ohmelads

Wide of the Mark?

Us too if they're not replaced by better player(s). At those prices I'm happy enough, it's good business. I'm pretty sure we'll cope. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I am only ever happy at losing good players when I know a capable or better replacement will be signed up.

Us too if they're not replaced by better player(s). We'd still have Geremi and Milner for the right, but with Zoggy our only fit left winger and Geremi possibly needed at right back if/when Carr breaks down (inevitable), suddenly we're taking our chances. Besides, Geremi has looked so good in the middle that's his position to lose IMO. I could handle it if we sold those two and brought in someone of real quality, but that's going to be bloody difficult at this stage of the transfer window, where prices creep up by the day and clubs refuse to negotiate.

Such a hard game to predict because there are too many unknowns. Bolton will be missing a few players they'd have liked but we're missing more. Similarly they have the home advantage and will want to beat Big Sam (though that could work both ways). I'll go for a draw, but it's certainly a winnable game and I'll be a bit disappointed if we show them too much respect.

If we lose Dyer, Solano and Luque then our midfield options go from impressive to average. £8m might be a canny bit of money, but it doesn't replace three players.

Aye but if we're on the lookout for a 3rd experienced keeper it's a sign they're perhaps not too confident on Given's fitness holding up. He missed a lot of last season and has already done his groin in pre-season which was what gave him trouble last year.

If Solano doesn't play tomorrow, anyone reckon Dyer might start? There would be several ways of reshuffling the pack in a 4-4-2. Playing Ramage LB with Milner switching over to RW and Zoggy LW, for example, or moving Geremi across to the right with Butt and Smith in the middle, Milner LW and Zoggy LB. Also if we have agreed to let the player move, I'd be bloody surprised if we do West Ham a favour and give him away. They're obviously trying to take advantage of the situation, again.

Sounds like he and his wife have split up recently and she's taken the kids down to London. One of the Peruvian sites say "ex wife" and another says he's separated as well.

Doesn't give any dates but apparently his wife moved down to London with the kids recently, he said that things happened suddenly and he had not planned to play for any other Premiership club but that has disrupted his plans. Sounds like this may all have happened since he signed the contract.

I used to think the same about Butt. I felt his pedigree in England meant he deserved a chance but eventually his chances had just run out for me, espescially after his season with Brum. The vast majority of fans agreed at that time as well. He's a useful player now though, where the turnaround once seemed impossible. I'd like to see Luque given a chance to turn himself around here but it seems the player wants out. Perhaps the signing of Smith was enough to convince him he was well down the pecking order?

I'll be absolutely gutted if Solano leaves. I think it's very important to have someone like him in a squad, loves the club and loved by the fans, an experienced professional and an example for the younger players, someone who can help ease the transition between old era and new. Not to mention he's still a bloody good player on his day and brings qualities to the side that are in short supply. We're a squad in major transition and if we lose Solano we'll be losing more than just a good player. We should fight tooth and nail to keep him IMO.

There might be something in this. If so I take back what I said about Oliver on this occasion. Though I still think he's a pillock ( ), and we'd be mad to let Solano leave on a free. Nobby is saying he is now separated from his wife, that he saw his kids almost every day which is very important to him but things changed suddenly and she moved down to London. He also says he's very comfortable in Newcastle, the fans adore him and he's grateful for that. He says he hadn't planned to play for any other club in England, but family matters are disrupting all his plans. He says he has spoken to the chairman and manager and they understand him and have told him "family comes first". Quotes are all here: http://www.elbocon.com.pe/Peruanos%20en%20el%20Mundo_desarrollo.php?nota_id=17137&nota_seccion=

Reading Oliver's article and then reading the Marca article, then it seems there is some confusion. Marca are saying that Luque has been 'set free' to talk to Levante. They say: "He's free. But what does that mean? He's available on a free transfer? A loan? A loan with option to buy? Luque has permission on Newcastle's part to discuss his exit." It seems like Levante can't afford to pay any sort of fee for him and would struggle with his wages alone. Oliver is talking about us letting him go there for free. This would make sense in terms of the number of strikers we have and his wages, but would make a mockery of what Sam said about trying to get his best out of him and his decent pre-season form. I wouldn't have thought Sam would give up on the player and release him for nowt without seeing a bit of him, and he's done alright in pre-season with three goals in two starts against Celtic and Juve. We may have an abundance of strikers but Luque is also a left-winger. Loaning him out seems pointless unless we are desperate to get him off the wagebill, but again I doubt Levante would be willing or able to take on all of his wages. It just doesn't seem Sam's style to give up on him at a huge loss to the club in terms of transfer fees.

Wouldn't be the first time Oliver has just re-written an article to try and give it more truth. Big Sam reacted angrily to his article about Martins leaving, so Oliver called that 'speculation' and proceeded to write the same article all over again the next day, refusing to admit he'd got it wrong. This is essentially a repeat of yesterday's article, with a bit about Solano's family, as if he's written the article backwards. He also says Solano isn't in the squad yet the BBC seem to think he is. He's trying to stir sh*t, I'll be very surprised if there is any truth in this. "But West Ham feel that because Solano is now 32, they should pick him up on a free transfer." ...Because Newcastle are currently falling over themselves to help West Ham? I suppose they'll get Paul Scholes on a free while they're at it, he's 32 after all.

Yep, 3rd choice keeper to be booted out when Krul returns, we're going to be looking at someone along these lines. Sensible decision IMO.

That team looks logical to me. He might not want to drop Butt, but Geremi and Smith looks pretty solid to me and are ahead of him in fitness terms. Bolton are expected to go 4-4-2, so I reckon we might as well.

Martins.

Sam has suggested we may yet get another keeper in while Krul is out on loan. From the Independent: http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/premiership/article2851385.ece

Shola is easily good enough to be 4th/5th choice striker. I'm guessing these same people who want rid of Shola would argue that players like Brown and Fletcher aren't good enough for Man Utd, but the whole idea is to have a squad where you try to cover all the bases. As much as possible you want competition for places, but beyond that it's good to have cover. I don't think Shola will ever be good enough for our best XI, but neither will Brown or Fletcher at Man Utd. He's there to provide depth to the squad.

We now have Barton, Emre, Butt, Smith and Geremi, not to mention Dyer who is still about and might be staying. There's no space for Diop.

Oliver's reached a new low with this. His already dodgy reputation has taken a battering this summer and he seems to be digging a bigger hole for himself. Seems the club are happy to release a lot of their news and interviews through their website these days, which is vastly improved, leaving Oliver second to a lot of the news and forced to guess and make stuff up. In the past he was bad enough but he was clearly drip fed bits of mundane news in return for arse licking articles, making his columns worth reading for the odd bit of news. Now he actually has to do some real journalism and the vast majority of his columns just aren't worth reading any more.

I agree, let the fans build the game up. When the music is on people just stand around looking gormless and bored. If we have to have music though I'd like us to keep Local Hero.

There don't seem to be that many incidents of players at the top level accusing other players of racist remarks on the field. You've highlighted a few, but it's always going to be difficult to know the truth and you can't go punishing people based on hear-say. You can't do it anywhere else so why should you be able to do it on the pitch. As for the fans, I agree that FIFA and UEFA have been weak and seem to display no consistency with the punishments they hand out. It seems almost accepted that it's going to happen in Mediterranean countries so they just get a slap on the wrist, yet you know if there were hundreds of people making monkey noises at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge, loud enough to be heard by millions of viewers on TV, there'd be hell on and UEFA would come down on it heavily.

Good post. I think a lot of it may have been, as you say, Sam being influenced by those around him. He built a team of specialists, nutritionists and so on and listened to their advice, and Sammy Lee will be listening to their advice too. So how much of it was down to Big Sam we don't know, but the team that created their training programmes would have been largely assembled by him, which is the important thing. In time he'll build the same here, either by pinching his favoured staff from them or by recruiting others. It is reassuring because rather than managers who talk a good game, the proof was in the pudding at Bolton, where the fitness and injury records were excellent. He certainly gives the impression that he leaves nothing to chance, and that's not an impression I ever got with the previous two managers. How long it'll take before we see the effects of the injury-prevention remains to be seen, it still seems to be a problem at the moment.

It would be very easy to get somebody you don't like very much in real trouble by making accusations like this. Similarly, as Wullie points out, a team could get another team in trouble the same way. Regarding the Emre thing, it's anyone's guess really. The media sparked rumours of past incidents to try and create a profile of him as a racist, going back to any black player he had ever had an argument with or looked at the wrong way. Yet none of those players mentioned came out and spoke about Emre, not one of them. You say Howard and Yobo pursued their case so strongly, but who is to say it wasn't a misunderstanding or a heat of the moment thing which got out of hand? In the end they were asked to give a statement, and it was reported that it was quickly thrown out because their stories didn't even match up. It all depends who you choose to believe, which is precisely the point. It should be innocent until proven guilty. Hear-say isn't good enough, there are plenty of people out there who will happily call anyone a racist in order to appear all righteous.