Delima

Do you REALLY naively believe that I based my opinions regarding players on Skysports? Ben Foster is a better keeper than Shay Given, that's my opinion. Other people dispute it, what do you think I could do to "settle" the arguement? This is only the first season Ben Foster plays in premiership. I won't be stupid to say that Foster has a better career record than Given. But Ben Foster is still a better keeper than Shay Given from what I see this season. And Skysports has done me a favour by giving him slightly better average rating.

You think so? Fair enough.

Getting games from the academy? Nothing positive at all if our academy can only get games from the academies and not the first team. As I said we have been buying players from other clubs for ages. We paid 8 millions for Boumsong. Maybe if we could obtain the "Spector or McShane"s a few years earlier, we could have been spared the nightmare that is Boumsong. And to think that we paid 4.5 millions for Bramble.

!!!? Given - 6.7 Harper - 6.6 Are you thinking that Harper has been significantly poorer to Given !!? Although I have said that Sky's ratings are not necessarily fair, I would not think that Harper has done any poorer than Given this season (apart from his slipping)

Gerard plays 29 games. Dyer plays 9 games. In the 9 games Dyer play I won't dispute that his average performance has been better than Gerard average performance this season.

Is ego more important or results? Why is it not demeaning to buy senior players from other teams, but humiliating to buy youngsters from other teams? Plenty of Arsenal players are bought from other clubs. Liverpool have no qualms in getting Pennant (and they paid a staggering 8 millions when they could get him next to nothing a year before). The few Spurs rejects played a big part in securing Portsmouth in Premiership last year, and top 6 this year. I see no reason why we shouldn't go for any player that we think could improve our suqad (better than current player or good promise) at REASONALBLE price. I couldn't careless about which clubs they are from. I wish we have a productive academy but if it is not working then we need to find new solutions. Well out of our starting 11 only Taylor is from our own academy. So we have been doing this practise for years (ignoring our own academy players and buying players from other teams). In my humble opinion the club could do better by heeding my advice - paying little money for young promising players from rejected by other clubs (McShane, Spector etc)

Said he was better than Given That's all I need to hear tbh, i'm all for opinions but that's just lunacy. Lunacy? Don't think so. If we enlist third party opinion (which is not necessarily fair), take Sky rating. Given - 6.7 Foster - 7.1

Agreed. Even though we might not have the scouting capabilities of Wenger, we can make up the grounds to certain extend by mnay other means. Expand the academy - which is what Roeder has done I believe. Buy promising youngsters (including Arsenal/Man U rejects). Well I bet many of us wouldn't mind Bentley, Pennant, Sidwell etc in our squad. For free, but for cash we havn`t got much of then no I wouldn`t want them. David Jones cost Derby a million. Paul McShane was a pawn in a deal to transfer Kuszczak to Man U. Jonathan Spector cost West Ham 500,000 £. At this rate (cheap) it would be mad not to cherry pick a few youngsters unwanted by Man U and Arsenal.

I don't disagree that we need more quality first team players. But there is no need to neglect other aspects of our squad while trying to sign Sol Campbell, Dirt Kuyt and Miroslav Klose. To you maybe Rossi doesn't even look better than Chopra. But to me Rossi has shown enough skills and visions for his age. I would be glad if Newcastle United spunk 10 million £ to get him. Time will tell who is right.

Agreed. Even though we might not have the scouting capabilities of Wenger, we can make up the grounds to certain extend by mnay other means. Expand the academy - which is what Roeder has done I believe. Buy promising youngsters (including Arsenal/Man U rejects). Well I bet many of us wouldn't mind Bentley, Pennant, Sidwell etc in our squad.

PS Jonathan Spector! I forgot about him. A centre back by trade, he has been solid in right back for West Ham so far. As much as I like Edgar and Hutington, both of them are inferior full backs compared to Spector.

I stand by what I said about Rossi. If we could tie Rossi to us for long term at £10 million then we should. Gerard Pique, Johny Evan and Paul McShane are not marginally better than Edgar/Ramage/Hutington. They are significantly better despite slightly younger. And they have much better promise and potential too. Pique starred was man of the tournemant for Spain in under 21 European Championship. Evan has had a couple caps for Northern Ireland and had done excellently. McShane, despite not as refined as Pique or Evan, has leadership and thou-shall-not-pass qualities which are not present in Edgar or Hutington. I don't presume all the youngsters I have suggested would do well for us. For instance I suggested Slyvain Ebank Blake. He is not even getting games in Plymouth at the moments. They will be miss and hits. But if we could get these people cheaply, the benefit we would reap from the likes of McShane would far outweight the insignificant money we spend in acquiring other false prophets. I don't think we have any realitic chance in acquiring the creams like Evan, Rossi and Pique unless we pay a huge sum (£10 million). But for other promising youngster (McShane, Jones etc) who left Man U because they wanted more games, we should at least try to get a couple. At the very least they will increase our squad depth which is thread bare, and they will provide stiff competition to our own youngsters to spur their growth. At best they flourish into good players who would bring us returns in both results and finance.

Sadly I don't know much about them.

[gloat]Few months ago in N-O, Delima said that we should go for a number of Man U youngsters Defenders ------------ Paul McShane - Did well for Ireland. Doing well for West Brom. Outshining Curtis Davies so far. Crowd favourite Gerald Pique - Doing well in Real Zaragoza Johny Evan - Did well for Northern Ireland. Had a fantastic game in his debut for Sunderland against Ipswich. Adam Eckersley - Man of the match in his debut for Barnsley against Preston (I have absolute no doubt that they would do better than Ramage, Edgar, Hutington in centre backs or full backs) Midfielder ----------- David Jones - Star man for Derby thus far. Forward ---------- Giuseppi Rossi [/gloat] Ok by no means their current achievements are certain indications of how they would perform for us if we were to sign them. But if we could get them cheaply we should. It is not only about Man U youngsters. If we could get a few Arsenal young guns who surplus to their requirement then we should. PS This is an in-your-face post for those who ridiculed me last time simply because I suggested a few Man U youth players. PPS In case you want to call me a Manc etc ... I have mentally prepared myself for the abuse so I wo't retaliate

Actually true But I still prefer the N-O forum layout. More user friendly

@ The Newcastle-Online Administrator/Moderator When would N-O resume service? I have not been able to log in N-O for the past few days. Actually I think I managed to log in, but I was redirected to a blank page !!? Any suggestions? Many Thanks Delima