Football

@Fly, wouldn't there be some sort of performance bonus clauses in Pardew's contract so they could extricate themselves if there isn't improvement season on season.
I should say I don't mind Pardew as a manager, think he's fighting a lost cause with the management and owner at Newcastle, and it would seem the players. Any reason why he's not playing Ben Arfa behind a striker and letting him do his thing, rather than trying to get him to track back and defend on the wing?

I'm not too sure about a clause. You would assume that Ashley, as a pretty successful businessman, would have put something in there. Not seeing too many options out there really. Who would come to Newcastle that was any better? To be honest, even more exciting would do!

On the Ben Arfa front. Worryingly, he was spotted leaving Newcastle airport prior to the game at the weekend. Official line is that he is injured. In reality, he has been shocking recently. Unfit and unwilling. I reckon he and Pardew have fallen out, and he is ergo as good as gone in the summer. If that is the case, the board won't be happy. Until this drastic dip in form, they might have been sitting on some profit in him. Now they will be lucky to get anything.