First off I have to say Saturday’s result wasn’t unexpected, though I had hoped we’d scrape a draw. We started brightly enough with Anita putting some tidy runs and crosses into the box and Rivi’s run and assist for Perez’s goal was sublime, though he faded badly as usual.
As we have seen too often this season when we concede we fall apart, heads drop and the pace drops to a jog then a stroll. It was refreshing in that first half to see us closing down the oposition, taking the game to them and giving them no time. Alas, we soon slipped into our old routine in the second half along with our old friend lack of concentration.
I must mention Siem De Jongs effort second half, to score after not long coming on when the game was lost was good to see and shows his commitment to the cause. This brings me to the point of this article. We simply don’t have enough players pulling their weight at the moment. Now whether this is lack of talent or lack of desire and care for the club is open to question, one thing is for sure though and that is they have no excuse.
No excuse not to get stuck in, no excuse not to fight and scrap to the 90th and beyond and no excuse to simply not try. I watched that match and actually felt sympathy for John Carver, he must be pulling his hair out at what he’s watching. The defending was dire, how the players can justify just standing and waiting for a team mate to deal with it is beyond me, what happened to collective responsibility? God above, you wouldn’t want that lot alongside you in the trenches would you? Carver has his detractors and rightly so, to not have attempted to try and change the set piece and corner routine by now is remiss and borderline negligent but he obviously has his reasons, though I can’t for the life of me fathom what they are. Ex pro’s say he’s an excellent coach, I’m not so sure I go along with that, but I’m sure he’s not as poor as the 7 straight losses show. I think he’s been hamstrung by a shocking injury list, the loss of our very foolish striker Cisse for 6 games and what would seem a game changer in De Jong and possibly young Aarrons.
Plus a very greedy and short sighted owner who likes to gamble with the clubs status.
With all that said, there are players in this team who simply do not fight enough and also aren’t good enough, it’s like watching our relegation run in all over again. Too many want away and don’t care enough for the club and it shows big time.
We will do well to avoid relegation this season make no mistake, and it will likely be because the teams below us have worse run in’s than us and play one another. We probably need a couple more points to be sure but where will we get them?
When this season ends whether we go down or not, there has to be a mass clear out of the dross and can’t be bothered’s. Some quality, not afraid to get stuck in lads need to be brought in. We need a good coach too as I fear John Carver is struggling.
Now all of this will cost a pretty penny and I know the club has said they intend to spend in the summer. The figures being bandied about though aren’t enough in my opinion. It’s going to take a fair wedge of cash to build a team to truly compete. Even at a mid table level, because we have slipped so far behind now through gross mismanagement.
In short, forget the figure you set mike, we’re gonna need a bigger cheque! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTRbQMLiJLY
By Kimtoon
Stuart writes a 3 paragraph essay arguing my point and then finishes with “you come up with no argument” 😆 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
He won’t be a financial winner if the club is in the Championship, Aussie. His asset would reduce in value by half.
This is football and he is finding out the hard way that it’s not like normal business.
Stuart79(Quote)
Also I am sure Ashley bought a business a year or two ago and then after a while it had to go into Administration. That was a business he had to cut his losses on. In fact we are talking about a man who bet his lawyers bill of £500,000 on a game of spoof.
Stuart79(Quote)
There’s a difference between taking a gamble on something and selling something for a lot of money and making sure you cover your costs..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie If we go down the interest free loan will go up and it’s the fan’s that suffer for it. It’s not right or fair because one man’s greed and incompetence has gotten us into this mess. When is Ashley going to come out and apologies to the 52,000 fan’s that have been nothing but loyal to the club ? The man only has himself to blame mate.
stem(Quote)
So, Aussie what would you do if you had the choice of throwing good money after bad with no guarantee of success (or return) in the Championship with dwindling crowds (25,000) and complete revolt in the air or you could just forget it and sell up losing £100m over the last 8 years? He has lost more money than that in business over the last few years – his investment in HBOS shares is a prime example of this.
Stuart79(Quote)
He wealth has dropped from £4.5bn to £3.5bn over the past year according to reports.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Stuart
The price Ashley will accept will be the same whether we are in the premier league or the championship. If relegated he will give us one season to return. If not he will cut costs to meet income levels.
Mike Ashley never has been or never will be under pressure to sell. We are stuck with him. Hurting the club’s inflow of cash means he will reduce outgoings or expenditure whichever you want to call it.
Toby le rhone(Quote)
OK, Toby.
Stuart79(Quote)
Toby – he has already cut costs to the bone. Where else can he make savings ?
No, relegation will cost him big time, but it will cost the fans too.
He has us over a barrel, either way we lose.
I think our best bet is Kim’s solution @ 325 🙄 😛
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rob-lee-says-alan-pardew-9144611
kimtoon(Quote)
£100m to compete for Europe maybe
A useful coach, some decent additions and some luck with injuries/suspensions would have had us midtable in this division
CC(Quote)
Kim I agree with Rob Lee and said the same when he left, ie they were going to get shot of players and he knew they wouldn’t replace. Then come summer any players that came in wouldnt be his players as he has no real input in the transfers just the position that needs strengthened. He already came out in the press to say how frustrated he got that the club wouldnt get him the set piece player he needed and was promised.
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave, Yep I do sympathise with Pards in that respect, all the same he still got on my nerves and made some very strange selections and subs at times. Despite all that’s happened since he left, I do not miss his blather nor do I wish him still here.
kimtoon(Quote)
It should be an interesting finish to the season if you consider fighting to avoid relegation interesting. We’re on the edge but probably won’t go down. Another fine season Ashley. Well done. A club on the brink of collapse yet again because the owner knows nothing about football. He must see it by now. That this nightmare is just going to repeat itself over and over again. Surely you’ve had enough negative publicity Mike? No? Then lets see how you feel after screwing up the summer and watching the attendance dwindle next season.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
So how are you enjoying the season so far Ash? What’s that you say? You can’t go to the ground because you fear for your life? Now why would that be Mike? Is it possible you’re doing something wrong? Something the supporters don’t like? Give it a brief thought Ashley. You can discuss it on the yacht with your cronies at the next pissup.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
NUFC, Casablanca, Swansea, malaga, Pachuca & Lyon
If Beckham couldn’t make “soccer” massive across the pond this will… 😯
CC(Quote)
I said the other day decent players would not even think about coming to the club now other PL clubs must think the same,we had agreement with M/U to take Wilson on loan for the season now since the way the club is carrying on M/U have withdrawn agreement and put the lad back on the market for loan to a PL club
icedog(Quote)
How can Ashley possibly improve the squad enough in the summer to recover from this disaster? Not possible knowing him. He’s left it far too late now and would have to spend an enormous amount of money, which he has shown he will never do. We need to clear out at least 8 players and replace them with good (therefore expensive) substitutes. Think about that. Eight good players. What would that cost? 80M? 100M? Ashley would never spend that. So what happens next season? If we get a decent new head coach we may start off as a mid table club with luck. But what happens when injuries and suspensions add up? The same old bollocks. Look for more of the same. A desperately poor second half and a bottom 10 finish.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 – Its too big a job for this summer. I reckon 7 will leave so that leaves us needing at least 10 in. Just incredible really. Who would want to come now?
On another note, I hope Leicester don’t play like this on Saturday or it will be another embarrassing day. 😳
Stuart79(Quote)
what a goal from Leicester
right on Half Time too
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
They bloody deserve that too
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
YCMIU 😯 😯 😯
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Dear oh dear
Stuart79(Quote)
John Carver there to see it too. Wonder what his report will be? Will go something like this “****!”
Stuart79(Quote)
Does this mean Leicester will go ahead us of this stays the same? Be amazed if it does but dear god – how bad is it when we’re relying on Sunderland to keep us up.
Stuart79(Quote)
I predicted that this would happen, that the teams below us would start picking up points and fighting for survival. …and that we wouldn’t pick up another point, sure enough I was right as usual.
There’s no way that Klopp will come to the Toon with us in the Championship..
Munich Mag(Quote)
I know already that Carver will pack his team with defenders at Leicester and play for a draw. Fair enough too because we need to avoid defeat at all costs at the weekend, and every point counts…
Still think we’ll lose though..
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM@402, Yep this was always on the cards, we are up to our necks in it now.
kimtoon(Quote)
I think Jabba has just thrown his notes all over in excitment there.
Stuart79(Quote)
Vardy could well have a field day against our horse and cart. 😕
Stuart79(Quote)
Chelsea have woken up, that’s more like it 🙂 1-1 and they are pressuring Leicester big time…
Munich Mag(Quote)
C’mon chelsea
kimtoon(Quote)
Carver’s a little early for the funeral – about 3 weeks!
Stuart79(Quote)
MM – you’re probably right mate, but it really would be the wrong thing to do coz our defence just isn’t good enough to contain them.
Carver should be picking the best 11 available to try and take the game to Leicester. My team would be:
—————— Krul —————-
Janmaat – Willo – Colo – Dummett
—— Sissoko —- Colback ——
Cabella — De Jong — Perez
————— Riviere ————–
If Dummett is injured the Jonas. I could live with Armstrong being in instead of Riviere, but I think he did alright against Swansea, and would benefit from those 3 behind him.
Sharpy17(Quote)
need Everton and Saints to do us a favour on saturday
kimtoon(Quote)
Why not go 3 at the back and put an extra guy in midfield ❓
kimtoon(Quote)
Sharpy, He’s not starting De Jong mate he’s already said 🙁
kimtoon(Quote)
get in 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
sneaky little tap in that was
kimtoon(Quote)
Can’t goal
Stuart79(Quote)
boom, game over 3.1
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim – if he doesn’t start De Jong then he’s a fucking moron – well we know that already but you know what I mean.
It would be typical of us under Pardew & Carver though – try to contain first then maybe bring the players on to win it later in the game – usually too late in the game. Why not for a change try taking the game to the opposition, try and go ahead in the game then bring the defenders on to contain it later in the game.
He probably only needs 1 win to dodge the bottom 3, but we’re running out of games, so play your best team and hope you get that win sooner than later.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy, totally agree, got to go for it from the start. remember a couple of seasons back when we beat Man U at our place, we just went out full attack from the start. If we can do that against them, lets do it against Leicester, surely we can just try and go for it. Rather loose by trying to win than miss out on a win by trying to scrape a draw
Simon(Quote)
Sharpster, we don’t have the energy, players nor confidence to take the game to anyone.
Carver was groomed by the defensively minded Pardew and will look to play a containing game against a much faster and stronger Leicester side….and will fail miserably…
Munich Mag(Quote)
Simon/Munich – I’m not talking kamikaze football where we leave ourselves completely exposed. But the success Pardew had earlier this season was largely down to getting that counter attack right.
With those 4 up front, I think the intelligence is there and speed on the counter is there too.
Munich – forget the energy levels mate. Carver is a coach and should be getting these training sessions right at this stage. Sissoko, Colo, Cabella & Riviere have played a **** load of games recently.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy I’m with you, lets just go for it and not have only 1 up front. If we can get the ball forward and get a shot on target as well as trying to defend when they come on the counter. Surely we can do this
Simon(Quote)
Formations mean nothing when you have players who aren’t good enough. We need luck more than skill at this stage because I think we’ve more chance of getting luck than skill.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – but that’s kind of the point mate. If we sit back and let them come at us our luck will be that they only score 1 in the first half. But if we have a go then our luck could be that we win a penalty or get that goal that could kick us on.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Lads dont worry have faith, with the players returning especially Cisse we will win a game and get atleast 3 points before the end of the season.
Not just because we’ll play well but the other teams cant keep punching above their weight
Big Dave(Quote)
Sharpy I have always said I would rather get beat trying to win than get beat trying to get a draw, and not just because we cant hold on for a draw.
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave – the last 7 games feels like we have just curled up and gave in. Maybe they should get a motivational speaker in or something like that, but they have to get some fire in their bellies – they must want to win games, and balls to this ‘they aren’t good enough’ ****!. That team I posted above is better than most of the bottom half of the table – on paper.
I hope you’re right mate, coz that Villa game still hurts.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Bit of a blast from the last now;
Last time we got relegated I remember everyone looking at our last 5 fixtures and saying we will pick up the 3 points we need against Portsmouth and Fulham at home. We got 1 point from both! It feels the same about the West Brom and West Ham games. If we had 10 games left I would be confident but I have seen nothing in the past 7 matches that says we can win a game. Even when the effort was there (Swansea) we still lost because we can’t defend.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu tbh last time I didnt think we would pick up points and really did believe we would go down.
But this time I think Cisse is going to come back with a bang as I do think he cares about us.
Sharpy trust me and come the end of the season you can say I was right 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
i think bin larden is probally more popular in toon than fatboy and if it went to a vote fatboy would lose by a country mile 😳
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Surely a point will do and surely we can scrape that.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I think if we go down now, given the lack of fight in the team, and the finances I think it could be decades before we come back up. We won’t be doing a Portsmouth, More a Sheffield Wednesday.
I did not believe there was a worse manager out there than Alan Shearer, but hey there is.
Premandup(Quote)
Just reading through the comments after a few days doing some charity work for the Nepal earthquake.
Some comments reminded me of this: brisvegas
April 14, 2015 at 23:35
“… Mind you, if we do get some players in, I’m sure the visionaries will be all over it – taking credit for forcing Ashley’s hand with talk of boycotts.
I remember they did the same thing when we had an upswing in form early on this season.”
Wow! I must be a visionary as well. 😆
I think some people are using a selective interpretation of events again.
brisvegas(Quote)
Prem
I’m not an advocate of Shearer the manager but anyone to judge him over 9 games with a squad that had no heart is very unfair.
Begas
You’re defo not a visionary fella. You’re never right about anything. You criticise anyone who uses logic, history and current events to predict the future.
I’m quite confident everyone who reads your posts will know that’s true. 😉
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I’m not judging his potential, but Like Carver I didn’t believe anybody could get us relegated from the position we were in when he took over.
Premandup(Quote)
wow Prem for someone that would give Ashley 10yrs of prudence to see the bigger picture come to fruition, you give wor Al 9 games with a team already depleted of confidence 😉
Gashley(Quote)
Did anyone see Pearsons post match interview last night?. The blokes a nutter!!!. His players are probably playing well coz he’ll have threatened them if they get relegated he’ll lock them in a box or something like that!. 😆
Sharpy17(Quote)
3 pts v Brom will do. But nothing is going to plan at the mo. Cisse may not start 😯
I would hate to see us relegated. it could be a disaster.
Gashley(Quote)
Prem
We had 5 managers that season I think. They were in free fall when he took over. They were consigned to relegation looking back.
He may well be **** and players might not take to him or his tactics but until he’s given a proper opportunity then I disagree with your view.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
As for the Fantasy League: who will be Champions? Stripes have the advantage and only need a draw to take out the prize. Solano’s need to win.
And the last game of the season is this weekend between the two of them. What a finish!
Tables are still being updated so can’t give you a definite update, but as I see it the top 8 are already certain going into the last round.
They are: Solano’s Trumpet; Stripes and no stars; Haven’t Got a Kalou; Newbriscastle Roar; Inter Yasista; WHY SO SERIOUS ?; Newkie’s Ale Stars; Niknak Utd
Only their positions on the table are left to be determined, and that’s important for the league cup draw that follows.
As for the rest of the league: chin up, man, thanks for your participation and for helping to make a competitive time of it. Many thanks.
brisvegas(Quote)
That’s OK. My main point however was not about Shearer, but about the consequences of relegation.
Premandup(Quote)
Relegation could be disastrous for the club for years. It’s a complete lottery. I would rather the fans Co tune the protests and boycotts. It might take years but it’s safer for the long term future imo.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I had a quick run through of comments and only MM referenced Ryder’s article on Klopp. Maybe it is just click-bait but The Chronicle’s chief sports writer coming up with such utter shyte begs the question of the veracity of everything else he writes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I agree with Big D that despite Carver we will stay up. The returning players have enough quality and, to an extent, experience. Dummett would be a real help because we could actually have a back four playing in their normal positions.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Bris@433, Good on you for helping out with the Nepal disaster mate, kind of makes you realise there’s worse stuff we could be suffering.
Chelsea did us a big favour last night, let’s hope Everton and Saints can as well on Saturday. that’s my post for a while, tweaked my knee in bed again last night, fecking agony again today. Physio says torn cartilage and likely need an op to repair, worse news possible what with Lew to care for 🙁 waiting to see ortho cons now.
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim you dont have much luck, I hope you get your knee sorted asap, but for now just take it easy lass.
Big Dave(Quote)
Prem – We wouldn’t be out of the top flight for decades unless Ashley kept hold of us. If things were that bad he’d sell and I would imagine the euphoria on Tyneside from him leaving would carry us to the PL on its own!
Eric – The piece from Lee Ryder on Klopp is an opinion piece and even Journo’s are allowed one of those. In fact I would be hard pressed to find a supporter who doesn’t actually agree with the sentiment in the article. NUFC should be going for Klopp given his circumstances and other clubs circumstances as pointed out by Ryder. We know it won’t happen under Ashley but that doesn’t mean We shouldn’t say that’s what we should do.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart. Whether we are out of the top flight for decades is I agree partly down to the owner, but it is mainly due to the new finances. The parachute payments might give us an advantage for a season, but we don’t have a team that could compete in the Championship. So I cannot see us bouncing straight back up. A couple of seasons out of the premiership would hit the finances hard, and if we did manage to fluke a return, we would be so far behind that we might at best become a YoYo Club. However I think we are more likely to flirt with League one than bounce back, and it might take a long time to get back up, as I said before think Sheffield Wednesday. The FFP rules hamstring owners from making significant investments, eg to the point where they push up a level. We could currently, conceivably invest to get into and stay in the top 10, but not above. The days of Owners splashing the cash and making average teams great have gone.
Premandup(Quote)
Stuart: Ryder’s piece was more about sentimentality than sentiment, and his opinion is meaningless if he thinks he can mention Klopp and NUFC in the same article at this present time. It was an absolutely stupid piece of journalism.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Premandup: last time we went down there were many predicting we would “do a Leeds” and we won the Championship easily.
Eric Sykes(Quote)