Dr Gloom

the single man - depressing as hell but nice cinematography i am legend - mindless action fun the king of kong: a fistful of quarters - really entertaining documentary about geeky donkey kong gamers

just because fat fred was better than the crap that preceded and followed him doesn't make him a good chairman. a million times better than what we have now, i agree but we were all right to criticise him at the time as he had some real shockers. i'm not convinced we wouldn't have gone down under shepherd's stewardship but we'll never know now

add range of passing to that list Covered by ability. I didn't want to go into too much detail as I like Guthrie. It was tongue-in-cheek anyway though because he could play a similar role, albeit not as well. Carrick's absolutely class though so it's not like there's any shame in being a lesser player. And I never said he could be as good as him And I never said you did. That's the trouble with the internet like, you have to explain things about three times then people still don't get it. And you're never allowed to change your mind because someone like Baggio will have bookmarked everything you ever wrote. what happned to baggio? does he post as someone else now? there's a few old names from back in the day that have vanished, not sure if for good or as changed user names

add range of passing to that list

Id run with this myself. Colo had a poor first season but Id be interested to see how he done next. I think he'd be much improved. Though the whole squad will have to step up and get used to playing decent sides again with alot less time. Plus when you say cut it, Im just looking for a side that wont be relegated, Im not expecting miracles. So we need 8 new players, 4 first teamers and 4 more for back-up? I think that's going much too far (not to mention living in cloud cuckoo land if you think Ashley will cover it). One new pacy midfielder getting Butt's wages and one new top flight quality striker getting Geremi's will do the job. A left back to cover for Enrique would be nice too like. i hope that ashley has learnt from his mistakes. i'm not expecting massive investment but this group of players failed last time. if we're to avoid another relegation battle i think he's going to need to bring in at least 5 players capable of going straight into the first team. Not quite this group. The whole club was falling apart at the seams, there was huge disruption off the pitch and no-one wanted to be at the club, if anyone else was interested in signing them. We underachieved to a massive degree getting relegated with the squad we had. I think our best bet is to a large extent sticking with the players that have got us promoted, with a tweak or two here and there. A couple of bad results early on with a squad that haven't gelled and have no heart for the club could lead to a nightmare imo. i dunno, i see your point but i wouldn't really fancy any of our current first choice forwards, centre midfielders or our right back being our first choice in their position next season. agree with what you're saying about getting the balance of new players coming in right so that it doesn't disrupt the team ethic though.

very true. these are the sort of threads that can bite you on the arse. i thought that when i posted it

Id run with this myself. Colo had a poor first season but Id be interested to see how he done next. I think he'd be much improved. Though the whole squad will have to step up and get used to playing decent sides again with alot less time. Plus when you say cut it, Im just looking for a side that wont be relegated, Im not expecting miracles. So we need 8 new players, 4 first teamers and 4 more for back-up? I think that's going much too far (not to mention living in cloud cuckoo land if you think Ashley will cover it). One new pacy midfielder getting Butt's wages and one new top flight quality striker getting Geremi's will do the job. A left back to cover for Enrique would be nice too like. i hope that ashley has learnt from his mistakes. i'm not expecting massive investment but this group of players failed last time. if we're to avoid another relegation battle i think he's going to need to bring in at least 5 players capable of going straight into the first team.

Most fans are just enjoying the season Some on here, who think they have a bit of nouse, just constantly doom monger and put Newcastle down. They were moaning pre season about us doing a Leeds and now that they havent got that to moan about they are moaning about next fucking season! I am sure come Next season they will quickly find something else to moan about if we start off ok. I'm enjoying this season but under no illusion what next season will bring. I'm still renewing like. Your optimism in Hughton and his ability to find worldclass youngsters and pay them a relative pittance is not grounded in reality imo. bingo. More idealistic nonsense on here. This time football related. Can you explain how my post is 'idealistic nonsense'? FFS. i think he's agreeing with you to be fair

i think you have a little too much faith in our current lot to perform at the highest level. we're going to need more than 3 new first-teamers to survive if you ask me.

with promotion looking more likely now, how many of the current squad do you think could cut it in the top flight as both first team regulars and squad players? assuming we do go up, a lot of investment is blatantly required to give us a fighting chance of staying up, let alone challenging for a top half finish. i would say that only harper, enrique, jonas and maybe routledge are the kind if player i'd like to see playing week in week out. the likes of nolan, lovenkrands, guthrie, carroll, collocini and the taylors were all pretty rubbish the year we were relegated but would perhaps deserve another crack at the top flight, if only as squad players, after playing their part in taking us to the top of the table this year. then there's the youngsters that are maybe worth keeping but have it all to prove at top flight - best, williamson, simpson etc if you ask me, we should get rid of barton, smith, shola, butt, xisco (if we can find a buyer) and release pancrate and fitz hall. serious investment in the squad is required when you look at that lot if we don't want to come straight back down. crying out for some centre midfielders that can run and pass, some strikers and a right back.

the only thing that lived up to expectations was the off field crap. his performances and injuries make him one of he worse signings of recent years when you look at how much he cost and his wages. can't understand why so many still seem to think he'll come good. awful signing

hopefully we can get rid of the odious twat in the summer

just saw the edit alex, fair play

all six games... I was about to say the same, he barely played a match. Not like Dan to talk shite how's it talking shite alex? smith has always been pants whenever he's played at centre mid at the top level. he's been pretty average this season at cm too if you ask me apart from a burst of a few decent games at the start of the season. He made four league starts last year and had a couple of cameos as sub. He was injured most of the season but when he did play he did ok in a few games including playing in CM against Man Utd when he had Geremi alongside him (no mean feat tbf). He played there at home against Portsmouth where we lacked creativity but he didn't do a lot wrong and they never really looked like scoring whereas Owen should have. He played away against Hull and although I didn't see the game we drew 1-1 and he wasn't at fault for the goal but if you saw it perhaps you can put me straight on what he did wrong in that match. He was shite when we lost away to Liverpool from what I remember and got caugh in possession for the first goal but Liverpool won at a canter anyway. So I don't see how you can say he was a liability in central midfield in the season we were relegated. That's not me saying he'd be any good as Premier League midfielder btw. i didn't say just the season we were relegated, i said in the top flight before we were relegated. many different managers tried to play smith at centre mid in the premier league to the the extent that it's now his converted posisiton, mainly i think because he's combative and he doesn't score enough goals as a striker. for me, he has never looked a premier league level centre midfielder for us or for man utd. and i haven't seen enough from him this season to suggest he's going to be good enough if we go up.

all six games... I was about to say the same, he barely played a match. Not like Dan to talk shite how's it talking shite alex? smith has always been pants whenever he's played at centre mid at the top level. he's been pretty average this season at cm too if you ask me apart from a burst of a few decent games at the start of the season.

guthrie has it all to prove at premier league level but yes, for now he should start in centre midfield alongside nolan. smith has looked ok this season but was a liability at centre midfield before we were relegated.

wind up. it's a two year old kicking a plastic ball about, admittedly better than a lot of our first team squad are able to

i'll admit i didn't think we'd walk the league as much as we have so far. goes to show just how big the gulf is between the top two divisions. i think that was accadacca's main point though. he wasn't saying we had a premier league class squad - more that we were still better than most of the crap in the ccc and he's been proved right. the squad will still need massive investment in the summer just to survive in the premier league let alone challenge for a top half finish. hopefully the owner will have learned the painful lesson that you have to speculate to survive in the top flight.

Jonas is the classic nufc winger - talented but frustrating. Good enough for the premier league? Yes good enough for a top premier league side? No worth bearing in mind that we are neither at the moment. I agree with those that say he will be much better with quality centre midfilders next to him

"planning".......... according to wankers like Renton and Baggio a few years ago, this was the key to a golden future the likes of which Fat Fred and the Halls had never delivered You could not make it up if you tried. Talking bollocks and comparing me to Baggio now, nice one . All I said was it would have made sense to plan for Robson's replacement, rather than sack him 5 games into a season with the transfer window shut and no replacement, hence ending up with Souness. See, this is an area I have mentioned before, at the time, and was roundly condemned by clever dicks like you, but I was and still am correct, when you harped on about this "planning" business. The ONLY thing that matter is getting a manager who gets results ie knows what he is doing. Did you say the same thing when Gullit was replaced by Sir Bob a handful of games into the season ie "bad planning" You spout complete bollocks as usual Renton. i think renton's post is spot on tbh. don't sack a gem of a manager like robson when there isn't a better alternative. i think even as fat fred's biggest fan, you would admit that he got that one wrong. souness replacing sbr for me marked the beginning of our current plight. excacerbated by the fact that fat fred backed him to the hilt.

can we lock this thread before leazesmag sees it and it descends into another 30+ page marathon on fat fred v fat mike... ?

man city v chelsea could be interesting this weekend. wonder if bridge will make any tasty challenges on terry, or if he'll shake his hand at full time.

It's his perogative though surely? Better he make himself unavailable for selection than play and our performances suffer as a result of his differences with Terry. I'd hardly call it twattish. Terry fucked his ex, big deal, they should be able to get past it. Even if they don't talk and aren't mates there's no reason the two shouldn't be able to play in the same team together. wasn't he with her at the time though? put yourself in his shoes. could you could play alongside someone you'd found out was shagging the mother of your children while you were with her? plus it would be a media circus. the red tops would have a field day following the two of them during the tournament. better off that he's not there if you ask me.

i still think kanu would do a job for us this season, even at 55 or however old he's supposed to be