TicTacWoe

Too many invisible players in the midfield, we'll get nothing out of smith nolan and little out of the likes of jonas and duff on the wings. I'd opt for throwing in one of the youngsters in midfield ahead of Nolan or Smith, or play two up front but that means playing Shola .

Unfortunately I can see us putting Shola up on his own with Nolan behind him, as horrific as that prospect sounds. Hopefully that was just friendly experimentation as I really think Carrol should get a run and might score a few in the championship.

Shame that we won't actually pick them. Exactly, we always wait too long to throw youngsters in at the deep end imo. Obviously, its not always a good idea but by the looks of things Vuckic has the physicality and maturity to be in the first team already. I say whoever is in charge this season should be brave enough to give him or lualua a solid run in the first team. The fact we are now a championship team should improves the chances of seeing more of the youngsters but I bet that unless we have an injury crisis we wont see any of these guys on a regular basis and will instead be subjected to pathetic performances from Butt, Duff, Smith and Nolan, players we already no are past it and serve no further use to football.

A great defender that no ones mentioned so far Miguel Ángel Nadal, ahead of the likes of Walker and Woodgate by far imo. Sergi at left back was quality as well.

I remember Dyer saying a while back that his biggest regret in life was how he treated Bobby when he through a strop and refused to play in a different position. He seemed genuinely remoreseful about the whole thing. Even prima-donna nitwits like Dyer loved Bobby! RIP Bobby you absolute legend

I doubt it given Wengers recent comments. Agreed, they have a lot of strikers even without adebayor with Van Persie, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela whilst Wenger said something about using Walcott as a striker this season so they dont really need Martins. Midfield is seen as more of a priority for them I think.

Another one of those players that we've managed to sign at the precise point in time when they ceased being of any use whatsoever as footballers whilst still commanding insanely high transfer fees and wages....Although I think even at his best Smith was overrated.

The thing is though, 12 goals in a season isnt bad, very few strikers ever score 20 goals in a season and most that do never replicate that for again. I regularly hear fans of all clubs banging on about getting in a "20 (or even 30) goal a season man" as if they grow on trees.

I simply cannot believe Hull are set to pay almost 6 million for Zamora apparently....bizarrely the Hull fans seem to be happy about signing a striker that scored 2 in 35 games for Fulham last season! That money could buy a dozen random foreign strikers, at least 2 or 3 would have to be as good if not better than Zamora. It just goes to show how small minded managers can be at times not looking outside the EPL. I'd rather have Leroy Lita than Zamora and he's on a free!

If Coppel was willing to take the job then I think he'd be a good choice as I've always rated him highly. However, considering management stresses him out so much as it is, coming to Newcastle would probably make him suicidal. I think Curbishly would be a safe option in that I don't think we'd go down to league 1 with him in charge but I cant see us getting back up anytime soon with him either, same goes for Strachan. Shearer is largely an unknown quantity but has several things going in his favour, the love for the club, loyalty but most of all hunger which I think Curbs and Coppel may have lost to some extent.

Taylor and Bassong are both good young central defender, both prone to making errors but have potential nontheless. They had no cover from a truly abysmal midfield last season either. In my opinion, Taylor could never be a replacement for Terry no matter how much he improves but at a stretch he could reach a standard similar to Carragher if he has the right training and players around him.

Unfortunately it probably isn't though is it. Wonder if Wacky Warehouse fancies a bid too? Indeed, even if there have been as many genuine offers as have been suggested, Ashley clearly isnt too keen on any of them and is holding out for a better deal.

I reckon without sounding pessimistic it's possible (no I haven't been doing drugs) we are coming to the end of everything, and the sad thing is if that's the case we never got to see us winning a trophy. Everything is bad in the world at the moment, 15 years ago everything seemed better, and a lot of the ills of the world are seeping in to football. When you're talking about £40m for an unproven Argentinian who I thinks shite anyway (Aguerro) you know it's fucked up. The only way football will get better is if wage caps and budget caps are implemented, otherwise football is dead officially. The whole point of football is competition. Between 1950 and 1980 there was nearly 20 different champions of English football, 1980-2009 there's been SEVEN, I don't mind when clubs win it like Liverpool did in the 70's, but when the whole thing is driven by greed at the very top of UEFA and FIFA you just think what's the point. The Champions League shouldn't even exist in my view. I agree with the sentiment of the post but completely disagree about Aguero who you class as being shite. The guy has scored bags of goals from a withdrwn striker role, since the age of 18, playing for a team who are nothing special and has been a regular in the argentinian squad for a good while now. He has off days sure (he is only 21 years old), and 40 million would too much (but seeing as Atletico don't want to sell they will milk it for all it's worth if they have to), but to call him shite or even unproven is ridiculous when he's clearly one of the best young attacking players in world football.

Publican Charlie Chawke has been on Irish radio saying that he has put together a consortium and has made a bid to buy Newcastle. For those who don't know he was part of the consortium that previously owned the Mackems.

Ahh but theyre making out that theyve already seen my CV so there wouldnt be a need to send it. Not that Ive ever put the bloody thing up on the net and even if I had, it wouldnt have anything related to house sales Most spam doesn't even give itself a chance! I keep getting mails from a guy called Mack Michaels, which firstly is the fakest name I have ever heard (it's as if he had 2 seconds to come up with a name and that was the first thing that came out!), but secondly, the spelling of his surname changes throughout the mails...michels, michals, michaels....

While I will admit they did impress, I'm very wary of hype based around performances in international tournaments like when Senegal did well in the World Cup and eveyone starting buying up their players later in the summer, most of which were nothing special.

Too much money for Crouch but he will get goals and doesnt get many injurys I suppose. Christ though, are portsmouth intent on selling every decent player they have left? Without Crouch they have virtually no strikeforce, their only decent midfielder is Kranjar and their defence/keeper are ancient.

Good god, Kinnear was on SSN earlier blabbering about Owens move, said he's sure SAF will get the best out of him etc bla etc

Chelsea have signed Daniel Sturridge for 3 million from city, could be a good bit of business there as they don't have much cover for Anelka and Drogba.

Talksport are confirming it as a done deal now, saying Owen has said hes signed, met SAF for coffee etc etc

Wiki has it at 30 goals in 76 Also I thought it was £36m (£16m fee, £20m wages). £10m of which we got back in Insurance/compensation and £20m of which was repaid in the form of goals that kept us up last year. The comparison with Shearer isn't really fair either...He was playing in a far better team. His Souness era record is a better comparison when he couldn't reach 20 either. Shearer was miles fucking better than Owen too like, he cost just as much 10 years earlier. I got the stats of .com. Id believe them over wikipedia tbh Aaaah, "league" goals. I was looking at cup too...since he scored them and played in them. http://www.nufc.com/html/2008-09html/app-goals.html 10/32 http://www.nufc.com/html/2007-08html/app-goals.html 13/33 http://www.nufc.com/html/2006-07html/app-goals.html 0/3 http://www.nufc.com/html/2005-06html/app-goals.html 7/11 Total 30/79 His record was ok considering the quality of the team. Same with Martins, very few players actually score 20 plus goals a season these days, the problems of the last few years have been little to do with the strikers. The thing is, we've had our worst midfield for as long as I can remember since Owen joined with no real supply for the forwards or protection for the defenders. It's the midfielders who should be shouldering more of the blame, but it's easier for people to blame a striker (as happens with Adebayor and Bendtner at Arsenal despite their goal scoring records being quite good). Hadaway man, are you his agent or something. You cant possibly claim that £20million can be offset from his fee and wages cos he scored 10 goals in a season. If anything Given is the one the kept us up I'm not claiming any such thing, and of course Given was infinitely more useful than Owen. I'm just saying that his goalscoring record isn't that bad. How many would he have had to score to satisfy the 16 million we paid for him? 20 a season for most of you I'd wager, and it is close to damn well impossible to score that many goals with no support from a god awful midfield especially for such an out an out striker like Owen. If we had a midfield like one of the top four clubs and spent that sort of fee on him then I'd expect more goals, but you cant just expect him to magic goals out of the air somehow. For the record, I do think we paid too much for him, especially in terms of wages, but for me 16 million plus those crazy wages for Owen was better value than what we paid and have been paying for Geremi, Smith, Duff, Nolan, Butt, Collocini etc....most of the squad basically, yet most people still single out Owen.

Wiki has it at 30 goals in 76 Also I thought it was £36m (£16m fee, £20m wages). £10m of which we got back in Insurance/compensation and £20m of which was repaid in the form of goals that kept us up last year. The comparison with Shearer isn't really fair either...He was playing in a far better team. His Souness era record is a better comparison when he couldn't reach 20 either. Shearer was miles fucking better than Owen too like, he cost just as much 10 years earlier. I got the stats of .com. Id believe them over wikipedia tbh Aaaah, "league" goals. I was looking at cup too...since he scored them and played in them. http://www.nufc.com/html/2008-09html/app-goals.html 10/32 http://www.nufc.com/html/2007-08html/app-goals.html 13/33 http://www.nufc.com/html/2006-07html/app-goals.html 0/3 http://www.nufc.com/html/2005-06html/app-goals.html 7/11 Total 30/79 His record was ok considering the quality of the team. Same with Martins, very few players actually score 20 plus goals a season these days, the problems of the last few years have been little to do with the strikers. The thing is, we've had our worst midfield for as long as I can remember since Owen joined with no real supply for the forwards or protection for the defenders. It's the midfielders who should be shouldering more of the blame, but it's easier for people to blame a striker (as happens with Adebayor and Bendtner at Arsenal despite their goal scoring records being quite good).

about 20 he'll be used as an impact sub if at all. wonder what his wages will be eh? pay as you play? As he obviously won't be their 1st choice striker, they can rap him in cotton wool to some extent so he may simply be able to avoid getting so many injuries more now.

Dear god do they have enough strikers yet? Benzema, Raul, Huntelaar, David Villa, Van Nistelrooy (though he'll be off), Higuan not to mention Ronaldo and Kaka just behind....

Milner misses a penalty, must be the oldest under 21 player ever EDIT saved by the keeper not missed