James

Him and Lampard are excellent British players who have enough about them to outplay all the inferior defenders/midfielders in this division (and early stages of Europe/World Cup qualifiers) with great return in terms of goals and assists. But stick them together in an English midfield against a top team, and they will get completely played off the park.

The Larne manager looks a complete looney. The player who kicked should definitely get a long spell on the sidelines.

You have to remember that Ashley has supposedly sacked over 200 backroom staff in the summer. So getting him in under the pretence that he might play for us and keep the fans onside is a good crafty way to add to our coaching staff.

So if there were two defenders behind the goalkeeper, then he would be offside? I'm confused now!

I was having a debate in the pub earlier. One guy reckoned that if an opposition defender was behind the opposition goalkeeper, and the attacker was between the two when the ball got passed to him, then the attacker would be offside. I think that's wrong, but thought I'd pass it on to someone who knows the rulebook better than I do.

Please let this happen.

Because he was in the youth team with him maybe? Very tenuous. You would think there would be more interesting things to ask Caldwell about such as Burnley's new manager.

Why the fuck have the NOTW got a quote from Burnley Captain Stephen Caldwell to justify the Chopra story?

Save it for next month's Piles Awareness Event @SJP

Surely the fact that you missed Emre says something?

Alternatively. a cone which has to balls side by side that you can get some places. Call it Tripod.

They should do one where the ice cream man misses the cone with the ball scoop, so just gives the customer the cone. Call it Shola.

The season we got relegated.

Did Craig Hope pick the winner?

Solano and Robert player on the wing, I presume James means best attack midfielder we have had that played through the middle. Who else has been better than Dyer in that position in the previous 10 years? Yeah, that's the way I read it as well - James was exempting our wingers and wide players from comparison. Its a bit self fulfilling though since Dyer was really the only player to get a good run in the 00s in that position. SBR had some slavish notion to play Dyer there at every opportunity no matter how poorly he played it, so its difficult to compare him to anyone else. The only players that got runs in the center midfield could be classified at DCMs (especially when partnered with Dyer): Acuna, Lee, Speed (yes he played DCM when partnered with Dyer in the middle), Butt, and Parker. As for playing an attacking role in teh middle... well who do you compare him to? He was better than Bowyer... Owen did well in that spot but only had a couple of tries so probably doesn't count... anyone else? Emre. Nolan, Butt. We certainly missed Dyer when he went, much of the hatred that is still shown by many is very much cutting off your nose to spite your face. Probably more controversially, I rate Bramble as our second best defender of the past decade after Woodgate.

I personally think it is the best thing any non-bankrolled by oil board has achieved at any higher level club in the last 20-30 years. Something that deserves giant plaudits, not the light credit it gets now.

Yes, but that is just a temporary thing. People come and go, but St. James' Park is forever.

Yeah sorry, I was in Championship Manager land a little. Think he does run Robert and Solano close though, and then no attacking midfielders that have been at this club in the noughties get close to those three.

Now I know these two are generally contentious figures when it comes to this club and hopefully this thread wont dig up old board stuff. However, I was thinking recently, that while the likes of Liverpool, Everton, Portsmouth have failed very badly to upgrade their stadiums, Southampton completely bankrupted themselves doing theres, other clubs moving location and only filling out half capacity, Newcastle United and Hall and Shepherd rebuilt St. James' Park to meet the demands of the modern world. I've often wondered what would have happenned without the stadium. Regardless it is not something to worry about. Truth is that now the period of football is very much over, we are left with a great stadium that can get the 3rd highest attendance in the country every other week, where Newcastle fans can go to see the club play. That alone is a huge legacy that not many chairman in the football club will leave behind.

At the time, I think most of us wanted to upgrade Dyer to a fitter player with good end product, and a perfect attitude. We always want better than what we've got, so with those few easy to find limitations, Dyer was an easy scapegoat for people looking to progress the team further than we were at that stage. However the top team we had was dismantled and not suffciently replaced and we were worse when he wasn't in the team, yet people forgot the relative success he bought to the club. Without a doubt the best attacking midfielder we had in the last decade.

FYP

Can they afford it? Can they afford not too? The simple fact is that the squad isn't good enough though. I know that's down to him, but it means there's nothing to say the new guy would do much better. If they have to pay him off and don't get CL either, that's a lot of brass lost. They might just see it out and try force him out in the summer. If the squad isn't good enough you have to wonder why considering the amount of money Rafa has spent. How much did he pay for Robbie Keane? To be fair there, Robbie Keane was bought behind Rafa's back. Which is why Keane failed there, because Rafa didn't want to use him.

If Rafa goes, I can see the hilarious scenario of Allardyce getting the job.

*Parky searches for benny benitez thread*

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