Dr Gloom

i can't believe he's behind smith in the midfield pecking order like. if he goes we HAVE to replace him with a new creative midfielder

bound to be at least 5th best in the division under fat fred

i've never sat in the east stand. i'm sure the views are great from gemmil's seat but isn't the stand a bit of a shithole compared to the rest of the ground? it's the only stand left from before the 90s isn't it?

legend. would love to see him, gary speed and rob lee coaching under shearer as manager - assuming they're all up to it like. they might not make it as coaches but the sentimentalist in me would love to see them return and win a trophy for the club. those four were more than good enough to win something for us. it was the management and other players that let them down.

but will big sam drop smith to accomodate him?

not before time

Dan you really are a miserable shit, aren't you? just being realistic. do you see us getting anything there? i don't, especially now they've done away with replays - and our recent history at penalty shootouts. this competition is our best chance of silverware. we're unlucky to get such a difficult away tie in the third round. i can't see us progressing tbh.

what a joke. his 5 goals in 40 odd internationals says it all. he had more than a fair chance and never did it at international level. in fact, he's been pretty shit ever since he left leicester.

So clueless. Easy to say now that Owen's goal won us the match. But whose cross was it? Martins's. tbh I also couldn't see Martins muffing those clear chances that Owen did. Owen doesn't play for this club. He makes cameo appearances. I have to put my trust in workhorse Martins. The point is that Martins would never find himself in the position to miss the chances that Owen did yesterday because he hasn't got the brain that Owen has. Owen's makes runs and anticipates the play to find himself in these positions, and once he's got a few more games under his belt, he'll start scoring a lot more of these chances than he's missing. And what's more, he's been making runs like this since he was a teenager, because it just comes naturally to him. The only thing that comes naturally to Martins is running fast, and if he plays til he's 100 he will never learn to make these sort of runs, or anticipate the play in the way that Owen does, because it's just not in him. The gulf in class between the two players is enormous. PS Fucking workhorse?! Trying to use Owen's ability to ream the game and use great movement to knock Martins is pretty pointless, to start with their styles of football is completely different and you won't find many players in World football with better movement than Owen, on the other hand Owen could only dream of scoring some of the quality goals Martins has scored here and defenders panic when he gets anywhere within 30 yards of goal, two important players who will play a big part if we're to do well this season. One thing about Owen thought is his pace has gone, I know he's lost alot since he was a lad but even when he first came here he had the pace to sprint away from defenders (Man City at home a good example) now though he doesn't look like he's going to pull away from anyone so he's going to need intelligent balls to his feet, he needs space created for him like Bellamy did for Shearer so it's even more disappointing that we replaced Dyer with Smith who done nothing again yesterday apart from a few sliding tackles and a few poor attempts at goal, certainly not what you're looking for from someone wide right. agreed. i can't see why we spent so much on smith, nor where he's going to fit into the side when everyone's fit. on the evidence so far, he doesn't look much of a midfielder.

i reckon that if sam can get duff back to the form he showed at chelsea, he has to start ahead of zoggy but i'd say that competition for places down the left side is as good as it has been for a while now. we've got four genuine lefties in duff, zog, enrique and, urm, babayaro.

great. don't fancy us to get anything at arsenal's place. our best chance of silverware this season is probably over now thanks to this draw.

on paper - if everyone was fit and firing - i would go with -------------------------------Given------------------------------------- Beye---------Cacapa------------------------Rosenhal------------Enrique Milner-----------------Barton-------------Geremi-----------------Duff- --------------------------Viduka--------Owen----------------------------

sounded like a solid performance. good to see that sam has sorted the defence out. not conceding gives you a platform to go on and win the game (even if it was a late strike) - something we've rarely been able to do under our last two managers.

gutted to lose him. it would have been fitting for him to end his career with us but he'll always be a legend to me - he's been one consistent bright spark of creativity and vision over the past decade in what have often been teams that haven't been good enough for him. good luck nobby. he's bound to get a great reception whenever he returns to st james.

sounds like nobby will be off to west ham if we sign beye and faye :-(

leazesmag is giving it the same old spiel on newcastle-online if anyone fancies a laugh

shut up man. we can take fm as fact.

fuck me, 5,000 at wigan...that makes the smogs look good

my problem with smith is that it seems he's been bought primarily as a midfielder. if everyone's fit he's probably going to be 4th or 5th choice striker and 3rd or 4th choice for centre mid - where he's largely ineffective imo. nowt wrong with signing good squad players but £6m on a player who probably won't start when everyone is fit isn't the most sensible use of our budget.

he's mostly bought well - especially in sorting out the defence. but i don't think spending £6m on smith was a particularly wise use of our budget. nor do i see the point in signing faye from bolton. we're well stocked for players that can play the midfield holding role - i'd sooner that money went on a more creative midfielder. if it did, i'd say we have our most balanced squad in years. all in all though a vast improvement on last year's fiasco with last minute panic buys siberski and bernard.

no chance of us getting him

juninho????

great through ball from shola. i'd start those two again for our next game. could be a good partnership in a 4-4-2

what a wanker. loving that giles smith book review - well worth a read.