madras

don't bother trying to go down the proven successful method then, buy average players instead and go down Can't wait until 6 years time and these 17 year old kids are all going to be the next Gazza, guaranteed £85M spent in 3 years = zero success As I've said, we need to spend well, not necessarily big. spend well ? Of course you do, everybody thinks they are spending well otherwise they wouldn't spend. Plenty of people said openly that we spent well when we bought Boumsong and Luque. So why blame the fat b****** when they turned out to be s**** ? Plenty of people also said we sold well when we peddled Robert and Bellamy for 4m quid. You need to buy big to be successful though. Its extremely rare for a club to bring through a nucleus of young players who all become top quality together, the only ones I can think of is the manure set ie Neville, Beckham, Scholes etc.........the Leeds team of the 70's, and the Everton team of the early to mid 80's, and even then they still bought big players, proven internationals There are lots more who buy quality/trophy players, having a cheque book is part of football, I don't understand people who don't think we should try and capatilise on our fanbase. just out of curiosity NE5 how much debt do you reckon it is safe to rack up in this glory chase ? oh, I don't think manure, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea will be worried too much about their accumulated debts As TT has just said, lets spend nothing [stop speculating] and see how far that gets us. arsenal and manure have the turnover to comfortably finance those debts(also year on year opersting profits)...chelsea have abramovic. liverpool have gillett and hicks whom the fans are trying to get rid of cos they have saddled the club with loads of debt that has the fans bricking it as many don't think they can sustain the debt and still challange for anything.

don't bother trying to go down the proven successful method then, buy average players instead and go down Can't wait until 6 years time and these 17 year old kids are all going to be the next Gazza, guaranteed £85M spent in 3 years = zero success As I've said, we need to spend well, not necessarily big. spend well ? Of course you do, everybody thinks they are spending well otherwise they wouldn't spend. Plenty of people said openly that we spent well when we bought Boumsong and Luque. So why blame the fat b****** when they turned out to be s**** ? Plenty of people also said we sold well when we peddled Robert and Bellamy for 4m quid. You need to buy big to be successful though. Its extremely rare for a club to bring through a nucleus of young players who all become top quality together, the only ones I can think of is the manure set ie Neville, Beckham, Scholes etc.........the Leeds team of the 70's, and the Everton team of the early to mid 80's, and even then they still bought big players, proven internationals There are lots more who buy quality/trophy players, having a cheque book is part of football, I don't understand people who don't think we should try and capatilise on our fanbase. just out of curiosity NE5 how much debt do you reckon it is safe to rack up in this glory chase ?

out of curiosity hakka which is your nearest league club and how far away is it ?

So your not allowed to support a team if your not born there? People can't choose where they are born, but surely they have the right to choose which team they want to support? what country are you from ? honest qusetion and after you answer my back up question will clarify why i'm asking I'm English, born in England too. do you support England ? if so ,why ? Can already see where this is leading, but hey. Yes I support England. I'm English through and through and to support England is to support my fellow countrymen. I also like to see Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland do well in major competitions. Have to say it is a bit different with league football. Let's face it, your not exactly cheering on a starting 11 of local lads at every football ground, in fact these days it's quite a novelty to have a local lad in your starting line, or even an English one for that matter for some clubs. From the stance some people are taking, you could say it’s acceptable to be a part of a football club as a staff member if your not local or from this country, but its not acceptable to be fan if your not local. Why is this? the idea is they represent a geographical area...thats why the vast majority are named after said area and also why the vast majority of football crowds are drawn from said area (yes even man utd). given a footballing world of your view ,only 4 or 5 clubs would still be in existence as everyone (without the geo-pull of the local team)would just support those that they like.....which in 99% of cases are the succesful ones (coincidence ?....i think not). Football has evolved though, clubs are more like brands these days. I live in an area where there isn't a Premier League club for 100's of miles. I made the decision to support Newcastle United as a child as I fell in love with the club, and from a child I've continued to support the club until today (I'm 26 now, supported them for over 15 years). Would you say that as an adult now I should stop supporting Newcastle? simply because of your argument? Also, I believe bigger clubs need more than local support, revenue speaking. If you took away the TV money and shirt sales money etc. from non-local fans I'm sure it would make a massive dent in football clubs income which would seriously hamper any audacious plans to spend big. Would you sacrifice that source of income for Newcastle to maintain the "you should only support your local club" attitude? a) why do you have to support a premiership club ? it's thinking like that that keeps lower league clubs down and in danger of diappearing.i can understand not giving your primary allegance to someone in the beezer homes league or whatever. i followed my nearest league club,as did many of my friends (lincoln city,sheff wed,coventry,hartlepool,doncaster and carlisle) b) would it be a bad thing if the big clubs didn't get all the money ? surely it would even things up. would i sacrifice it....yes. it's my belief football in general would benefit through it aswell. oh and no i don't think you should change your club but i still cannot understand how you can support a team you've no connection with in the first place....even as akid i couldn't and had numerous arguments with liverpool,man utd and leeds (yes i'm that old) supporting. mates.

yes and no. he maybe should be given a chance because what we have isn't working,more so than the stats. Well the stats equally show that Butt isn't working. not if he played in the games where geremi won aswell. keefaz point is valid about those teams we played with butt and without geremi and it's almost like the rest of the team didn't matter. tho Butt didn't play as defensive midfielder when he was alongside Geremi, more often than not Geremi sat back and gave Butt licence to go forward and not have to track back and run about as much. Since Butt has moved back to DM he's looked terrible. he's done his own thing of winning the ball but is now left having to find 40yd passes as no-one wants to take resposiblity creativly.......like when he first came. i don't think he's that much better than geremi when it comes to winning the ball, what sets them apart is that on the ball butt is s**** and geremi is comfortable. he can spot runs and pick a pass more easily which starts off attacking moves. i think there is some of the"great when he's out" creeping in here. definitely not, i was saying this earlier in the season. So was I. So was James with all his stats in hand back then FWIW. well you were both wrong then aswell then

2005-06

He looked quite sharp when he returned but his end product has been zero. He also looks like one of those players you can count on least when it gets tough. I've not given up hope on Duff working out for us, because his class is sometimes evident. He's another player mightily handicapped by our central midfield/strikers. He at least looked interested and was involved plenty against Man Utd, although most of our initial threat came down the right thanks to Milner and Beye. This is why I think it won't take ridiculous numbers of changes to make us compete again, because we have players who will look infinitely better with some quality players to feed off. Obviously some of them aren't good enough - both central midfielders and the target men we've been playing, and we're still crying out for a proper centre half/left-back. A lot of our players aren't beyond saving though. Duff has lost a bit of pace, but he could still play his part here. Not now though, and not at left-wing. Where do you think Duff could play for us, if not at left-wing? I think he should be sat on the bench at the moment, then tried in behind Owen/Martins if one gets injured or the partnership doesn't work/isn't given a chance. He looks to me to be a player who now needs pace around him to function properly, because he seems to have the eye for a bit of pass-n-move, unlike any of our other midfielders. At Blackburn in particular he had all the tricks and a lot more pace than he has now, which meant he still performed to an exceptional level because he could do a lot by himself - much like I've seen N'Zogbia do for us. Now that he's lost that extra yard, he struggles to beat people to the byline and looks to have started to model his game on feeding balls into the strikers and then running off them - quite probably the way he was trained to play at Chelsea. Unless our playing style alters dramatically away from what it is now and what I expect Keegan to play (fairly direct attacking football with two wingers and two mobile central midfielders, fullbacks bombing on, etc.) then I'm struggling to see him as a first choice player. Sitting on the left-flank I get to see a fair bit of Duff from a good vantage point and I'm yet to see him square up to a man, take it past him to the byline and swing a ball in. All of his crosses come from stationary positions, making it nigh-on impossible for the strikers to do anything worthwhile with them. The best game I've seen Duff have was AZ home last season, when him and Martins linked nicely together and Duff was often in acres of space (more to do with AZ's formation than anything, IIRC) - but that was a one-off because AZ played in such a strange fashion. It's a puzzle, but for me there's only one winner between Duff and N'Zogbia for that LW spot in the current climate. I agree with that. Another point, Duff seemed to have much more power at Blackburn too, remember he used to hit unstoppable shots into the top corner every few weeks or so. Now his shots look unbelievably feeble. This might be related to his loss of pace - ie, legs have gone. i think it's as much related to that he is soooo very out wide these days. if he comes inside the full back rarely comes outside and to recieve the ball instead of it being played quick it's normally been played via midfiled with 3 players having several touches so the oppo can squeeze the play meaning whoever is out wide has to go to the touch line tryiong to find space (this happens regardless of who we have playing wide)

yes and no. he maybe should be given a chance because what we have isn't working,more so than the stats. Well the stats equally show that Butt isn't working. not if he played in the games where geremi won aswell. keefaz point is valid about those teams we played with butt and without geremi and it's almost like the rest of the team didn't matter. tho Butt didn't play as defensive midfielder when he was alongside Geremi, more often than not Geremi sat back and gave Butt licence to go forward and not have to track back and run about as much. Since Butt has moved back to DM he's looked terrible. he's done his own thing of winning the ball but is now left having to find 40yd passes as no-one wants to take resposiblity creativly.......like when he first came. i don't think he's that much better than geremi when it comes to winning the ball, what sets them apart is that on the ball butt is s**** and geremi is comfortable. he can spot runs and pick a pass more easily which starts off attacking moves. i think there is some of the"great when he's out" creeping in here.

4 he posted the...........come on do you think i'm that daft (anything could happen in the next 17mins though)

yes and no. he maybe should be given a chance because what we have isn't working,more so than the stats. Well the stats equally show that Butt isn't working. not if he played in the games where geremi won aswell. keefaz point is valid about those teams we played with butt and without geremi and it's almost like the rest of the team didn't matter. tho Butt didn't play as defensive midfielder when he was alongside Geremi, more often than not Geremi sat back and gave Butt licence to go forward and not have to track back and run about as much. Since Butt has moved back to DM he's looked terrible. he's done his own thing of winning the ball but is now left having to find 40yd passes as no-one wants to take resposiblity creativly.......like when he first came.

yes and no. he maybe should be given a chance because what we have isn't working,more so than the stats. Well the stats equally show that Butt isn't working. not if he played in the games where geremi won aswell. keefaz point is valid about those teams we played with butt and without geremi and it's almost like the rest of the team didn't matter.

yes and no. he maybe should be given a chance because what we have isn't working,more so than the stats.

how dare you go destroying stats like that. don't you know all some people have for comfort is numbers ? Didn't Butt play most of those piss easy games as well? probably,makes the stats even stupider.

how dare you go destroying stats like that. don't you know all some people have for comfort is numbers ?

Agreed. In playing terms, he HAS to be a better bet than Carr or Zog, by virtue of the fact that i) he can use his left foot to kick the ball and ii) he has played a lot of games at left back, and knows what the hell he's supposed to be doing there. There's GOT to be something behind the scenes here. On the rare occasions I've seen him play, he's looked like what I think he is, a young player coming to terms with a new league. He's done pretty well, albeit there are things to work on. How he's supposed to get used to the league without playing in it is something else I don't get. Rumours are that he is unhappy. i don't want to know if he said he's never going back again. but really it's secand hand news, you're just part of the chain yet you think you go your own way. we have our dreams for NUFCbut these stories don't stop somehow.

aye..when the rule first came out someone had the idea of using the (i think) smith and jones sketch as a basis. ie north london foreign legion = arsenal, navy base in sad decline with a horrid ground=portsmouth. werent allowed to use it.

you should never believe what he says. what message does it send out to those in the team if keegan says "aye mass clearout in the sumer,.there'll only be a couiple of this mob left"

maybe the bits he's forgotten are the important bits

i think he just looks like that cos he looks heavy. he's certainly no speedster but not as slow as a lot would make out.

for someone so slow i haven't seen anyone burn him off

Spurs bought 15 players in one window when Arnesen first joined and seemed to be buying a couple every week. They've all gone now but Pamarot, Davis and Pedro Mendes have all done well for Pompey. The likes of those players, plus Atouba, Naybet, Carrick etc provided the 'quick fix' stepping stone to the next level from the one where Spurs had previously languished. That first season we missed Uefa competition on the final day, to be followed by successive 5th places. Buying a lot of players in one window can work, and work well, if it's done properly. Football is a simple game ultimately...Get good players and get them on the pitch. you'll have to explain how it makes you a year ahead of everyone else edit..hey no fair,you edited out your BS

dont know about that..look at man citeh. if there is an atmosphere of something happening at a club players may well want to be part of it. probably wouldn't turn down a move to a top 4 club but enogh to compete with those who'll finish comfortably ahead of us this season. if the money is there getting in the first major/exciting signing could spark the atmosphere to entice others.

oh yes he will be dropped. just watch as soon as martins is fit.

Yes - we finished 2nd. already been done phil,it was also pointed out that he done it with keegans team and thinks werent quite so good the next season (mind i'm record as sayiing we got shot of dalglish too early)

enrique hasn't been fantastic but he's been our best left back this season.