James

If it’s like Manchester today, expect strong cold winds. To be honest these are perfect conditions to frustrate Liverpool tomorrow if we are better prepared for these conditions than them

Lineker is just a perfect specimen of a human being. If the world was dying and we had to send a clone of an Englishman to outer space to preserve mankind at its finest I would send either Lineker or Phillip Schofield

Even so has any goal ever been scored in the history of the Premier League whilst the keeper has been lying on the floor injured?

Forgiving the almighty English, striking down the French born Tunisians, Weirdos, David Meyler, Linesmen, Argentines, Christians, and Cancer Sufferers.

Martins raw speed never benefitted is to be honest. He was on the pitch slower than the likes of Dyer, Bellamy, Robert. In a certain sense you could say Shearer, Speed and Solano were faster players. This is because these players had some or all of the following attributes: fast reactions, outstanding attacking movement, fast ball carrying or could simply just see the pass quicker. This is why Robson will always be the greatest manager, he inherited four players, imperfect but with great offensive speed and identified other offensive players that could generate proper front foot football that frankly terrified everyone at that moment.

Shay Given?

Just putting it out there but I don’t think the four players who owned up are the real culprits. Trying to cover it up in a last ditch attempt to save team spirit.

Given the noises about Lascelles contract getting signed cos he knew Rafa was sticking around, can Dummett’s contract be seen as a good omen?

He is not a lost cause just yet but perhaps a loan spell outside of the English leagues where they either play two up top or are less obsessed with physique will do him good. Maybe Dutch leagues.

The stats for Dummett are pretty convincing for his inclusion both this season and other seasons since his debut really. By all means sign someone better but for now he is the only viable choice and even with a new signing should be the first defender in the bench list for the long term.

Not sure if already shared, but:

Lovely day to work in Manchester

From looking like he was going to spend his career in the Central European Leagues to keeping a debut clean sheet against Man Utd Unbelievable

Not particularly impressive. Papering over the cracks again. Rafa out [/crumpy]

Slimani Combining all the best bits of Doumbia, Ferreyra and Gonzalez

I thought it had already been established that Staveley and PCP are ultimately a consortium of 6 or 7 parties putting in £25m-100m? Staveley’s role will be to manage the funds, grow the club and give the investors their profit returns, taking her own cut.

I don’t get the point of using 2007 posts or whole career stats to argue the point that he was shit before 2004. Clearly a lot happened as has been mentioned on here between 2004 and 2007 that destroyed any potential. I guess we were all keen to see the back of him by the end that we are prepared to forget what he did contribute especially in his early years. His progress, scoring 23 goals in the 51 starts he made for Robson, 14 of those in the PL show he was clearly better than Mitrovic at that comparable point. We are happy to defend more recent players and mitigate it for them that they have been Pardewed. Why can we not admit that Shola was Sounessed.

Because we’ve been saying rightly that Shola is shit for years, people are to be honest in complete denial of some very credible pre-injury statistics. He was a much better young player than we give him credit for. It is very sad how people choose to forget because it doesn’t fit an agenda.

He was born in 1981. Robson was sacked in 2004. Thats not 21 years. Wow an extra year. 22. Anyhow someone tell me how many players at PL clubs have scored 25 goals before their 23rd birthday. Or scored 25 within 50 senior starts. If anyone can tell me that any random striker could achieve it then I will change my view on the level of talent Shola really had. What was his Premier League record like? I know he scored in those Leverkusen (who were s****) and Barca games but I bet most of those goals were beefed out playing poorer sides in Europe. You can only score against what you are up against. On that basis let’s just cross out a load of goals scored by the likes of Rashford, Kane and Sturridge because their opponents weren’t worthy. And while we are at it let’s remove Shearer of his goal records because a) inferior opposition and b) penalties.

He was born in 1981. Robson was sacked in 2004. Thats not 21 years. Wow an extra year. 22. Anyhow someone tell me how many players at PL clubs have scored 25 goals before their 23rd birthday. Or scored 25 within 50 senior starts. If anyone can tell me that any random striker could achieve it then I will change my view on the level of talent Shola really had. What was his Premier League record like? I know he scored in those Leverkusen (who were s****) and Barca games but I bet most of those goals were beefed out playing poorer sides in Europe. 14 league goals in 89 games his four seasons before Robson was sacked. Can't be arsed to check how many were from the bench, but probably half. Ive already said he only scored 2 from the bench. From 51 starts it is 23 goals if you discount the two he got from the bench.

50 starts. How many of the goals did he get coming off the bench? It’s a valid question so I’m glad you asked. 2

50 starts.

He was born in 1981. Robson was sacked in 2004. Thats not 21 years. Wow an extra year. 22. Anyhow someone tell me how many players at PL clubs have scored 25 goals before their 23rd birthday. Or scored 25 within 50 senior starts. If anyone can tell me that any random striker could achieve it then I will change my view on the level of talent Shola really had.

FFS the lad was 21 when Robson got sacked. 21! In that time he scored 25 goals in 51 starts. Including Champions League games. Genuinely 1 in 2 at 21. The year by year progression under Robson was clear. And then Souness comes and makes him play on the wing instead of Robert. With a dodgy leg. We will never know what might have been but I personally think we lost out. Not just with Shola really but a number of younger players Robson had been developing.

He bulked up to become a bit of a battering ram, if he couldn’t be mobile he could be physical. Even Pardew once put him in for that purpose alone, to rough defenders up and be our battering ram. You can’t blame Shola for taking injections to play, he just wanted to play and we all know footballers are subordinate in the main so whatever their manager tells them, they’ll do. I have never quite understood the stick he used to get. My own frustration come with the idiots who would continually play him or give him new deals and not the player himself who gave his all as limited as that often was. Unlike many better players than him to have played for us, he gave us some great moments. Bullshit. That's not consistent with someone who apparently had to be on injections for so long. Sick of f***ers defending and hero culting him. He was f***ing s***. We had to put for 14 years of his shitness, of course I'm going to criticise him. It’s the truth, he bulked up to become more physical as his mobility waned. No one is defending him for being s*** by the way, not me anyway, as he was s***. Just not in the kind of league you’d put far more s*** players we’ve had to justify at times which bordered on abuse and hatred of him, on here and on the stands. That's still inconsistent with your story of him playing with pain/injections, as bulking up takes a lot of hard work in the gym that inevitably puts more stress on your joints. You don't go from playing with pain at the weekend to training hard with weights during the week if you are on injection. That's a load of bullshit. Far more shit players we had to justify at times? Yeah? Who are they? And for 14 years? He is not saying he bulked up while having the injections. This happened once Roeder figured out what was going on and sent him off for a hip operation. Shola then came back with a lot less mobility so bulking up was essential and the hip repaired as well as possible could now sustain that.