James

When he scores, he shouts: "Geronimo!"

His name sounds like some sort of caramel flavoured toothpaste tbh.

I may have mentioned that my cousin's girlfriend operates the fax machine at SJP. Well since Mort has taken over, she has been promoted to the position of 'email sender.' Today, she sent an attachment with email addresses to the following people: Wes Brown Lasanna Diarra Kerlon Freddy Adu Arshavin Van der Vaart so that they can all email each other to confirm that they want to join NUFC, so that all of these players agree to sign for us.

Kerching! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

He is not actually that big. 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) Its not just about height, its how you use your strength, pace and fitness levels and convert it into power. Martins can be quite powerful when he chooses despite lacking in height.

No Tozer?

Bollocks to creativity in central midfield. Our biggest problem is the fact that Butt, Barton, Geremi and Smith get overrun in midfield every game due to other midfielders having better physical attributes. Diarra should solve that problem against most teams, and against a large bunch of very imposing midfielders like the Portsmouth midfield, partnering Diarra and Faye should put us on a competitive keel.

People are more vocal on forums when there is disagreement, and certainly mainy people disagree with what Allardyce is doing, and their vocalness makes the board seem negative.

Why not? We outplayed Arsenal at home. Fans of other Premiership team will relish the fact that Arsenal have been given a potential banana skin. Very few teams have played well and got something against Arsenal this season, we are one of the major exceptions.

This transfer has gone quiet.....

...or Allardyce. Lets face it, you see a 17 year old come on, take people on, pass the ball wisely along the ground, and play facing the goal, and you wonder why we dont see the likes of Zoggy, Martins, Milner, Duff, or any other midfielders doing it considering their qualities. Perhaps Allardyce gets too much opportunity to drill these instincts out of these players.

In central midfield: Faye>Geremi>Butt>Emre>Barton>Smith

Six is average on Football Manager.

Dangerous in what respect? He did nothing. Got some balls in the box, got in the final third, and passed the ball well. That is more than has been seen from any player picked on the right of midfield this season for NUFC. So, he's outperformed Martins, Geremi and Alan Smith? Most impressive. I'm not singing his praises from the rooftops you know!

Dangerous in what respect? He did nothing. Got some balls in the box, got in the final third, and passed the ball well. That is more than has been seen from any player picked on the right of midfield this season for NUFC.

About 75% of stuff Duff did today was good, but 25% was very bad. Still, it was the most dangerous performance from a NUFC right winger this season.

I've just looked him up on my NUFC calendar - He is 17 and the DOB is correct.

a 4231 with Duff, N'Zogbia and Milner as our attacking midfielders would excite me.

Regarding Owen and Viduka, when they were on the ball, I think both did very well, particularly in the first 20 mins when we played on the deck. Both can pass the ball and link up with the midfielders especially Duff. Unfortunately, we couldn't get them on the ball enough. Like Shearer pre-Robson, Owen tries to help out too much on the flanks in my opinion. I would like to see him curtail his game and concentrate on staying in the centre. I thought though that only Duff linked up particularly well with our forwards. N'Zogbia did ok arriving late at times, but I thought he was pretty poor and without direction at times as well. When LuaLua came on, he looked like N'Zogbia before last season and showed what we have missed from old Zoggy or even Dyer. N'Zogbia just doesn't look like he is going to consistently match the potential he showed in the 05/06 season. Smith and Butt were both poor, but to be fair to Butt, he covered a lot of ground, did makesome important interceptions, and at least tried to do something going forward. In the first 30, Butt also passed the ball forwards well, and that was when Viduka, Owen, and N'Zogbia looked much better. Then this stopped, he became dogged, and our performance fell. Faye and Taylor were good. Whatever people say about Taylor, he saved our bacon twice today and should be applauded. I'd say Taylor is world class at blocking shots, shame the rest of him isn't at that level. Rozehnal looked poor again. Enrique did Ok, but there was an absolutely infuriating moment at 85 minutes when Owen, Viduka, Smith and N'Zogbia were all well forward the ball was 35 yards out, and Enrique ducks out of a tackle in which he had the advantage. Win that tackle, and we would have been in our most advantageous position of the second half.

Bye Bye Shola

With regards to the switchboard, that is assumming it is a top agent representing a top manager. The switchboard probably takes hundreds of calls a day, and gets prioritised. Given that the phone call was from someone claiming to represent a top agent this guy could be below the echelons of people Mort is willing to speak to, hence he goes to Oliver so he can get directly to Mort. For unless they genuinely wanted the publicity, a top agent wouldn't need to go through Oliver or the switchboard. With regards to the name not being mentioned, I'm sure people like Mourinho wouldn't like their name released as someone doing the dirty behind Sam's back. After all, Sam is very popular in the English game. Not divulging names adds pressure without holding individuals accountable.

Green Beye Richards King Lescott Bentley Elano Barry Petrov Berbatov Anelka

Lets take a step back from this a second. It is very doubtful a top agent would need Oliver to tell him Mort's number, as there are probably a few sources from which he could have obtained this number. However, those laughing at NE5 have made equally laughable comments that an agent could acquire the number by phoning the press office. There are thousands of agents and representatives out there, and Mort's number isn't going to be handed over by an NUFC employee based on a claim made over the phone. It is difficult to say how much networking Mort has done, but the board must have lost hundreds of contacts when Shepherd, the Halls, and Cushing left, and much of the clubs work done on the agent side of things has probably been done through Allardyce. That means that not only does Mort not have access to many agents around the world, many agents may not currently have access to Mort, and the Newcastle chairman's phone number is probably in the top 20 of best footballing contacts an agent can possess, and is ulikely to be bandied about by everyone, as having this number brings a competitive advantage over those who don't. A low key, not very good agent could be trying to tout someone (player or manager) to the club, and given that this shitty agent doesn't have many contacts, Oliver may have been the best route to access to Mort. Furthermore, everyone seems to be talking as if agents are nice, discrete and unsinister. If they are trying to tout a manager to a club that currently have a manager in employment, it is nasty and sinister, and given that many NUFC fans backing Allardyce state a main reason being that there is no better replacement out there, discretion, while touting this manager may not be the best policy.

Alan Oliver has got to be the victim of a prank call. Random start to the thread by the way. Unless someone is trying to say that Oliver, like Kaka, has his head in the clouds.