Dr Gloom

the noise from the crowd sounded alreet to me through the telly. much louder than recently although that was always going to be the case. could't hear the mackems much at all actually, which is surprising as they usually give a good account for thmselves and it was a close game.

best thread ever

if owen isn't fit i'd pack the mid and drop shearer for ameobie. he's far more suited to the lone striker role - he did well there against arsenal last season. shearer is too slow to play up top on his own if owen is fit, it's got to be shearer and owen up front in a 4-4-2

anything lss than 3 points is a disaster imo, especially coming on the back of the perferomance at wigan. i think souness needs a win to keep his job.

chronicle injury update - anal oliver 'expects' owen to miss out on sunday

i feel sorry for him up to a point. he has assembled a bery good starting eleven and it's a shame we haven't seen them all on the pitch at the same time yet. but while our first team has improved, our squad is now far poorer under souness. it was always risky to spend all your budget on a small number of qulity players that will perform when fit while sacrificing able squad players like ambrose, robert, kluivert and hughes - i'm not even going to open the bellamy can of worms. i would have liked to see us keep a few of the above - especially those on small ages like hughes and ambrose - on top of the players we have signed.

first eleven looks ok but there's not much on the bench...

good luck to him. i think he'd do well there

ronaldinho will walk it again

great

the england sqaud is full of world class players...with a few exceptions. the problem is, on recent evidence, we don't look a world class team. the likes of rooney beckham owen lampard gerrard terry rio campbell g neville a cole would get into most international setups, with the exception of perhaps brazil.

All I'm saying is from a personal point of view I'd rather have an experienced defender marking a decent EPL centre forward than an untried 18 year old. Selfish, but true. Moore isn't a donkey, he's just not as good as Zico Hughes. 43762[/snapback] is morre a decent epl defender though? he failed at palace

both good players, but would either work well with owen? owen likes playing with a big man....maybe kuyt or ashton would be better options

i'll take it as gospel then

classic that harmeson came on. anyone know what position the big man was playing?

i always like to see the english clubs do well as it's good for english football, but i don't lose any sleep when they lose. i've got non-scouse mates who celebrated liverpool's win in the champions league like it was their own club. i can't understand that like. i was pleased for them, but i had to draw the line at jumping up and down in celebration. that's reserved for toon and england victories.

i expect the series pilot to be on our tv screens by the end of the week

bloody annoying! i feel sorry for souness. he's assembled a pretty tasty first team but will we ever see them all fit at the same time?

his copy never fails to crack me up. http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcast...-name_page.html

In a rather round about way. 39961[/snapback] Indeed! But it does amuse me when people who categorically state they are glad to be rid of Bellamy/Robert and don't care one bit about them anymore are always to be found either starting threads about them or posting the most in threads about them! If you don't care about them, don't post about them. 39965[/snapback] it's a shame that there's no middle ground between the two boards. this one has far better quality debate but the other one moves faster. the old board was at its peak just before it merged with howaythetoon imo. i miss the old banter with the likes of blaydon, nytoon and some of the other old posters that we don't see much of these days, and of course the 3-5-2 debates with papa lazaru....although i'm guessing they could be ressurected. so just for old times sake....does anyone reckon viana is a defensive midfielder?

he's a classy modern midfielder. tidy in possesion, eye for a pass and a good engine. he can play deep and put his foot in or box to box ahead of a holdihg player. a great buy from souness.

tbh i think far too many people keep saying tbh

i've got to admit, it's the first thing i thought when i read the piece too. if owen has a class season and world cup and liverpool or another big club offer what we paid for him, it will be hard to stop him leaving if he wanted out. but who knows. if we can turn our season around and claim a top 4 spot, maybe he'll stay. i'm just going to enjoy the fact we've got england's number 1 striker, even if it is only for one season

it was a pre-season knockabout though. hard to judge him on that alone.

i'm up for gatecrashing it