Dr Gloom

Not such a beautiful day. ouch

i don't get why sunderland is such a shit heap. you'd think civic leaders would try and do something about it. it must make you bitter to be a mackem living in a hole that's just down the road from a town that's buzzing. that's only going to be exacerbated by the fact that the town's best football players live in newcastle.

if we were doing well, the crowds would come back. we were getting 52k for a decade when the team was shite every year apart from 3 or 4 under sir bob. 60k would be no problem if we were top 6 material again plus it would make the ground less lop sided. would plymouth, bristol, milton keynes or even forest ever get crowds half that big? maybe forest. but surely not the others You've already made that point, no need to repeat yourself. i take it you agree with the sentiment then Struggling with basic comprehension then? hardly. you didn't answer my questions. if you disagree why not tell me why?

if we were doing well, the crowds would come back. we were getting 52k for a decade when the team was shite every year apart from 3 or 4 under sir bob. 60k would be no problem if we were top 6 material again plus it would make the ground less lop sided. would plymouth, bristol, milton keynes or even forest ever get crowds half that big? maybe forest. but surely not the others You've already made that point, no need to repeat yourself. i take it you agree with the sentiment then Whether he does or not, he nailed it with his earlier comment about politics. You have to be in it to win it and all that... sure...and we're in it now which is why we could be in with a shout of getting some taxpayer cash to extend the gallowgate especially as the plans were already in place. extending the east stand look too problematic and tbh we prob would never sell out a ground that was level 7 all the way around but i reckon a 60k-ish capacity st james with three sides (including the gallowgate) all the same level would look the bollocks plus we have the potential to fill it....if you take the long view. got to be worth a punt if you ask me.

if we were doing well, the crowds would come back. we were getting 52k for a decade when the team was shite every year apart from 3 or 4 under sir bob. 60k would be no problem if we were top 6 material again plus it would make the ground less lop sided. would plymouth, bristol, milton keynes or even forest ever get crowds half that big? maybe forest. but surely not the others You've already made that point, no need to repeat yourself. i take it you agree with the sentiment then

if we were doing well, the crowds would come back. we were getting 52k for a decade when the team was shite every year apart from 3 or 4 under sir bob. 60k would be no problem if we were top 6 material again plus it would make the ground less lop sided. would plymouth, bristol, milton keynes or even forest ever get crowds half that big? maybe forest. but surely not the others

who's going to fill that ground every week after the world cup? (assuming we get it) might not be a bad time to try and get some government money to extend the gallowgate so it matches the level 7 parts of the ground. So you're having a go at the Plymouth bid because they won't be able to their ground but you think the government should pay to extend the one we can't fill? 2018 is a long way off. i think we are capable of filling a bigger ground if we are promoted and ashley fucks off. so if there is government money to be spent on building new stadiums or improving current ones then why not? we filled a 52k stadium for years when we had a shite team. i'm sure if we put a half decent top flight side out then we would fill a 60k ground lots of ifs and buts but i can't imagine forest, bristol or plymouth ever getting 40k+ crowds. can you? i think that's the minimum capacity for world cup venues.

We've done all this several times over - it's possible, the plans were drawn up long time ago (going on for 10 years ago now) and just before Ashley came along, Shepherd announced his intention to commit to the project. It won't happen now though - not since all the carry on over the last 15 months. if we go up and ashley walks it's still feasible.

who's going to fill that ground every week after the world cup? (assuming we get it) might not be a bad time to try and get some government money to extend the gallowgate so it matches the level 7 parts of the ground.

plymouth? milton keynes? bristol? fair play that notts is a big town with rich football history from clough's days at forrest but there's a lot of work to be done on the stadium if they're to host a game.

nice touch from ratm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8415750.stm

this

first single - do they know it's christmas? by band aid...on 7" first album - no jacket required by phil collins.....on cassete

i just bought it. despite the fact that ratm are signed to sony's epic, cowell's x factor act not being number 1 would surely piss him off....which has to be good thing if you ask me. the smug git. that said, i don't really blame cowell for pumping out the x factor every year. it's the cretins that keep watching the shows and buying the songs. he's feeding the nation banality and the nation is lapping it up. ratm getting to number one might won't mean there are any less morons in the country but knowing that killing in the name is getting airplay on xmas day when people are turking into their turkey instead of more manufactured rubbish will make me giggle. worth the 99p for that alone

to be fair, scoring goals in scotland is probably about the same level required to score goals in the championship. whether he could do it in the top flight is another questions

maybe. he did as well as most other english managers recently. i think we were robbed against the argies like in france 98. that campbell goal should have stood

i didn't mind hoddle as a manager until he went all weird. there definitely aren't any english managers out there right now that could manage the national side. shame, but you only have to see what capello's done with the same players mcclaren had.

it is surprising how well we're doing despite hardly bossing game from start to finish all season. the football we've played has never looked that convincing and yet we're walking it....touch wood it continues i agree with those that say it's more a case of the rest of the league being crap than us being anything special.

has to be schmeichal for that performance that basically won the title for man u the year we blew the ten point lead. it felt like injustice at the time but that was one performance that stands out for me - us losing the title that year was more to do to his performance than keegan's mental implosion. nothing was getting past him. i would have applauded him off the field if i hadn't been so gutted. i think everyone knew the title was man u's after that match

Nail on the head there imo. When we play Harper with Simpson, Taylor, Colo and Enrique ahead of him and Smith ahead of them teams in this division just can't break us down. it's almost enough to make you wonder if that back 4 would do a job in the top flight with the right players in front of them. taylor and enrique certainly seem good enough for the top flight. collocini wasn't the greatest last year though and simpson is unproven at that level.

this, with guthrie moved infield. Top marks to Hughton if he does this (whether it works or not). You're kidding aren't you? It's the obvious move. Since when has that mattered? What I meant was I wouldn't give Hughton much credit for playing people in their proper positions (were he to do so). However, I actually expect him to play Butt and shove Guthrie out to the right again. Hope I'm wrong though. Its what i'd do, its what you'd do but am not sure its what Hughton will do. If he does, then i think it will be significant since it means firstly, that he isnt playing to sneak a 0-1 result (which he shouldnt do) and secondly that he realises that Butt is more of a liability over 90 minutes (he can put a 30 minute shift in at best nowadays imo) than giving Guthrie the central role. If we start with Jonas, Guthrie, Smith and Pancrate then we are starting with one of our best midfield combinations. I think Hughton has been erring on the side of caution a few times with his midfield (or feels pressured to play senior players?). Not doing so is a good sign, no? Fair enough, but like I said, I wouldn't say 'well fucking done Chris' when it's that obvious to most of us. And I think it's probably a combination of the bit in bold that has led to his selections so far. I reckon chris h deserves a bit of credit for what he's done this season. Fair play

is training with arsenal at the moment. wenger told a mate of mine that he's off to newcastle. what are everyone's thoughts - good news? bad news? i guess it opens the way to get collocini's massive wages off our books. but surely sol will command a hefty bunce too? and isn't this signing about 5 years too late? he'll probably do a job in the championship

fair play tim lad. the more anti ashley banners/chants etc around the ground, the better....if you ask me.

Don't matter as long as we get up. I must be the only one that firmly believes West Brom are pure shite. We'll do them here no bother at all. Seem to be a bit more free-scoring than us...We've become proper grinders.

There's no long term plan, I think that's a given, the attitude is if we go up we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. When it does happen I think we'll be called Bosman City FC. To be fair some canny potential bosmans next season: Kuranyi, Hitzlsperger, Scharner, Kallstrom, Adam Johnson etc... bosman freebies@st james park stadium