Taking the Positives – My Crystal Ball

Premandup
Be the master of predictions...
Be the master of predictions…

I want three predictions from the regulars before the season starts. Firstly the overview. How many points are we going to get. What position are we going to Finish in and why. Here’s mine.

If Pardew can get 26pts from the first 19 games last season. Then we should be able to at least equal that. We have strengthened the team and got a better manager and coaching staff. On the downside we have a tough start, and a poor preseason. So I’m going to hedge my bets with 50pts finishing 9th.

Second the starting lineup against Southampton on Sunday.

How will McClaren set us up?
How will McClaren set us up?
Based on what we have seen that will be Krul; Jaanmat; Williamson, Taylor, Haidara; Anita, Colback; Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Obertan; Cisse. Others will get their cance but not this weekend.

Finally the score against Southampton. I’m going for 2-1 us. Clean sheet it wont be so we have to score. Cisse & Gini to come good. Here’s some classic commentary from our 2-1 home loss last season;

OK that’s my load of rubbish. What’s yours?

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257 thoughts on “Taking the Positives – My Crystal Ball”

  1. TDS – I don’t think Kim would mind donating £70 as with 70pts we would have won the bloody league!! 😆 or qualified for CL at least. I don’t think there’s any fear of a donation that size. If we get 50pts id be well chuffed, so reckon there’ll only be a tenner in it either way.

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  3. Krul
    Janmaat
    Taylor
    Williamson
    Haidara
    Colback
    Anita
    Sissoko
    Cisse
    Wij
    Mitrovic

    12th
    47 points

    if we get 3 more in we might scrape 10th but we will probably be in the bottom 4 after 8 games because of our tough start.

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  5. Troy. I hope you will agree that even if McLaren is only on a par with Pardew, who I have agreed with you in the past is a **** average,but competant PL manager. Ourcoaching staff is surely a vast improvement.
    Re the predictions. Put yr money where yr mouth is. Stop wimping out.

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  6. Prem

    It’s a fair response. Do you believe he would have achieved those results with the resources Pardew had at the respective clubs?

    I suppose McLaren has never finished 5th as a manager in the premier league as a manager.

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  7. Need to go soon KIM as it’s my birthday today and I’m going out. So what’s the agreement?

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  10. KIM

    Cheers! Points per pound it is. I would say good luck, but I reckon everyone here actually wants me to win! 🙂

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  11. Sharpy, I’m blowing up to £80 a week on buses and taxi’s at the mo due to not driving cause of the knee, so once I’m back in the car I’ll save a bob or two 😀

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  15. so 18,000+ turned up at the open day in the end, wow

     Mark Douglas retweeted

    Sarah Jeffery ‏@sarah_jeffery · Aug 4
    The stewards said the club were expecting about 14,000 people to turn but there is at least 18,000 if not more.

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  16. Personally I believe we must play to our strengths and that’s attack. My formation would be 4-1-2-1-2 with full back attacking and the team would be:

    Krul
    Janmaat Colo Mbemba Hadaira
    Anita
    Sissoko Wjnaldum
    De Jong
    Cisse Mitrovic

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  17. But would also look at 4-2-3-1 if you want to get Aarons and Cabella into the team out wide

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  18. That Mark Daggers is mental Kim. Villa top 10 after losing the man that scored half their goals in last 3 years? Lost Vlaar and Delph too. Chelsea in 5th? Mental.

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  25. Troy, one more than Pards though 😉 in England and part of the coaching set up at a very successful Manure.

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  26. The disaster would be we lose Taylor ( no shock) and Mbemba through injury and we are looking very short at the back. Also worried if we lose Cisse as there’s nobody else who has scored goals at this level.

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  28. In defence and attack we have a good first choice, but after that in defence were **** poor and up front were adequate

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  29. Pundits just go off the last season. I remember Lawro putting us down for a dog fight and predicting we’d lose every week when we finished 5th – the next pre season he was gushing over us. They know **** all just like us lot!

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  31. Stu – in fairness to Mc, he said they were still looking and defence was an area they are aware needs strengthening.

    Sham – they can’t be going off last season then or they’d have us in an battle. I think Murphy & Pearce have it about right this season personally.

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  32. “Contrary to the rumours and reports circulating in the media, we want to confirm we have no interest in Fabricio Coloccini and although he remains my ex-captain and a great player, he will not be coming to Crystal Palace,”

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  33. Sham – he also said that Cabaye could walk into any of the top 4 teams as well 😆
    The bloke was accused of being Ashley’s puppet for saying stuff like that with us. I think it’s just clear that the fella is totally full of **** & completely deluded

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  34. Aren’t we such a sad, small minded insecure football club! Banned Channel 4 from tomorrow’s press conference where they were to ask a question why they had banned certain media outlets.

    What have we got against journalism? Do they not like people questioning them? They only want us supporters to hear what they want us to hear.

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  35. Banning a tv channel for wanting to ask a perfectly reasonable question. Deary me 😳 Why not just answer the question, simpler, no .

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  40. TDS – I don’t expect anything th club ever does will be unacceptable to you. For the record I don’t see anyone saying it was perfectly acceptable for Ferguson to ban journo’s.

    It’s a joke. North Korea is an open society compared to NUFC. Steve McClaren who is renowned for realising that the club and the journo’s relationship is key to a smooth road is known to be quite unhappy about the way the club have treated the media. I can see why.

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  41. said the end of last season if that defence wernt changed, we would go down this season and thats me prediction,thank you mr mclaren for giving tha arm band to a spineless wonder who when the going gets tough writes a letter to the fans wow what a brave leader 😯

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  42. Oh and I forgot to ask. Do you think it’s perfectly ok for us to ban a channel because we didn’t like the question they were GOING to ask?

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  43. I think it stinks,the whole of the press world should boycott NUFC press releases,I mean to say how can you hold any kind of meeting when you cannot ask anything unless the club gives the OK before hand,its a bloody joke,so in jabba world there is no “free” press step forward Hitler

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  44. 44 points
    12th – 13th
    Defence is not good enough. If no further signings it will require us to score 2 to 3 goals to win a game

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  45. Kim

    Sure. But that’s written by the banned channel so it’s hardly likely to be unbiased…

    A channel writes **** having a go at our club and The Mag takes the side against our club AGAIN. It’s just ****.

    I’m not saying the club deals with things perfectly but certainly if a media outlet spread lies about by company, I’d threaten them with being banned until they issued a retraction. Why should they be allowed to spread lies without sanction? The media publishes enough **** as it is.

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  46. Stuart

    Yes I do. If we call a press conference for a specific topic, it shouldn’t be hijacked by one media outlet that wants to address its own agenda. That’s normal. The media are just playing their own PR angle.

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  47. Every club is the same…I bet several are even more strict. Some of you guys live in the past and slate our club for doing what virtually every other club does, like it’s something unique about our owner. Balancing books, league over cups, staying in PL number one priority, staged press conferences…all normal.

    Hopefully McClaren can have a better relationship with the press though so this is avoided in future.

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  48. <<<<<<<<<<<<< no big deal to me most of the press is banned they hate our guts anyway always have 💡

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  49. It’s absolutely impossible for McClaren to have a good relationship with the press when the club ban media outlets at the drop of a hat for articles the club don’t like. Luke Edwards is still banned for writing a perfectly correct story. He was banned because it wasn’t what the club wanted fans to know. Petty and pathetic.

    Do you think every question tomorrow will be about the Southampton game? If you do I really don’t know what to say.

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  50. TDS, while there may be some clubs prioritising League over cups , most still take it seriously imo. To come out and say it, honest though it is ,is insulting to fans who travel all over the shop to watch cup games and begs the question, what’s the point? Every sporting club in any sport surely starts each campaign in a bid to win something. Given we have zero chance of winning the league we SHOULD be giving the cups a **** good go and if we don’t then we may as well pack it in cause it means we’re just making up the numbers. That’s not good enough for NUFC, it’s not good enough for any football club.

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  51. Kim – What TDS doesn’t understand is that NUFC ban journalists for articles that are actually true! You couldn’t make it up! NUFC haven NOT used Libel law once and won. Why do we think that is? Journalists can’t just write whatever they want. That’s why we have libel laws. TDS talks about banning journo’s and channels for spreading lies yet they have never sued and you would think they would only ban someone for spreading very serious lies and in that case it would be worth a libel case.

    So basically it’s all bollocks and it’s just trying to control the media. It’s pathetic. I want to know what’s going on at the club and that will only happen when the club isn’t controlling what comes out of the club.

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  52. TDS @121 – totally agree. A press conference the day before our first game of the season should be about football.
    For channel 4 asking about media bans is entirely their own agenda – why ask the question the day before the season kicks off. They know what response they would get from NUFC on that on.
    If Newcastle felt the need to explain the media ban, they could and would release their own statement on the matter. They wouldn’t need channel 4 to ask them the question in a press conference.

    Even if the club were totally honest and explained what the issue is – by doing so they would be explaining their problem with the media … Do we think the press would print themselves in a bad light, or would they print it that NUFC had the problem. Either way, that route isn’t going to resolve the matter – if anything it will make it worse.

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  53. Sharpy – That’s why they wanted to ask in a press conference, so everyone can see what they said. That means the press wouldn’t be able to print themselves in a good light.

    But I will ask you too. Do you think every question will be about the game? Or are journalists different from each other when it suits?

    Also do you think it’s acceptable that the club ban journalists for printing true stories just because it doesn’t suit their ‘message’?

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  54. Stu – to answer your last question first – I think the press target NUFC and know that Ashley’s unpopularity sells papers. The difficulties that the club has went through in previous seasons has made us a bit of a laughing stock and easy target – and the press play on that. A prime example for me was when FIFA was blown apart – yet the headlines were Cisse had a girlfriend when he got married.
    Clubs always have problems with the press. Fergie always did and I regularly see managers cutting conferences short – LVG & Jose are regularly short with journos in their conferences.
    Players like Giggs & Rio for example have taken gagging orders out to shut the press up in the past.
    Would the conference be just about the game – highly unlikely. But the other questions would be about injuries and transfers in & out.

    Why should McClaren face questions about media bans to promote non football headlines the day before his first game as Newcastle head coach?.
    If people really give a ****, why wasn’t it asked when Mc was on Talksport – either by the lads on the show, or any of the fans ringing, texting or emailing in?

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  55. McClaren is there to answer questions of a football nature – this was made clear by the club. Non-football questions are better directed to Charnley.

    Besides, who knows what the real story is. All we have is some sensationalist report from one side of the story. I for one like to have at least two sides of an argument before making my own mind up.

    It’s a matter of personal preference, though. If someone wants to believe one person without hearing the other, that’s their concern.

    Anyone who takes a newspaper or television report on face value is a gullible fool in my opinion.

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  56. Listening to “tunnel of love” now. As inspiring as Local Hero.

    So let’s get this season going.

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  57. As for the thread… I gave my opinion in the last thread … around 10th, on the lower side of it, but I wouldn’t expect a relegation struggle. If a were to give a result in a prediction game I’d go for 2-1 or 1-0 to us, but I always give that result no matter who we are playing.

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  58. Not making any prediction…. just want to enjoy the season without too many expectations.. just hoping for a surprise or two and see some good football….

    I see the defenders of free press our out in force again…. ffs who gives a **** about the press… let em fight their own battles..

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  61. Still one spot left in the h2h league. Otherwise we go into the season with 19 players and a ring-in. Where’s Solanos Trumpet when you need him?

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  62. Eric – it’s a beautiful piece of music that isn’t it mate. I’ve been him in concert a few times at Newcastle City Hall and inevitably he’s always finished with that … It blows ya tits off live!!.

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  67. Do you think it’s acceptable that the club ban journalists for writing true articles because it doesn’t suit the agenda the club want to have?

    Also another; Is it acceptable to control what comes out of the club by controlling the media they speak to just so the supporters don’t find out everything that is happening?

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  69. If a political party took the stance that NUFC do with the press, how quickly do you suppose that party would be elected? I thought we lived in a country of free speech, sometimes that means stuff gets written that individuals don’t want to hear/see but that’s life. If outright lies are printed/spoken then the person/persons affected have the right to sue and should. This is not about fighting the press corner, like any other organisation they can have their own agenda, it’s about us being open and honest as a club with the fanbase.

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  70. ya think a press bans more important than a defence that falls over at the first sign of breeze 😯

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  71. All major companies have PR departments who manipulate the media, have their favourites and refuse to give access to others. Is what is happening at NUFC anything way beyond the norm? I don’t think so. However, those who want to have a go at NUFC are making a mountain out of a molehill of an opportunity. Situation normal.

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  72. Come on then, who’s Gona take the last spot in Bros’ fantasy league? It’s free, quick and easy.

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  73. TAE, Both are important, the press are hopefully free to report on the fragility of our back line without getting banned .

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  74. Prem – NUFC is not a ‘Normal’ business in afraid. The majority of their income comes form the very people they hate – the media! NUFC have customers (supporters) who have a emotional stake in the club and therefore have a right to know what is actually happening at the club, not just what the club want you to know. That suggests things are happening that they don’t want us to know about.

    What do they have and you for that matter against free speech and freedom of expression? Isn’t that what millions of people died for during the war? if you’re happy with that then God help you.

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  75. Stu – in short yes to both.

    Kim – there’s a big difference. A political party is a public service – they are elected by the public to service the public. Whether we like it or not NUFC is a business owned by Mike Ashley. They don’t breach any rules in the way they operate. They have improved the communications with the fans and that’s what’s important to me.

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