OTF

Tiote will have a yellow by half time it seems...

Enrique's clearly taken CT's thread to heart.... fantastic run into tjhe box and great ball.

Would consider going to a Newcastle jets game with a Newcastle United shirt... hang around afterwards and pretend to want Owen to sign it, then to grab it back and say on second thoughts you didn't care for this shirt when you were paid 100k a week to wear it, so why bother now? This won't happen though.

Online now...

Definitely beatable, they've lost four on the trot in the league haven't they? Inexperiended manager. We should be up for some revenge... Tiote in particular.

Ok just to confirm are others keen to play before the Blackburn game? I'm definitely down for it and will be on from more than an hour before the game.

Grounds with running tracks blow. Unless they're packed to the brim you lose the cauldron atmosphere that you get from a custom built football ground. The biggest ground we have in Sydney is the Olympic stadium and it's painfully shit watching anything there without a packed stadium. Australia beating Uruguay in a shootout to qualify for the 2006 World Cup was absolutely amazing, seeing a Rugby League game there with 20k not so much (capacity 80,000+ down from 110,000 for the Olympics). Seeing Beckahm Galaxy vs Sydney FC despite the big crowd was not that special. Having a better atmosphere from the sidelines can make a huge difference in the match, so expect to see boring insipid gutless low intencity matches there.

Maybe he's trying to make a point about how little they're paying Kuqi after copping some criticism about the move. At least he didn't say: "We was looking to get someone in for the rest of the season we was. And we told him that's that what we was doing, we done."

Damn I hate playing randoms. Just played a guy who chose real Madrid and was leading 1-0 after 20 minutes... Ended up winning 4-1 (using bayern m) anyway the game ends and during the replay I get the connection error.. Assuming the mug has yanked out the cord on his modem to stop the loss from counting. What a tosser. Replays of goalie ball poaching rubbish I can handle, but that really pisses me off, as it's also frozen my game in the rematch menu and I can't get out of it. Seriously who gives that much of a crap about it? Other thing I hate is the people who choose real Madrid but back out of their choice as soon as I move off Newcastle as if I'm about to pick some super team who are miles better than real... When they realise I'm going for bayern Munich they're straight back in for Madrid.

Yeah. Should be good for before the match tomorrow. How long before should I get on? Is there any way to save team selection to stop having to do it each game?

Nope.. But I can hop on now if anyone's about?

I've just realised what the fuck CT was on about.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It's more than a right. If they feel anything but cynical there's something wrong.

Dickov is a midget. If you're a midget you need to have skill. If you're taller with a bigger build a little less skill doesn't matter as much. Noone's expecting anything from him, so he can't disappoint. I'm not expecting to see him on the pitch too much.

Looking at the pictures of him in training he does actually look to be in fairly decent shape. Not taking the piss like Sol Campbell. They wanted and got someone who could play straight away if required, had all clearances for the English game, has played in England for some time, is on a low wage. Basically there's little risk in it - apart from further annoying supporters, which is really just throwing a little more wood on the already furiously burning fire.

Will we be back in the mix in next years? (based on this season). I wonder where we fell particularly on match day revenue considering we still had (was it?) fourth highest attendances in the country. Would have been good to see outside the top 20.

..and for the record Jose got the assist for the Best goal against Arsenal. Also sent the pass in that Ranger knocked down nicely into the path of Nolan. Plus he wasn't at fault for any of the Arsenal goals.

Depends who you're goal keeping for and against... 34 is not too old to be effective. Just like a keeper a striker of that age should use experience to their advantage. The first five yards is in the head and all that. Unfortunately it doesn't apply when you pick up a free agent whose last stint was at a lower league club.

When he first broke onto the scene I thought, "He doesn't look very Finnish". Looks more finished than Finnish.

I laughed out loud at this. Honestly though Best's heading was abysmal in the Arsenal game, but he obviously has a decent shot on him if nothing else.

If I can put the only positive spin on this possible. It doesn't really matter who this signing is, they should only be used as an absolute last resort if an injury crisis hits our remaining three front men. It's better to keep as much money in the kitty for the summer window where there are no restrictions on where we can look for players. Better than paying large wages for a past it Brazillian, or a never was frenchman. ...

I wonder how many free kicks are corners earnt by Jonas have resulted in goals for us.

There wouldn't be any gain on Coloccini, but they would no doubt be keen to get his big wages off the books. I'd say they might see it out for another season though, unless they get an inkling that someone is keen to buy. If only someone would come in for Alan Smith. Even if we had to pay part of his wages it would be good business and he could actually have a positive impact on some Championship side.* * Disclaimer: This is the view of an individual. Not necessarily this individual. The comment comes with no guarantee and may or may not have a foundations in reality. Using it as the basis for a decision is entirely at your own risk. All celebrity voices are impersonated; poorly.

His value has dropped for us simply because of Carroll's departure. It takes away Barton's primary target for the numerous free kicks and corners that Jonas wins for us. But I think it's another case of better the devil you know. Let's not forget that when Jonas was signed there was still some optimism at the club. Keegan was managing and there was no hard and fast limits on wages. 8 million might sound like a solid transfer fee but when you consider that we'll be offering paltry wages the calibre of player that you can attract drop substantially. So even assuming all of the 8m was theoretically spent (big assumption) there's only a slim chance that we bring in someone as good or better. ...and that's getting well ahead of ourselves when we;re far from the transfer window and it's just paper talk.

Speed does probably have a better all-round game, but Tiote is just so good at what he does.