Wullie

Dunno what they're doing with that building specifically but they're redeveloping that whole Pilgrim St area soon, it fucking needs it as well, it's a shithole down there. The fire station is closed now in preparation.

Leave me alone, I'm only a young'un.

Never seen that Keefaz, that's unbelievable.

Relocation of Leazes Terrace? Or of the whole club? I suspect (hope) you mean the latter. The latter. Ah, I retract my earlier comment in that case. Personally I don't see the problem, we are not desperate for a new stadium nor are we likely to be in the foreseeable future. The fact that we play in virtually the city centre makes us special as a club. I would abhor having to play our games in a identikit stadium on an Industrial Estate in the middle of nowhere. And I don't care if it could seat 80,000 or whatever. Let's get things right on the pitch anyway before we start thinking about increasing capacity. Liverpool and Arsenal are doing/have done it, fair enough, but they're both established big guns who you can't see dropping out of that bracket in the near future. We're still a yo-yo club at the moment. If we finish 14th again and have 20,000 empty seats, we'll just look stupid.

Relocation of Leazes Terrace? Or of the whole club? I suspect (hope) you mean the latter. The latter. Ah, I retract my earlier comment in that case. Personally I don't see the problem, we are not desperate for a new stadium nor are we likely to be in the foreseeable future.

If you're slightly detached from reality perhaps.

The Government don't own those buildings, so it's got nowt to do with them. What do you propose they should be housing? We've not sold out SJP once this season btw.

I agree.

If Sam goes to the SoS and we play like we did at the weekend and at Derby, they will beat us and a huge slice of patience will be eaten away. Even a point would not be any particular consolation. Let's have Milner and Charlie start and fucking go at them. Collins and Halford up against those two SHOULD be a no-contest.

Indeed.

:thup:

I recall a particular fixture at the Stadium of Light where we were alright... Good shout.

Thank fuck Anthony Stokes is shit.

Have we ever played well in white shorts btw? I always think of getting beat at Selhurst Park by Wimbledon every year when I see us in white. Hate it.

It'll have to be.

We looked all over the place at the back on MOTD, awful. Worlds apart from what we've seen recently.

I think our main problem - like yourself - is that we lack quality in midfield, in particular we lack pace and width. Its not as simple as saying Milner should be playing because he's a wide player, Allardyce clearly has reservations about his ability, which I share. My point is that if we had players who were quality, dropping them for away games wouldn't even be a consideration. Do you think if we had signed Sean Wright Phillips for instance he would be dropped for away games ? I don't. We also need backup, its a fact that players are rotated or injured or not 100% fit all the time. We didn't replace Solano. We didn't replace Dyer, even though he hardly played, but he hardly played last year which was why we needed someone like him who played. Therefore we still need someone like him who actually plays. If the players are good enough, they would pick themselves. My problem about up front is, while I was happy to buy Smith, I know he isn't a prolific goalscorer, he needs someone to partner him who is, like Owen. But Owen has hardly played. I think we have to accept that he will be going at the end of his contract at the latest so should be looking to the future without him. I know Martins scores goals, but he has weaknesses which will stop him being a top player. I'm not discarding him, I know he has value, but it is just a position that we should be looking for someone else with certain attributes that are required and then look at the situation. If you want consistent teams, its vital to have consistent quality players in certain positions, those most important positions being the ones through the centre of the team. I would like him to improve his ball retention and not disappear as often as he does. It adds up to a complete reshaping of the attack. Viduka is not young [he's good but also disappears a bit too much for my liking], and I don't count Ameobi. We are doing alright with these players, but like everyone else, I want to do much better, and its just that I think this is how we will do better. I completely agree that we should be beating Reading and Derby, in fact I think I came on here after the game against Derby and had a go at Sam and got criticised for it [may be wrong, maybe it was elsewhere], and yes I am disappointed in him playing his favourites today ie dropping zoggy for Barton when he should have dropped his captain, which I think was his thinking. Understandable, but the wrong selection, and unfortunately is heading for the same situation as Roeder, who had to pick Parker for the same reason. Edit: what would your first choice midfield be in away games ? Well, you say that about SWP but Charlie was dropped today to accomodate Barton and for me in midfield, he's the first name on the teamsheet. We lacked pace and width today (so I understand) as you'd expect from that line up but I think we have some in the squad, enough to be performing better than we did today and at Derby, that's for sure. CN'Z and Milner give us pace (from the former anyway) and width, for whatever reason we didn't use that today. Solano and Dyer, well Solano's legs have gone as far as midfield is concerned and Dyer's a crock who's not that good anyway in any position. I don't feel we've lost anything through losing them. We could do with a pacier, trickier right winger but for where we aim to be this season, Europe, I don't think Milner is a bad option even if he's not the best. Duff on the right, Charlie left could still be an option if Duff can pull his finger out. I want to do better too as we all do, but I don't think that's the issue about today's performance. If we're talking about new strikers, it'll be beyond this season and aiming for top 4. Losing points at places where we have been is a different matter which lies more in central midfield than anywhere for me. First choice midfield is a good question, I'll need to see some more of Barton and also need to see if Emre can find some consistency. Next game, mackems I think, I'd probably pick N'Zogbia - Emre - Geremi - Milner. Not convinced about Butt away from home and Barton needs fitness but I'd like a midfield that plays week-in, week-out when fit. This is potentially our shortest ever PL season, so rotation is not a huge issue. I'd like a settled midfield.

NE5, you like Owen and think he's top class and you were happy with the signings of Viduka and Smith as forward players, yes? I know you're not convinced by Martins, but you must admit that he's got a considerable amount of ability despite his faults. With this in mind, why do you want us to sign even more forwards? We've at least three who you're happy to see up top for us. We can't just keep signing strikers for considerable amounts of money then after a couple of questionable away performances decide that we need at least two more. Players like Martins, Owen, Viduka, even Smith who I'm not terribly keen on as a player, are good enough strikers to beat teams like Reading and Derby, unless you think that Kenny Miller and Dave Kitson are better than them, which they're clearly not. I know you want Tevez and Henry but we don't need two £20-30m strikers to win Premiership games against most of the dross. Our foursome is top six material and it's an incredibly simplistic attitude to say "more strikers please" every time we lose. A football team plays with 11 players, not 2 [/patronising]. Main problem away from home imo is not bossing midfield like we do at home. We are missing Viduka though, we missed him at Derby and although I've not seen anything of today as yet, I'm willing to bet he'd have made a huge difference.

So Shepherd got it wrong signing England international Michael Owen for £16m now? Oops-a-daisy.

Hartlepool got beat 2-1, dominated the second half despite having 10 men and equalising with an 87th minute penalty from Barker who kissed his black armband for Michael Maidens who was killed last week, before Brighton scored the winner in the 94th. What a shit day.

The problem now is dropping the captain (if he needs dropping, obviously I've seen nowt of today). Sam needs to pick a midfield that can do a job home and away and stick with it - preferably one with Milner and Charlie.

They were my thoughts when I saw the team selection and I'm really not surprised with another insipid away performance. This is not just an Allardyce problem, we've been weak as piss away from home for a long time now but we need to put it right quickly. We're winning our home games and looking good there atm so it's not going to put us into trouble, but if we want to get anywhere this season, improving our away form is paramount. Fair enough changing the system to cope with the likes of Arsenal and Man Utd but fucking Reading? All it says to the opposition is "we're worried about you" when we should be picking Charlie N'Z no matter who we play, getting Emre in the centre and telling them to worry about us. Think Skeletor made a good point about Nicky Butt too, he's a different player away from home, doesn't often play well.

Nah.

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Well, since Ridzuan last posted.

I am. Stll not forgiven me for the 'Gullit Incident' then? Right, don't start!