Papa Lazaru

This is what happens when you emply a Cappello instead of a McClarren! He's working with more or less the same standard of players and pretty much the same personel by and large. Also unlike Sven he didn't make it clear the same players would play regardless of form and fitness, under Cappello you'd better be on top op of your game at all times.

Very likely, plus as he ended up costing us alot in fee as well, we weren't likely to give him away either. I wonder if any Spanish clubs were scared off Enrique aswell due to wages, i find it very strange if none of them came in for him, but i'm delighted it didn't happen!

What a pointless thread to start! We couldn't afford to lose any players nevermind a winger of which we have practically none. And in this division he'll do a job, he gives us width to stretch the opposition defence, he is always an outlet, wins free kicks and you'd hope will chip in with soem assists at this lower level. Doesn't mean i think he's particularly good as he can't shoot and some of his crosses are terrible, but he'll be useful this season.

I think he'll get one from midfield sooner or later in this division, and as somebody said, his celebration should be good, especially if its a last minute match winner or equaliser!

They reckon on SSN from talking to NE journos he previously turned down our offer(s) either because they weren't enough or because he was waiting for a prem club, which may be right and i wouldn't blame the guy for that. But even with the tits we have in charge i think they probably have tried to get Lovenkrands before today, he's just accepted today.

That was a surprise, although once i got to the match last night i was pretty sure nobody else was leaving that played, they were hardly likely to risk transfers by playing the likes of Taylor, Nolan etc if a sale was in the offing. But i'm glad to see the end of the window, even if we've brought nowhere near enough in ourselves.

Thing I liked about Simpson in there was that he looked to have plenty pace. Of course we'll still be struggling at RB since we know Ryan Taylor isn't a great defender. As for Enrique, he looks like a 16 year old playing U13s or something. Very true You do expect Enrique soon to just start pushing the other kids out the way or really take the piss because he's so much better than them and knows it!

Actually that's not the case. We can only sign out of contract players after the deadline closes. FACT! Edit: Except in cases deemed an emergency by the league. Whatever that means. I think i also read somewhere that you can only have so many of these after deadline players in your team at the same time, though it may have been 5 so that's hardly going to be an issue! I'm hoping we do as seems quite likely bring Lovenkrands in, the only worry is that the guy has had no pre-season games and no competitive games so he will be weeks off full match fitness, would still probably chuck him in the team though, certainly in the league cup match anyway!

This was probably Enriques worst (well, least good) performance this season and it was still good, plus he was still streets ahead of his opponent, he is one of the most important players to our chances this season for me. Simpson did well for a kid who's a fullback, like you say he was no nonsense and didn't take any chances which is the way to go out of position like that. And Taylor does look, contrary to what i thought at the end of last season, that he could do a job at this level, and he can to a degree cover RM and RB which we need with the lack of numbers here.

I think this will happen a lot to us at home this season. Teams are well up for it and run around like blue arsed flys for an hour before being completely wankered. What has been most encouraging for me is that we have looked organised, motivated and committed as a side, meaning we are capable of dealing with the intensity and then upping our game to score. Hughton gets the credit for that. For me too. The transformation from the gutless performances towards the end of last season is creditworthy. Its one of the things we needed in this division, some fight and spirit to battle for everything against teams fired up and looking to get one over on us. They were all expecting us to be a bunch of tarts who didn't give a shit and they could bully us out of it, but they can't and then the quality we still have left is being shown.

You're not alone, Viduka in the this division on pay as you play would be great for me. He'd have a field day against this class of opposition, even on days when he didn't fancy it, and if he's only paid when playing the injury record doesn't matter so much.

Thats about what i thought, far from a great performance but you'd think we'd beaten by a shite team or something. When we played some football we were far better and aside from the goal, we should have had a pen and Nolan (twice) and somebody else wasted great chances with underhit shots, but the fact remains we created about 5 very good chances and at the other end Harper made 2 good saves and the rest of their shots were high and wide. We lacked a finisher, that's clear, but people saying we didnt create anything are forgetting the chances we had and i'll happilly take 1-0 wins as long as the points are on the board. I'm as worried as everyone else about the size of our squad and what will happen when we have an injury crisis, but we did our job last night against a decent hard working championship side, we scored 1 and created several other chances, hardly the disaster some people seem to see it as.

NUFC right now is fantastic opportunity for the 'big' teams to let their up and coming 'stars' get some first team action at. We're easilly the best club for the big teams to loan to as their young lads don't just get first team experience they get experience of playing in a massive stadium with a big crowd and all the pressures that come with that. And if say we'd loaned them from Chelsea then they could go back and handle the much smaller crowds you get there!

Agree with that. Down the line he wouldn't be our choice as permanent manager, and certainly if we were to get back into the prem you'd want somebody else in, but he's doing a great job considering the abject mess around him, not having a clue what's going on day to day and has got the players playing together and playing well with no fuss or complaining.

He was shit first half, with the exception of a couple of moments. He was great in the second half though, held up play very well, made a lot of good, intelligent passes and general play, was unselfish, determined, gave it his all and nearly scored a great goal within the first few minutes of the second half. Hes only 18, you can't expect him to be perfect, but as far as kids debuts go, that was a very good one. Second half showed promise, mainly because of him starting to hold it up well and use it intelligently rather than just be a head down greedy type of player, he seemed to have good awareness. Way to early to say how he'll handle this division and he certainly needs a proven player up there alongside him, but he's got a chance. I did think Nolan did a respectable job up there as a sort of target man, couple of soft finishes that he should have done better on, but he did the rest of the job well.

Not really, just the stuff through the NUSC, from the dealings we've had with certain prospective purchasers I know that they're not just in it for publicity. For all the shite that surrounds Roberts and the Fans410 bid there is a robust sound plan for purchase, running and squad improvement. Its just a shame that they've stuck GR out there to front it. Its like putting Stevie out as the PR man for a Villa bid. You wonder why they didn't think to come in alot ealier, get talking to the likes of NUSC and other fan groups asap and see if it was really a runner or not. Or even get on board with somebody like Moat or (heaven forbid) a fat fred and combine one wealthy guy taking a percentage of the club with the fans taking the rest. How big each sides percentage is would of course be the source of much debate i'm sure.

Every so often he gets linked with a move back to Spain, i think Atletico Madrid were mentioned most recently. But suprisingly none of their clubs seem to have put a serious bid in. Or worryingly, we could be sitting in a Given type scenario where 3 or 4 players know they're going its just being left to the last minute to move them. I think the way things are now nobody knows what's happening to them until suddenly they're told off you go! Theres been a few interviews now with Hugton and players where they basically say from day to day they haven't got a fucking clue whats happening! So i agree with you that there could easilly be more players going, i just doubt that they have any idea yet!

Every so often he gets linked with a move back to Spain, i think Atletico Madrid were mentioned most recently. But suprisingly none of their clubs seem to have put a serious bid in.

If we keep him this division is an absolute piece of piss for him and he's a massive asset to the team. And you suspect that Hughton has possibly turned down manageiral positions to stay here with the complete mess that is NUFC, so fair play to him there, he could have left us in an even bigger mess!

Its NUFC, you can never have both, in fact getting either is asking alot!!

A future for the club returning to the prem or 1 day being happy to win a trophy but stuck in the lower divisions, no money, no players and likely to get worse each year with the chances of ashley being able to shift it decreasing as we get worse, not a hard call to make.

As much as Wenger is a bad losing, whingeing bastard, you could understand his annoyance this time. The Arshavin one is the clearest of penalites, unless you're away at Old Trafford of course. Then you have a late equaliser disallowed (rightly this time mind) and its hard not to be angry on the touchline there. Also it was funny and he took it well going into the stand with manu fans. The Rooney one was a penalty to be fair, but if you watch it, he has already decided to go down and is on his way down before Almunia takes him out, but he did take him out and at that speed the ref can only give a pen. If Almunia had just managed to pull back you'd have seen Rooney still going down as he was already part the way there and it would have been a dive.

If we survived, even if fat fuck ashley stayed there wouldn't be a firesale because you have so many millions more to play with, and you'd likely have Shearer's plan given to ashley (who to sell, who to keep, who to buy) being followed, how much he'd spend being the only part of that open to debate obviously. And just as likely he would have looked to sell the club and it would be a prem club he was trying to shift which may well bring out a few more genuine takeovers, or in the case of somebody like Moat, he could takeover easilly because Barclays would sanction the overdraft like a shot for a prem club. So we wouldn't be getting arse raped every week at all, which didnt even happen last season when we were shit and in chaos and managed by tools like Kinnear, mainly because outside the top 4 the prem is incredibly average at best.

Totally agree mate. A cup is tradition and all that, a trip to wembley, splodging in the fountains. Promotion is frying pan to fryer territory at the minute. Would ideally like both, but given the choice a cup every time. Think most wiser / older fans would agree with you. The football manager generation, thats a different kettle of fish all together. Yeah, the wise fans want to have our club down on its arse in the second tier of football playing the Plymouths and Doncasters of the world, selling our best players and scraping around away from the big boys of the prem, never looking to get back to playing in europe etc. If this club doesnt get back into the prem it will be a disaster, but apparently that'll be fine as long as we win the least significant cup we could possibly win. The way football is now i wouldn't take the FA cup over promotion nevermind the league cup because long term i want to see NUFC back in the prem, building and looking one day to at least be competing in the upper reaches of the top division. The only time to take a cup over less tangeable success is i'd want a trphy ahead of qualifying for say the CL or UEFA cup because it has been so long since we won anything, i'd sacrifice playing in the CL to see us lift a trophy. But the league cup over a chance for our club to be proted and build again, not a chance.

You talk absolute shite, you know that? Show me a taxi driver who isn't a wanker, and I'll show you a humble interview with Harry Redknapp. I remember years ago we played them in the League Cup, after they knocked Liverpool out the same season. From what I can remember we lost and had Justin Fashanu on loan, who got more abuse for being queer off the toon fans than Peterborough. He was a sub and was getting some banter off the toon fans as he warmed up IIRC, but he got a really good reception when he came on and he spoke well of the toon fans in his very brief stint here in the chronicle or some paper i seem to remember.