ohmelads

What period of time is this? Let me get this straight, he started the season with a clean slate yet he's already lost his place and you're saying Villarreal had nothing to do with it? Are you honestly suggesting he lost his place after the Lillestrom game, where he scored our only goal?! They're the only two games he's started. Under Roeder, Chopra got more opportunities than Luque. Fact.

Shola was no better against Ventspils than Luque against Villarreal. Considering the level of opposition I expected a lot better from Ameobi. Perhaps he missed having a striker next to him...? We caused Villarreal more problems than we caused Ventspils. You make it sound like it's Ameobi or Luque, yet Ameobi was rubbish without a strike partner last night. I think he got one effort on target and won a few headers. Fact is Luque has been frozen out, look at Roeder's team selections last season. Even Chopra played more minutes than him last season, and he's since been released for nothing.

Ameobi started against Ventspils. You've lost me? Will Ameobi now be dropped on the back of a rubbish performance against Ventspils? People think it's fair to drop Luque on the back of a friendly against Villarreal, a game in which Ameobi was spared of deserved criticism because he scored from a set-piece.

Ameobi started against Ventspils.

Why? He isn't a striker anyway. He played his last season for Depor on the wing, and played for Spain on the wing. But much of his career was spent as a second striker, Depor fans believe this is his best position and I would agree, although his injury on his second game has made him about two yards slower than the player Depor fans are used to seeing. We haven't seen him produce much up front for us, but then again, we haven't seen much of him full stop. He's been frozen out since he arrived here. My prediction is that Roeder will continue to freeze him out over the next 12 months and we will see him return to Spain for next to nothing next summer. Funny thing is a lot of Newcastle fans still wouldn't know anything about him. Looks like the same thing will ultimately happen with Boumsong. It's already happened with Robert and Viana in the last 12 months, so Boum and Luque are the next two. It's a completely unsustainable transfer policy but a lot of people seem to support it.

Everyone knows the craic with Luque, they can see we're not playing him even though he's fit. When I was over in Spain some people were asking me what the hell has happened to him, and I couldn't give them an answer. We're not going to get much money for him, if we tout him around Spain we may get 3 - 4M for him. He's still highly rated there, but they know he hasn't played for a year. That amount would be enough to land us a Championship striker as a replacement. The Luque issue needs to be resolved immediately because it's obvious where this is going. He'll end up going for nowt next summer if Roeder is still in charge and we as a club can't keep doing this every year, it's unsustainable. Souness did it with Robert and Bellamy and now Roeder is doing it with one of our most expensive players, a player we've seen start half a dozen Premiership games. He's being frozen out. If we sell Luque we will need THREE new strikers. It won't generate money, it'll cost us money.

Roeder doesn't have the pedigree, so a bad start to the season will only confirm many people's suspicions about him. So long as we're in the top half he'll get a full season, if we're drifting towards relegation (a la Souness) then he'll get the chop pretty quickly I reckon.

For what it's worth Luque was the star of the show in today's training game (11 vs 11). The final score was 6-2 with Luque scoring 4 goals and setting one up for Solano, showed some lovely touches as well. At the other end Duff and Ameobi scored.

My team currently: Van Der Sar Taylor Dawson Ferreira N'Zogbia Carrick Fabregas Alonso Duff Shevchenko © Berbatov Subs: Warner, Asthon, Distin, Sommeil

How much have you actually seen of Albert Luque? Be honest.

Fair enough, but Fowler gradually declined. Luque enjoyed probably his best season at 27 just before he joined us. Why would he lose it within a few months at that age?

To be fair I started watching games there after we bought Luque, so I only ever saw him on TV for Deportivo. I always thought he was overrated but still a quality player and I was surprised to see us get him as I thought he'd end up at a bigger club. He's still rated highly over there but a little forgotten about as he lost his place in the Spain squad (not surprising considering he didn't play for us almost all season). Nowt personal, but you don't really know much more than anybody else about Luque's form in Spain then? You just know of his reputation? Never claimed to mate, hence why I stuck to the facts. You say you'd sell him for £4.5m, but what sort of replacement striker do you have in mind for that kind of money? Bearing in mind that strikers are going for very inflated prices at the moment.

To be fair I started watching games there after we bought Luque, so I only ever saw him on TV for Deportivo. I always thought he was overrated but still a quality player and I was surprised to see us get him as I thought he'd end up at a bigger club. He's still rated highly over there but a little forgotten about as he lost his place in the Spain squad (not surprising considering he didn't play for us almost all season). Aye but you have a first hand knowledge of that league and what it takes to shine which as you've pointed out, Luque did, consistently and against the top sides, in Europe too. I really believe his injury set him back more than one would imagine. I'm confident that if he gets a good run, a starting run, he'll do well. My biggest fear is that he has permanently lost a yard of pace, as his pace, bullet shooting and decent finishing were always his strong points. If he's lost that then he'll never be the player for us that he was for Deportivo. It could be that he was very nervous running full pelt after his hamstring injury though, hence why he was rested by Souness (the man who bought him) and Roeder. A lot of it seems to be confidence though, at Depor he was very composed in front of goal, even a little arrogant, whereas here he had a very disrupted start with that injury and came back looking very nervous. I'm keen to see what he can do with a run in the side, none of us have seen that yet.

Neither have I, but we haven't seen much him at all, have we. We're judging his Newcastle career on the back of a few performances, he wouldn't be the first player to struggle then find his feet. My gut feeling is Roeder doesn't really fancy him but probably sees him as a more viable option up front than Milner because he's actually done it there before and Milner hasn't. How many games Luque starts this season will depend on injuries, the Chronicle has already said he won't be starting against Wigan. But when you look at the prices people are charging for strikers, would it be wise to sell Luque for £4.5m and then find we can't buy anyone for that? That wouldn't even buy us Heskey at the moment.

To be fair I started watching games there after we bought Luque, so I only ever saw him on TV for Deportivo. I always thought he was overrated but still a quality player and I was surprised to see us get him as I thought he'd end up at a bigger club. He's still rated highly over there but a little forgotten about as he lost his place in the Spain squad (not surprising considering he didn't play for us almost all season).

He's started a few games. He played a few hundred minutes of football last season. Sell him now and he'll go on to be a success with someone else, I'm confident of that. Selling is a gamble as is buying, if we sell a quality player and bring in a crap replacement then we're weaker, so of course you have to consider his pedigree. Would you sell Owen for a few million based on what he's done for us so far?

If I didn't know anything about Luque before he came here, I'd be inclined to agree with you. In truth he's done nothing for us so far, and hasn't shown much either. But as a follower of Spanish football I've seen enough of him to know that we have a top player on our hands. He was used mostly on the wing in his final season at Depor, largely because of his pace. Yes, believe it or not 12 months ago Luque was pretty quick. Go and watch some highlights of his performance against us in the Riazor, a few weeks before we bought him. I know people are going to say Carr is slow, but he just couldn't handle Luque's pace down our right flank and was lucky not to get sent off after a yellow card and a series of fouls. Or watch his performance against Man Utd on his debut, where he was quick down our left flank and looked like he could make that position his own. He's looked slow ever since, almost certainly because of his injury in only his second game, which was the worst of his career. Roeder described it as 'a horrible hamstring injury' and it put him out for 3 months. The big question is, has he lost a yard of pace permanently or will he get it back with fitness and games? It's difficult to say, he hasn't had a run in the side since he came here. Believe it or not the Deportivo fans are still talking about him on their forum, and mention that they miss the pace that he offered them. If you don't believe me I can point you to it. You mention he's fragile, but he's never had injury problems in his career. He's played over 30 games a season throughout his career. In 3 seasons at Deportivo he only missed 14 games, thats about 5 games a season. In his last season at Depor he played 37 out of 38 games and was the club's top scorer from the left wing with 11 goals. He also had a tendancy to score against the bigger teams, including goals against Villarreal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan (home and away). The player we signed only 12 months ago was a regular in the Spain squad, competing with Vicente for the left-wing spot and attracted the interest of Real, Barcelona and Liverpool. He was pivotal in Deportivo's Champions League semi-final run two years ago, scoring 5 goals. You don't play that well throughout your career and then suddenly turn shit at the age of 28. Are you ready to lose £5m on a player who has only started half a dozen games for us? Personally I think his pedigree suggests we should have a good look at him before we get rid.

You'd think he'd start by submitting a transfer request or at least saying something to the media.

The whole team lacked effort, heart and desire in the first half against Lillestrom at St James', but Luque was the only player getting stick. At times it seems that everything that goes wrong on the pitch is Luque's fault. There are too many people out there determined to see him fail and for that reason I don't think he'll make it here. I do however think he'll go somewhere else and be a success, just as he was at Deportivo. Eventually attitudes will change, but it'll take time.

Not good enough. Are we competing to 'cement a place in mid-table' like a side that's just been promoted or are we going for UEFA Cup/Champions League places next season? If we go for Lua Lua it'll be a massive statement about our ambition. Yes, I'm aware it would be a 'temporary measure' etc but he's not going to be content sitting on the bench, we've seen that with him before.

I remember a lot of people saying that what Chelsea paid represented about double his value. Besides, I think people are concerned about the amount of money being put by (it doesn't matter if its instalments or not, it will come out of next season's budget whatever way you look at it) for a position we're already healthy in. Who knows, as a second striker he could be brilliant but we haven't seen much of him playing that role. It'd be a good loan signing but this 10M worries me.

Let's not forget SWP is no longer a youngster, he's almost 25. Still got plenty years left in him, granted, but I think he's as good as he's ever likely to be.

Well we don't know the terms of this proposed deal yet but it looks like it would eat up all of next season's budget and a bit of this season's one too (they'll surely want some sort of loan fee). Owen cost us everything we had and this looks like it could do the same.

Didn't we say the same thing about Owen? These are the sort of signings we should have been making when we were in the Champions League, right now they represent too much of a gamble on a player we don't desperately need.

We certainly would. We don't know what our priorities will be next year. For all we know there may be a new player we want to spend our money on, or a player this coming season who catches our eye. What if Milner starts to really look the part or Dyer gets over his injuries. We just don't know where we'll be in 12 months. Souness put all his eggs in one basket with Owen and it cost him and us dearly. I'm hoping however that the Journal have just cocked this story up and we would pay an initial fee of say a couple of million, followed by the rest if we decide to sign him. That way even if we string them along theyve got a million or two out of us. To say 10M for SWP is 'a bargain' is suggesting that he is bordering on world class. He had one good (not great) season for Man City and has been frozen out for 12 months which won't have done him good.