OTF

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.

With you the emphasis is on simple. You could have actually learned something if you'd read my post. For starters you'd know how to spell wane, and what it actually means. Have you acknowledged yet that your thread title doesn't even really match up with your opening post or what you were trying to say? Enrique has attacked well previously in extremely limited cases. His attack is better now. Had a bad game and a bit, isn't on the wane. I can't do this any longer; you don't even know what you're trying to argue and keep changing your opinion. This has become your trademark. I, like many others on here are giving you way more attention than is deserved. When it comes down to it you're just a slightly more articulate version of DEADMAN. At least he has the decency to keep his posts short. It really is true that when you argue with a fool they will inevitably bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

I'll keep this as simple as possible. You know nothing about football. ... and now I'll take it into more detail. There is absolutely nothing at all to indicate that Enrique is on the 'wain'. For something to be on the wane would indicate that it was on a slow gradual decline towards it's eventual end. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here because you can't even spell the word so it's unlikely that you even know what it means. I don't think you actually mean he's at the start of the end given that he just turned 25 last month. The discussion should end there. He's obviously not on the wane. Now, I was singing Enrique's praises in general. When he first played for us to me it was clear that we had a player who had the fundamental skills to be a great defender. He was strong and quick two areas where our defense was lacking. He stays on his feet and doesn't give up. Where he was lacking however was in his link up play with the rest of the team. Defensively he still had plenty to learn in terms of positioning and the like, but the fundamentals were as clear as day. In getting forward however he struggled, he seldom had a short passing option to play to, or at least felt he didn't and so resorted to the long ball far too often. When Jonas arrived in his second season he did start to form a good relationship with Enrique that gave Jose a direct short passing option. They were able to link up and this allowed Enrique to get further with much more frequency than his first season, though ultimately not a great deal came of his attack. Part of this was down to the players that he was crossing to and the general negative feeling at the club. Part of it was down to him missing a fair few games with injury. Part of it was that his crosses weren't that accurate. Certainly in direct contrast to Jonas, Enrique gets a lot of pace and movement on his crosses. If you can get these sort of balls into the right areas then you'll be a goal keepers nightmare. Unfortunately Enrique's crosses weren't consistent (they're more consistent now, but plenty of room to improve) and so not a lot came from them. Last season in the Championship the area where Enrique really developed most in my opinion was in his possession of the ball. Defensively he wasn't often tested in the Championship. In attack he should have been getting even more involved in my opinion, because he quite clearly was better than the players he was coming up against. Back in the top flight and he's now confident on the ball and will take players on on the dribble. When he does he routinely beats his man. If he stays on the dribble he'll often get closed down by second and third men coming in, or will be limited in his ability to get off a shot courtesy of being quite heavily left footed. Now you try to cite a few points to carry your paper thin argument - one being that Enrique doesn't do many slide tackles. That's been busted already by many others in this thread. On top of that you try to claim that he should have tried some sort of slide tackle on Damien Duff in the Fulham game. This is further evidence of your lack of knowledge. Whilst that was a horrible bit of defending from Enrique there was no way that he could have at any stage made a tackle of any sort on Duff once Duff had the ball. If he did he would have received a straight red card. I don't know why you've brought Danny Simpson into it at all, because frankly he has extremely little to do with the way Enrique plays. Simpson has been having some good games of late which is excellent to see. I think he's a good player with a consistent cross who reads the game pretty well. Even still 10 times out of 10 I'd rather have Enrique defending than Simpson. Has Enrique had a bad game and an ordinary half in his last two starts? Yes. Does it need a thread of its own to bring it to everyone's attention? No.

You do realise that most of them are me wanting Enrique to attack more to give us more options in a desperately weak attack? Not actually me saying that he is attacking? Do you also realise that that season was incredibly shite and our attack was incredibly weak so any semblance of a flea on a crumb of attack was something to cling to in a desperate hope that we'd somehow score enough goals to avoid relegation? Back in those days also I was singing the praises of Enrique at every chance because it was patently obvious how good a player he was. Not saying I was the only one, but there was plenty criticising him at the same time, yourself probably one of them. One thing those quotes do show is that you were a wanker then, and you're still a wanker now.

That's because he's already a permanent fixture of the first team squad having being on the bench for the last 5 or 6 games....... Not to open a can of worms but that's because there's nee fucker else who can play wide left in the squad. Dont disagree and I appreciate he may be a few years off getting a regular start (if good enough), but currently, when Jonas is having an off day, I see no harm in letting the lad be an impact sub as Ranger has been. Youth doesnt have to mean no good. I think as sure as eggs are eggs, Lua Lua will be the permanent left winger next season. I've seen him play for Brighton - if he is our permamnent LW then we will be in trouble Why do you say that? He has had rave reviews for them, they are desperate to sign him and he's scored some screamers apparently. Because unlike you he's actually seen him play. Scoring 'some screamers' does not suddenly make him a good footballer. Ryan Taylor's scored a fair few 'screamers' in his time.

This. Enrique barely got forward in his first season for us where he was inconsistently played by Allardyce. In his second season (though he missed a fair bit due to injury) he also rarely got forward. He always had the pace, strength and defensive ability but rarely used his pace to get forward. The season in the championship helped to encourage him getting forward and improved his ability to beat a man (he's one of the best we have at this, others in the side beat a man by retreating, spinning where-as Enrique shows a little bit of the ball then uses a touch and some pace to pull away towards goal). Not only do you look like a moron for creating this thread Christmas Tree, but you continue to drag yourself further down into full on retardation by trying to fall back on your own bullshit facts that anybody who watched us play knows are just that - bullshit. It's mildly entertaining for just how senseless you are, but this sort of shit won't be tolerated around here for long.

These sort of threads make this place look bad. Christmas Tree should have a ban on making new threads. They're pointless anyway because everyone knows that next week after Enrique has a blinder he'll create another thread with his brand new incisive opinion, then claim that anyone else who states the bleeding obvious is guilty of plagiarism.