Where do we go from here then?

We will not be drifting anywhere near the top 10 if recent performances are anything to go by. I agree with 2Silver. At this moment in time I dont give a hoot about any of our players leaving. I think some have the ability to change this but right now we need to see some good consistent performances from them. If we do stay up I think pardew will stay unfortunately consigning us to another season of tactically inept hoof ball played by a group of unfit individuals most of whom can barely be arsed to give it their all.

 

I too doubt that Alan Pardew will be sacked in the summer but then we all try to play the Mike Ashley guessing game and just really dont know. He does his own thing regardless of what the majority of fans seem to think. As for drifting along as a mid table team i have no doubt that if Mr Ashley is making money he wont be disappointed but he didnt get where he is by drifting along. Like it or not Sports Direct is probably the best sports shop around and despite the recession is still making money hand over fist and i believe he will want Newcastle United to also be just as successful but yes will want to do it in a financially sensible way which generally speaking is what has happened up to now.
A lot on here speak of not being in the top ten but lets face it from one season to the next a bit of good fortune here and there as opposed to a bit of bad can easily be the difference over the season of maybe 5 or 6 extra wins and given that we are actually only 5 points from 10th place and 10 points from 8th it shows how little there is between the majortity of P.L. teams.
Obviously i am as desperate as anyone for us to stay up, as for which players stay or go i feel that knee jerk reactions like thinking some of these players are worldbeaters when clearly they are not ranging to the opinion that all of these are rubbish when clearly they are not does not help. A clear head will be needed in the summer. Some need to go, some will go even though we dont want them to, some we would prefer to go will stay and yes new signings will come but probably not enough to satisfy everyone. In my opinion we have the basis of a good squad but its always hard to say who to sign as we dont know who will leave. Assuming that Collo and Simmo are leaving as expected i would like a good striker, a good central defender to replace Collo, a good full back (probably left side) and another good winger plus replacing any other "blue chip" players that leave. If we do go down though its a completely new ball game. As for the players we have it must be remembered that many foreign players dont produce their best in the first season let alone half a season so we have quite a few who hopefully are going to be a lot better next season.
As for Pardew, many were singing Alan Pardews black n white army as recently as the Sunderland game (pre goals) yet a couple of games later (yes bloody awfull performances) and he needs to be sacked. None of us know the future but it has to be remembered that he got an 8 year deal to give the club stability which means riding out the storms to keep the continuity to hopefully learn from it then progress instead of throwing everything out and trying to start again. Sir Alex Ferguson was on the edge of the sack at one stage early on yet look where he is now and David Moyes has also suffered poor times and fan pressure at Everton but they kept him and generally on a tight budget done quite well so much so he is being touted as Fergies successor. Therefore in my opinion Alan Pardew needs to stay and probably will. Whether that proves to be the right thing or not who knows.
Keep the faith, heres hoping for a win for us at Q.P.R. and P.L. survival.

 

Agree with these.

Would really like to keep Krul + Colo, as they will be so hard to replace. But everyone else could be easily replaced with the money we'd get for them. Worst thing about our current squad is just how injury prone everyone seems to be. Even our so-called star players have either been out injured, or had poor seasons.

On their day, with everyone fit and in form, the squad is cracking. Unfortunately, we haven't seen them all fit and in form this season.

 

Yep, spot on – our two best players are Krul and Colo, with Coloccini edging it for me. Technically the best bar none and the only leader/captain material at the club.

Sadly we've had to accept he's halfway out the door since January...

 

Imagine if Colo hadn't wanted to leave so badly? 8th place or better, maybe?

Also, I know this is utterly speculative, but this situation has happened with Pardew in place before. Charlton, Southampton...important players seemingly being unavailable and all because this fox couldn't keep his zipper up.

 

It appears this season his love affairs are with Jonas and Shola.

 

If Colo hadn't have been "injured" which we have to believe was true, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in.

I remember that Pardew rumor being popular amongst Southampton fans, but who knows whether it had any substance.
What I do remember is myself and fellow Toon fans being shall we say, non-plussed by Pardew's appointment over Chris Hughton – mainly due to his dodgy Premier League record.

When he took over he did great and last year was first class, so fair play to the bloke. The media had a field day with it crowing over how stupid we were to question his appointment.
Funny isn't it how all that stuff has gone quiet now he's reverting to form isn't it?

It's almost as if the Geordie fans know what they're talking about...

 

I cannot figure it - I know none of us are involved in football management, but come on...what the f does he see in either? Shola, last resort, sure..but still, wouldn't Gouff be a better impact sub?

 

Well, all we know about the Colo situation is it's something to do with his missus. Do we know more than that? Other than that she's fcked off to Argentina. And, to be fair, a lot of us would like to see Pardew at least that far away from this club, so go figure.

Lot of Hammers said he'll give you 12 months then it'll turn to sh1t. Ho hum. I don't even think he really manages. I think he's like Souness.

 

I'd like to see something like this next season -

-------Cisse-------Carroll----------

Ben Arfa--Cabaye--Tiote----New RM

M'Bengue---MYM--Saylor---Debuchy

-------------Krul-----------------

I'd like to be a defensively solid, well organised side that can produce quality, but also makes use of long balls.

Have the sort of set up above gives you a lot of different things. The ability to play it on the ground, pass through teams and cute them open, but also the ability to play direct football if your opponent is a tough nut to crack.

We also need to get better at set plays.

I'd like a pacey RM that can cross. Ben Arfa on the left, but we can rotate the wingers around. Ben Arfa has the ability to spot and pick out players. His balls into the box can be excellent,

 

Well I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been quite a staunch Pardew supporter on this forum. I think in the beginning he changed my opinion with results and that's really all a manager can do.

I wanted the club to stick with him but really stick with any decent manager and stop chopping and changing – but that has to be within logical reason.
For me going from an unexpected 5th place to 4th bottom (possibly worse) in a year is unprecedented extremes. It's not even as if performances have been good and we've been unlucky.
It eventually reaches a point where the manager is untenable and action has to be taken.

But yeah, had we been comfortably safe around 10th (a failure of sorts after last year) I genuinely wouldn't have a problem and wouldn't want him sacked at all.

I don't think NUFC fans really ask for that much these days, so to be put through the mill like this again is inexcusable...

 

Well, for the club to even consider bringing in Carroll for this team they must be smoking something strong. In fact if Mandy was picking his next club on style of play and suitability to his game, Newcastle would be right at the foot of the list.

So yeah you're gonna need those new wingers who can actually cross a ball. Not convinced Benny has a future on the left wing either, but I accept he's a pain to accommodate.

One thing for sure, we need to get back to basic defensively and be solid there for sure. A big problem for us this season has been converting draws into losses, wins into... yeah, losses.

 

The best thing a Geordie can do is never pick up a paper. It's the same old spaff - loyal, yet thick, and ultimately unrealistic in expectations, yada yada. To my mind, we were spoilt by KK in 1995. Yep. After that, most of us said - that'll do me, if I am entertained every week and win nowt, fine. After that we got Dalglish, then Gullit was employed because of "sexy football" - both of whom underwhelmed massively - before SBR took us back to what we wanted. Then the disaster of Souness, then a mess of management after that with nobodies like Roeder having a punt. Owners changed hands and still, to this day, we have been deprived of the only thing we wanted.

The media sneer at this notion, that its more important to win things. Tell me, who won the League Cup in 2010 - without Googling it. But tell me the order of goalscores in Newcastle 5 - 0 Man U and you'll know in minutes. There's a misguided notion that it's all about trophies, but it's not. It's about that day, that performance, that game. Some kids turn up to games knowing they can't see another in a year. Is it acceptable that the game they watch is 0-6 vs Liverpool? No, that's someone's money, someone's time, someone's life that these overpaid ****ers dismiss. Football is wrong, the supporters don't know why but one day the world will turn and we'll see what happens.

 

Well yeah, I mean the mainstream football media caters for the masses and in the main we're talking about people who want Premier League glory from their armchairs.

They wanted a piece of the Premier League when it became fashionable and picked a team to 'support' from the newspaper – Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea basically whoever was winning.
Buy a shirt, talk about how exciting the latest 'Super Sunday' was and feign how tragic it'll be if they ONLY get Champions League qualification and perhaps a Charity Shield this year.

The problem is exacerbated when it's these same knuckle draggers who get a gig writing the back pages. Monkeys with typewriters, monkeys with typewriters.

I genuinely think they despise clubs like Newcastle because they know it's all about something different up here, a kind of purity they'll never enjoy...

 

2Silver called it ,football is a commodity and something to sell nothing else.Rumours that Manure will buy Ronaldo only stumping so much and Nike paying the rest well that defines it.Sky came in,everyone got rich but they will only pander to 5/6 clubs so they can sell their subscrictions world wide and people get paranoid that they will get the decisions,not sure about that but you might as well be selling wingnuts!

 

Whilst MYM needs time, him and Saylor look anything but solid. Not a single leader bar AC in that team either. If times got tough, I fear we'd fold like a pack of cards again.

 

Why? We don't have a style anymore. We were playing great 4-3-3 attacking football with a style and structure, then we switched to this ****e 4-4-2 system that Pardew thought could work because it beat Chelsea.

All Pardew did was pick a formation that he thought would make Ba and Cisse both happy. So instead of playing our good 4-3-3 system that got results, he switched to 4-4-2, and from then on we didn't have a game plan.

It was just hope that Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa could get goals and try and keep goals out. We started to play direct football after that.

Cisse needs a partner that suits him and can't play by himself up front. Carroll knocking down for Cisse could very well work.

We also need players that can cross. The last quality delivery we put into the box we scored from. Marveaux with an inswinger vs Ahzni.

 

Agreed. I just can't think of another CB we'd bring in.

Douglas would be good. Him and MYM would make a good partnership IMO, plus Douglas is a captain.