Wullie

The Sol song is certainly stretching the boundaries of taste and decency to say the least but does it warrant a police investigation and the media plastering fans' faces everywhere and branding them racists? Not for my money.

We slag off Ramage but the lad made his debut six months shy of his 22nd birthday. He spent his major developing years playing against stiffs and local Sunday league teams (didn't even get to go out on loan) and then got hoyed in against Rooney and Ronaldo at Old Trafford who've both been honing their ability at the top level since they left school. That gives him no chance at all. Alright, so more than likely he'd have been rubbish anyway but there's no substitute for experience - someone mentioned Wheater earlier, that lad was a right fucking donkey when he first started getting in the Boro side, having been unable to get a game at Wolves and Doncaster previously.

Based on what? Common sense. It's infinitely more likely that he's not than he is. Common sense but you've not seen him play? Wayne Rooney was 16 when he scored for Everton against Arsenal - at the end of the day, if Lua Lua is going to be good enough, the only way he'll get there is by playing football, and I'm not talking reserve or U18 stuff. It's Catch 22 but at the end of the day kids don't develop sat on their arse or playing against Whitley Bay in the NSC. Somewhat unlikely he'll be the next Rooney but he should be getting game time against teams like Stoke at 2-0 up with no other midfield options - if in five years he's not improved, fair enough, but when the alternative is shuffling everyone else out of position and hoying two points down the drain, I'll take my chances tbh. Yes I did go to the Peter Beardsley School of Footballing Cliches. Obviously.

Win. I like that but tbh I think you could lose the football.

Interestingly enough, Liverpool FC recently attempted to copyright that image of the Liver Bird but were forced to back down. Not sure where we stand on the seahorse issue (which originally appear on the city's coat of arms).

Out wide or up front for me. My shot with either foot is my best asset so anywhere I can crack a few efforts goalwards suits me (which I hope to do tonight as Otter and I attempt to beat our arch enemies at the third time of asking). Come on!

I don't agree with that whatsoever, really. Our youngsters have just been s***, that's the problem. Ramage, Taylor, Edgar, Huntington, Pattison, Brittain, O'Brien, Chopra, Carroll - off the top of me head - have been our alleged 'better products' of the academy. And they've all had a fair amount of playing time in the first team. We do seem to have some sort of phobia of using the young'uns at crucial times, though. We throw our kids in far too late though. Clubs like Everton, West Ham, Boro and Arsenal throw young 'uns in at 16, we wait till they're in their 20s, by which time kids at other clubs are too far ahead to ever catch. Exactly, if we had Rooney when he was a youngster he would be turning out for Gateshead now, and not Manure I think our problem is most of the kids we've had have been a million miles away from the likes of Rooney. Most have been pretty crap who have vanished, and i include the ones who we've had high hopes for- Paul Brayson anyone? Indeed, there are hardly any players in the Premier League that have come through our set up. Aaron Hughes is one, Chopra could be another but he's back on loan in the Championship, can't think of any more other than those still with us. A few have gone on to play in the Championship such as Pattinson and Orr with a few going to Scotland. Oddly enough the one academy player who has succeeded (albeit in Scotland) never played a single minute for NUFC - Gary Caldwell.

Based on what? Common sense. It's infinitely more likely that he's not than he is. Common sense but you've not seen him play? Wayne Rooney was 16 when he scored for Everton against Arsenal - at the end of the day, if Lua Lua is going to be good enough, the only way he'll get there is by playing football, and I'm not talking reserve or U18 stuff. It's Catch 22 but at the end of the day kids don't develop sat on their arse or playing against Whitley Bay in the NSC. Somewhat unlikely he'll be the next Rooney but he should be getting game time against teams like Stoke at 2-0 up with no other midfield options - if in five years he's not improved, fair enough, but when the alternative is shuffling everyone else out of position and hoying two points down the drain, I'll take my chances tbh.

I see Spurs fans are also being hunted by the media for the "Sol, Sol..." song. Complete sanitation of football is creeping closer.

I wonder what the other lad's defence will be. Oh and: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/middlesbrough/7758089.stm

I don't agree with that whatsoever, really. Our youngsters have just been shit, that's the problem. Ramage, Taylor, Edgar, Huntington, Pattison, Brittain, O'Brien, Chopra, Carroll - off the top of me head - have been our alleged 'better products' of the academy. And they've all had a fair amount of playing time in the first team. We do seem to have some sort of phobia of using the young'uns at crucial times, though. We throw our kids in far too late though. Clubs like Everton, West Ham, Boro and Arsenal throw young 'uns in at 16, we wait till they're in their 20s, by which time kids at other clubs are too far ahead to ever catch.

Based on what?

Xisco, older, fitter and with more experience, its common sense man Wullie. Xisco has had no chance what soever and if he's sold I lose all faith in the recruiting policies of this club. That's assuming the idiots who boo him and say he's s*** already haven't scared him off. Put him on the bench for the weekend in place of Carroll as Viduka and Carroll are way to similar. How is it common sense to have 3 strikers and no midfielders on the bench? Its the terms of Established first team players. Xisco is Kazenga isn't. Simple as that, he's coming off the back of an injury picking him and then playing him against a team that are as physical as Stoke would only have given more way to a potential injury. He was on the bench against Chelsea so he was deemed fit a fortnight ago. Xisco is also on his way back from an injury. And once more... why are you bringing Xisco into it anyway? With him and Viduka, Taylor and Cacapa, there was no way either Carroll or Edgar were going to get pitch time in a month of Sundays. Both are "big striker" - that's the only similarity, and Viduka's not big in the sense you're on about anyway as in someone for a centre half to ping the ball at. He's a player who wants the ball at his feet to make things happen in tight areas and nowt special in the air.

I know, I'm just pissing around with fireworks really. I couldn't be arsed to do a new logo, and like I've already said, I'm not even sure that we really need one. I know you know but do they know what you know and do they know that you know? Howay Andy, you know how fucking thick our members are, don't confuse them.

I'm playing tomorrow night, might stick my name down depending on my performance there.

Xisco, older, fitter and with more experience, its common sense man Wullie. Xisco has had no chance what soever and if he's sold I lose all faith in the recruiting policies of this club. That's assuming the idiots who boo him and say he's shit already haven't scared him off. Put him on the bench for the weekend in place of Carroll as Viduka and Carroll are way to similar. No midfielders on a 7 man bench? What the fuck's Xisco got to do with anything? The idea that Carroll and Viduka are similar is hilarious btw.

Remember it's a new logo we're after rather than a banner with the old one in.

If Lua Lua is going to be any good, he absolutely has to start featuring at first team level soon before he gets bypassed and inevitably fizzles out by 21. Disgrace that he wasn't on the bench on Saturday.

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I see Ishmael Miller's crocked for the rest of the season - that's a massive blow for WBA. Good news for us.

Last season I remember Lee Dixon talking about Martins' development as a player on MOTD. He said that he is still the same player that he saw play against Arsenal at Highbury few years earlier.(When Inter won 3-0) He added that he is unlikely to improve and that's just the way he plays. I agree that he hasn't improved very much at all. That's pretty much what I've been saying since we signed him. There's some players you get who you can nurture. Bellamy is a prime example. Martins though just doesn't seem to have the brain or overall technique to improve. Someone mentioned it last week, Owen's brain in Martins body would be the best striker in the world. spot on opinion, the only thing still with martins is he has time on his side I just don't see it though. It's not like he's 19-20, he should be pretty close to the finished article now. I know some people use Drogba as an example of how you get late developers in the game, but Drogba didn't play in academies and have the training facilities with top coaches that Martins has had at Inter and us (less the top coaches bit ) until he went to Marseille which was later in his career. If Martins was going to develop as a lot on here hope and seem to expect, I don't think there's a cat in hell's chance Inter would have sold him. Whether he's improved, or is capable of improving isn't really the point. He's quick and he creates and scores goals, and we don't have anyone else who we can replace him with just yet. My vote is to stick in a counter bid of £50 million for David Villa and then put Oba on the bench. Wake me up when that happens, until then I'd rather keep Martins on the pitch. And until then I'd sooner have Owen & Viduka. That's absolutely mental quite frankly.

Fairly obvious difference between getting high balls into the box and just lumping it forward from defence to some brick shithouse.

Stoke fully deserved their point for taking advantage of our cowardice. We barely touched the ball in the second half and that wasn't just because we're utter shite. They never really resorted to long balls unlike us, fair play to them.

Ditto.