OTF

I'd love a PM as well please. Just to say Hi and all..

I'll be happy with any sort of win. I predict 3-1 to the good guys. Carroll, Nolan and Jonas* * -

Was shocked to actually see him get on the pitch on the weekend. I'm guessing he may play another cameo in the Sheffield Wednesday match. After Shola he's technically the most experienced striker we have (unless Smith is still counted as a striker). Less Premiership experience than Carroll, but played 44 games from 2006-2008 for Deportivo in La Liga.

Just about any incoming players would be good news. Including Lovenkrands. Him being on a free lends more credibility to the rumours as well. He seemed to be enjoying it while he was here.

Losing Enrique will be tough. Both are 23 years of age but I rate Enrique a better player than Taylor (obviously different positions). Not saying that losing Taylor will be easy, but if he does go I think it will be for an amount that is representative of his worth, with Enrique I think there's a chance that may not be the case. I don't think it's necessary to rebuild completely from scratch as JawD said, but we do have to be resigned to losing a fair chunk of players. It gives us a chance to get rid of the higher profile players who weren't performing, though we should be replacing them with young, keen players who will give their all when playing for us. I'd take Peter Ramage back, same with David Edgar. Unrelated, but I was watching the Wigan match the other day, and was thinking that we'd all have Bramble in our team over Coloccini..

Over a certain level it's the quality of the squad that is important. Problems is we don't know the quality of many of our players included in our first team squad. We had a side last season that was only good enoiugh to finish thrid from bottom in the premier league. That squad has since been weakened substancially with 9 players leaving, and only 1 player coming in (albeit on a 6 month loan).

Yep, it was the winner. A cracking header from a Modric free-kick.

I can't believe people are only now noticing how good a defender Enrique is. I'll be devestated if he goes.

Or it could be that they're 'mates' and he's just there to take the steam off Ashley in general and there actually is no offer... Anyway, we're playing pretty well, leading 1-0 at home.

Yeah, Carroll has done well to get to plenty of long balls and has knocked them down nicely. Doesn't help that Shola is 20 yards away strolling instead of hanging around looking for the knock-down like any lucid half decent strike partner would be.

Agree re: Jonas. Has combined nicely with Enrique. Lost his footing when just about clear through on goal . Enrique has been the stand-out thus far (even though he has put in some ordinary crosses). The one that Shola scored off was inch perfect, and have to say Shola's run at the back post was well timed and the header (although awkward looking) was reasonably well directed. All in all we deserve the lead. Coloccini needs to be more physical with Long. Was super lucky to get away with a shambolic challenge that was incorrectly adjudged to be a foul by Long.

This. I reckon you could score a hat-trick of own goals and still be named in the first 11 under Hughton if you're more experienced than the other options. Ultra soft touch. Seriously, what does he have to lose? I suspect he's possibly not even picking the side.

If it wasn't for a combination of poor finishing, good positional keeping and some quality last man defending Chelsea should have scored 6. As it was I was smiling when Drogba's cross hit the inside netting. Can't stand Phil Brown, and by association Hull.

In America most likely.

Yep. We're now not going to have a right winger, instead we'll have three midfielders making the same very slow runs.

Smith, Nolan and Barton in midfield. can't wait to see which one of them is supposed to play out wide. I say supposed to because there is buckley's chance that they'll hold any width. Good luck to the fullback that happens to be on that side. I'd wager a bet that it's going to be on our right and as such Ryan Taylor (who was incredibley poor last start) will be under the pump all game. Isn't it great having all optimism slowly but painfully extracted over a season of shite and lies. We should still be fancied over this Reading side at St James': RFC: Adam Federici, Liam Rosenior, Ryan Bertrand, Kalifa Cisse, Alex Pearce ©, Jay Tabb, Jimmy Kebe, Scott Davies, Simon Church, Shane Long, Jem Karacan Subs: Matthew Mills, Brynjar Gunnarsson, Noel Hunt, James Harper, Hal Robson-Kanu, Ben Hamer, Gylfi Sigurdsson

Get out of our house and into your car hit the road ash take what's left of your cash not welcome here no more no more ....grabs coat...

I know. Paper thin squad already man. 46 league games makes injuries inevitable and we seem to have had an injury crisis every year for about the last half dozen seasons. I can see the annual injury crisis coming as well. What happens when we cant field 11 fit professionals ?? Will the games be canceled? Yep, it's only by virtue of our relative lack of injuries that we're able to field a reasonably decent side. Knock out two defenders, and two forwards and we'll really be struggling.

Harper R. Taylor S. Taylor Coloccini Enrique Duff Smith Barton Jonas Nolan Carroll Wouldn't be the worst option. Carroll was so clearly better than Ameobi on the weekend that it would be criminal if Shola was to start at Andy's expense. I was thinking that I'd like to see Tamas Kadar starting in place of Coloccini, but Kadar was on the losing side in the walloping our reserves copped off Leeds so perhaps now is not the best time to stick him out there. On the back of that second half I'd like to see Krul given a chance to start, though I won't be disappointed if Harper is again named. Would possibly be worthwhile to have Geremi out there as well. For all of his inability to run (though he did actually beat a defender with pace last season) he is probably the best crosser that we have in our entire squad. Certainly puts Jonas and Duff to shame in that respect (though playing them on their opposite wings as is currently en vougue does little to help with that).

Yep. Last time there was protests they just dug themselves in and effectively did nothing. That's the last thing we need at the moment.

Would be interested to hear/see a full transcript of what went down. Was it intended as an arena to raise issues, to suggest ideas/solutions/actions, or both?

Hard to say no to it if it's 4 million, however won't Duff also have to agree to personal terms? I can't see Bolton or Fulham paying 60k for him, so he may elect to reject any offers? He was poor in the first half against West Brom, but improved a great deal in the second half (including his quality first time finish). He's much better IMO when he doesn't spend too much time of the ball, needs to move it on/cross it in quickly before the defense has a chance to settle. He played ok for the Republic of Ireland (against Australia) yesterday. Interestingly he also played on the right for them (he was a substituted at the half).

Fair call, I'm certainly not in a position to deny any of that. I am partially glad that I'm not in a situation where I'm surrounded by more of the same feelings and emotions. At one leve it's good to share the feelings with others (eg. on here and other forums that I post at), but for me here in Australia, most people know buckleys about Newcastle, let alone the situation they're in at the moment so it's fairly easy to avoid it if I don't want to bring myself down too far. Believe me there's been many nights when I'm up at 3AM freezing cold in my lounge room watching a match that we've got buckleys chance of competing in, let alone winning yet I'm still there watching every painful moment with a horrible feeling in my gut that I'm sure you're familiar with.

This is not a soooper fan comment but you really need to get to SJP to see the fucking apathy this cunt has created. It's not obvious on the telly. As I said I've seen it in action at St Pauli and it's a beautiful thing and nothing is going to change until this cunt is pushed. There's not much I'd love more than to see a game at St James'. I'm completely across the feeling of apathy created by Ashley in my own life, but yes it probably would be eye opening to see it on a broader scale. Despite this I've perservered and watched every match we've played in over the past two seasons (and most matches for multiple seasons before when available). So I might not be across the feelings in Newcastle (though they're probably similar to mine) but I have seen the steady decline in player morale particularly after Keegan's departure last season. I definitely don't have all the answers, just putting my opinion (however ill informed others believe it to be) across. We all want the same thing.

Amen.