madras

He is basically Guttierez (and yes Guttierez is in the Argentina squad but Maradona is mental) Has Jonas ever scored a hattrick against a nation that went to the previous major championship instead? That was a one off game that everyone jizzed over. Lennon and Wright-Phillips bring almost the same amount of pace as Walcott and have greater quality in the final third. thats cos they play him as a winger in a 4-4-2. drop the wingers and play an attacking 3 behind rooney. gerrard,walcott and possibly joe cole if he gets back to what he was. we haven't anyone to play left in a -4-4-2 anyway.

if you bet on pompey not to be relegated and they go bust before the end of the season, do you win your bet ?

yes strip him of the captaincy. it wont affect the team as he'll play the same with or without an armband.

didn't realise it was up to you.

can you not ? always thought they could and should.

We've given up a good number of decent chances in most games if you ask me. The opposition invariably screw them up. We do allow a few chance, but we also do a lot of good defending where inferior players might have been skinned. Probably a mixture of the two, obviously, but I've been impressed by our defence. this is where the difference between "defence" and "defending" comes in as our defence is often doing the defending for the midfield aswell. well put there maddie i've had years to think of it as we have been poor in midfield for years.

We've given up a good number of decent chances in most games if you ask me. The opposition invariably screw them up. We do allow a few chance, but we also do a lot of good defending where inferior players might have been skinned. Probably a mixture of the two, obviously, but I've been impressed by our defence. this is where the difference between "defence" and "defending" comes in as our defence is often doing the defending for the midfield aswell.

hows that ? has it got a "best of the carpenters" backing track ?

If Duff hadn't scored that goal we'd have stayed up. if numerous players hadn't missed chances and scored ONCE in that game and the previous 2 we'd have stopped up

I really don't think he believes this. Agreed. For all we know, we may not have had many midfielders to choose from to bring in. Or we may have been quoted silly money. Also, the Barton factor may have played a part in his decision not to bring someone in. Also, may already have someone in mind on loan once he assesses Barton's fitness and form upon his return. Look at the CMs he has: Barton, Butt, Smith, Nolan and Guthrie. To anyone outside of Newcastle, they'd say that midfield should piss all over this league. For the first time in my life I'll say this: we need a Jimmy Bullard in our midfield. Guthrie can be that, but he's either played out of position, or goes missing for long spells when he's in the center. Definitely a player with the skills to do it, but lacking the mental strength for such a responsibility. a 21yr old lee clark would rape this division. don't need pace. just vision,technique and movement.

and just cede the central midfield and play 4 wingers ?

0.4?! f*** off Yeah I think I've been a bit generous there. TT's is probably about right on reflection. I was attempting to randomly take the piss at the arbitrary nature of it. as i was when i damned him.

how about if we both disagree with him...i have 27000 posts to add in.

agree 100% about the use of stats as opposed to performances.

"steve bruce is the first geordie to manage sunderland since bob stokoe"......as if lawrie mac never existed and he's closer to being a geordie than either of those two.

fiver on stoke at 9/2.

damn you. making up the rules as you go along to suit your argument. How? It's just a crappy way of describing how I think the drop off in quality looks. aye just to fit your beckford argument....for what it's worth, the way i see it is that the gap between the bottom of the prem and top of the championship is smaller than the gap between the top and bottom of the championship and that pattern runs throughout the leagues.

Neither Stoke nor the dirty mackems have any platers we would fear, even in our current position. The lack of quality in the game is really quite embarrasing for the premier league. be honest...we took part in a few games like that last year.

damn you. making up the rules as you go along to suit your argument.

Shola must be a fairly decent Premiership goalscorer then based on his ratio this year. Get away man, generally speaking the standard in the Premier League is nowhere near as low as down here. generally speaking the standard in the first division is nowhere near as high as up here (imo)

were you and your wife together when they done it ?

Just what we need . The irony is that if a lower half premiership side bought him we'd all be on here saying 'they're preparing for life in the Championship signing him' yet at the very time we should be preparing for life in the Premiership we buy someone whose record and history is patchy at best. Weird. haven't seen him recently but when at southampton he was a lot more mobile than carroll. Does he look premiership quality? back then he looked like he could make it. lots of youngsters do when they first come through.

Just what we need . The irony is that if a lower half premiership side bought him we'd all be on here saying 'they're preparing for life in the Championship signing him' yet at the very time we should be preparing for life in the Premiership we buy someone whose record and history is patchy at best. Weird. haven't seen him recently but when at southampton he was a lot more mobile than carroll.

spain and italy deadlines aren't till 11pm, we could lose shola yet.

hasn't moses played mostly wide left ?