ohmelads

It's worse if you play with/against them, as I have been unfortunate enough to do. I remember one guy saying "dude, go for the one-timer". I guess he was trying to say hit it first time. There were plenty other examples but I can't think of them right now. It does make you cringe hearing them talk about it, I guess they can't help it but I think a lot of them (certainly the ones I met and have lived with) were a lost cause, they've been brought up on sports like Baseball and American Football and the culture of those sports is totally different.

To be honest I had no idea there was an NFL game being played over here. I think the vast, vast majority of people don't know anything about it. 99.9% is probably about right!

seriously man no way if this happens i think this will mean the end for alot of proper fans Indeed. A lot of changes have been made to British football, but at places like St James' you still have fans going to watch the same team play on the same pitch that has been the team's home for over a century. Terrace culture may be a thing of the past, but this really would be selling the soul of the English game for a quick buck and to possibly the least caring audience in the world. I don't see it happening any time soon but you never know in the future.

It's a ridiculous idea to go and play important games in front of a neutral set of fans, it goes against everything the domestic game is about but if the money is there then there is always the possibility it will happen. Considering the top Premiership sides can play up to 60 games in a season, I'm not sure they would want their players flying over to the states and back during a hectic fixture schedule. It would all depend how badly they want/need the money. In the foreseeable future it would it would seem to be too unpopular an idea to get going, but the way things are going this isn't so unlikely further down the line.

Didn't we sack Lawrenson once upon a time, when he was here as a defensive coach? Seems he's been making these petty little digs ever since, every chance he gets. Pathetic.

Imagine he'll want to bring one or two Sevilla players with him. Cue ridiculous rumours about Dani Alves.

don't think he's any better than jol LOL Aye for all his Uefa cups, Spanish cups and title challenges he's never finished 5th in the Premiership after spending more money. I don't know about sorting out Spurs' defence mind, Sevilla seem more attacking than Spurs with the fullbacks playing as wingers most of the time. I'm pretty sure you're underestimating the achievement of getting spurs to where they are. spurs were a mid table team at best when he took over but he transformed them into easily the 5th best team in the premiership (before the start of this season). not exactly a mean feat considering the premier league has much more stregnth in depth than la liga. La liga have 2 great teams, and one good team valencia. villereal and osasuna have finished 4th or better in recent years. would they have made it into the top 6 of the PL in those seasons? i think not. Jol has done brilliantly at spurs who before him always flattered to decieve. i'm not saying that ramos hasn't achieved much, because he has, but with a bit of luck jol could have finished 4th last year. I think Jol is a good manager who has been undermined by his board ever since the summer. The players must have suspected his days were numbered ever since the opening day defeat to Sunderland, that's bound to have affected his control over the dressing room. Finishing 5th with Spurs two seasons in a row is a good achievement, but that's been done with a lot of money and there have been no trophies at the end of it. I don't think it compares to what Ramos has done at Sevilla, where he has made history. I think you're being a bit harsh on La Liga, in recent years teams like Villarreal have indeed broken into the top 4 over there, but don't forget that they went on to knock out Everton (who finished 4th in our league) and it took a last-minute penalty save from Lehmann for Arsenal to get the better of them. Last season Sevilla dumped Spurs out of the UEFA Cup before going on to win it. To think that a Spurs reject like Kanoute would be the thorn in their side shows just what Ramos has accomplished there. I think the Premier League only just shades the Spanish league in terms of depth. La Liga doesn't have the same kind of money floating around as the Premier League, but the advantage clubs have in Spain is that they can tap up the latest talent from South America, hence players like Dani Alves and Riquelme building up their reputations at smaller clubs. This gives the smaller clubs an advantage which smaller Premiership clubs don't have, Sevilla for example signed Dani Alves and Baptista for pittance, yet clubs like Newcastle and Spurs fork out huge amounts for some pretty average players. Just because there is much more money in the Premier League, it does not mean there is much more quality.

[move]Look at me! Look at me![/move]

A talented player with possible attitude problems, Big Sam is bound to be keeping tabs on him.

don't think he's any better than jol, and it'll mean another few years of restructuring. jol was building spurs to be a future force. all thats down the pan now. 3 trophies in the last 2 seasons while rubbing shoulders with Barcelona and Real Madrid all season is a big achievement for a club like Sevilla, they could have won the title last season. He's been a lot more successful than Martin Jol and has done so on a much smaller transfer budget, while having to deal with losing stars such as Baptista, Reyes, Sergio Ramos, because Sevilla are a selling club. A lot of clubs struggle when they sell their most influential players, but he has rebuilt them. He hasn't gone about it the Big Sam way either with functional, long ball tactics - Sevilla play flowing, attractive yet successful football and that suggests to me that Ramos could build a very good team if he had the money.

I'll be gutted if they get Juande Ramos tbh, I think given time and money he could build them into a real force. Look at the job he's done at Sevilla, they were challenging for the Spanish title right until the end of last season and have won back to back UEFA Cups and did a Cup double last season with the Spanish Cup, all while playing very attractive football.

Anything less than 3 points shouldn't be considered a "good" result against Reading, even if it is away. They've conceded 15 goals in their last 4 games. We need to be picking up 3 points at these places if we're going to be serious contenders for 5th/6th.

All winnable games if they get their act together, two of those games are at home. I think they'll do it. Let's not forget we qualified with 0 points from the first three games, and we had Juventus in our group. Mind, I think we're still the only side ever to have done that! With a point, it's still in Liverpool's hands.

Total sidewards step that. He won't take them anywhere. He's probably as good as they're going to get though, given their current situation. Allardyce is a hard act to follow after what he did there, and despite Little Sam's short tenure there anyone coming in will have to deal with reasonably high expectations at a pretty small club with very limited finances. The job isn't very appealing at all, they peaked under Allardyce and seem to be going nowhere fast. I don't think they'll get much better than Coleman, and could probably do a lot worse.

Didn't Mort say he (Ashley) didn't like being in the public eye, shortly after he joined? I vaguely remember words to that effect in one of his interviews. It's a minor detail really, we can see he clearly isn't a recluse.

Isn't this the first time the Gallowgate has ever had a big advertising banner slapped on top of it? We used to laugh at the likes of Bolton for being a plastic club, I hope we are not creeping in the same direction. Of course it's not the end of the world, but for anyone who values the club and the uniqueness of our stadium, its location and history, it's quite a shame to see a big advertising banner over the front of it. Perhaps it's the price we have to pay to get where we want to be, but I for one won't pretend to be happy about it or pretend it's not happening. It's a reality of the times, but let's be honest it's a bit of an eyesore on the historic gallowgate.

Bad attitude from a player who could possibly pull his team out of the s***. When its against you, Berbatov doesn't show. I've had enough of those types of characters at SJP to last me a lifetime, and people have a nerve to call Anelka, this guy is by far worse. Good player, great on his day, but for me considering how much he'd cost, one we can do without. bullshit. he's still at spurs, i think 9.5/10 players in his position would be at manu now, but berb always said he'd stay at spurs. loyal player and seems like a really really top bloke. how many clubs has berb thrown a hissy fit at and left? none. to say he's worse than anelka is just so insane i can't even quantise it. how many spurs players have shown up this season exactly? keane and bale are the only ones i can think of. we've seen 9 games of berb playing in a team that isn't showing (and he also didn't start against derby and us). lets wait till the season is over before we start making judgements on his personality type, anelka has had 6 years to show us what a c*** he is. TT has a point though, when your team is in trouble you look to your better players to try and pull you out of it or provide some inspiration and fight. Berbatov hasn't been that kind of player for them and the signs aren't good. Someone pointed out that last season he only scored once against a top 10 side. It wouldn't surprise me if that is true, he doesn't seem to produce in big games or when the chips are down and the team are struggling. He's a very talented player but he flatters to deceive an awful lot. Delicate touches and flicks are not always the answer, he needs to be more direct IMO, he could be a lot more dangerous than he is.

It has to be something like this because I've been to the Mestalla and there is very little in it between that and St James'. I actually prefer St James' but then I'm biased. Thing is Newcastle is a small city and Valencia is massive, I imagine they don't feel our city has the facilities to accommodate a final in the same way as much bigger cities.

Dawson has to be one of the most overrated defenders going. If he wasn't English he'd be slated far more than he is.

I think we played alright yesterday because we lined up with a balanced side, everyone knew their positions. Butt and Emre has nearly always given us balance when they've played together. Emre faded second half (it was his first start in ages) but he was very good in the first half and helps us play on the front foot. The idea of playing a team of battlers away from home is not the most sensible, it's cost us in the past and we really need to try and outplay teams like Reading if we're going to come away with something. We're not going to Old Trafford here. I would go same again, the only changes I would consider would be Milner for Geremi and Viduka for one of the front two.

He looks like he has a personality, unlike most chairmen. Cynics might say wearing a toon top and drinking with fans in the Bigg Market is a publicity stunt, but he's gone a lot further than the vast majority of chairmen and built a rapport with the fans by showing he's just a normal bloke at the end of the day, like them. Of course, it's a lot easier to win over the fans when you're winning games.

I wouldn't wish Souness on anybody except the mackems, but it would be funny to see him have another go at management. At least this time we could enjoy it rather than suffer it.

Emre was excellent in the first half but faded in the second. The decision to take him off was a sensible one. You have to remember it was his first start after a long injury lay-off.

Very impressed by Enrique today, looks like he's got the makings of a top full back. The Cacapa-Faye partnership deserves to stay on today's evidence. As for up front, I think we won in spite of the Owen-Martins combo today in all honesty.

Oh dear.