Wullie

It's taken him this time to get in ahead of Shay Given. Bit of a difference, especially when it's a goalkeeper, only one position and one which doesn't tend to get rotated too much - not to mention Shay being invincible until Car Crash Harewood smashed into him. Certainly you can question his ambition but I've never questioned his ability, despite a couple of ricks when he's had to come in out of the cold. I've always felt him good enough and always been happy to have him come in when Shay's been out, rather than relying on some youngster or some cheapo foreigner who you know little of. If it wasn't for Beye being awesome-o, I'd say he'd be a major contender for player of the season.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=566061&in_page_id=1779&ito=1490 The way forward seems to be to put out as many false press releases as possible claiming we're in for Roy Carroll, Nicky Hunt, Paul McShane, Dong Gook Lee and get Smith and Duff on new bumper contracts. That'll fuck Spurs up at least.

He's nothing like Viduka tbh.

........... amd according to the WH boards Freddie says he won't go unless they up the offer to £6m!! Straight out of the Winston Bogarde Book of Commitment and Loyalty. mackems.gif A contract is a two-way thing. The clubs should never have offered him it in the first place if they weren't prepared to honour it. The WH fans should be annoyed at Curbishley and Magnusson tbh. Yep. Ljungberg has done nothing wrong. When fit he's started pretty much every game and is then supposed to accept his contract getting ripped up even though no circumstances have changed? Everybody knew he was starting to pick up lots of injuries and wasn't as good a player anymore. It's not Ljungberg's fault that West Ham offered him superstar-level wages. Or that Steven Taylor stood on him.

I hear missing out on Woodgate has meant Derek Wright's wife has had to go on the game.

Don't rate him.

Autographs?

Sick to fuck already of hearing about Boro.

Don't think that second one was a booking myself.

More than good enough imo. If his name wasn't steve harper, he'd be getting raved about.

Ditto keefaz, i wanted us to buy him a couple of summers ago but he doesn't look the player he promised to be, apart from the odd game.

How much did santa cruz cost? Hughes seems to have a great eye for a bargain.

Tosh.

:lol: Got me hook line and sinker.

I thought Duff had a decent game today, tbf. Except for that rediculous free-kick of course. Not what other people in the match thread seem to think. I've not seen it, all I've seen is the player he was bought to replace jinking past defenders and winning a penalty - but then he has a tendency to do that because he's not absolute shite. Our final record with Duff reads: 36 points available, 2 won. God I hate him.

What an embarrassing thread.

For Damien Duff to be kicked off the Tyne Bridge. Actually no, there's water under that. Push the fucker off the Monument.

Well pleased for Fulham. Bet you could have got some fucking good odds on Bolton and Fulham staying up two months ago.

A genuine joke of a footballer. Wouldn't get a game for Hartlepool.

Avoided all the results all day, when I saw Duff's horrible face on MOTD, I wished I hadn't bothered. Fucking arsehole.

I very much like the 4-3-3, a genuine three up top is such a glorious two fingers to the gutless cowardice of the "Chelsea 4-3-3" that many managers like so much in this day and age (I'm looking at you, you fat tosser). However my problem with it is that Owen is the thing that makes it work and he is far from reliable in getting himself on the pitch, as we well know. 6 in 6 or whatever it is speaks for itself, his game now fits the position perfectly - neat and tidy on the ball, prepared to drop deep, will contribute to a bit of chasing round in midfield and most importantly, his ability to nick into the box ahead of people which is where most of his goals have come from, he is still one of the best around at that. Dropping deep, the centre halves have a striker each to look after (neither of whom can be left alone because they will punish you, as they both have done over the last two months), leaving either a midfielder or a full back to try and pick Owen up and stop him nipping into the gap when the ball is delivered - but most of them just aren't equipped for that, he's too good at it. Herein lies the problem though in the system's uniqueness. Owen's not playing your typical role "in the hole", threading passes, making dribbles etc, like Juninho used to do for Boro, in fact there are very few players in the country who can do what Owen does even half as well as him which means that if he picks up one of those injuries (and he will, though hopefully not like last time!), the whole system has to change, be it to a 4-4-2 or to another player in behind the two strikers, but that player will be playing a totally different role to the one Owen plays. The system's unique nature is both its weakness and its strength.

Wish I was going, end of season games in the sun are class (as I was reminded at Upton Park). Instead I'm going to try and keep myself from the results all day till MOTD. Some hope.

Tomorrow's News of the World running with Ashley not giving KK any money (don't think it's been posted). I read as far as that Newcastle "insider" (is it the same one for every paper or do they all have one each?) saying "Obafemi Martins cost £7m".

Rich, when you're good... you're good.