James

If we don't get a replacement for Milner in time, the board and management wont be to blame, it will be James Milner, Aston Villa and the PFA at fault.

I agree with you The fat aussie is hear to pick up his wages and will spend well over half the season injured. This is not about Viduka, Smith or Duff and what wages they are on. It's about the club receiving a bid for a wantaway player at four times his worth.

I don't think one season of guaranteed UEFA Cup football is enough reason on its own for a player to sign a five year contract.

So - we may now have £12M to spend from the sale of Milner. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of a "Selling Club" - (Can only buy when they sell . . so NO PROGRESS ever to be made) Waddle / Beardsley / Gasgoigne - the good old days are BACK! (Don't have a go at me!) We didn't have to sell Milner to buy, we're selling him because he wants out. If Man U had sold Ronaldo, would that have made them a "Selling club"? You need to look at the circumstances of the sale before sticking a label on like that. I understand all that. However, the evidence is that Ashley has been reluctant to seriously spend before now. If he does spend now - I wonder if that will be a mere coincidence? Have you read Ashley's interview in the Official Magazine Manorpark? A fine objective piece of writing, in a well respected independently funded publication. In other words, no you haven't.

So - we may now have £12M to spend from the sale of Milner. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of a "Selling Club" - (Can only buy when they sell . . so NO PROGRESS ever to be made) Waddle / Beardsley / Gasgoigne - the good old days are BACK! (Don't have a go at me!) We didn't have to sell Milner to buy, we're selling him because he wants out. If Man U had sold Ronaldo, would that have made them a "Selling club"? You need to look at the circumstances of the sale before sticking a label on like that. I understand all that. However, the evidence is that Ashley has been reluctant to seriously spend before now. If he does spend now - I wonder if that will be a mere coincidence? Have you read Ashley's interview in the Official Magazine Manorpark?

Piss taking aside, I think he prefers to cut inside on his right foot than onto his left foot, although he can hit a decent cross with both feet.

My early impressions of Jonas by the way is that he's much better on the left, and the right wing will be contested by Duff and Geremi if no-one comes in.

Having had a chance to reflect on this game, I'm putting the need for extra time down to unnecessary over-confidence on our part.

Absolutely I agree with you Dave. Who has done that though? I'll turn that around and ask you, did you not find James's post pathetic, condescending, patronising and with just the hint of soopafan about it ? Because I did. And by the way of course I'm exaggerating about the people's unquestionable support, just trying to point out that you don't have to be a supporter of Ashley to be a fan of NUFC and because you don't buy into to everything is not reason to be called a spoilt brat and have your loyality to the club questioned. I find most of James's posts pathetic, so I just glossed over it. At afar, I have seen people criticise all four signings we have made, my comments were aimed at that group.

Jakub Blaszczykowski, right-winger from Dortmund is definitely worth a shot. - Fast - Technical, good dribbler - Started out as a full-back so he can defend alright, could cover the fullback position if Beye got injured - 22 with a lot of potenial, has been developing really fast. Was much better last year than he was two years ago and better now than he was last year. - Has started the season really well and seems to be in top form. Scored a great goal in one of the pre-season matches against Feyenoord, assist in the first Bundesliga match and a goal in the second one against Bayern. Bad: - Expensive, not sure if he'd want to move here. Wouldn't hurt trying at least. - Somewhat wasteful, common to see him go on a brilliant run dribbling past 3 players, only to blast the ball over the stadium in a good situation (even shows on his youtube clips). Low profit margins on squad numbers.

We do really. We don't. We are better than what we were.

FYP

Emre gave nothing to the team in about 36 of every 38 games. Quit whining. Agree but not replacing him with a better option defeats the object. Oh and im not whining As far as I remember one CM has gone, Emre, and one player has come in, Guthrie. Considering Emre never played, this is actually an extra player in our squad.

I reckon if Keegan was manager for all of last season we'd have been at least 12-15 points better off. That would have got us about seventh, and we are much better now than we were then. Given the disasters we've had over the last four years, is a season of top half anonymity really worth crying about?

Emre gave nothing to the team in about 36 of every 38 games. Quit whining.

Who's this?

Just as I read the latest board fight, my itunes shuffle has started playing 'Hang on to your ego' by the Beach Boys. The song is a rather apt summary of the endless board wars imo.

Good post, particularly the last two lines. I don't know why some of our 'fans' (who just seem to want to criticise every single aspect of the club, bizarrely) don't just f*** off and support Chelsea. Much easier for us all. Ironically enough I look at Chelsea and think yeah they've signed Deco, probably Robinho and a full-back but I'm thinking what happens if Drogba gets an injury and misses a month or two, it could be critical to them in the same way an injury to Martins could be critical to us, just with the goalposts moved. Martins missing September for example could be the difference between finishing 6th or 10th, Drogba absent for a month at Chelsea could mean finishing 2nd as opposed to 1st. I guess what I'm trying to say is that no club will not be hit by injuries, no manager will wish they had a smaller squad and no manager will at times during the season not wish they'd spent more/signed more players. Its the same on the stands as well. While we worry about Martins' injury, Owen's contract, tensions behind the scenes etc. at every single club rivals fans have their own concerns and issues regarding their managers, their players, their owners etc. We have so many positives going for us, believe it or not we have done better than most in the transfer window and indeed out on the pitch with 4 points and progress into the 3rd round of the league cup thus far, and if progress is the staple diet of all fans, then what does KK vs Allardyce say? Collocini vs Boumsong? Jonas vs Sibierski (not perfect comparisons I know) and the big one, a debt-less seemingly up and running new NUFC with scouting set-up and off pitch infrastructure included vs the old *shambles of a mess we had become after Sir Bobby's time? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more players signed, more money splashed, these persistent if not all bull s*** rumours of tension disappear off the face of the earth and I'd even love to see the role of Dennis Wise (and the man himself) become obsolete (I'm a traditionalist and he's a c***) but by the same token I'd love us to be back in 95 with Sir Les leading the line, Ginola dazzling on the wing, Albert marauding forward from the back and the Toon top of the league. That's not the way things are though and we (I have) have to accept that and rather than look at everything negatively lets just, for once, stand back and show some faith (it doesn't have to be unconditional or altruistic) in the people charged with making this club of ours a success on and off the pitch, something WE actually WILL play a huge part in. *I'm not going to get into any arguments with anyone over that statement, it has been done to death, I'm not blaming any one individual for the shambles we had become either and I'm also not saying that we are now ten times better because we aren't, I'm just wishing to rid myself more than anything of that whole era to welcome in a new one with not only the benefit of doubt but also some positivity. I just watched one of the best matches we've featured in in years the other day and KK who I f***ing love was in the dugout. Me = happy. Like you, I'm very happy with our summer's business. Anything extra will be a welcome bonus, but as long as we don't lose a big player, I won't be crying into my pillow on the early hours of Sept 2nd if nothing comes off.

From what was claimed at the time, Milner and N'Zogbia were on £25,000, Taylor was on £5,000, Taylor wanted parity with those two. So unless Taylor's Dad was lying about Taylor only wanting parity with the younger players and Taylor has since been flashing his paypacket around the dressing room, I can't see how pay parity would be an issue now.

Why would we want another center back?

To paraphrase Mike Ashley himself: "If I wanted to make money, I'd have many better things to invest in than Newcastle United."

What a mong.

Romanian iirc.

I reckon Ketsbaia will get to the 2nd Round.

after the seeds, the majority are shite. Real, Juve and St Pete's looks tasty though. Ketsbaia's cypriots would top that group off.