OTF

Yeah the SkySports site has this: Possible starting XIs: Man Utd: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Vidic, Evans, Fabio, Scholes, Carrick, Park, Valencia, Rooney, Owen. Newcastle: Harper, Perch, Ryan Taylor, Coloccini, Enrique, Gutierrez, Nolan, Barton, Guthrie, Smith, Carroll. Still retarded as that probably puts Perch in the centre of defense with Ryan Taylor right fullback. I can see Routledge being left out though, with either Guthrie or Barton on the right to facilitate Smith 'shielding' the defense.....and by shielding I mean running around chasing shadows a second behind the ball, attempting slide tackles all over the place. Hopefully though we'll see Routledge on the right with Smith at best on the bench and Guthrie and Barton through the middle.

They're so much better than us

Wow, that's piss poor from Sky. Missed our best player and the first name on our team sheet.

well at least you won't be freezing . . . . . .

Jesus wept ... "Respect for privacy" - surely he's taking the piss there.

I'll be watching at 5AM right through regardless of the score and resulting pain. Thankfully it's warmed up the last couple of nights/mornings so here's hoping I'm not freezing and disappointed.

A player, or a good player? Shola was desperate to re-sign for us.

..and then for damage control Hughton takes Routledge off and replaces him with Alan Smith, who not wanting to be outdone by Barton, is also sent off before the half time whistle for a mistimed 'challenge'.

90% going to be Harper, Perch, Coloccini, Williamson, Enrique, Jonas, Guthrie, Barton, Routledge, Nolan, Carroll Only change that I could see being possible is bringing in Smith and moving Barton or Guthrie to the right replacing Routledge. That's a horrible change to make IMO for the record, but it's something I could see Hughton doing.

If he does go to Cardiff I wonder what percentage of his wage they'd be paying, surely only something pissy. Man City's wage bill must be ridiculously huge - I'd love to see the actual figures. The amounts they're supposed to be paying for Yaya Toure and the like are absurd. Even with Cardiff's contribution Man City will probably be paying Bellamy a solid 60k a week - can you imagine paying 60k a week for one of your players to play elsewhere? You can appreciate what City are trying to do, but it really seems like they've done a pretty poor job of it considering the money they've spent and the wages they're paying. Oh to be able to piss that much money up the wall...

After the goal that Almunia conceded they ought to be in a hurry to get a keeper in. Cracking shot from Ngog, but beaten nearpost by a shot that he easily got a hand to is not good enough. Reina's looked much worse, but the way it happened there's not a lot he really could have done - must have felt like a right tit about it, that would have been a very valuable three points for Liverpool. Edit - Oh, love the way they cut to Given in the stands after Hart made an impressive save.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t...ity/8915964.stm Cardiff bloody City? Can we not offer a better package than them? His family live in Cardiff. So, no. That's assuming he wants to be near his family (and that they want him to be near to them).

Yeah, they've just posted some more breaking news - Roeder is closely monitoring Dirk Kuyt.

Exactly, I'd sooner give Xisco or Ranger a solid run in the side than inflate the wage bill unnessecarily with a player who doesn't improve our first 11 in a position where we're well covered with mediocrity already. No disrespect to him He had a pretty decent pre-season apparently. If he was used as a right winger last season then he won't even get a chance to play there for Everton this season as they're unlikely to have as many midfielders injured this time around. Up front there's usually only one forward and he's behind the yak, Saha and Beckford (for the time being).

He's not THAT good, I don't think. If he was he would be attracting interest from elsewhere. Good player no doubt, but not so good that it's unrealistic for us to get him in our current shape.

Wasn't in the Everton side at all last night - though you could question whether he would get into it regardless. On those stats he hasn't started many games, most he comes on as a late sub. For the record I don't think we should be interested in him, another mediocre striker? No thanks. 2009-10 League: 6 starts, 5 subs, 1 goal, 2 assists

Would prefer a captain who's ability puts them in the starting 11 regardless of formation. For what we have though, he's not a bad choice.

Realistically we are short at least one defensive midfield player, with no 'specialist' in the squad.

No doubt would be best mates with Nolan after that horrible challenge two seasons back

All the bullshit speculation and he said / they said is very annoying, but I'm sure both clubs are enjoying it immensely. I see why we could easily think that we'd have a serious interest in this player as he seemingly adds what we're currently missing from our squad. But on the other hand a signing like this is not at all realistic under the current management, even if it's only on loan. Certainly not expecting anything of this now. I think next transfer window I'll steer clear of all the rubbish, because ultimately that's all it usually amounts to being.

Simply because of the comment regarding pace, ability to play on the break and being able to crack a shot. Immediately made me think of Martins. Bellamy is no doubt a more well rounded player, but at 6 years his senior he bloody well should be. How do you think Defoe compares to Bellamy?

Sounds a bit like Obafemi. Admittedly he was a 9ish million pound striker on wages above 60k, something that we're clearly no longer going to be 'indulging' ourselves in. And Oba is 6 years younger, allegedly . Oba has a better scoring record too, surprisingly. Scoring once every 2.76 games, compared to Bellamy every 2.89 games. For the record I'm not saying Martins is better.

Not confusing anything, I said he was a good player but not a great finisher. His timing as the last man is very good, so much so that he often gets called offside when he isn't, an unfortunate by-product of being quick with good timing.

He's a good player no doubt, but the level of Bellamy love in here is a little over the top. He's never been a great finisher. Miles better than anything we have at the moment, but there's more to it than just his character that have prevented him from really settling anywhere. If he really was that good, he'd still be at Liverpool IMO. All said and done though like I said earlier if we could get him on a 1 year loan it would be good, though I don't think Man City will loan him out if his full wages aren't being paid, and there's no way we would be paying anywhere near 90K (which is probably a bullshit figure anyway). Assume it was 80K, that's a little over 4 million pounds for the year. Worth the price of sureing up our survival hopes? You betcha.

On loan if he isn't named in the Man City 25 man squad? The wages are completely ridiculous though. Half of it if he's lucky, so would be up to City to fill the void.