With the news this morning that Steven Taylor is out for the rest of the season, and Newcastle's unlucky loss at Chelsea yesterday, I'm interested in you toon fans opinions over whether this is basically your top 4 bid over. All the other top teams are continuing or beginning to play well, and with Taylor and probably Coloccini injured, will your rock solid defence continue. I think this is what was keeping you at the top this season, and now you have lost an integral part I think you won't do as well and will end up dropping down the table. Let me know what you guys think.
I think it will depend on whether the replacements step up and put the effort in that those two did. Colo is short term and will be back alongside his partner of last season who is more than capable at this level, so I don't think we're out of it just yet if we were to gain top 4. Should say I don't think we'll be top 4.
We never had a top 4 bid, we deserved to be there but top 10 or top 8 was and still is the target. Taylor looks like he may be out for the season but we still have Coloccini and Williamson who are a good partnership and we are likely to buy in January.
We were never bidding for top 4. No one thought we were going to get top 4 Or top 5 Or top 6 7th? Most likely.
The way I see it, The Manchesters, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, and whether I like it or not, the Scousers will all finish above us. After that, who's better than us in the league? I see Villa as our nearest competition to 7th spot.
Was that thread title really necessary? What sort of replies are you expecting, given that? Newcastle fans seem to have a realistic view, from what I've seen. Fantastic start to the season and some real progress, but the squad will struggle to maintain it for the whole season, so they'll be very happy with a top 7 finish. European qualification would be a fantastic achievement. Good luck to them. They've spent virtually nothing, Pardew's improved his reputation no end and the players are all working their arses off for him. If they keep scouting out players as well as they have done so far, then they can re-establish themselves as a regular fixture in the top half of the table.
Don't quote me on that, but that's how long it took me last time and I was fine for about a year before I did it again.
Aye Colo should hopefully be back this month, he and Williamson are solid enough. Santon still to come into the side as well.
Implying that normal service in recent years hasn't seen Newcastle near the top and the top 5 or 6 from the previous years are beginning to start playing really good football. As a moderator I would have expected you to be smart enough to understand that...
Agree with everything except Villa as our main competition. They really play ****e football. They have the second worst possession stats this season and the second worst shots and shots on target this season. Yup, you guessed it, Stoke are last in each department. I think Everton and Stoke will be our closest rivals.
Sums it up. I don't wanna see it as like "ooh we were in the top 3 but now we're slipping down the table" because that's how the media will put it and if we finish around 7th they'll say we've had a bad season after all that. Looking at the big picture, we're 6th 14 games in, 26 points, after playing ManU, ManC, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, winning a derby day away, and beating Stoke comfortably on their own turf, which is apparently impossible And I'm very happy with that.
I'd say Villa or Everton to be honest, but I really just think that's how it is. I think it'll be the top 6, a 4 or 5 points gap, us, a 4 or so points gap, then one of Villa or Everton. And then the rest of the table. That's at the minute, anyway. We'll see how that turns out
