rogerbarton

You can only really talk about those who've already pushed into the first team and pitted their wits against the best. I think Fergie and Sameobi are the standouts for me. Sammy I can see getting a lot of games this season and he looks very promising. Do we not think Fergie might benefit from a spell in the Championship?

There's no reason for him to go to West 'Ammmm. Even if he ends up staying at Liverpool he'll get games some of the time & can eventually place the Bin Dippers in a position where they have to decide whether they want him as a first team player or they'll sell him to a club he wants t ogo to (ie. us).

Brilliant

Fucking dreadful quality in this match. My bird is from New Zealand which adds a little bit of spice but she's got about as much interest in football as fucking Dale Winton has in sumo wrestling, much like the rest of the country.

You might be right CT. Ashley is an unpredictable maverick and with the scent of possible success with the Toon I reckon he might be keen on landing a few blows before the transfer window closes. All we're seeing is his unwillingness to pay over the odds. (His odds).

Reading through this now and it takes the fucking biscuit. Never read so much shite. I've got a few Celtic fans and prefer them to the Rangers cunts but by fucking God the lot of them are absolutely deluded.

What's Pete Donaldson on like? I remember having a chat with him a few times when he was on xfm. Seemed a decent bloke although a bit obsessed with taking care of his own image.

That's De Jong isn't it? Unless Anita's gone too...

Tiote would be the likely loss if anyone were to leave. £20m or so would seem a reasonable recoup, but I'm not confident we'd find a replacement nearly as good. The Anita talk certainly doesn't fill me with confidence (though I'm very willing to stand corrected!).

He's the kind of temperamental twat you could see just walking out on them. Would give me a giggle.

The one I'd like to know more about is Anita. I've heard his name a few times but the only time I remember seeing him he looked average at best. Anyone here actually seen more of him?

I agree that Debuchy would improve our current XI much more than Carroll.

I think he's more than happy with his role at the moment. He's not been fit enough to play 90 minutes for years now - definitely most effective coming on for the last half an hour or so and making his presence known. I can see him carrying on a few more years in this role, Pardew seems to reckon he's a fantastic influence around the place.

Aye, I remember going to see an England youth game at Stevenage years back now and being told that this lad was going to be the next big sensation in world football.

How many homegrown players do we need in the squad like?

Ha ha. Reading it back I realised my mistake. I did a degree in English too...

I think it is a big draw to have a geordie in the team. The way things are going, we'll struggle even to field any English players in our starting XI. Are there any rules against this in this country?

Very good point. You'll see how we've struggled with set pieces last season towards the back end but that was mainly because we had much less of a threat. Cisse scored a couple of cracking headers from great deliveries, but he's not a big target man. Ba isn't a target man to lump the ball in for either, though he was much more of a threat in the air in the first half of the season. Carroll is able to turn an average ball into an assist. And noone can tell me Ben Arfa or Cabaye aren't capable of whipping in a good ball from a deep position for Carroll if they need to. Think Cisse goal vs. Liverpool. A brilliant deep(ish) delivery from Ben Arfa and 1-0.

Possibly the best part of this afternoon is the mackems' reaction to it - http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=715392&page=1 There's actually a guy on there whose sig reads "Newcastle 1-9 Sunderland - The biggest away victory in the history of English top flight football". Jesus Christ

Wazzer's waded in now by the way, to say: "Ash cole your to funny. Legend". Your guess is as good as mine, though I presume he's being sarcastic.

Funny with Xisco like, how many times has he actually played? Must have been absolutely shite in training if Hughton didn't even trust him as backup for the Championship season.

Aye, I don't know who that man Stevie's getting his info off but I want to be getting some PMs next time he hears anything!

There is a wink right? Please tell me there's a wink

I remember being bloody depressed out in Nottingham with a bunch of mates who are Liverpool fans on the night of January 31st 2011. If I'd have known this would be the case 18 months later I'd have been fucking cock-a-hoop. What a turnaround for us.

You need 4 strikers. Ba and Cisse can't play every game and, like it or not, there will be matches where having Big Andy up top will prove an effective weapon. I'd be delighted if we got him back, though the quoted £17m fee and £75k wages just seem like they've got no chance. Would he take a pay cut?