Retention and drainage in the manufacture of paper

A method of improving retention and drainage in a papermaking process wherein the improvement comprising adding to a papermaking slurry, an associative polymer and at least one water compatible polymer, wherein the associative polymer comprising the formula:

• B-co-F (I)
• wherein B is a nonionic polymer segment comprising one or more ethylenically unsaturated nonionic monomers;
• F is an polymer segment comprising at least one ethylenically unsaturated anionic or cationic monomer;
• and the molar percent ratio of B:F is 99:1 to 1:99 and wherein the associative polymer has associative properties provided by an effective amount of at least emulsification surfactant chosen from diblock or triblock polymeric surfactants, and wherein the amount of the at least one diblock or triblock surfactant to monomer is at least about 3:10.