Match Day Banter

Sorry for the lack of articles, I have been working away all week in 40deg heat and I have been drinking beer in my minimal spare time because it was simply more appealing than typing away in my stuffy hotel room.
Anyway, today we meet QPR at home after another international break. Our form leading up to that break was exceptional and I guess the big question is will we be able to maintain the rage and take another win. QPR are there for the taking if we are good enough but they are no mugs. This has all the hallmarks of a tough affair and if we take this game for granted we will be in for a shock or two.

Hoops v Magpies
Hoops v Magpies

Collo is out injured and Pardew has this list to pick his starting eleven from.
Newcastle United (from): Alnwick, Elliot, Krul, Dummett, Haidara, Janmaat, R Taylor, S Taylor, Williamson, Anita, Bigirimana, Cabella, Colback, Sissoko, Tiote, Vuckic, Ameobi, Armstrong, Cisse, Ferreyra, Gouffran, Perez, Riviere.
I really can’t see any change other than Saylor in for Collo and Tiote for Abeid. It has been reported that Saylor if in doubt for this game and if he is, I am sure Williamson will slot in to take his place. It is a shame for Abeid as the lad was looking really good and it would have been nice to see him continue to get games.
QPR are missing Taarabt and Rednapp has these players to chose from.
Queens Park Rangers (from): Green, McCarthy, Murphy, Caulker, Dunne, Ehmer, Ferdinand, Hill, Isla, Onuoha, Traore, Yun, Barton, Fer, Henry, Hoilett, Kranjcar, Mutch, Phillips, Sandro, Wright-Phillips, Austin, Taarabt, Vargas, Zamora.
It will be interesting to see how the crowd reacts to Joey when he makes his return. He certainly seems to be a popular felon..err fellow, amongst some sections of fans. 🙂

Match Facts:

Newcastle United have won five and lost none of the last six Barclays Premier League meetings with Queens Park Rangers.
In those six meetings, QPR have opened the scoring three times and lost all three, while failing to net in the other three matches.

So if we go by the stats we are looking good for a victory but with Newcastle United you never know what will transpire on any given game day.

Howay the lads!

343 thoughts on “Match Day Banter

  1. @Eric
    Sorry haven’t been on since yesterday lunch – didn’t realised I’d released a beast ! 😆
    I have never once said Pardew planned it all along – I have stated that I think Pardew got much of his team selection this gift wrapped. That’s not to say he doesn’t deserve great praise for just how well he’s done but I repeatedly said neither Pardew nor any of the bloggers would have started Perez/Sameobi/Dummet at CB/Obertan/Abeid. The football we’ve played and the confidence is part in thanks to Pardew (the rest of the credit to the actual players out there).

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  2. Eric @274
    I think comparing HBA to SuperMac loses in you any credibility on this but I’ll continue..
    Pardew is a good man-manager – I can’t think of a single player that has ever left and come out and criticised him, and we’ve had some rotters.
    Ben Arfa has world class ability but mediocre output. Why on Earth else would he end up at Hull? And why is Marveaux battling relegation in a weaker league? The messiahs have been shown to be ****.
    I don’t think people constantly chanting for HBA was especially helpful to the players on the pitch and I think him out of the dressing room has probably helped the atmosphere.
    One of the pluses this season has been the togetherness and team spirit – whether or not having a lad that was overweight, turning up late to training, putting in no effort in games other than when he had the ball and generally believed he was one of the worlds best (Ballon D’or anyone?) was great for team spirit.

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  3. As I said before – Pardew has been a bit lucky with some his selections this season due to having no choice (and wanting rid of some players etc). Not featuring two players who are now still doing poorly for their new clubs seems like a couple of decisions he actually knowingly made correctly.

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  4. Eric – what did Pardew ‘do’ to Tevez exactly?! – or Javier Mascherano for that matter?!. Both went on and played for some of the best football teams in the World …. oh yes, Pardew certainly ****** them up good and proper mate.
    Ben Arfa is a talented lazy footballer and many more managers have identified him as that than Pardew mate. There no point clouding the discussion with our form since Jan coz no-one disputes it was dreadful. But where was Ben Arfa stepping up to the mark then mate? – nowhere!. Sammy, Oba and Aarons all upped their game when we were in the **** – none have the talent of Ben Arfa. But talent means nowt without work ethic and determination. This kid was talking about Balon D’Or after having 2 good games man!.
    You believe what you want Eric, but you’re not convincing me of anything.

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  5. Sharpy – Yeah I don’t think anyone on the outside can ever know what happened at West Ham with those two and their playing times – too much weird corruption involved!!

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  6. Lads, sorry for jumping in but I don’t think Eric was saying Percy ****** up Tevez and Mas just that he didn’t fancy/rate them when at West Ham and when he did play either they played out of position which they have both spoken about since. I think it was Mascherano who said Percy was that poor at West Ham that back home in his native country he’d of been sacked long before he actually was.
    As for our exiled players, anyone who doesn’t think Marv, Mbiwa and Benny weren’t worth keeping are daft imo, all three are good players, Mbiwas been doing fine . Benny WAS lazy at times no doubt but I can almost say with certainty that Sir Bob would of had that lad playing a blinder, sadly Percy isn’t capable of that, he doesn’t have the humility of Sir Bob or the man management skills or tactical nouse either.

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  7. Funny how I was talking to some WHam fans at the beginning of the season and they would have had Pardew back over Sam any day of the week.

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  8. Kim
    Who does though? Not many managers can hold a candle to SBR and the ones that could have no intention of touching Ben Arfa with a barge pole.
    Mbiwa is one that I think Pardew handled badly (we are crazily short on CBs).

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  9. Prem, Percy over Sam, not surprised at that on two counts really. Firstly Sam is a bigger delusional gobshite than Percy and that’s going some. And it’s typical Hammers supporters that, not so long back they wanted Percy’s head on a platter 🙄 and they say Toon fans are fickle 😉

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  10. ST/Kim – I read that WHU had to stump up a pretty hefty ‘pay as they play’ fee Tevez and Mach, and that Pardews hands were tied a bit when it come to selecting them.

    Kim – as for playing them out of position – didn’t Pep play Mach at CB and I’m not sure Sir Alex always played Tevez at CF either.
    I guess I’m 2/3 daft coz the only ‘exiled’ player I would have kept was MYM. The other 2 I really don’t mind loosing. To say SBR would have had him playing well is sentimental nonsense IMO. You don’t know that at all, and the reality is that Benny’s biggest problem isn’t Pardew – it’s himself!!.

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  11. Sharpy, And also you also don’t know he wouldn’t of had him playing better for us, so you can hardly call it nonsense .

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  12. I hope we play well against West Ham. They are a much improved side under Big Sam. He didn’t have a chance in Newcastle and his style would never have suited us. Their owner spends far more than Ashley as well. Do we match up well against them? I’m not sure with all the injuries we have. If Sissoko continues to dominate and Perez can pop one in we do have a good chance however.

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  13. Kim – I’m as big a fan of SBR as anyone on here – I genuinely hold the bloke in the highest regard.
    I also mean you no offence, but I call it nonsense as its easy to say as it can never be proven or unproven.
    It is also unfairly comparing Pardew with one of the greatest managers ever!.

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  14. Percy will lead us forward. And a little bit sideways possibly. And sometimes backward. 😯 We will continue to have problems off and on but it is good to see some of the youngsters progress. A shame about Aarons and his continuing fitness problems. We could use him in the attack.

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  15. G2 at last a debate we can all happily talk harmless rubbish about – the next game! Looks like a first goal game to me – we need to be able to play the patient counter attack game and Fat Sam’s mob, well as they are playing, have started to drop regular points, so will likely tighten up if they have to chase the game. All about the defence and MF keeping compact and giving nowt silly away. I hope that they give in to the ‘old boy’ idea and start Carroll, and then Willo can take him on.

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  16. Aye GTE, I think it will be a tight one as well. They’ll try to open us up early to shake our confidence. I hope to see Carroll on for them as well. It will be interesting to see who Percy goes with at CB. Saylor was decent before his injury and Colo has been good as well. Dummett is showing some real promise as a CB and that surprised me. Up front I would imagine we’ll start Perez and see what he can do. A 4-4-2 with Perez and Cisse would be interesting to see.

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  17. GTE – I hope they go with Carroll too. He will bring us problems, but I think we can handle him better that Valencia and Sakho. I watched WHU v City the other week and WH were excellent on the counter and pressed City hard. I think if we allow them to have possession it suits our game better and may give them time to over think what they are doing – hopefully anyway.

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  18. Are we and West Ham top 6 sides? It’s a very interesting question. I would have to see no on the basis of what I’ve seen over the last couple of seasons. Are both of us top 10 sides? I’m not even sure about that over a whole season. If teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton start to get it together I’m not sure we will continue to compete in the top 8 or even the top 10. Time will tell as always.

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  19. Kim – the other reason I say that is coz regardless of how good the manager, sometimes it’s down to the players themselves – look at Fergie with Morrison or Jose with Balotelli at Inter. With the best will in the world, even the elite managers can’t perform miracles.

    G2 – in your opinion, which would be the top 10 clubs in the EPL – in ranking order?

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  20. G2 I think West ham might have the edge over us this weekend. I would say West ham are a mid table side myself, just like us really. Just got that feeling the bubbles going to burst. Williamson can go in my opinion this january, his a nightmare waiting to happen in defence mate.

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  21. Tiote is a goner this january. Mike will get 12 million for him and buy someone dirt cheap to keep the fan’s satisfied. The fan’s will say how wonderful he is. The 129 million debt will stay the same and sports direct gets free advertising and everyone’s a winner.

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  22. I would like to see Pardew win manager of the month so I hope we get a win but wouldn’t feel hard done by if we got a draw.

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  23. Stem – we’ve been linked with a CM from the Norweign league who has a 750k buy out clause in his contract. So yeah, toots out for £12m – this kid in for 750k sounds about right.
    Personally though I’d rather bring Abied and Bigi on if Tiote left – at least give them a chance before looking to replace Tiote anyway.
    I’d love to see us use the money to buy a right sided midfielder like Mo Salah from Chelsea and a solid CB

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  24. G2 – I think that, over a whole season, or barring the sort of self-inflicted disaster ManU had last season, or Liverpool and Chelsea did when we finished 5th, the following clubs are out of sight, thanks to much, much greater wage bills:

    City
    Chelsea
    ManU
    Arsenal

    Then I think that both Spurs and Arsenal prove (as we did for a few years) that it’s possible to burn a load of money trying to catch the top-4 without really cracking it – and a club in that position could do a Leeds if it gets it’s sums wrong. At a lower level, looking at the finances, I think that Swansea are in a similarly vulnerable position, having spent much of the next couple of seasons’ income.

    I think that Saints and Everton have squads, systems and youth structures that could make them continued fixtures in the 6-10 range, and they are what we should be building towards – most of the arguments on this blog seem to revolve around whether we are building towards anything, other than a profitable sale of the club.

    West Ham, Swansea, Stoke, I think we will already compete with over the season.

    So I think our level under the regime is 8th to 12th, target is always top-10, not much higher. Would cost far too much to try and challenge Spurs and Liverpool, let alone the four most successful clubs, so 7th at best, unless someone else f@@@s up…but as I have said on here before, we are targeting 8th to 12th with something like a 16th to 18th wage bill.

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  25. Toony – firstly, welcome to the blog mate. I agree with you, that’s a well written, balanced article.
    It’s right in that there are a handful of clubs in a better position than us – maybe 8-10 in the Country. Which means the margin of success is slim. Do we lack ambition or do we have a very slow and calculated approached to progression. I think if Ashley was being brutely honest, we haven’t achieved his 5yr plan – but while he was being honest, he’d accept that that’s down to him rather than Pardew. Some of the appointments he brought in are simply shocking, and just haven’t took us forward at all.

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  26. Sharpy17 No wonder Mike’s grubbing his hands after every win. He know’s his on to a profit. That also mean’s his spent nothing in 6 years. I just think the man’s a snake.

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  27. We got money but he would rather watch us play some diabolical football before he does anything about it. Imagine how much he stands to make on Sissoko or Janmatt in years to come. Pardew will do enough to increase there value and keep us in the league. It’s the smart way to run a club I guess. It’s just the debt’s not going down and I think that’s wrong, rude, you name it.

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  28. I’m happy the team is winning games and the player’s are improving. It just hasn’t fooled me that Ashley is a good owner.

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  29. Sharpy17 I heard Yoevil might loan him again after all. There flirting with relegation and Bigi might get them out of the mess.

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  30. Stem – I think it would do Bigi good to go out on loan to be honest mate. Look at the young uns in the side now – Dummett, Abied and Sammy have all benefit from a look out.

    As for Ashley, I have said many times that the bloke has many fault. But I don’t believe he is the devil sent to destroy us like.

    The bloke has also answered us all the age old question ‘can you ever have enough money?’.
    The man has over 3 billion in the bank, yet he still gets a semi on at the idea of turning a £5m profit on a player. The bloke probably makes more in interest whilst sinking a pukka pie 🙄

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  31. Why Would the owner splash money? Just to splash money or to improve the team? At the moment I dont think we necessary have to sign someone, but we have to look at our reserves if when need to cover injuries. Id like to see Bigi pass ahead of Anita as CM, and have him and Abeid as an alternative for Sissoko-Colback. de Jong as false 9 behind Ayoze if we play 442. We can also keep 433 with de Jong upfront and Abeid in the mix. Before signing a new Striker, Id like to see Chucky to get a chance at some point. I do rate Ings but we already have poachers, Id take Carroll back, Id take Wickham too.

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  32. Cholo – I would say spend to absolutely improve the team mate!.
    If it were to be Tiote leaving that give the spending money, then I actually think we are pretty well stocked in there so the money for me would go to strengthening the defence and for me a wide right player – and a goal scorer ideally.
    My ideal 3 would be Grant Hanley from Bburn at CB, Mo Salah from Chelsea on the right and Danny Ings from Burnley up front. I reckon with the Tiote money (£12m ish) and Ings on a free in the summer, the outlay for those 3 would be £5-7m.

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