Shot Shy Toon

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That is some stat that.
Ridiculous.

 

We will be in a dogfight this year, make no mistake.

 

It was always gonna start this way because of who we have signed. Patience is required from the supporters. Pardew will undoubtedly get the flack, problem is he isn't the only one choosing the transfers. He has to take his share but the club policy has long been to look for cheap alternatives from weaker leagues and wait for them to adapt.

 

Why does this stat not surprise people. Nothing seems to have changed this season P3 no goals scored by Toon players.

 

I'd personally be knocking down QPR's door and asking for Remy. We need someone that will score us 15-20 goals a season, and that's Remy.

Riviere looks like a strong and quick player, but will probably take a season before he's hitting the net very often, and looks like he needs a presence along side him, because despite his physical presence, he is getting swamped by tight defences.

 

Those stats are worrying and for me it's down to the tactics employed by the manager. Only Souness has ever had more money to spend in one summer and spent most of that in the last week.

 

He hasn't really had that money to spend though has he? Its not like the money is spent the way he wants it spent. If it were we would have had some domestic first team players signed. Instead he has had to settle for a load of cheap hopeful foreign players and a couple of domestic guys for the future and one who played for our struggling rivals. Without being harsh on any of our new lads they all have international B team credentials except for Janmaat. SDJ can't make the dutch squad and has had injury issues. Cabella would not have been in the fench squad but for injuries. They are the best two. Then you have Riviere who is lord knows where in the French striker pecking order, Ferrerya likewise for Argentina.

They wanted to sign them but they were too expensive supposedly with one fee of 14m mooted. Not sure who that was but no English player moved for that so he must still be there. The one sure thing is that Pardew wanted players with domestic experience.

We have seen PL teams sign probably 30 plus (this is a rough guess, its probably a lot more) English players, players with PL experience or domestic based players though in this transfer window with more to follow. The question has to be if others are finding players, why can't we if our manager wants them. It would seem the club disagree with his views. If so, why do we still employ him? Why not get a manager who aligns with the overall club policy on transfers? Probably because there isn't one who be as cheap or put up with the ****e that goes on around him. I'm not defending him generally but i think it is strethcing it to align our money spent this summer to him.

 

Bit too apologist for me. Are you saying Pardew's "lumbered" with Cabella, De Jong and Janmaat? Would you rather he was allowed to spend £12m on Rhodes? I'm not saying these views are wrong, btw, just getting a feel for what you think should be allowed and at what point Pardew is in the docks being judged.

Cabella went to the World Cup, but is understandably behind Ribery, Martins and Valbuena in the pecking order of France. SDJ, as Cove pointed out to me, has had to content with Sneijder, Strootman and Van Der Vaart, among others - but he has caps, and looks very good for a team that finished 10th, for a team that - for whatever reason, I concede - has the poorest goals and shots record in the entire of English football.

You mention all the players with PL experience who have moved, but who in your opinion should/would have gone to Newcastle United? A team who, bereft of just ONE player, cannot win games?!

 

Anyway which way we dress it up Cabella and SDJ are B internationals. This is not a case of just not being considered good enough for the first team XI, they were not considered good enough to make the 23 man prior to injuries. I'm not saying he has been lumbered with anyone though. I think those three are decent signings, I would strongly contest though that they are not his signings. Whether him being afforded full control would have resulted in better signing was not the point I was making. I am simply saying you cannot really say he has been allowed to spend more than previous managers, different times and different transfer policies. He has had quite a bit of financial resource generated froms sales of our best players used to build a squad for him to manage is a more accurate assessment. He wanted domestic players. I'd imagine he'd have liked the likes of Ince, Shawcross, Davies etc. B internationals who had knowledge of the league.

Who would I have liked to seen here from domestic players? Shawcross mainly. I think Caulker would have been a good signing (we might have scored from a corner for a start if we had someone who would attack the ball!). I think a move for Curtis Davies would have been successful. I think Ince would have done well here. I think Will Hughes would have been a good signing. I think Cresswell who went to West ham looked a good players. Danny Ings and Kieron Trippier at Burnley. Obviously we'd all have liked to see Lukaku, Lambert, Lallana but can accept it was a non starter. To be honest there are loads of domestic players I like the look of. We don't need a team of them and I don't think Pardew is suggesting that, but a spine of Shawcross, Hughes and Ings for instance could have been a good start.

Pardew is always being judged. I'd have disposed of his services at the end of last season personally. The again I'd have never employed him. I think the fans jumping off the deep after 3 games or at all is pointless really. It doesn't push him closer to the exit but does work against the team. I have yet to see any clear evidence of a benefit of pissing and moaning. We are stuck with this until one man decides otherwise, no amount of fan pressure seems to influence that so what is the point. If he was going to fall to fan pressure, you can't honestly think that would have come about over the last two seasons. It has been non stop negativity from fans about him ever since Demba Ba departed.

 

I don't disagree with your list of players, but I did say of those that had moved. Shawcross, Davies, Ings, Hughes all stayed put (for now). Cresswell isn't a priority and Caulker is debatable at the price.

And the problem the club has is in wanting to see good football, we'll always be let down. That buck will always stop with Pardew. So you get disappointment, followed by vitriol and even if you're right in that the fans cannot force him out, the only thing that will replace vitriol is apathy. With that comes dwindling support and serious mediocrity, as if we weren't experiencing enough of that already!

Remember when the government changed how the NHS was run and decided they needed targets, a corporate 'feel', to make it more efficient and run better? I compare that to NUFC under Ashley. Under Shepherd (ptooie) we were happy go lucky, typical football team where your ambition is measured on how badly you run your books. £17m for Owen? Absolutely, why not? Sod the books, Barclays will lend us more. Ashley span that too far the other way, and we have bonuses rewarded for balancing books, for keeping salaries down, for selling players at massive profits and to add to it all have a minimum target of 10th set for the league. It matters not one jot how we get to 10th, if that's done through 0-0's every week, so be it, it's of no consequence. However, towards the end of last season things changed a bit. Ashley brought himself onto the board. The club started spending money (not at a net loss, but spending the money it had brought in, still something of a sea change). Sports Direct starting selling more NUFC merchandise. Commercial visit was arranged for Down Under. Commercial revenues were revisited with Puma. Young players were bought and loaned back. Money was spent on attacking talent. All of this is designed to make NUFC plain and simply more attractive. I no longer believe Pardew to be bulletproof. The excuses he was allowed to trot out last season have all gone. The club has reinvested where he claimed they should. He asked for players, he got them. He will now be expected to deliver and if he loses the crowd, he will lose matches and if he loses enough matches he will lose his job.

 

I would like to think you are right that he is not bulletproof. I think you'll probably find otherwise unless we are in serious danger of going down. Like it or not 3 games in, that will never be the case for Ashley. So the point remains, Ashley has what he wants and he doesn't care what the fans think.

 

no surprises there then....personally I think going back to 433 will solve a lot of the issues but at the moment the main objective seems to be defend til youre blue in the face and hope to score a scrappy goal