Shearergol

Time for round 3 now?

It's been up all of 5 minutes. May as well just declare someone the winner now.

Same here.

Who voted for Shearer and Robert then?

Can't see Carrick going back to Spurs tbh.

He's scored a massive 8 goals for us, so not sure why it's so important to find a goalscoring left sided player. I'd much rather have one who can cross consistently, and set the strikers up. Stats are all well and good but I use my own eyes, and the lad can score goals. Given a run in a forward position I'll bet his strike rate would improve as well. As far as crossing consistently, he's one of the best crossers we've got IMO. He doesn't float them up uselessly like Milner tends top, he whips them in fast and dipping - very difficult to defend. The only point I agree with you is consistently setting the strikers up, as like Keegan says, his team play could be better. He probably is one of the best crossers we've got, which is what Keegan needs to sort out in Summer. Our crossing is shocking compared to the top teams.

I think most people would rather have 12 points than 4 tbh. HTT always feels the need to state the obvious tbh

Done ok for the last couple of seasons haven't they, and can't see them losing many of their players.

He left the ground in a hurry to deal with a family issue. Don't think any news has been released about it though.

Yep, completely agree with that. He's had a poor season, but he's got something special about him.

I don't disagree - I was responding to TRon's ridiculous claim.

He's scored a massive 8 goals for us, so not sure why it's so important to find a goalscoring left sided player. I'd much rather have one who can cross consistently, and set the strikers up.

Matthew Grieve cost a lot didn't he?

Everton are a top 5 team, we're a potential top 8 team. Ok, they might not have the best individual players in the world, but they're an excellent team who have been well organised. I can think of at least 4 or 5 of their players who I'd sign in a heartbeat.

The one from the miss cleared corner not much to do with his new deeper role that. Big credit Keegan for changing the system but I think the side would benefit from Owen playing higher up the pitch and Viduka deeper seems obvious to me considering what both are best at. I agree with Redknapp comments regarding Michael Owen role completely. So you're ignoring the fact that Viduka isn't fit enough to play a deeper role?

I think he is right with his point Owens role seems bizarre to me. Watching our last 5 games the system is more of a 4 at the back and diamond in midfield with Butt playing far deeper then Barton and Geremi with Owen playing far deeper then the two up top. I agree to a certain extent that its important not changing what has made us 5 unbeaten and 3 wins out of 5 games but something to consider would be Owens role; I think Mark Viduka has the better attributes playing deeper then the front two and playing the link between the midfield and attack certainly far more then Owen has. It would be interesting to see if Keegan slightly changes Michael Owen role and plays Mark Viduka playing in between midfield and attack making the ball stick and bouncing attacks off of him allowing Martins and Owen playing high up on the shoulders and in behind the defenders. Viduka isn't fit enough to play the role Owen is currently playing.

Duff didn't turn Liverpool down. Chelsea did. Edit: By the way, I can't provide proof of that, but it was the story doing the rounds around Chelsea at the time.

Fair enough you know your team better than us, but looking from the outside, your lack of punch in the box is obvious. A player like Torres would do wonders for you A player like Torres would do wonders for any team in the world. An absolute machine that lad. of course, but this is the quality of footballer you need to win titles, or make the jump from 3rd to 1st Shame we're not in a position to sign players like that really. I know people will mention Owen, but it's a completely different situation. However, I was surprised Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United all decided (after watching Torres on numerous occasions) not to take a chance on him. Doesn't even take hindsight to see it was a mistake. Newcastle United have the fanbase and the potential income to buy these players. I don't accept they would not come to a team that is now well known across europe albeit not so well known as the top 4 but well known. Sell the club, show them the stadium, show them the support. Offer them the money, that we can afford. Show them ambition. If you don't believe in the club, then they won't either. Nobody will hit the ground running like us, when we heading upwards, if we do it right. This has been proven. Johnny average players are no good for Newcastle United and never will be. The club has undersold itself for the vast majority of the last 50 years and longer. Even when we won the FA Cup e3 times in the 50's we only finished in the top 4 once ie between 1950 and 1955 we finished 4th, 8th, 16th, 15th, and 8th. Without elaborating over a well made point made many times, the reason the southern hacks don't see us as the club they should is because of decades of having shite directors who didn't attempt to show them how we should be punching our weight. I think I am correct [but may be wrong] as I was told this, but Jackie Sinclair was the first player we ever bought from another club in the top league, that was in 1968 or 1967. If this isn't true, then we didn't buy many before him. Amazing, and in the years that followed, the only others were Terry Hibbit [a Leeds reserve] in 1971, Geoff Nulty (Burnely 1975), Glen Keeley [ipswich reserve, 1974], Peter Withe (Villa 1978].......... I could go on, I hope you get the gist. So whatever bollocks some people may say, or tell you, this is plain cold hard fact. No wonder managers like Gordon Lee and Arthur Cox buggered off. Things change though; mainly the Champions League, which every player in the world now wants to play in. We also have the problem that there are bigger and better clubs out there (Rooney to Man United being one example). I can't think of a single example in the last 15 years of a top class player turning down a bigger club to come to us, apart from Shearer. If we'd gone in for Torres at the same time as Liverpool, he would still have chosen Liverpool.

Someone told me that MOTD2 did a bit of a feature on him last night showing he has no right to be the captain. Anyone see it? What the fuck was he attempting with the penalty anyway? You'll not see many clearer handballs.

Top scorer in the Premiership, or just for Arsenal? Bump Without Ronaldo it is possible yes. Quality free kick taker, good in and around the box. It feels like he has been playing with injuries all season, still got 8 in 18, some games at left wing. Hardly s*** going. Yeah, I guess if you take a few of the other players away, he might be. Same could be said of Owen, or Martins. Bit daft really. Not really. No one will touch ronaldo now, he is a class above. 28 goals, from the wing. Mental. Owen has never scored 20 premiership goals, Oba would do well to hit 15. RVP is better than both of these IMO, just had terrible luck with injuries. Torres is a far better goalscorer too. Good for him. I'd say a fully fit Van Persie could do the exact same job Torres has done. Its all opinions. Wow, that's quite a claim. I guess we'll see next season, if he can keep himself fit.

Top scorer in the Premiership, or just for Arsenal? Bump Without Ronaldo it is possible yes. Quality free kick taker, good in and around the box. It feels like he has been playing with injuries all season, still got 8 in 18, some games at left wing. Hardly s*** going. Yeah, I guess if you take a few of the other players away, he might be. Same could be said of Owen, or Martins. Bit daft really. Not really. No one will touch ronaldo now, he is a class above. 28 goals, from the wing. Mental. Owen has never scored 20 premiership goals, Oba would do well to hit 15. RVP is better than both of these IMO, just had terrible luck with injuries. Torres is a far better goalscorer too.

Good enough to what? Win it? We don't have enough match-winners to grab us points we don't deserve. The Liverpool figures are way off, and include £16m or more of Houllier's spending. 8 or 9 of Fergie's squad pre-date Rafa's arrival at Anfield, 5 of ours do. Fergie's been able to pay a higher average price to get the players he wants. The prices are relative and mean nothing. Liverpool have some of the best or if not as good players in the top 4. Liv have struggled scoring in some away games cause the Benny system is too conservative (all the arm waving aside). I agree that Benitez is too conservative in the league. We do have some of the best players in the top 4, too, but our attacking players are well below the standard of Chelsea's, Arsenal's and Man Utd's. Obviously, Torres is the dog's bollocks (22 league goals), and Gerrard is very handy (11), but our other strikers and wingers have only scored 3 or 4 league goals each, which is shite. Kuyt in particular, has scored 3 in 30 games. Of course, you can pin that on Benitez, too, for buying second-rate wingers and strikers so he could feed his fetish for central midfielders. So forgetting the attacking players, who aren't up to it, who exactly are "some of the best players in the top 4"? Who in your team would Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea be lining up to buy?

I can see Rafa at Barca or Real tbh, no problem.

Top scorer in the Premiership, or just for Arsenal? Bump Without Ronaldo it is possible yes. Quality free kick taker, good in and around the box. It feels like he has been playing with injuries all season, still got 8 in 18, some games at left wing. Hardly shit going. Yeah, I guess if you take a few of the other players away, he might be. Same could be said of Owen, or Martins. Bit daft really.

Why not? They are a well run club, spend little and wisely. They make a loss every year tbh Don't most clubs? Not the "well run" ones Newcastle are the 14th richest club in the world (and that's before taking the whole MA situation into account I think). Blackburn aren't even close to the top 30.