Pardew: I’m Ashley’s dream manager, but I need better players

Posted on October 17th, 2012 | 74 Comments |

Alan Pardew.
Pardew: More hot air.
Alan Pardew has revealed to the Shields Gazette that though he feels that Mike Ashley has found the manager of his dreams at last, he’s going to need players who can pass the ball better to improve the team.

Although some of us might say that the teams problems in possession might have something to do with Pardew’s direct style with lots of very long passes to go astray, Pardew has chosen to blame the quality of the players in his current squad. Newcastle currently make the third highest amount of passes over both 25 and 35 yards in the Premiership, behind his Reading protege Brian McDermott, and of course, Stoke City.

Speaking on the recent eight year contracts handed to himself and his assistants recently, and how he feels Mike has found his dream manager at last after being let down by predecessors such as Chris Hughton and Kevin Keegan, Pardew reflected:

“I don’t know how long that’s going to last, or how many times that’s happened to a Newcastle manager before. A lot of it’s to do with Mike. Mike had been hurt by football. Previous managers and regimes he’d had looking after the club, I don’t think he felt comfortable that they were doing as perhaps he thought they should. I think, in me, he’s seen that I’m doing it in a controlled manner, in a correct businesslike manner, but also trying to perform the team beyond our expectations. That’s what I’m about. I think that’s what he’s about in his business. He wants to take on the big boys – Nike, Adidas or whatever (carefully missing out the club’s current kit partners Puma there – WT) – and I want to take on the big boys here. It is about trying to get the best you can with you’ve got. I haven’t got Manchester City’s hand here. I haven’t got Man United’s – I haven’t even got Tottenham’s, in my opinion – but I’ve still got a strong hand, and I’ll try to make it stronger.”

Moving on, he also spoke of his Danny Simpson headache. As you probably know, Simpson’s contract expires at the end of the season, and with Mike Ashley so far refusing to offer him a contract which is on a par with his first team colleagues. Hence it’s looking increasingly like he will going for a far more lucrative contract at another club as he will be available without the encumberance of a transfer fee once this season is over. On this Pardew commented:

“The market’s very small for us. We want players better than what we’ve got, and it’s difficult. Right back is an area where there’s a bit of a question mark, as Danny has not signed a contract at this football club.”

Thanks to the owners parsimony in refusing to pay the going rate for quality players, the club have also faced something of a mini crisis in the centre back department, with versatile James Perch having to be drafted into that position thanks to injuries with Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini

“We probably need another centre-back, I think that’s pretty obvious. We were a bit unfortunate not to get one in the last window.”

However this runs contrary to the earlier words of Managing Director Derek Llambias, who revealed how any Newcastle United activity in the next transfer window would be unlikely, and also how he viewed the first team squad as a collection of Casino chips. In his model, he explained that the club can only afford to have 11 purple high value chips (one for each position) in the side, with lower value up and coming casino chips fighting for a place, and ready to step in when the purple chips are injured.

“We’ve made it quite clear to everyone” said the football genius. “We have 11 positions that are grade A players or ‘purples’, as we call them. Then, under them, we have the players who come in to take the positions so the squad gets bigger. Eventually we’ll have 33 players who will be pushing for a first-team position. Where we are now is that we have, in effect, 11 purples if you count Anita – he can play midfield, right-back, left-back. They are there. In the centre-back area you have Colo and Steven Taylor, who are fantastic centre-backs. Could we bring in another centre-back then? You have Perchy who is doing a fantastic job, Willo who is doing a fantastic job. You can’t have two purples per position because the club can’t afford it. You have to be realistic.”

However, Llambias also reassured fans recently with his usual mantra that the income from the club’s next sponsorship deal with online loan shark Wonga would “put another player on the pitch.”

Getting back to the Silver Supremo though, in typical style, he began expressing his frustrations to the press by expressing that he doesn’t express his frustrations to the Press, and also, seemingly contradicting his own remarks above (“It’s about trying to get the best you can with you’ve got”):

“I think Mike respects me in that I haven’t done it through the Press. I’ve done it in the right manner, in my opinion, in the boardroom. I’ve made it very, very clear that if we’re going to compete with the top clubs we need to pass the ball better, and we need to retain possession. If we’re going to retain possession, we need better players. If we’re going to get better players, not only have we got to produce our own, we’re going to have to search high and low to get the best. We’ve got great confidence in (chief scout) Graham Carr and our scouting team – there are a lot of footsoldiers underneath him – that we’re going to produce our own.”

Of course, managers ALWAYS want better players, that goes without saying. However, this does fly in the face of the reality somewhat. Newcastle United’s players HAVE been very good overall technically when they have been set up in the right way. A motif this season has been the team getting off to a poor start in a few games, possibly going down by a goal or two after losing possession once two often from some long punt which goes astray. With the middle of the pitch often dominated by the opposition as Pardew holds fast to the 90s “kick and rush” methods he learned at Reading, Newcastle then find themselves having to loft the ball over the yawning chasm between the front two and the rest of the team. Once the inevitable happens however, the team will then belatedly change, setting themsleves up they way they should have done from the start. They will then look like a different team, though they then have to play catch up. This has led to a few games where they have come out with one point when it could have been three. However, rather than learning from the experience, Pardew will just repeat the same mistake in the next game. Under these circumstances, the players have been for the most part magnificent in coming back from these head starts, but Pardew is once again attempting to pass the buck for his own tactical shortcomings on to them.

He needs to be a leader, accept his responsibilities and use the considerable talent he already has at his disposal in the right way from the start of games, as looking at the previous record of his parsimonious handlers, the likes of Andrés Iniesta and David Silva won’t be arriving anytime soon.

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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.

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74 Responses

  1. Astonishing.

    Pardew has Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Jonas, Cisse and Ba who are all very capable of passing a ball as the back end of last season proved.

    The reason we don’t retain the ball is because of his direct tactics, in a system that has zero movement and a rather large gap between midfield and defence. But I did wonder how long it would be for him to comment on possession problems and blame the players opposed to his early 90’s tactical set up.

    Sort the bloody formation out, play the players in a system which suits them and not just you, and pull your tongue out of Ashley’s a**hole.

    Big game on Sunday…

  2. anyone watch England game tonight? anyone think Lewandowski looks like a really good player? potential buy?

  3. I actually think it’s scary that he probably believes it’s all because he needs better players to keep the ball than down to his tactics…

  4. What makes lambarse think that were going to have a full strength team out every week? Doesnt happen very often! These 2 talk to much if you ask me. Proper patter merchants, make themselves look like diks constantly. In my opinion we wont win nixy qwith the fringe players we have. Not good enough at all

  5. Correct me if I’m wrong but retain possession isn’t this a work for CM’s… and if I must speak with names Cabaye and Tiote? So… does Pardew said that we need better CM to play more with the ball?

  6. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for Pardwho !

    The pattern emerges form his previous spells at WHU, Saints an of course Charlton.

    He begins well but then chooses to alienate the playing staff rather than examine his own indadequacies and finally alineates the fans before getting the elbow.

    As JB and Brainiac have both mentioned, 4-4-2 does not make for a “passing game” which is why Rodgers, Mourinho or Guardiola dont bother with it.

    Pardwho claiming he wants better “passing players” is effectively alerting Cabaye’s, Tiote’s and even Ba’s agents to get them the feck out of here asap.

  7. AndyMac says:
    October 17, 2012 at 8:23 pm

    “As JB and Brainiac have both mentioned, 4-4-2 does not make for a “passing game” which is why Rodgers, Mourinho or Guardiola dont bother with it.”

    Andy, there’s more to football than formation, and there are different ways of playing a given formation. It’s about lots of different interactions. Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Cappello’s great Milan side were a 4-4-2 side who played attractive passing football which was absolutely devastating.

    It shouldn’t be forgotten that when Manchester United gave us a kicking kast time, rednose was employing a 4-4-2 diamond with Rooney, and when we gave them a kicking last season, we were using a 4-4-2 too. The argument shouldn’t be oversimplified.

  8. if his life depended on it pardew still couldn’t keep his trap shut.

    give him enough rope…

  9. bra1n1ac says:
    October 17, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    “Correct me if I’m wrong but retain possession isn’t this a work for CM’s”

    It’s something for the team working as a unit, and when the team loses the ball it is also about the team working as a unit to press and get it back bra1n1ac.

    Perhaps the main problem everyone moans about with “English” football isn’t about formation, it’s about players being too rigid within certain roles, like saying that the job of keeping possession belongs to one of the CMs, the job of getting it back and leaving the opposition striker in a crumpled heap is the job of the other one and so on…

  10. I think that Newcastle look fine passing the ball once the game has calmed down , its just the start of the game when the opposition run at us we cant deal with the pressure and pass it back to the goalkeeper and kick it out , also williamson is not very comfortable on the ball and is very happy to launch a long ball , also guti looks poor this season

  11. A 4-4-2 diamond get you :)

    Whether you agree or disagree WT we dont have the players, day in day out, for 4-4-2. Occasionally if we catch teams on a bad day we’ll upset them but for consistent performances throughout a season we need to have more players in contact with one another so leaving so called wide players on the wing is a no no.

    FFS did you not write “By around the 18-19 minutes into the game when the Red Devils were already two goals up and a shellshocked Silver Supremo switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 formation, Manchester United had 8 shots on goal to Newcastle United’s big fat 0. However, by half time, the figure was 10 to Newcastle United, and still only 8 to the visitors. In hindsight though, the damage was done”

    Dont fecking confuse your “Theories of Perfect Football” with the pot we’ve got to piss in right now !

  12. i have to ask the question?, does anyone take this clown seriously?
    how long is this bloke going to churn out this utter clap trap.
    just when you thought it could not get any more ridiculous, it gets more and more depressingly bizarre.
    of course he’s the perfect “coach” for ashley, and if he cannot see the reasons why, then he is suffering from delusions.

    i like to think of myself as just a little bit sensible, so when i hear the content of that interview, i’m lost for words, in all fairness.
    we are fresh from the derek llambias, “outer limits”, come “twilight zone”, come “tales of the unexpected”, complete waffle about purple players etc.
    i think he’s been on the purple hearts, never mind anything else.

    then you have pardew coming out with yet another, back tracking, contradicting, round in circles, complete nothingness of an interview.
    it’s frightening to think that these very people are running newcastle united.
    they are complete deluded nutters, it has to be said.

  13. “Newcastle fans celebrated in style outside St James’ Park after finally being allowed to call the famous old stadium by it’s original name once again.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2219088/Newcastle-fans-celebrate-St-James-Park-sign-restored.html

    So we’re now “allowed” to call it St James’s Park.

    Jimbob says:
    October 17, 2012 at 7:40 pm

    “But I did wonder how long it would be for him to comment on possession problems and blame the players”

    It isn’t the first time though Jimbob.

  14. I can’t believe that piece from Lambias about the ‘purples’. I thought a while back that the reason we didn’t sign a CB was because Lambias thought we had enough already with the 2 ‘first 11’ and the 2 back-ups. This shows that is pretty much exactly how he thinks and I was right. IMO Steven Taylor is now quite injury prone and Collo is going to get more injuries the sheer amount of games he has played and he is now 30+. Don’t get me wrong I like him as a person and a player and the club has rewarded his loyalty. Considering the financial limitations of the club however, I would rather have two CB’s on £40K a week and have 3 ‘purple chips’. That is what I think but hey what do I know compared to Lambias? :lol:

  15. TR73: Worky and I had a short conversation about the “purples” yesterday (you probably missed it since there was a lot of talk about Kenya). I (we?) think it is because the highest value poker chip in Vegas is purple and Dekka looks on his job at NUFC as just a big game/gamble. Maybe he even looks at it as a bit of a joke given the bet he made to run around the former Sports Direct Arena naked.

  16. @10 i think gutierrez looks a totally different player when switched to cm. Against man j he was only playrr showing for the ball

  17. If we font sign a centre half at least with real pedigree in january it will be nothing short of a travesty. Whosguna help me with the other end of the banner outside the ground come feb?

  18. Lets see if pardue-the sack,has enough juice in his lone testicle to play 4-3_3 on sunday,play fergie again,stop asking benny to play defensively,tell tiote he is not xavi,tell jonas he is no winger(assists guti)and remind cisse he wears the number 9,and slap the cornrows out of ranger.3 points against absolute scum be thee reward…

  19. sampdiago says:
    October 18, 2012 at 9:38 am

    “Lets see if pardue-the sack,has enough juice in his lone testicle”

    Thanks for that image sampdiago.

  20. worky, i knew they would end up having a few divvies standing outside, making us look stupid, as per usual.
    as far as i’m concerned, the whole thing is a farce, ashley created this whole thing out of thin air, it’s up there with fiat currency etc.
    was the name anyone’s to change to begin with?, i cannot understand how people are falling for this manipulation.
    are we now so dummed down in this country, that we will now swallow, and accept and old b****x?
    then again there are people who still think the x factor is real !

  21. TROJAN RECORDS 73 says:
    October 18, 2012 at 10:58 am

    “worky, i knew they would end up having a few divvies standing outside, making us look stupid, as per usual.”

    Trojan, do you remember that time when a Yank tank pulled Saddam’s statue down in Baghdad, and they rounded up about 150 locals to hit it with their shoes, along with all the TV camera crews from the BBC, CNN etc?

    That’s what it reminded me of.

  22. “I’m from a council estate, and I’m a working class person – I understand what they want,” Pardew told the Gazette.

    Well I’m a Newcastle United supporter and I’m not from a council estate, Alan.

  23. You idiots on here are just the kind of deluded, fickle fans who give this club such a bad name. You only hate Mike and Alan because you are jealous of them and their success, which is something you lot will never have as you live from one dole check to the the next. We have won, so just SHUT UP, move on and let the real fans get on with getting behind the team for once. Newcastle United can do without you and your kind!

  24. Not him again! where do all these freaks come from? sometimes I think that Ashley and Llambias have got someone at SJP just making all these characters up!

  25. i hate international breaks. we’ve had f*** all to talk about for the last fortnight and now we’re turning on our manager before the derby ffs.

    give it a rest man……

  26. aye worky, it was an orchestrated gathering of shia’s, who had been opressed during his reign, and was not a balanced view of the whole populace.

  27. tattyheed says:
    October 18, 2012 at 4:10 pm

    “i hate international breaks. we’ve had f*** all to talk about for the last fortnight and now we’re turning on our manager before the derby ffs.”

    Tattyheed, I’m the man (singular) who stood up for Joe Kinnear against all the idiots who thought he was Bobby Gould and judged him accordingly, even though he was a good coach who could play football they way it should be played. I also defended Chris Hughton against the same know-nothings. I will defend anyone but with Newcastle United, most of all I will defend our players, that’s what getting behind the team is all about, not getting behind “Mike” and “Alan” with their meaningless flannel.

    In many respects, Pardew’s situation is the opposite of Kinnear. Where Kinnear was actually an advocate of passing football who was mistkenly perceived as a “long ball” manager just because he superceeded the abovementioned Gould at Wimbledon (and taught the Dons how to play properly), Pardew is a kick and rush manager who is dressing himself up as Alan Pardiola. He is blaming situations due to his own tactical errors on his own players not being good enough when they have been absolutely magnificent for the most part. Their great skill has got Pardew out of jail on several occaisions and they deserve better.

  28. toontony says:
    October 18, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    “Not him again! where do all these freaks come from? sometimes I think that Ashley and Llambias have got someone at SJP just making all these characters up!”

    toontony, I have nursed a similar hypothesis for quite some time, though it has never quite made it to the stage of being a “theory”. There have been instances of organistions using interns and “identity management software” to create lots of internet sockpuppets to mould opinion online on newspaper sites, forums and special interest blogs like this one. However, even my hypothesis were true, I really don’t think that SMA would fall into that category, otherwise he would almost certainly be more emollient. He would write something like:

    “Hey guys, we all know that Ashley has made mistakes and I have been one of his fiercest critics in the past, but he has he has learned from them now and we now have no debt, we came fifth last season and with Pardew we are moving onwards and upwards. So why can’t we just get behind the team and let Mike and Derek do what they do best and so on blah blah…” :-)

  29. they are at it again in tonights chronic, spouting the same absolute failed wag the dog rubbish.
    as usual pardew is front and centre, giving the same drivel, we have heard from him, time and time again.
    how ashley isn’t afraid to think big, 7 centre halfs on a shortlist, for january etc,etc, etc, blaaa, blaaa, blaaa.

    i keep hearing from pardew about how mike ashley is dedicated to the cause, wants to do well.
    so if this is the case, then why has alan pardew in the past, came out in different interviews, and said ashley needs to be constantly cajoled and motivated?
    hardly the actions of a gung ho owner, who is looking for glory, is it!

    the bottom line is, and always has been, and always will continue to be the case, as long as he is here.
    he will be interested in newcastle, as long it isn’t costing him anything, and it chugs along, and continues to be his sports direct billboard.

  30. Be glad to see some football again, this weekend, instead of that boring and for the most part increasingly irrelevant international game.

    And yes the same old nonsence coming from NUFC, where it’s a trio of self congratulating football genius’s, the blind leading the blind.

    When Ashley finally figures out that well run football clubs hire knowledgable football people , not refugees from some gambling casino and a failed manager, though neither lack chutzpa, it’s become obvious to most they are bullshitting their way through.
    But that probably has more to do with the fact Ashley is a control freak and only hires sycophants.
    It’s plain to see the only successful part of the club is the scouting system, why can’t he repeat that by hiring a manager who knows how to play the modern game and give some authority to a GM with a track record.
    As long as our owner has to sanction every dime thats spent and he hangs onto these two clowns, this club will go nowhere.

  31. Ahh, not this again… Give Alan Pardew some space, lads. Yes, he speaks a lot, yes he seems like a confident guy. (and yes, the team have certainly had their issues lately…) But who else from the club speaks frequently? Dekka opened his mouth once and are being quoted all the time now, but i can see why AP keeps talking. It’s not like Dekka are going to communicate with the fans frequently from now on…

    The derby match are just a couple of days away, give the team and the manager all the support they deserve as our current unit coloured in black and white . Howay the lads!

  32. For me the bottom line is the results/ style of play and the entertainment that go’s with it. No manager is perfect, not even the ‘special one’. Can you imagine if we had whiskey nose FFS. Different people have different opinions on personality. Some people find Pardew a bit arrogant or outspoken, I just think he is a bit of a wally to be honest and he doesn’t think before he speaks to the press. Hughton was the opposite and it was like trying to get blood out of a stone. I’m not really that interested in that though, I’m more interested in the football. Until recently I thought the football has been a lot better under the current coach and manager than it was under Hughton/Kinnear. And the football was appalling under those managers at times which ever way wt tries to butter it up. (I’m not talking about the odd big win which was few and far between). I have been concerned with the way we have started this season however. The 4-4-2 is just suicide as we have all the wrong types of players for it. There was an interesting post-match interview with Pardew (after the Evton game I think)where he said, ‘it’s not all about formations it’s sometimes belief’. I think he recognises that people are pointing the finger but what is he doing about it. I don’t buy this belief crap, the players need to be in a suitable formation otherwise to me it is like a boxer having one arm strapped behind his back.

  33. With only 11 players good enough to play in the first team, you won’t compete for anything. It’s not possible. But hey, ask tomorrow and you may get the opposite in response.

    And what’s this “4-4-2 diamond”? When did we stop calling it 4-1-2-1-2? The formation MU played against us last is not at all the same formation AP lines up to start every game.

  34. DJG says:
    October 18, 2012 at 8:31 pm

    “No manager is perfect, not even the ‘special one’. Can you imagine if we had whiskey nose FFS. Different people have different opinions on personality. Some people find Pardew a bit arrogant or outspoken, I just think he is a bit of a wally to be honest and he doesn’t think before he speaks to the press.”

    LOL, DJG.

    Bob Paisley presided over Liverpool like a smiling Buddha and never put a foot wrong. Everyone loved him apart from Everton fans. In his nine years as a manager he won far more than whiskeynose ever has over over a similar period including three European Cups. He came from Hetton though so I suppose you’re right when you say that no manager is perfect. :-)

    My favorites tend to get restless once they reach a peak and want to rip things up and prove their point all over again. When Michels won the European Cup with Ajax, he buggered off to Barcelona to start a revolution there which you can still see today, ditto with Cruyff even more so. After he won Barcelona’s first European Cup as a manager in 1992, it was as if he wanted to destroy everything he’d built because he too had proved his point. In the 1994 final, he didn’t even put his best player, Laudrup, on the bench and he got hammered 4-0 by their great rivals, Capello’s Milan. Cruyff’s captain, Guardiola, was on top of the world and look at what he did once he’d taken Barcelona to the summit once again.

    Getting back to Paisley again though, he once said of Liverpool fans “All they want is honesty” Well that’s what I want too, but we don’t get it with Pardew.

  35. tunyc says:
    October 18, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    “And what’s this “4-4-2 diamond”? When did we stop calling it 4-1-2-1-2?”

    Aye Tunyc, good question. I actually prefer it the way you’ve done it

    The one that gets me though is “St James’ Park” which of course should be “St James’s Park.” I seem to recall that it was just “St James Park” over the old gates in the dim and distant past too without even the greengrocer’s apostrophe. Perhaps Chuck the old fogey can help me with that one as he used to go down there to watch Albert Shepherd et al. Is it deliberately wrong so it doesn’t get confused with the correctly named St James’s Park down here in London? That’s the best thing I can think of.

  36. Hmmm! appears to be something rotten in the state of Denmark ?
    Well actually Swansea, where prince Prince Michael (no no, not Hamlet) Laudrup is experiencing a revolt by senior players.
    Who claim they are unhappy with the style of football he is demanding, being happier playing the style played by former manager Rodgers.
    That plus they are further complaining about fitness levels, with some staying behind following training session in order to put in extra time.
    Not having won a game in the last five, seems to reflect perhaps he has lost the dressing room.
    Go’s to prove being a great player does not translate into being a good manager, ah well !

  37. DJG sez..
    I thought the football has been better under the current coach and manager, than it was under Hughton/Kinnear.

    I find it hard to believe you can slate a guy for winning the championship leage at a walk (Hughton), with no other team close to being in competition.
    Actually i would have either Kinnear or Hughton in a heartbeat over the bullshitter Pardew.
    just a different peception i guess.

  38. I’m afraid i’m as confused as you are cocerning the way the current sign looks and yes i would be inclined to use St. James’s Park as it is generally pronounced by Newcastle fans.
    However if one were to pronounce it St. James’ Park, in the manner of the London Park, i suppose it’s correct.
    But what do i know ?

  39. You’re just trying to rattle my cage, Chuck.

    As for the sign, it’s just what’s correct. It’s possessive, it’s singular, therefore it’s “St James’s.”

  40. chuck says:
    October 19, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    “I find it hard to believe you can slate a guy for winning the championship leage at a walk (Hughton),”

    Chuck, somehow I think there would have been an even bigger outcry than there was if Hughton was sacked after winning the Champions League at a walk! :-)

  41. Champions, championship, it’s the feckin second division and were in the first.
    I hate this aggrandizement of the first through fourth divisions (actually there was a third north division where Gatesheed played and a third south in my day)to save on travel money, i guess.
    But all the name changes do is cause confusion.
    If youre refering to the Prince of Denmark, you are again right of course, just could’nt resist it.

  42. I wish our players and manager would learn to Shut up before matches….they always end up looking stupid.

    Steven Taylor:
    When asked by reporters which Sunderland players would make it into the team he replied:
    “Not even one player. That is the quality we possess.
    “We say it all the time. Even last year the gaffer said it, he has our team above Sunderland.”

  43. If you made a book containing complete transcripts of Alan Pardew’s interview guff, it would make Marcel Proust’s “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” look like a pamphlet.

  44. toontony says:
    October 20, 2012 at 1:30 pm

    “A la Recherche Du what worky?”

    Toontony, I daresay you’ve heard of Tolstoy’s famously long novel, “War and Peace?” Well “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” is another novel which is about three times as long as that one. I tried to read it once but I got bogged down after a while, just as I do with the sheer volume of Pardew’s relentless verbiage sometimes.

  45. Worky this site’s like university challenge meets mastermind sometimes, but I always learn something new when I come on here!

    Is there going to be a match preview for the mackems?

  46. toontony says:
    October 20, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    “Is there going to be a match preview for the mackems?”

    I’m just waiting of Andy’s coming through, but sadly, he also mentioned something about going to the pub yesterday evening too, so we can only wait and hope.

  47. SJT: I liked Taylor’s interview. The bits about having no Sunderland friends and having mates from the England under 21s “but that was BEFORE they signed for Sunderland”.

    Great wind-up, hope we back it up.

  48. Worky, Chuck better not read the full Taylor interview, he will get on his high horse again about needless hatred etc.

  49. GS says:
    October 20, 2012 at 4:47 pm

    “Worky, Chuck better not read the full Taylor interview, he will get on his high horse again about needless hatred etc.”

    I divven’t knaa why he bothers with his lectures GS, it’s like trying to tell cats not to chase mice. He (and Bobby Moncur) are right though, it didn’t used to be like it is now at all back in the old days.

  50. Chuck, the mighty Prince of Denmark had Routledge playing in the middle as a kind of free roaming centre forward role today and he was inspired. His “Christmas Tree” formation beat Martinez’s “Christmas Pudding” formation 2-1. Routledge MOTM and yet another goal for Michu.

  51. Worky @57: I went to matches in the mid/late-70’s and rememeber our crowd only having disdain for Sunderland – the city, the team, the fans.

    I think the Mackems were in the Second Division most of this time so I didn’t see much of them, but still sang about them :)

  52. GS says:
    October 20, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    “I think the Mackems were in the Second Division most of this time so I didn’t see much of them, but still sang about them”

    I meant back in Chuck’s day GS, when all the men had handlebar moustaches, and Marie Lloyd was in her prime.

  53. Stephen, great to see you back on here again!

    LOL, I think that’s the ex shite tennis player, David Lloyd?

    She was the Queen of the music halls and sang “My old man said follow the van and don’t dilly dally on the way” amongst other things. Looked a bit like Cilla actually.

  54. Apologies to all for the late arrival of the preview.

    Helluva hangover and a right telling off from er indoors leads me to hope that I got the opposition right but not sure about the rest :(

  55. gremlin says:
    October 20, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    Score the morra boys? 2-1 town

    As I’m sure you know already gremlin, a draw at their place and a win at our place seems to be the norm in recent years. We’re both draw specialists at the moment too, the Tramps more than anyone.

    1-1 or an Archbishop Desmond 2-2?

    Might be wrong though.

    My optimistic side would say 2-1 to us like yourself, though if someone made me choose one it would be 2-2.

  56. Youv got a point like worky mate. I can see ben arfa puttinh a show on the morra like. Can feel a win in me water. Gana have a banging headache at graft munda. Kna that for sure