Dr Gloom

we could finish as high as 6th or as low as 16th in my opinion. i think we're probably too good to go down but a way away still from challenging the big boys. You've committed yourself there like if i'm honest i don't expect us to finish that much higher than last season. a top half finish should be the least we're expecting given the size of the club but we finished too close to the relegation zone for comfort last season so i wouldn't rule out another scrap at thw wrong end of the table either. a lot will depend on how the relatively unknown foreign signings sam has made bed in. hopefully cacapa will be the next gallas instead of the next boumsong.

let's hope he can keep up this goals to game ratio

aye. i think their season could rest on tuncay being as good as the hype around him

assuming this is true, why didn't we decide the player was undervalued BEFORE we agreed a fee with west ham? micky mouse tbh. even fat fred wouldn't have done that.

sam's quotes on the matter: "We in the end decided that Kieron was under-valued, we lifted the valuation to what we thought was realistic, and West Ham didn't want to roll with it. "So Kieron is back with us in a squad that is growing. "He signed a lengthy contract, something happens and it doesn't work, we come back and get on with it. It's not a hard life - it's a very pressured life, but it's not a hard one! "He comes back, you go forward ? if West Ham don't increase their offer then clearly they don't value him as highly as we do. "West Ham are not as upset as we are about West Ham. Curbs started it - we are more upset than them, and that's a fact."

micky mouse club tbh. will be shocking if they finish above us again

Enrique is extremely highly rated in Spain. I know I spoke highly of Luque, but if we manage to pull this transfer off I'll be over the moon. shut up man you'll put your luque curse on him! to be fair though, he can't do worse than our previous two spanish imports...

we could finish as high as 6th or as low as 16th in my opinion. i think we're probably too good to go down but a way away still from challenging the big boys.

Anyone who watched the game today would see we were crying out for someone like Dyer in the first half. Possibly the slowest team I've ever seen tbh. that's what worries me about replacing dyer with smith. not a lot of pace in midfield anymore.

could potentially be those two plus baines. can't baines cover left mid too?

it's a bit micky mouse of mort if he did insist on more money at the final minute after already agreeing a fee.

two new defenders in 24 hours anyone know much about this spanish lad? is he an attacking full back or is the tall, defend first attack later type sam was talking about? i'm intrigued by some of sam's comments there. i guess our interest in baines is over now so assuming we sign that serbian centre half i wonder who the ginal player on the list is - an attacking midfielder with a bit of pace and flair would go down nicely. suddenly the pessimism is lifting. might have to change myname again.

this man cannot write to save his life. god knows how he's clung on to his job for so long

well good luck now he's signed. hopefully he'll have me eating my words after a 20 goal tally helps fire into the top 4

as long as he performs better than our last left back that came for the money

a centre back that can cover left back sounds good

is that a 3-2-1-1-2-1?

nope. i think we're going to underachive again unless we sign at least another 3 or 4 class players. the optimist in me hopes we can challenge for top 6. the realist expects another season of mid-table mediocrity. hope i'm wrong though!

crack the whip sam. get em in shape or ship em out

He looked alright at the end of last season and in pre-season tbf. Agreed. Credit where credit's due. He still has the tactical awareness of a pint of Guiness. He more than often exposed a player down the right flank to mark a player who was already covered by a central defender in the friendlies I saw (though having Ramage there might explain it...).

In the initial response that I typed, I admitted that it mightn't be true, but that it wouldn't surprise me if it was - 70 goals in 90 games between two players is a good partnership, but not totally unbelievable or anything. But I opted instead to take the piss out of the fact that even though you don't believe the stats, you believe that Viduka scored more of the "imaginary" goals than Smith. Just because you've got a downer on the bloke. Well Smith's 38 league goals in 172 league appearances leads me to believe that Viduka scored the majority of goals in their partnership. Yeah but you've only just checked that now. Before you were just making the assumption cos you don't like the bloke. I'm not really arsed though tbh, I just think some people would do well to give a player a chance before just having a massive downer on them. For me, if a player comes here, I'll look on them positively until they give me a reason to do otherwise in a black and white shirt. so you're saying you don't judge a new player until he plays for newcastle? and you didn't, for example, make scathing comments about the likes of sibierksi and bernard last season before they'd played a game for us? obviously more people rate smith than those two, but there's nowt wrong with expressing an opinion on a player you don't think a wise purchase. otherwise what's the point of this forum? i'm surprised at how many people have accused me of being overly pessimistic recently. i'm optimistic when there's good reason to be. i just find it hard to get too excited about buying the likes of alan smith. and that's not to say i'm having massive downer on him and want him to fail. i hope he proves me wrong and scores a shitload of goals for us. i just can't see it happening.

what makes people think geremi can play left back? has he played there before?

smith does need to sort his hair out like. absolutely shocking barnet tbf