ohmelads

We should only cut our losses if the terms are right and we can replace him. Are we so skint that we would sell him for a couple of million? Look at the prices players are going for this summer. For once can't we be the club ripping someone off big style? Tell the likes of West Ham a biggish price like £8m and if noone meets our terms then don't sell him, simple as that. Players like Reo-Coker are going for that much this summer. £2m would be a joke for any England international tbh. Players like Dyer and Bellamy are as big as it gets for West Ham (Tevez/Mascherano don't count), he'd be a big signing for them and they'd probably be willing to pay a decent fee for him. But the thing is, we could get a good fee and find any replacements cost a bloody fortune. We have replacements already in Milner/Solano/Geremi but if we lose Dyer we lose significant pace from our midfield, leaving N'Zogbia as our only really quick winger fit to start the season. I can't see Allardyce selling him though. I'm very confident he'll be a toon player this season and I'm happy enough with that to be honest, we have far bigger problems in defence to worry about.

Exactly, does Oliver even think these things through?

I'd be more willing to pay over the odds for someone of proven quality like Heinze. Even if you're paying over his market value you know you're getting a good player and won't be left with major regrets (barring injuries or a shocking drop in form, both of which could happen to any new signing). It's a moot point though, we have to wait and see what happens in the market. It's also not impossible that he'll stay at Man Utd if we turn out to be his only alternative.

Good points. Thing is the clubs are trying to gear their youngsters up for the Premier league - they owe nothing to international football. If you're quick or strong you are more likely to be thrown in and for a good reason. Players like Hugo Viana are simply less likely to cut it if over here. You could give someone like him a runout in the Portuguese league and he'll get time on the ball, bring a young player into the Premiership at that age and he'll struggle. I'd hazard a guess we have more technical players than Alan O'Brien in our reserves, but he got the nod because his pace on occasion meant he might have had an impact on proceedings. We simply can't expect English clubs to train up technical footballers who lack the physical characteristics so important for the Premier League/Championship/League One etc. If Newcastle started bringing through loads of kids who were slow and weak but had great touch and vision, and trained them up playing 5 or 7 a side, they'd probably get murdered when we bring them into the first team. This is why so few Italians/Brazilians have made it playing in the Premier League, and it's probably why English teams are reluctant to train up players who don't have the physical ability to handle the Premiership. There is room for cultured English players like Carrick and Scholes but you've got to be able to handle the pace of the game as well as the football we play in England doesn't lend itself to weak/slow players.

Lee would do as a cheap fallback option, like Queudrue, though I'd rather have Queudrue in all honesty in the hope we could bring out his form of a couple of seasons ago. Hopefully we can find something better than those two though, I'm tired of average/poor defenders at this club and false promises to sort it out.

Heinze won't go to Liverpool. The deadline to pay out of his contract has passed, so Man Utd would have to agree to any deal with Liverpool and they said that won't happen. He 100% won't be a Liverpool player next season. We're his best option in England, we can only hope the big European clubs seal other targets and he's left with us like the Owen/Madrid situation.

Owen should prove his fitness before we go giving him the armband. He might make sense on a couple of levels. He's a professional and likely to be our leading scorer, he's someone the players will look up to because of his quality/professionalism. It might make him stay here, but I'd avoid giving it to him for the same reason. We just don't know where he'll be in 6 months or a year and to have that kind of speculation around our captain could be very disruptive to the team. You can just picture us losing two games on the bounce in January and the papers jumping on it: "Newcastle captain having doubts" or whatever, it's not what we need. Having him as our figurehead could be useful in promoting us as a brand and attracting players, though how much difference that would make is anyone's guess, we can use him for that role regardless. On the field I don't really think he's captain material, for all his effort and attitude he's not a leader and isn't very vocal. My gut feeling is it'd be a bad move.

It's now too late for Heinze to buy himself out of his contract. That rules Liverpool out then, leaving us his best option in England. Chances are still very slim, we're basically waiting to see what happens with Real, Juventus etc. With a bit of luck Real will go for Drenthe, the Italians will turn elsewhere and his options will look very slim. It's not impossible that he runs out of options - that's how we got Michael Owen when everyone thought "no chance". Regarding Bridge, it's obviously more worrying if the injury is recurring, such as a hamstring injury. Yet people don't seem to apply the same to bone injuries. Djibril Cisse for example has had two leg breaks, some would say he's just unlucky but I'd say there's a chance it'll go again. Then again we have seen with Bellamy that a player once considered a lost cause can totally turn his fitness around. There was once a time when most Newcastle fans had given up on Bellamy, it looked like hamstrings/knees were f*****, but now he's hardly ever injured.

Well there will always be things you can't prepare for. How you line up and play as a team and how you utilise your stars is what it's all about, luck is something else entirely. Anyway I'm sure you get my point by now so I won't go over it again.

England have players like Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard, J.Cole, Rooney, Owen, so I don't think individuals are our problem. Personally I think a manager like Scolari could get us a long way in a knockout competition but we missed the boat there.

Apart from a couple of European Championships? Just checked it seems we're both wrong, they won it once in 1988, but then so did Denmark in 1992 and Greece in 2006. My point is that teams like Denmark and Greece can win it because of the the way their train their teams, not their individuals.

So he's built an article on the basis that Dyer and Pearson were talking at length at the end of a football game about an unknown subject. They must see each other every day in training, and he's assuming that Dyer finished the game and discussed his future on the middle of the pitch?! And then to finish the article off, he's quoting old never-confirmed speculation that Bayern were once upon a time perhaps interested in Emre! Seriously that's bad even by Oliver's standards. Stop trying to stir sh*t Alan and go and find some real news.

The same is going on over here mate. If you question the wisdom of certain signings, people come out with the same old tired responses ("so we should go out and buy Kaka should we?"). Allardyce came out to the press a few days ago and said the new owners don't really know what they're doing in the transfer market, started quoting how much clubs like Fulham are spending and said we're getting left behind while targets are getting nailed every day. He said he needs to get across to them the importance of moving quickly so he can get the defenders he needs. It was a plea via the media to Ashley and co for money. I'm not even sure Allardyce has met Ashley yet, but a good number of fans were concerned he's using the media to ask for funds and fast. However, come on here and voice that and you get the sarcy "let's sign Kaka then" brigade saying there's ages left in the transfer window so shut up. Clearly this internal review is slowing things down, and nobody has any idea when it'll finish, but if it's concerning Allardyce then it should concern the fans. If he knows more than us and he's concerned then something's not right, and if he doesn't know more than us then what the hell is going on? I don't like to see my manager looking for funds via the media, it suggests communication behind the scenes is limited and it doesn't look very professional. On the previous page somebody made the comparison to the Emperor's new clothes and that's exactly what's going on. I imagine things are similar over at your end, though I must admit I haven't been following your summer at all.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that.

He's been wasted at Chelsea with their possession football. Wingers like to take chances and skin people and that sometimes means losing the ball, but Mourinho's tactics encourage possession and wearing teams down. which is why his wingers have had limited success and often get dropped. Robben will be given the license to run at people and I think this will be a brilliant career move for him, he's one of the best in the business when he's running full speed with the ball at his feet.

I think Robben would really suit Real, if he stays fit he'll be brilliant over there. He's the type of player their fans really take to and he has more end product than Robinho and Reyes.

I agree, but it's better to produce on the pitch before you go gobbing off in the press. He's done very little in his career in all honesty to be criticising others and the way he messed about trying to get 300K out of city/us was pure greed and hypocrisy. Barton has qualities which could make him very successful or a major mistake for us. He reminds me of Bowyer but with better technique. Bowyer was supposed to be our 'driving, goalscoring midfielder' who gave 110%, flew into tackles and got into bother off the pitch and eventually on it. Barton is worryingly similar, though hopefully the circumstances (better manager etc) mean he'll fare better.

When you say 'take on the characteristics of Brazil, Argentina, Italy etc' - which one? Or do you mean we copy all of them? Italy have always played the way they do. Likewise Brazil. Likewise Argentina. Likewise England. Italy won WC 2006 with their 'catenaccio' football conceding just two goals in the tournament - how typically Italian is that? That's just the way football is played in those countries, and I think a great many factors are to do with it from the weather to the attitudes to the culture - football is an expressive sport. Certainly lessons can be learned in youth development, and habits can be taught, but the main disagreement I have about that article is that it focuses almost entirely on individual development when football is essentially a team game. I don't think England has a problem producing good footballers, we've got more than the vast majority of countries and can line up 11 top class footballers - yet as a team the sum is smaller than the parts - they underachieve. Looking at the individuals isn't the answer IMO, it's the team dynamics. Holland and Spain aren't poor footballing nations, but Spain have never made it past the quarter finals in a world cup, Holland have never won anything at all. Players like Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Puyol lift league titles and Champions Leagues with their clubs yet at international level they never get close to winning anything. If we need to copy the Italians or Brazilians at anything it's how their teams play the game, not how they develop the individuals.

The whole height thing was Alan Oliver speculation which may or may not be true. The only full back of any description Sam has signed is Geremi and he's small.

BBC mention it in the Robben article but describe Drenthe as replacing him on the left wing. It is also believed Feyenoord's 20-year-old left winger Royston Drenthe has been lined up to replace Dutch international Robben.

and all the rest of the playing staff came here for the love of the club ?...they are all here because we were the best they could get. Didn't Duff say he turned down Liverpool to come here? I get your point though. Solano turned down Liverpool too but that's understandable given he's a hero here and never wanted to leave.

It's typical. He's an overpaid cumhead and the media go on about him like he's a class player, people react to that by saying he's sh*te.

Barton is our new Bowyer tbh, let's just hope he's a lot better at his job and doesn't try acting the tough lad.

He's a player overrated by the media, underrated by many on here IMO. I hope he stays injury free more than anything. The last time he gave us a full season he was a very handy player as we finished 3rd. If he stays fit throughout the season (big IF but he looks like he's getting there and Big Sam's techniques might help him) then I'm confident he'll be a decent, important member of the squad.

We're not as good as we should be given the players at our disposal, it's not just us saying that but fans of other countries too. But I don't think it's so much down to the coaching at grass roots level because we continue to churn out lots of good English players.I think it's more to do with the tactics employed against nations better than ourselves. We play the likes of Brazil and Argentina with an attacking 4-4-2 formation every time. We need to learn to be more humble and grind out results because that's what cup competitions are about - we're simply not good enough to go and outplay Brazil yet people always get carried away in the patriotism and expect this swashbuckling performance. Then when we get beat people say they're rubbish 'cos The Sun said so. Greece are rubbish but they're the current European Champions because of the tactics they employed, not because of their grass roots player development. Holland who are one of the best in the world at youth development have never won anything.