ohmelads

My main concern is that Roeder bought him without any real idea of how he was going to use him. Let's face it, Duff is a player who has proven it in the Premiership over several seasons and he has struggled to make an impact in this Newcastle team. In three games against average teams we have posed very little attacking threat. The midfield are scared to push forward even in possession and are offering no assistance to the forwards. Until that changes whoever plays up front will have to fight for those long balls, skin the defenders and score all on their own. We could only put one goal past Ventspils in three hours of play and that came from a corner. A feature of our season so far and our pre-season has been that our strikers have rarely got a touch of the ball in threatening positions. Duff, Milner, Luque Ameobi, Martins, and Rossi have all played up front this season and all have struggled. It doesn't matter who we put up front, until we attack and defend as a team we're not going to get many goals. You can't expect Martins to do it all on his own otherwise he'll go down the same road as Luque.

I think it's clear to see now that Liverpool are in no state to push for the title. They beat Chelsea in the Community Shield so out came all the knee-jerk reactions. You can blag a cup because it's all about 90 minutes but you can't blag a league title, you have to sustain those performances over a season and they're not good enough for that. To finish ahead of Chelsea you need to win nearly every game.

In January I'd rather we splashed a few million on a younger striker, a good young target man. Even when Owen and Martins are both fit, it's going to be very difficult to accommodate them in the same team. Viduka may be a stop gap until June but I think this will be his last productive season and we would have to buy someone else in the summer anyway. We'd be buying him for 5 months, yet we'd probably have to give him an 18-month contract or more (and his wages are said to be pretty high indeed). With Owen, Martins, Ameobi and a young target man we'd be sorted for years to come, with Viduka we'd have the same problem a few months later of needing yet another striker. I haven't included Luque in that list as I expect him to be sold in January to fund a new striker and I hope that striker is not Viduka.

Something is definitely up here regarding Shepherd and McKay. Last year it was Boumsong and Faye, this year it is Sibierski and Bernard. What are the odds on a Willie McKay player joining Newcastle in January? I doubt the bookies would even give you a price.

Can't say I've followed his career, as he's a nothing player, but I always thought he was an attacking midfielder. People are talking about his height, but if they're expecting him to fight centre-halves and hold the ball up for Martins then they're mistaken. I don't see what on earth he could bring to the team. Utterly pointless signing. If Freddy wants to boost the numbers he should bring in Scaloni who is out of contract and will challenge Carr for his position. I can just imagine Freddy calling his friend Willie McKay late last night: "Willie, I'm in a spot of bother here, what have you got for me? I'll make it worth your while". It is no coincidence that in the last 24 hours we have signed two Willie McKay players, the same agent who oversaw the Faye and Boumsong deals.

As nufc.com said: "Frankly we're baffled as to why he's appeared and what we're going to do with him". All I can assume is that he is emergency backup, but I think I'd rather have someone like Pattison gaining the experience rather than see Sibierski coming on.

Unlike us, I'm sure Roeder knew what sort of money he was working with. If he knew he only had £15m then to spend it all on Duff and Martins was stupid and he has brought this on himself.

Is this one of the targets Roeder said he was in "pole position" for? Or was it a last-minute panic buy two hours from the deadline? Whatever way you look at it, it's completely indefensible. Roeder strung us along throughout August telling us we were on the brink of signing a few players, and many believed him. The writing was on the wall when he admitted he didn't have a contingency plan for the Martins deal, there was no "list". Disgraceful, utterly disgraceful. You cannot overemphasise what a hash Roeder and Shepherd have made of this. The two of them owe the fans an explanation, because this club has just taken another step backwards, while all around us are improving their squads. We go into the season with Ramage and Taylor covering the entire defence. It won't be long before we find ourselves looking for another Ronny Johnsen.

Sky say something and you believe it as fact? Get a grip. Roeder has stated many times that Milner aint for sale. Why not wait till Roeder confirms the rumour to be true before you start moaning and abusing him No. I was commenting on a rumour. Like Sky, Roeder says a lot of things. Do you believe it all as fact?

Talented player, disgusting attitude. Boro have beaten us to two signings so we take one of their cast-offs. Roeder gets his reward for his "wait and see what becomes available" transfer strategy. As pathetic as it sounds, this signing would be much better than nothing. It's not worth losing Milner for though.

Nocluque? That's got to be the worst I've ever heard

Everyone is slating Luque for his performance last night and rightly so, but I would agree with those doubting his commitment and disagree with those doubting his ability. The ability is there, it's Glenn's job to either sell him or get it out of him. He's proven to be a difficult player, nobody can deny that. Glenn has used the phrase "low maintenance player" to describe some of our playing staff, well by the same token he would have to accept that Luque is a "high maintenance player". He would also have to accept that, for the meantime at least, he is stuck with Luque and must make the most of the situation. He must do what Souness couldn't, put the club first and earn his corn. I won't blame him if he gets nothing out of Luque, so long as I believe he's done his best to handle the situation to the club's benefit. It is too late in the transfer window to sell him and his stock has fallen so quickly due to never playing that we would get very little for him anyway. The crucial thing here is that everybody puts the good of the club first. I think we're approaching a situation which will be very similar to that of Robert and Souness, where the player and manager both went on an ego-trip and the club suffered. Luque doesn't have the support of many fans that Robert had, nor does Roeder have the unpopularity that Souness had, but I think we will see definite friction between Albert and Glenn this season. Luque seems to be a fragile player, evidently Souness never did do the research on his character, and it's looking like he'll never make it in a black and white shirt, but that doesn't mean he can't do a job for us, espescially given we only have two other players with experience playing up front. Luque and played up front for Deportivo and Spain and performed well, he has that on his CV and while we're desperate for strikers, he can't be overlooked. I hope Glenn can sort this one out because it's looking like we'll be letting Luque go for next to nothing next year, chalking off yet another massive loss of money by the club.

"Scorchio" doesn't sound like a real magazine tongue.gif http://stuarthughes.blogspot.com/scorchio.jpg Scorchio! centre-fold pullouts of Butros-Butros Galli and Chris Waddle next sunday, woo! They've linked us with a player called Julio Geordio, anyone know anything about him?

Martins would form a better strike partnership with Luque than with Shola. We'll have to wait and see. Luque has more skill and creativity than Shola, but a combination of Luque and Martins would get bullied if we persist on pumping high balls for them to scrap for. If the team was playing good football, Luque and Martins would work better, if we're scrapping then Shola will win more of those balls.

There's an article about it in this week's 'Scorchio' magazine. Says he shouldn't have been dropped against Ventspils and Wigan, and that if Martins arrived he would have to find a new club. He also revealed that Real Madrid would be 'a dream move'.

Cañizares in goal, defenders like Ayala, Marchena and Aurelio with Albelda and Baraja in midfield and Aimer and Vicente providing a lot of their creativity. It was an uber-defensive team which won La Liga by conceding the fewest goals ever in a season. They actually scored far fewer goals than any of the sides behind them and won the league with only 75 points. As he has done with Liverpool, they didn't have any one player scoring lots of goals.

He scored a legal goal and almost set up another with a brilliant cross, in just 20 minutes. People say he's getting his chances and not taking them, but he's only started six competitive games for us. This season he's started two pre-season games and scored two goals, he's played 20 mins in the Prem and had a goal wrongly called offside. I think people need to cut him a little slack, on this season's evidence he deserves his chance in the team.

I never considered Luque to be a great crosser of the ball but I suppose it's not a feature of Spanish football as much as it is here. His crosses remind me of Robert's better efforts, he whips them in fast and behind the centre backs, it's very difficult to defend those kind of balls.

I'm guessing you didn't see either game. We were very lucky to beat that Latvian pub team and we actually played 4-4-2 for the majority of today's game.

I've had this feeling for quite some time. He was behind the awful Michael Chopra last season and despite a canny pre-season (two goals in two starts), he's dropped against Ventspils and Wigan to accommodate a ridiculous formation change. I think there is more to this than meets the eye.

Who would Pennant replace in our team? Solano, Duff and Dyer could do a better job on the right IMO, and then there's Milner who had a better season than Pennant. If Pennant was in our squad he'd have been on the bench today.

I think you're exaggerating a little, I don't think they'll have any problems finishing top 4. However, I don't think they have a hope of matching Chelsea over a season and I completely agree that the press are overrating them on the back of a Community Shield game. Everyone now has them down as better than Arsenal and Man Utd, I'd be very careful making that assumption. I'll be surprised if they finish 2nd. I think they are very reliant on Gerrard and Alonso (yes, I know they were benched against Chelsea). If both of those got injured I could see them dropping quite a few points, and if you want to finish above Chelsea that is simply not an option. A couple of injuries in defence could leave them in trouble as well. Benitez has signed a lot of players who may or not make the grade, players like Gonzalez, Paletta, Pennant. Aurelio and Bellamy are class acts but both are injury prone. As for Kuyt, we'll have to wait and see how he makes the step up to the Premier League. Chelsea won't drop many points this season. To finish above them you have to win nearly every game.

He told you this did he?

<b>Where will we finish?</b> 6th <b>Will Roeder still be our manager in January?</b> Yes. <b>Which of our younger/fringe players (if any) will make a name for himself this season and why?</b> Pattison and O'Brien, though I doubt either will get many opportunities as they play in positions where we're well stocked. <b>Will Dyer play more than 5 games for us this season?</b> Yes. <b>Will Shola score more goals than he did last season?</b> Yes, because he'll be playing every week (barring injury). <b>Will we get to see the real Albert Luque or will he continue to disappoint?</b> He won't get a run in the side under Roeder. <b>Who will be the star of our defence ('keeper included)?</b> Taylor. <b>And midfield?</b> Emre. <b>And up front?</b> Whoever comes in before the end of August (I hope). <b> How many new players will we sign before the close of this transfer window?</b> 3. <b>And how many will leave?</b> 1 (Boumsong). <b>How many times will "Shearer-Shearer" be chanted this season?</b> Lots. <b>Who will flop for us this season?</b> Moore. <b>Who will outshine all others?</b> Duff. <b>Will Owen make an appearance before the season is over?</b> No. <b>Will an attendance drop below the 50,000 mark for a league game for the first time since SJP was rebuilt?</b> No. <b>Will we go the season without any off-field dramas/headlines of the name through mud variety?</b> No chance, too many media vultures hovering around the club. <b>Will we win something this year?</b> Yes. The UEFA Cup. <b>How far in all the cups, then?</b> Quarters of domestic cups. All the way in UEFA if we can avoid any big CL teams. <b>Nicky Butt - will he win you over?</b> Doubt it. One 20 minute performance in a friendly does not erase a shocking season. But I'll give him his chance. <b>Will we miss Shearer this season?</b> Yes. We don't have anyone who can hold the ball up like him and we'll have to find a new style of play. <b>Are you excited about the new season?</b> I'm always excited about the new season.

Shola was only ever meant to be back-up, and as backup he's not bad. But he's not backup any more, he's one of the first names on the teamsheet. He will get a lot of games this season and much will depend on how he performs. He's overdue a good season, maybe he can be our one-season-wonder until Owen returns? *trying desperately to end this on a positive note*