Papa Lazaru

Would be interesting to no the exact figures of what we were willing to offer against what Wigan came in with. If we're talking 500k or so then we had to match it and see where he chose to go, if it was alot of money between the two bids then we were never likely to fight them for the lad. Worth a go but sadly never likely to happen and will be very annoying if he goes on to be a star and make Wigan millions when sold.

Was it his mum who was done for shoplifting or something as well? Yes. It's not the News of the Worlds fault. If they didn't behave like feral underclass scum they'd have nothing to report. Whats worse is Terry is a multi millionaire and i'm sure his family will be well looked after by him and this is how they still behave, shoplifting and selling drugs. Imagine what the fuckers would be like if he didn't have his footy ability and he was in and out of jail as he surely would be without football to fall back on!

Agree, i'm still not sure exactly what level of player Guthrie will be, but he has more about him than our other central midfielders. If we played him and Smith centre and the two wingers we now have we'd be fine and he'd get a chance to show what he's capable of. But when he's stuck out wide he isn't happy and we suffer a lack of width and the RB is sometimes stranded on their own without help in defence and without a wideman to pick out in attack. I think we were very lucky that at the start of the season and sporadically throughout that Butt has been injured or we'd have seen alot more games with 2 or 3 of the Butt-Smith-Nolan speed machine in action!

The thing that worries me is not this season as i still think we'll be promoted from this shite division its the fact you just know we will start the season in the prem with a midfield containing at least 2 of Smith, Butt and Nolan if not all 3 at times and that would have to be a sackable offence on the spot! Because they create literally nothing we have relied so heavilly on Enrique and Jonas to do it all, and it seems that they young lad at LB is now going to have to be one of our main attackers as well! At halftime if he'd taken off Butt, put Guthrie in the centre and a winger where Guthrie was, plus a striker for Nolan i could only see us winning, instead we could easilly have lost! You have to feel sorry for somebody like Routledge who will find players don't pick his runs or arse up the pass if they do spot him and they won't make the runs to take advantage of his passing. He's already shown in his debut how good a ball he can put through.

Stevie barely stands by what he says the morning after, just look at the foreign cunts thread. Federer would have beaten anyone on today's form mind. Yeah, Federer on absolute top form will beat anyone in the game from Nadal down, Murray is going to have to hope he gets to a final and catches Federer off his game and is on top form himself to win a slam.

I think in his month here this will be the case for the Dutch lad, he'll offer us a fair bit going forward and because of his pace and the shite opposition in this league he will be able to recover if he slips up now and then. Williamson did plenty in that half in the air and on the ground, shame that he's having to do so much though! Routledge needs to get the ball more, unfortunately he has Butt and Smith in the middle giving him nothing! Thought it was a fair yellow for the 2nd one and the first could easilyl have been red so he can't complain And i think all of us on here would have Guthrie in the middle for Butt and a winger on, but then we'd have all probably started with that anyway!

how is that midfield going to line up? guthrie left mid? butt and smith in the middle Definitely will be Smith and Butt in the middle, then just a decison as to who out of Guthrie and Routledge has to play on the left. I'd probably put Guthrie on the left because he's already out of position when he plays right wing and he stays inside most of the time so may as well have him do that on the left and Routledge can do the proper wide play in his natural position on the right.

Yeah, haven't seen much fuss made of Bellamy being pelted with coins and bottles by the corner flag, its like it doesn't really matter since manu fans did it.

I think its unfair to say its all down to him having a better squad than everyone else, especially as people on here keep pointing out that we're shite and that West Brom, Forest etc all play better than us. I think he's a good bloke who's done a good job and i think he deserves a crack at managing the team in the prem if he gets us promoted. However as unfair as it would be, i wouldn't give him that chance as he will struggle in the prem and should be moved back to coach under a proven prem manager so we have our best shot at competing. Harsh on him but ultimately for the best that he's replaced with thanks for getting us promoted(which i think he will do) to the prem, but if Ashley is incharge, he's cheap so will definitely be the boss come the start of the season.

Course it isn't, but any chance for the media to get up manu's backside and they take it. Until City got taken over and started to look a threat pretty much every manu fan would hate Liverpool more than City who they saw as insiginificant. Far more passion, hatred etc in Barca-Madrid, Celtic-Rangers, Bocca-River Plate, Roma-Lazio, Milan Derby etc and us and the mackems to name a few.

Had to win and we did, but Enrique getting injured is a massive blow, and knowing our luck it'll be a hamstring tear and he's out for 6 weeks! Williamson was given MOTM award in the ground and i agree, thought he had a very solid debut and it was noticeable that straight away he was shouting and pointing all the time to his teammates trying to keep things organised, which is a good sign. And in the time he was on Routledge showed pace, good first touch and played 3 or 4 through balls better than anything the rest of the midfeild have managed all season so we can't complain about the debutants!

Echoes of a certain Andrew Cole who in 1993 brought characteristics to an already successful side which were evidently missing at the time (i.e. pace & clinical finishing). IIRC some questioned the signing of Cole saying it was a lot of money for a player who was largely unproven at our level and had failed at the level above us. Yet signing for us proved to be the making of him and suddenly the world sat up and took noticed agreeing we'd got him at a snip. Write off Beckford at your peril IMO. He'll either be in the Premiership next season or a top-end Championship club. And if he proves successful, we'll be absolutely kicking ourselves..... Cole was alot younger and inexperienced with the potential to develop into the player Keegan made him, and was playing in the same division as us. Beckford is much older and less likely to develop as much as Cole did, and is scoring goals a division below for a team that by and large are rolling people over making life easy for him. Not saying he definitely won't do the business in the prem, but i think at best he'll do ok there, but i'd be absolutely stunned if he came close to matching Coles goal scoring exploits! I'd not have been unhappy if we had got him this window mind as he would definitely have helped our promotion bid and if he wasn't too expensive it wouldn't have been a big gable if he didn't work out in the prem, but he isn't Andy Cole.

I'd take any kind of win as we just need to get back to winning and gain points on our rivals, but come out firing, get an early goal and this is a good chance to get a big win tonight.

I would. I don't even want to celebrate promotion, we're Newcastle United. Everyone was playing it down at the start of the season "I'd take 12th tbh" "21st would do me mate" to me I knew we'd be at the top, 2nd was the bare bones requirement for me, and when you look at our wage bill compared to anyone elses, it must be treble the next side(?), promotion isn't a great achievement. We don't deserve a trophy for this. Id agree. Also dont you think 1st would allow the club an element of complacency. Absolutely, I can see it now Ashley the knight in shining armour on the open top bus pissed in his toon shirt as it passes Regent Centre. Being serious i really hope they don't do anything at all if we get promoted. Getting out of this heap of shite division isn't something to have a big celebration about and will make us look stupid. If we've gone up just have the players go round the pitch last home game of the season to acknowledge the fans and leave it at that. As for complacency i don't think first or second would make much difference, if he's going to be complacent it will be the same however we're proted i suspect.

Start posting about any central midfielders you can think of who aren't slow as fuck and can pass a football!

The few teams in this division with any pace, movement and technique in their midfield sees Smith, Nolan etc left for dead. Against West Brom you forgot either of them were playign the game as they couldn't catch hold of the opposition players! I do think Nolan and Smith have played (and will play) a massive part in our promotion bid, but against premiership midfields we all know what will happen.

Play kids and reserves and concentrate on geting promoted for me. And that was before i saw what a bunch of dirty bastards they are, you can guarentee if we play our best team some of them will be getting injured the way they'll be playing.

quick search says he’s a defensive midfielder mainly, but can play right back or centre half, even in goal. It's like four new signings. Don't joke, Ashley/Llambias would actually use that as a serious quote if we signed him!

I know bugger all about him to be honest, but if he is good enough and different to what we have (ie has pace and can pass a football!) it'd be a good singing as it has the added bonus of weakening Forest in their challenge for promotion. But like i say, he could be crap for all i know!

With that staement you are in fact giving the fat cunt the credit of having any semblance of intelligence, and i'm not sure that he does! Im not so sure neither...but you'd hope! Yeah, whatever he has instore for us, be it selling up or staying on, you'd think he would see that promotion is in his best interests as well as ours! And as much as i think this division is beyond shite and that we can get promoted with a weakened squad i don't want to put it to the test!

With that staement you are in fact giving the fat cunt the credit of having any semblance of intelligence, and i'm not sure that he does!

Decent defender, can't play football. And that's in this league. Worst thing is, I can't see us doing any better. If we get promoted you'd probably take him as back up RB, but first choice would be worrying. I remember a Blackburn fan on here who'd watched him when he was on loan for them in the prem and he thought he was very poor and theres been times at this level against a decent winger that he's had problems. Considering under Ashley in the prem we'd be spending very little i'd be going to Villa to get Beye back, they hardly play him, he won't cost much has a couple of years left in him IMO and can play RB as well as cover CB.

It was really annoying that he went back to the very worst he can be. This season he's turned in some good performances, not just scored goals, but this was back to what really pisses the fans off. Not moving about and getting into space, barely challenging for headers and when he did, just committing stupid fouls and for the goal he just didnt give a shit and let the bloke leave him for dead.

West Brom played the better football and as somebody said, they spent most of the game attacking our right hand side as you get nothing out of Enrique and we paid for being weak on the right. They also caused us trouble in midfield as any half decent passing team does when suddenly Smith, Nolan et al barely get a touch as people play through us with ease. They were also the dirtiest team we've played this season and with a ref who knew what he was doing they would have been down to 10 men long before the end of the game and we'd have had 2 pens, most importantly the one in injury time that could have won it. So they were the better team, but that means fuck all its who is the most effective that will go up and by and large this season, that's us, hence we're top. Our defence is probably the only one in the division that doesn't look poor and we seem able to score just enough and at just the right time to get by. Plus whether you've been the better team or not is irrelivent if its a penalty. However we'll be raped by any prem teams with pace and passing ability as things stand!

Yeah, i'm not against getting another striker in for the reasons you suggest and if Nolan were to get injured or just stop scoring we'd need the strikers to fill that gap. And I think everyone agrees that ultimately what this teams needs most is creativity in midfield and some pace as well.