ohmelads

I'm sure if you ask some Liverpool fans they'll disagree with that. I was in Liverpool and spoke to some of the Barca fans after the game, and they didn't take it too well. I was with my Spanish housemate from Seville (a big Seville fan, but he wanted Barca to win to keep them occupied during the title race). They spoke to me in Spanish but refused to speak to my friend likewise and spoke to him in Catalan (which obviously he doesn't speak). How childish is that. Like I say a bunch of petty arseholes.

Barcelona. Biggest playacters in Spain (which is some achievement). Posh, arrogant fans too. I lost any respect for them when their fans sang anti-Madrid songs at Celtic Park after the Madrid bombings, and refused to wear black armbands in honour of it, instead wearing the catalan colours. Bunch of petty stuck up bastards. I don't understand how so many English (and other European) people see them as some romantic, anti-establishment people's club. They're the richest city in Spain and are famous over there for being stuck-up. A club which has disappeared up its own arse. I don't like Real Madrid one bit but I've grown to prefer them over Barca these days.

If we can notch up a few points to avoid relegation then I'd like to see him given a game or two before the season's out. It's one of the only benefits having nothing to play for, you can give some kids a chance. I see it as an opportunity wasted if we don't, assuming we do get ourselves clear of relegation worries.

I'm not writing him off, there's a chance he'll do what Moore and Sibierski did for us. But I'm saying those players were both terrible signings when you look at the number of points we dropped with them in the team. They may have done better than expected, but they were expected to do nothing. The money wasted in other areas of the team meant we had to get these players in, and considering how many players we need to replace this summer then this never-has-been Turk on trial is a worrying sign of our financial situation, particularly given Shepherd's record with the defence.

Neither of them took the club forward, they were cheap players to paper over cracks while money was wasted in other areas. In the summer we signed Moore, defence was totally neglected while money was poured into midfield and attack (Parker, Emre, Luque, Owen, Solano). A few months later we were giving a trial to a 30-odd year old French left back! In the summer we signed Sibierski, £5m, a third of the budget for that year, was spent on Duff when we already had a very promising young left winger who has hardly had a game since. A few months later we're forced to take a defender on loan from Standard Liege to make up the numbers. Moore and Sibierski are bad examples, they're a symbol of how badly our transfer business was conducted in those two transfer windows. There's a reason to be sceptical of this, espescially given Shepherd's record of neglectin defence, espescially the full back positions.

You must admit it'd be a huge coup if he's actually any good. We spot a guy who has moved to 6 different clubs in the last 6 years (including a high profile move from Banionios to Buraspor), who can't get in the Olympiakos team and comes to Newcastle at the age of 32 for a trial. If he's getting in the team I'd imagine we're in trouble. And no, I haven't seen him, but it's common sense to be a bit sceptical about this one. Let's face it the signs are not good with regards to summer spending. Baba and Carr clearly aren't up to it and we have two senior centre backs leaving for nothing, so we need a whole new back four plus one or two as backup. Even if he were backup, would it not make more sense to get a hungry young left back in from one of the lower leagues or from abroad? I only tend to like the idea of these sorts of signings if they have Premiership experience (eg Viduka or Larsson for Man Utd, Sibierski at a push). Shepherd has never given priority to the full back positions. £1m on Babayaro, £2m on Carr, Hughes free, Bernard free, £1m on Griffin. I remember under Souness we also took a 30-odd year old French left back on trial. I'll be amazed if Shepherd ever spends a significant amount on either of the full back positions.

I'd hope this is a backup signing otherwise we're really skint. Just hope he's not backup for Babayaro!

I think it'll be Emre out, Sidwell in. A pool of three midfield battlers. Who knows, we might battle our way to a 15th placed finish. In all seriousness I know very little about this Sidwell fella apart from the couple of Reading games I've seen and MOTD highlights. Seems more in the Parker mould than the Emre mould, but by all accounts he's a canny player who has stood out at a club who are performing above themselves this season. Considering he's still relatively young and on a free transfer, with so many gaps to fill in the squad, his signing would make sense. We really need to put all the money in defence. I'd be gutted if we lose Emre through this though, creative central midfielders don't come cheap.

How can Liverpool manage to score 3 goals and yet still bore people to tears? I remember Valencia were very much the same under Benitez. I know they've produced a couple of great finals against Milan and West Ham, but as a neutral it's a case of the sooner they're out the tournament the better. Chelsea aren't much to look at either mind. I don't like the idea of an all-English final, I'm one of those bitter bastards who tends to hate seeing other English teams doing well in Europe. I'm on for Bayern now. Good performance by Liverpool today, organised and clinical in front of goal. PSV really are in trouble though, I can see AZ winning the Dutch league with the injuries PSV have. Hammered 5-1 in their last home game.

"There is still a heck of a lot to play for" Who is he trying to kid? These comments are an insult to fans' intelligence. There is absolutely nothing left to play for, only Premiership survival, which he insists isn't an issue.

He's consistent, I'll give him that. Always know what you're gonna get from him.

Another season of Big Sam proving he can do it, coupled with him adding some flair to his side and us even more desperate than before has swayed many, me included. In our current position Big Sam would be a big improvement, even though I don't think he's the genius some make him out to be.

I hate Sam Allardyce and I hate the way his team plays football. At times they have seemed like fluky blaggers and you get the feeling that 1-0 wins would start turning into 1-0 losses sooner or later and the bubble would burst. But you've got to hand it to him, he's doing it season on season and proving he knows how to win football games. His teams are always very organised, espescially in defence, and he knows how to change a game. You also have to hand it to him for buying Anelka, it's a sign he is prepared to introduce class when the money is available. And year on year he builds his squad, he knows how to work the transfer market and doesn't make costly mistakes, nor does he offload important players. His Bolton squad may have more graft and less flair than ours, but he gets them extremely organised and if he could do the same with our lot it'd make us a lot harder to beat. Perhaps above all else his team rarely ever picks up injuries, and that alone could make a big difference to a Newcastle side which consistently tops the injury table year on year. I still have reservations but if you're asking whether I'd take him over Roeder, it's an unequivocal YES. I don't see him leaving Bolton though unless we promise him a handsome transfer kitty. They're in the running for a Champions League place and will probably have UEFA Cup next year, which we won't. A transfer kitty and promise of a 60,000 stadium might tempt him, but I imagine he'd ask for a longer contract like the massive one Bolton gave him. Whether Freddy would ever offer something like that I'm doubtful.

They still need replacing if you sell them. Yes, they do. And seeing what tehy actually provide us, that wouldn't be too difficult. Do you: a) believe the club has enough money to do that? (on top of replacing the whole back four) b) believe they are capable of finding better players? Or do you accept that we could sell them on the cheap, throw loads of money at trying to replace them, and end up with a similar or worse bunch of players and even bigger debts? The sensible thing to do, in my view, would be to keep the likes of Dyer, Solano, Parker, Emre, even Duff, and throw our money at the defence. I really think people are overreacting about some of our players. Bring in a top manager and you'd soon be raving about players you thought were average because they'd be played to their strengths, coached in a system which works. I remember when Hughes was 'a good utility player' and Bernard was 'quality'. Those were also the days when we were devastated to finish 5th. We had a good manager then. It's not that hard to finish top 6. Spurs, fair enough they've spent heavily and have quality around the pitch, but take a look at Reading and Bolton and ask yourself, honestly, how many of those players are better than average? You may say Dyer is an average player but he played nearly every game when we finished 3rd. Good managers get the best out of these players. Hughes and Bernard have done nowt since they left. We know the potential of Dyer, Duff, Emre to perform, I'd rather keep them and get a good manager in.

They still need replacing if you sell them.

Oh dear. If Roeder isn't sacked this summer, he will be sacked by the following summer, I'm sure of that. Another load of transfer funds are about to be given to a man clearly with no long term future at this club.

Woodgate Solano Shearer from Robson's side.

Agreed, but replacing Duff, Emre, Parker, Dyer and maybe Solano? They might not be flavour of the month but try replacing that lot on a tight budget. Bearing in mind our need for a whole new defence and Roeder's "patient" movement in the transfer market. Dyer and Solano espescially have been two of our best players this season. Best of a bad bunch maybe, but clubs who sell their best players usually end up in trouble.

Can't see any massive clubs going in for him because he's not a top class player. He's just a player who has done a decent job at Premiership level, a utlity player who played well in that Champions League run. I think we could get him here, players looking for regular football nearly always take a step down. He is a dependable player and is probably the type of player Newcastle need right now. He's a hard worker who can play a bit and his versatility could prove vital to a team of crocks like ourselves. Unlike other players we've taken from the top four this one is young and has most of his career ahead of him. For nowt he'd be an excellent bit of business.

If we sell all the players mentioned in that article we will go down. We can't afford to replace them all with similar or better players. If Glenn is still in charge it is his job to try and take this club upwards and that will involve getting the best out of some of these players whether he likes it or not. If he doesn't think he can do that then he shouldn't have ever taken the job. Worrying times.

I think Chopra will still look back with some regret that he didn't sign that new contract, seeing as he would have played an awful lot of games if he was at Newcastle this season.

Duff creates nowt AGAIN, bit gets his umpteenth chance? Bollocks to it. All eleven players were crap, let's be honest, and at least half weren't even up for it. Duff was one of those few who gave a s*** and our best attacks (if you could call them that) came down that left hand side. Mind I wouldn't be upset to see Zoggy start on Saturday. There's bound to be some rotation with the Arsenal game two days later.

I'd drop Parker and Carr, I think they're both taking their places for granted a bit at the moment. Put Solano back at RB, give Milner the right wing and put Emre in the centre and I bet you will see a more creative team. Duff did nowt against City but was one of our more committed players. I'd be tempted to give him another chance against Sheff Utd and pull him out for Zoggy if he's not up to scratch.

Agreed on O'Brien and Ramage. Both have always looked out of their depth at Premiership level. Could you imagine those two together in central defence? I've never really taken to Craig Moore like.

Same here, I prefer to hear the roar of the crowd with the commentator's comments. Never been into this 'goooool' stuff it gets old and repetitive very fast.