OTF

Yeah, realistically it's a pretty good set of results. If West Brom keep winning it will mean that our players can't slacken off at all if they want to win the League. At the same time if Forest keep dropping away it's great news as in the end all that really matters is that we get promoted. Still a key match for us tomorrow.

Quite a few season back in a Newcastle vs Liverpool match Lee Bowyer made a pretty ordinary tackle, nothing malicious but a bad tackle nonetheless. I think the tackle was on Gerrard. Anyway Crouch came charging in from elsewhere on the field and shoved Lee Bowyer in the back, and carried on like a right tit. In the same instance as well Gerrard had his hands around Shearer's throat from behind. Neither Gerrard nor Crouch were penalised in any way for their actions. Of course Lee Bowyer was, because, well, he's Lee Bowyer.

In no particular order: Steven Gerrard, Francesco Totti, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Patrice Evra, Emmanuel Eboue, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alvaro Recoba, Fabio Grosso, Craig Fagan, Phil Brown, Alex Ferguson, Roy Keane, Emmanuel Adebayor, Martin Jol, Peter Crouch .... I'm sure I could go on.

Let it be so!

With it being blatantly obvious to all that our squad is not strong enough to avoid a relegation battle in the Premier League, once promotion is properly secured our attention will no doubt immediately turn to the player market. Needing to strengthen in several areas on a rumoured to be extremely limited budget with specific requirements for players (in terms of age, resaleablity etc) we're already in a poor bargaining position. The fact that there will be no more large wages afforded to new players means that the lure of big money is no longer there. With all that in mind I still think we'd offer an attractive proposition for players with a real interest in performing and doing so in front of loud crowds with vocal support. Some realistic targets that I think we should be interested in are: Gylfi Sigurðsson Position: Midfield Age: 20 Club: Reading FC Contract: Unknown Details: Extremely promising young midfielder who is an excellent striker of the ball. Dead ball specialist who scores a fair amount for a midfielder. I'd imagine Reading would be keen to hold onto him, but under the lure of a decent offer may have their arms twisted depending on his current contract. David Nugent Position: Striker Age: 24 Club: Burnley (on loan from Portsmouth) Contract: Until 2010/11 Details: Portsmouth will be keen to sell him as he's a saleable asset. Burnley were interested in buying on a permanent basis but that may change if they are relegated (which seems to be very likely). His stock has dropped since his £6million move to Portsmouth and with only one more year to run on his contract they'll be keen to sell him to recoup some of their outlay on him. Still looks a decent striker, who has come back into a little form for Burnley (despite their results). Nadir Belhadj Position: Left Wing, Left Back Age: 27 Club: Portsmouth Contract: Until 2012/13 Details: On a long contract with Portsmouth, but no doubt will be keen to leave with their financial predicament and forthcoming relegation. Good attacking player who will add some flair and movement to the side, whilst providing experienced cover for Enrique. Habib Beye Position: Right Back Age: 32 Club: Aston Villa Contract: Until 2011/12 Details: Known prospect at Newcastle. Doesn't fit with the buy to sell outlook of Ashley, but would be a feasible option on loan. Isn't being played at Aston Villa so no doubt will be keen to get some time on the field. Kevin Prince Boateng Position: Central Midfield Age: 23 Club: Portsmouth Contract: Until 2011/12 Details: Probably one of the more saleable assets that Portsmouth have because of his age and reputation, and they're be desperate to sell him because he'll be on inflated wages. On the whole he's probably overrated, but would still add a different dimension to Newcastle's midfield. Unfortunately he's apparently money hungry so the wage limit could present a very real barrier in trying to sign him. Jamie O'Hara Position: Midfield Age: 23 Club: Portsmouth (on loan from Tottenham) Contract: Until 2012/13 Details: Likely to only be a loan signing as he still has several years to run on his Tottenham contract. As a loan signing though he presents a very real option that will add some much needed energy to the midfield. Has good premier league experience. More to come...

Disappointed that he won't actually be relegated along with Hull. This move didn't work for Ashley last season, wonder if it will for Hull now? Without looking at their fixtures (and those of the teams around them) I can't see them escaping relegation.

<_< Well said.

I'll have whatever the guy who wrote that article is having..

Yep. 8 million for him with such little experience is good business as he did have some big weaknesses. This season he hasn't really been needed at all and next season would have been the final year of his three year contract. At the end of that he could have left for nothing. Business wise it was defintely the right decision, and team wise it didn't work out too poorly. Plus, any financial gain has been swallowed up by the relegation. I suppose it made financial sense to sell him once we went down but he's different class to what we have going into next season. Money coming in is required to help financially when the income takes a big hit as it does with relegation. I agree though that he's a different type of player to what we have in that he's a big physical central defender who isn't slow. Hopefully they can get back scouting over in France as their league is in quite a strong position at the moment, so with a bit of luck, and a lot of optimism maybe they can find another Bassong or similar.

They got us back when they sold us Owen though. True.

In the premier league where the standard of opposition is on average better than the countries he's been scoring against (Belarus, Andorra, Trinidad & Tobago, Egypt in which 1 was clearly off-side) he has a return of 5 in 29. Granted he offers a different dimension to most of the other candidates. He could possibly be the only not passed it sort of 'post' player that England have as an option.

...Most of Crouch's goals have been easy goals against shit opposition. Fair play to him, he's half decent, but I think there's several better forwards in the picture. In the premier league where the standard of opposition is on average better than the countries he's been scoring against (Belarus, Andorra, Trinidad & Tobago, Egypt in which 1 was clearly off-side) he has a return of 5 in 29.

Good thing in the end that he didn't come back to us when he was deciding where to go. Would have slotted straight back into the Jonathan Woodgate ward of the Newcastle United medical facilities. Still amazes me how much Real Madrid shelled out to get him from us.

If Jagielka picks back up where he left off (prior to his injury) then he should definitely be the first reserve for centre back (and behind Terry and Ferdinand on reputation alone). The fact that Crouch is considered good enough to start by many is worrying. Probably down to most people thinking that Defoe and Rooney can't play well together.

Bringing Butt on was a horrendous decision. Committing fouls and lofting useless balls into the box - pathetic. Routledge and Enrique on the bench for precisely what reason? Pacrate was having a poor game with Routledge a perfect replacement and when Coloccini picked up a knock Kadar could have slotted into central defense with Enrique coming in on the left. If they're not ready to play why name them in the side? Amateur. Best coming on wasn't a great sub either even though he tried hard there was nothing for him.

Whilst I can normally at least understand the ideas behind your thoughts, this is just flat out ridiculous.

....and Thread Closed! PS - I really want to see the dog/frisbee/pony combination.

Some may call it tempting fate but assuming we're promoted at the end of this season I'd like to see what everyones hopes are for the off-season, and also what their actual expectations are. There will be one provision on the hopes front though - the club won't be sold. Other than that hopes can be whatever you believe will be the best actions that can be taken for the club. Expectations will be what you're expecting from our current owner/board. Feel free to go into as little, or as much detail as you like. I'll kick it off. Hopes - We see 4 or 5 new faces in or about our first team. Amongst them there should be a balance of youth, creativity, pace and experience and they should be aimed at filling the holes in our side. Namely then the number one priority is a central midfield player, with focus also on a right back, and up front. In total, expenditure wise I'd be happy with 20-25 million pounds being spent on transfer fees and moderate wages. I'm not interested in us having to pay ridiculous wages to get a player here. To this end the focus may have to be on players outside of England in smaller leagues. Nicky Butt should not have his contract renewed. Expectations - We'll see 2 or 3 new players come in but they won't necessarily be of the quality that we're hoping. All in all it will be an underwhelming offseason where Hughton and Llambias talk about the solid nucleus of players that earnt promotion that they'll be calling on to do a job in the premier league. Our total expenditure won't exceeed 10 million.

The idea behind getting the contracts down is good it will balance out the wage structure, so that there's not valuable new/newer players on much lower wages thean their less valuable older team mates. Good luck getting these greedy bastards to take a pay cut though!

It could well be, and no doubt he does look better than he will against vastly superior opposition. I do think though that his head dropped when he realised the sunny picture that had been painted for him of Newcastle was far from the truth. There was some comments from him last season to this effect also. He's not very good against a quick forward with the ball on the deck. Torres had a field day against him last season, though tankfully there's not too many Torres calibre players in the league.

Agree with all that. Leaves the fans in a right shit position.

Not in the Championship but last season in the Premier League the performances were woeful and the attendances barely noticed. This season coming will be a telling one to that effect. I hope the ST numbers dwindle and Ashley is forced to play his hand and buy an exciting player of note before the season kicks off to add some buzz and excitement. In the past they'd probably have tried to do it by leaking all sorts of ridiculous rumours to the press and getting the likes of Joe Kinnear to sprout some rubbish. With Hughton though I think he'll always be honest, so their latest turn has been to play the we're doing it tough card to gain sympathy and an understanding that there's not going ot be any big signings. I'd like to see what some people would like Ashley to do. I'd assume the answer will be to spend 30 or so million to turn the squad around, but if that ultimately means we finish in 10th instead of 15th financially we'll effectively be in a worse position having spent the money and that's not sustainable. I think this is more than a problem just for Newcastle BTW it's something that the League itself needs to look at.

I agree he certainly doesn't have the engine of Milner, but that's something that he can work on. It's been hard to tell what he's like over 90 minutes as whenever I've seen a full match this season he's been played out of position and plainly half the time he doesn't know what to do and keeps drifting in-field. That's why, in a moment of optimism, I turned to that moment to signify his commitment. You can't say that it's anything but a good sign that he made an effort to get back to scupper their chance on goal given the circumstances of the match. At any length I hope Hughton sticks with Guthrie in the centre till the end of the season. I honestly think that with a consistent run in the side in his preferred position he'll be capable of lifting his game to be relatively competitive in the Premier League. I have to hope that anyway as it's not like we'll be signing a better replacement.

It's true, we're not going to see any real glamour in our side for some time to come unless by some stroke of luck some of the young players develop into stars. That's one of the side affects of at least trying to be fiscally responsible, which is much easier to do when you've got no real attachment to the side and when the fans will seemingly turn up regardless of how poorly the team is performing.

It shouldn't be understated the value added and the work done by the Hall's and Shepherd's in developing our youth sides and training facilities. I shudder to think of the the great many injuries that we could have incurred if it weren't for our fantastic training ground and facilities. In addition when I look through our first team squad and see all the exceptional local talent I'm loathe to think of what it could have been like if we didn't have such a conveyor belt of talent coming through from our youth ranks thanks to the excellent vision and foresight of the Hall's and Shepherd's.