On The Air: 48 Points And Other Ambitions

It's time for the IWIWAG official preseason podcast, as Phil, Matt and Bob use Alan Pardew's 48-point plan for success as a springboard to explore potential dreams and nightmares of the coming campaign. Who will explode? Who will implode? Who will sail and who will derail? Plus: How did we wind up with guys who aren't French? Click below to listen, or visit our iTunes and Stitcher sites to scratch your downloading itch. Howay.

I Wish I Was A Geordie 8-14-14

Comments

[Rob]

Who should be the new manager should Pardew be dismissed?

ROBERTO DI MATTEO. I'm putting it out there.

[Punter]

Dear Rob,
What an insensitive...JOE KINNEAR...post! I think it's really...JOE KINNEAR...mean to speculate about someone's replacement before he's even been fired. I can't believe that British...JOE KINNEAR...bookies actually take bets on managerial firings. And if, heaven forbid, Alan Pardew ever does get the axe, rest assured that Mike Ashley will have a well...JOE KINNEAR...respected replacement standing by.

[Geordie Pat]

Best signing - De Jong. purely as his inclusion forces a particular attacking shape to the line up- minimising the opportunity for tactical vagueness from Pardew. Tend to agree Riviere smacks of mid-price, make-weight compromise. Even though we just need one of Riviere, Cisse, Ferreyra or Perez to hit form (assuming 1 up front) - the idea of 'options' under Pardew makes me squirm a little.

My gut feeling is we may start well thanks to the new blood but then fade over the season. A hallmark of Pardew is new players shining brightly before burning out - aside from those playing for a new club move of course. We received a mid-season fillip three years ago with Cisse's arrival just as the team was tiring. Pardew runs out of ideas about motivating a team over 90 mins let alone a whole season.

I called for him to be given another chance - with a full compliment of players at his disposal. He has no more excuses now. As the Cardiff atmosphere demonstrated, it should be completely impossible - even bearing in mind the murky faustian pact going on between them - for Ashley to keep him in place if we start anywhere near as badly as we ended last season.

*Sebastian Bassong - 4 out of 5 teams he played for were relegated.. still comes up smelling of roses somehow.

[Zack]

Your ongoing rants about imposing American sports structures/restrictions on world football are naive, ill-informed, and annoying. How about just covering the club, okay?

[Bob]

Alas, it's an American blog. Sometimes we have to be Americans.

[Zack]

I'm an American. If you think you speak for all Americans when you rant about this stuff, you're wrong. There are plenty of American soccer fans who want the world's system over here. It's actually quite an inflammatory subject. Constantly injecting it into a podcast that's supposed to focus on a club is kind of like yammering about politics and religion at a polite cocktail party.