James

Contradicting yourself. You said a few posts up a defenders main job is to defend, so by that logic a strikers main job is to score.. and Villa scored the most, so he was hardly mediocre. Better to score a goal a game in four games than it is to score a hattrick in one, one in another, then not score in two games. Fact is that Villa didn't step it up in the latter stages. What is the name of that Yugoslavian striker in Euro 2000?

Villa had a mediocre tournament in my opinion. Excellent first game, flashes of brilliance second game but went downhill after that. His injury and the switch to the 451 probably helped Spain to step up a level.

At the end of the day, a defender's main purpose is to defend, and for the level he was playing at, he made too many errors, got beat by the winger too often and gave away too many silly fouls. Best right back on the ball, but a real weak link worth exploiting. Same goes for Bosingwa. I'd have Beye over those two every day of the week.

Ramos was pretty poor tbh, if Titus Bramble had made some of his errors, people would have had a go. Casillas Anyukov Pepe Puyol Capdevilla Iniesta Senna Xavi Silva Arshavin Pavlyuchenko

Perhaps its all part of the masterplan. Shepherd becomes Mallorca chairman and gives us Guiza for free becoming a Geordie hero for ever more.

No, Bent is a pretty limited player. With Guiza you've got the hold up play and aerial ability as well as the pace, power and finishing. so you don't suppose he's came on when they've been playing well and the oppsosition asa chasing the game ? At the end of the day, the 45 minutes I've seen for myself are enough. You see what he is good at, and you can learn about his style of play, and then you can consider his status both as a Spanish international, and Spanish league top scorer, you can tell that he is good enough.

No, Bent is a pretty limited player. With Guiza you've got the hold up play and aerial ability as well as the pace, power and finishing.

Looks canny but he's 27 (assuming we are rigidly looking at young lads) and apparantly on the way to Turkey. No older than Arshavin, and like Arshavin pre-Euro 2008, I believe that he is the best option for his particular position on the market. dear me james...when you grow up it's only going to take a short skirt and low top to impress you isn't it. Name a target man striker, whom we could realistically sign, whom is better than Guiza.

Stop worrying about Allardyce guys. You all know that he'll be sat in his armchair, thinking: "Spain played Silva and Iniesta on opposite wings at times and won Euro 2008. I did the same with Milner and N'Zogbia. I was obviously right. Wasn't my fault I got fired. Top club awaits you Samuel."

Looks canny but he's 27 (assuming we are rigidly looking at young lads) and apparantly on the way to Turkey. No older than Arshavin, and like Arshavin pre-Euro 2008, I believe that he is the best option for his particular position on the market.

Keegan has already tapped up Thierry Henry tbh.

I'd be interested in taking a look at Dani Guiza. In his cameos in the last two games, he showed just what we are looking for in a stiker right now.

I was one incorrect substitute away from the highest possible score this matchday. Up from 13th to joint 4th. Well done Walking in a Waddle Wonderland who won the League with an extremely good score.

Average £ for every goal, per season: Martins: £359,259 Viduka: £557,142 Owen: £868,000 Smith: £Infinity Shola: £202,222 So not bad for Viduka considering how much investment is going towards other goalscorers. Counting a pre-season goal to remove a mathematical anomaly, Newcastle are currently investing an average of £1,250,000 per goal for an average 38 goals per season. Replacing Smith and Shola with a £6m striker on a four year, £40,000 pw deal who averages 10 per season would change the investment to £550,000 per goal for an average of 47 goals per season. Less money spent, more goals scored, and all totally irrelevent to whether or not Viduka plays enough games.

If anyone is wondering whether O'Neill has always been this mad, type "Williams O'Neill" into youtube.

I can remember it well, Wadsworth got the blame for us going after some right shite although I don't remember who. Bassedas, Cordone and Fumaca.

http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=46267.0

http://www.newcastle-online.com/2008/06/28/should-he-stay-or-should-he-go-claudio-cacapa/ Been sufferring writers block on this one for a couple of weeks, and people's posts in this thread have been a massive help in getting this one finished off. Thanks guys.

mackems.gif mackems.gif Not all that difficult a standard to aspire to tbh. I'd rather have Bramble, at least he had one stand out quality, Cacapa failed at everything while he was here. Slow Bollocks Weak Agreed Shit in the air Bollocks Crap positioning Bollocks Can't tackle Absolute bollocks Indecisive Probably a fair comment Inconsistent At what point, when he was in the team regularly, were any of the defenders consistent? When did we even have a consistent, unchanged backline, for that matter? Injury prone He's had an injury Old Shit argument Mentally weak Aye, probably He has nothing going for him, nothing. The biggest ones for me are the slow/can't tackle ones. And i'm not entirely sure how to respond with a proper argument, it's just total rubbish, it's as simple as that really. He's not slow and he can tackle. His tackling in that period at the beginning of the season - when he was in the side with Faye - and when he was playing regularly with Taylor while Faye was in Africa, was top notch. Agree entirely with what Ronaldo said aswell. Both that Villa game and the Middlesbrough one after/before it (can't remember which). Caçapa was a monster in that Middlesbrough game and Taylor was absolute wank. Missing headers, misplacing passes, running well out of position, generally putting Given and Caçapa under pressure whereever possible. Couldn't believe it when Keegan dropped Caçapa in favour of Taylor when Faye came back. I can remember burying my head into my hands at one point at 1-0, with a Boro striker through on goal, and Caçapa made the most fantastic sliding block to thwart him. Going back to the 'can't tackle' crap - that's what he's best at, putting in crunching tackles and just coming away with the ball almost nonchalently. The flack Caçapa gets is so unfair imo. Mostly agreed. He is slow though, but he's the kind of player who uses his brain to look quicker.

One thing we forget about Viduka is that his high wage is compensated by his low transfer fee. It is all very well saying that so and so is payed more than so and so, but at the end of the day, it is the total amount invested in a player that really matters, ie transfer fee + wage - recoupment if sold. Comparing a few people based on the wages that get bandied around: Viduka: Free Transfer, 2-year contract at £75,000pw = 0 + (75000x104) = £7,800,000 (£3,900,000 per season) Smith: £6m fee, 5-year contract at £60,000pw = £21,600,000 (£4,320,000 per season) Duff: £5m fee, 5-year contract at £60,000pw = £20,600,000 (£4,120,000 per season) Martins: £9m fee, 4-year contract at £50,000pw = £19,400,000 (£4,850,000 per season) Owen: £16m fee, 4 year contract at £80,000, £6.6m compo received = £26,040,000 (£6,510,000 per season [or £8,680,000 if we assume that one season of contract was compensated] ) Considering all that, what the club are paying for Viduka isn't all bad.

Clarke chose to leave because he wants to go into management.

Pretty much. That is why Motty is 'going.' No live games to cover for two years, and he can't be bothered with South Africa.

Football commentary has missed the silky toff tones of Barry Davies for some time though.

Can't quite get over his FA Cup Final "It's been disallowed" moment.

As far as this tournament goes, the television commentators from best to worst go: Wilson Pearce Motson Tyldesley Drury