we are on a high, like when we equalised, he sprung to life and then quickly reverted back to fatigued and laboured.. 5/10

    Tiote…I think he is still getting back to match sharpness and it shows but equally it annoys me when he dwells on the ball doing Scott Parker type moves when he could lay it off into attack but decides to play a simple pass side ways or back or gets the ball took off him by holding onto it for no reason, definitely a frustrating night watching him. 5/10

    Vuckic…Ahhh Haris boy, now what can I say about you eh…. I’ll simply say, quality performance by the lad and a star in the making and make no mistake about that. If injuries permit, Vuckic will play more games than not from now till the end of the season and will be fitted into the side in maybe 2 or 3 positions during that…I thought he was outstanding last night…9/10

    Obertan, I thought the lad tried hard and won us the free kick that Ba scored and I think he just needs persevering with and he will add a bit extra to his game as it’s coached into him but Rome wasn’t built in a day and Pardew needs to tell him that he’s a machine and to show people what he can do, whilst working on his deliveries..Not too bad a shift though until he faded ..7/10

    Best, I have to admit, this wasn’t one of his better games although he did get a few nice touches here and there but we need him to be sharper in and around the box and anticipating balls into the box as he seemed to be in the clouds at times. 5/10

    Ba..What a player he is, it’s a shame he has to go to the ACON because he has all the qualities needed in a striker, he’s got the Jewson lot..
    He oozes the confidence a striker needs and isn’t shy about taking any shot on no matter how unlikely, plus he can take a mean free kick as well….My man of the match, just edging out Vuckic who on another night would have had 2 goal of the month contenders….9/10

    Subs..

    Shola….5/10

    Raylor…6/10

    Ben Arfa..6/10

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  30. if that is true troy it shows that ashley has zero ambition for this club.and all he is about is to extract every penny he can from the club.

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  31. its funny that the 2 players that were all over the place last neet are the 2 with uncertain futures at the club,coincidence i think not

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  32. I Love Mike – who do you think you’re talking to mate? An opinion makes someone an arsehole? F*ck you pal. Is it confirmed that santon had an injury? If so far enough. Did i know that? Obviously not or i wouldnt have posted that would i. What about our high defensive line? I like pardew, i said that, but hodgson beat his tactics. And its knobs liks you who stop new people posting by the way.

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  34. Nobby – Colo was poor last night and was certainly at fault for their first goal, was caught well out of position and nearly got himself sent off by stupidly grabbing at the lad as he passed him. But I’m sorry mate, Perch was at fault for the other 2, watch the goals back mate and you’ll see that Perch was stood watching for their second and should have been tighter on scharner for their third. He’s positional play is very poor, whether that’s coz he’s not a regular CB, or hasn’t played enough or what could be argued, but the point I’m making is simply that he is not good enough for this league. Trust me, making a few canny tackles doesn’t make him a good enough player, and having a slightly better game than Colo last night means nowt.
    The fact is, if Willo was 100% fit, Perch would have been on the bench. He’s 4th choice for a reason. He’s just not good enough, I’m not slagging the kid off, or hoping he has a **** Christmas or out, just pointing out facts.
    I get that he’s our best/only option at the minute due to injuries to other players, and that’s not his fault, we need to improve the squad so that if the 3rd or 4th choice CB has to be used we don’t go from having one of the best defences to a very mediocre one.

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  37. @hitman

    I cant believe u asked troy that.. The geordie dancer probably nahs more than the 3legends lol

    fishing time for troy

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  38. We were utterly woeful at the back last night and I mean fcking *****! Steven Taylor’s looking a better centre half by the game!

    Squad is cruelly being exposed for what it is I’m afraid and I don’t see any improvement in January either. It’ll be another profit making window.

    The reason is that as far as the board are concerned we’re bang on course to finish top ten and that will do them. They won’t be looking at what a great position we’re in now.

    Also fear further for us as when Ba goes to ACN, god knows who’s going to score the goals.

    Thought Ben Arfa looked spritely though and young Haris has a cracking shot on him, doesn’t he?

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  39. nar troy ive always knowen ashley is a snake,but to sell 2 of our top boys in 1 go would be a reet kick in the nuts for all toon fans.
    but hey weve been saying for years ashleys a tw@t 😆 😆

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  40. Wolfie , obertan 5 no product dident cross doesent beat defenders shirks tackles !
    Vuctic 7 did ok but sat to high and dident track back , more like a forward imo and maybe a good 1 .!
    Best 4 did nothing not scoring not creating can’t beat a defender doesent pass well no good runs not clever !
    Archie , well said well said bud .

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  42. ARCHIEMAG@32 agree 100% mate people that talk to bloggers like that dee my heed in,anyway we know who the arsehole is,bloody no-alls
    fans need to express there opinions without abuse imo

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  46. Anyone who tries to defend Perch, clearly don’t understand defending.

    Their second and third goals were ultimately down to Perch standing 3 yds off his man and not anticipating play!

    He is absolutely woeful beyond belief !!!!!!!!!

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  47. @mark

    I have no idea if they have or not. I’m passing on what he told me.

    He states it’s definitely happening and they will be both be sold and the negotiations are ongoing.

    Just the messenger but knowing the regime, do you really think it’s unlikely??

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  49. @troy.

    Not really.. Spurs were rumoured beginning of Dec to be after Krul as they have two veterans. Just gossip m8, they have no knowledge that a bid has been tabled. But no, I wouldnt be surprised if he left as Mike is a **** 😆

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  50. Icedog – thanks mate, i enjoy this blog but rarely post coz of the few ****** who think they’re fountains of bloody knowledge. Wolfie, santon looked fine when he came off mate and it wouldnt have been the first time pardew made a half time sub would it?

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  51. @mark

    I’m not saying he does or doesn’t have inside knowledge but I don’t know how you can say either.

    He certainly said it was definitely happening and he knew it was true cos I asked him whether he had inside knowledge.

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  52. HITMAN, we will get the required players, I’m very confident about that.

    Pardew and co, know we need a centre back for starters and depending on how our players respond plus who stays or goes, we will know what else we need.
    The fact is, we are in 7th place , 3 points ahead of Stoke and only 5 points behind 4th place and it’s nearly Christmas.

    How many people would have took that at the start of the season?

    Everyone.

    Football is a funny old game as they say.
    We could have started the season really slow , infact picture this..

    Think of our start to the season as being Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Norwich, Swansea and W.B.A.

    2 points from 18 right, bottom of the table.

    Can you imagine the uproar with the fans if that was our start as it would go something like this..

    Pardew out, we knew he was ****, we knew he’s only here to pay his gambling debts, he’s lower league at best…he doesn’t care about the team and he’s a serial shagger and a liar and arsehole.

    Mike Ashley is trying to screw the club and get us relegated so he can sell all our better players and take his money and run, he’s a **** and deserves to rot in hell along with ;Llambias.

    They are just screwing the fans because they think it’s clever and they care nothing about the club and we will be relegated for sure.

    Does any of this ring a bell with forums?

    Now that 2 points from 18 scenario at the start of the season has turned into 7th top and 3 points clear of 8th plus 5 points behind 4th…..

    I wonder how that would be looked on?

    Would it be, oh god, the wheels are falling off, or would it be, oh my god, we have gelled and are looking good.

    What I’m trying to say is…at some stage this was gonna happen because it happens to most clubs because that’s the nature of football.

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  53. @Troy so when loads of kids were getting autographs signed you were harrassing him like some pimp asking if he had inside knowledge?. Did u have your thong on when all this was happening? poor kids.. 😆

    so do you believe it is definately happening coz he has inside knowledge..

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  54. Archiemag your entitiled to your opinion mate, and by not coming on because of others that dont agree with your opinion your letting them win.

    Troy nowt surprises me with Jabba the c@nt and Lambastad

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  55. Wolfie @52 , no one has said relegated and no one has said they are doing it wind fans up or destroy the club that’s just you exagerating and jazzing things up ! Most are saying he is happy with mid table medicrity and lots of profit .
    4 players in and 25 million spent that is what you have said and january is nearly here …. Can’t wait !

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  56. ARCHIEMAG@50 thats funny like i come on and look who is on most lads
    are great,but when the odd one are posting i dont bother,but everyone to there own i guess 😉

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  60. colo dusent look as good without the Toon great steven taylor 😉 choo choo troys train is filling up only a couple of seats left ,will be going full steam ahead very soon 😆 😆

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  61. Wolfie – football is a funny old game indeed.

    Heres another one for you… Your only as good as your last game.

    I get the point you are trying to make but it’s not as straight forward as that, we didn’t have the injuries at the start of the season or in reality would have had 9-10 points from those games had they been our opening fixtures.

    Yes we are 7th with a 3 point lead and far better goal difference than Stoke, but rewind even 2 games ago before the Swansea game and things looked far healthier!!
    I think it’s far to think we would be picking up at least 4 points from our last 2 games, based on the good start of the season you rightly point out.
    I’m not suggesting it will happen to us, but Blackpool fans were raving about the start they had last season and look what ultimately happened to them!!
    I don’t think we have to worry about that yet, but Ashley HAS to release the funds to get the players Pardew feels he needs to stop this season turning into a disaster. By disaster I mean 10th or lower, because despite our poor results in the last 6 games, I still don’t believe there are 10 better teams than us in the league this year – however, depending on how other teams stregthen in Jan, that could change if we don’t stregthen.

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  62. Big Dave – aye you’re right, just gets under your skin, especially when the lad ignored other parts of my post and just jumped on something he didn’t agree with and called it pathetic. If i don’t like his views, his name, his attitude, i just keep it to myself :mrgreen: anyway, roll on bolton.

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  63. KEITH@55, this is the usual mentality on other forums mate not this one.
    I’ve seen fans have us relegated before a ball was kicked and other fans have us in league one after 2 years.

    This season, those very same doom mongers on those forums then changed their minds and started predicting top 6 and suddenly after a few blips are now predicting a struggle.

    Oh and about the 25 million, as I said, I didn’t say it was a net 25 million spend, I said we would spend 25 million on incoming players and I stand by that.

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  64. ARCHIEMAG @ 32
    forgive me for not replying earlier, wiping the tears from my eyes after your Dr King esq speech took longer than I expected, moving.

    Once you’ve put your dummy back in, all I have to say is I disagree with the issue of people ‘like me’ stopping new people posting, that’s quite frankly, ridiculous. That someone reading this would care that much about what I say they wouldn’t post is laughable. I hardly ever post on here any more as I find it’s just a venting spot for mongs who are unable to have a constructive argument, it’s all ‘ah Perch is *****’ this and ‘ashley is ruining us’ that.

    This is a fantastic blog, and an awful lot of work has gone in to it being as good as it is. The thing that will get people contributing is constructive, reasoned debate. The thing that will make people think twice about posting is irrational, moronic lambastes, which have no grounding in truth and are baseless.

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  66. SHARPY @61, I fully understand the need for us to reinforce our team/squad in January and that’s why I think we will spend about 25 million but not necessarily a NET spend as I’m no crystal ball holder but what I am a holder of is, HOPE and BELIEF.

    Have a think about our injury list and apart from Saylor, we are practically close to being back to full strength as Guthrie wasn’t a regular and neither was Gosling but both aren’t too far from being back anyway and both can do a job.

    The point is though, Williamson is due back and although he’s no Saylor, he was a major part of the team that finished well last year.

    This is what I don’t get.

    We have had one hell of a lot of bad luck with injuries to key players all at similar times, plus suspensions right and what usually gets said when that happens?

    It’s usually, oh god we will struggle like hell now without these players so we will have to take it on the chin when we get murdered and just hope they get back quick.

    Then we go into games with stand ins and get beat or draw and all of a sudden we have feel apart because such and such can’t play there and so and so isn’t match fit and blah blah can’t do this but yet we knew all this and we knew we would struggle, yet it’s as if we have had a full compliment of first choice players available and are suffering, which isn’t the case and any team would suffer with the quality we have lost over the last few weeks.

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  67. @Mark

    I thought I had answered about whether I thought it was happening or not.

    I don’t know about Krul but other previous info about Tiote suggests that’s a cert.

    Taking Supermacs info on face value, yes, I do believe its true.

    Btw. Bernie was loving my thong and wrestling boots!! 😛

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  68. HITMAN, Ashley wants this club to stand on it’s own two feet, you are correct but he’s not as stupid as people may think.
    He knows there’s only so many raw players you can get to tick a team over and in my opinion he wants more than that and I think the club will have identified many targets in the summer and kept tabs on those players ready for January.

    I’m not asking anyone to believe me, I’m just giving my opinion on how I see it working.

    What he won’t do, is spend over the odds on a player that’s not worth it and that’s sensible.

    25 million isn’t a lot when you consider that he’s got it to spend but he’s using his loaf and spending it when he feels the time is right.

    I believe he now feels the time is right because he knows this club can make a final push to a decent finish and plug on from there.

    Unfortunately we will probably lose a few players along the way and who they are, nobody knows until the time comes….but it happens at every club.

    What we have to look at is, which player we deem more precious to the team and who are we capable of replacing without disrupting it.

    That is for the manager to decide and for us to speculate on but whoever goes, I’m sure it will be somebodies idol, so they are gonna be a bit pissed.

    The point is, if you lose players and replace with better, then somebody is doing something right because it can’t all be down to sheer luck can it.

    We will see. 😀

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  69. Always makes me laugh the optimism some fans still cling onto regarding this board and regime.

    You know the funniest thing about some fans…they keep talking about us signing Samba!

    The transfer window is going to be full of pain and misery, sorry like lads but we can learn a lot about the future by looking at history….

    Pretty morose i know!

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  72. I love mike – sorry about that mate, it must have been hard to wipe tears from your eyes with your head so far up your own ****. Some posters think Perch is *****. Fair enough. Some think Ashley has an evil agenda. Fair enough. I agree with the former, but i don’t think griefing the lad is in anyway productive, which is why i didn’t, so I don’t see what any of your pompous prattle has to do with me. You’re right, constructed and reasoned debate is why we come here – which part of arsehole and pathetic is either of those things. Practice what you preach you *****.

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