James

Gerard Houllier is a good shout if Allardyce goes.

Funny how something like this can be so easily dismissed by nearly everyone, yet a few months later, it becomes popular opinion: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=38908.0 Obviously I can sometimes be right, even if it can be very unpopular. Someone is going to have a go at me now for saying that, but I don't care.

Question is, do those on the left have enough confidence that our strikers will do anything good with those crosses, because if they don't, they are going to instead try to cut inside or dawdle on the ball to try and keep possession.

Sven is an international class manager and had a year to scout the players he brought in. Proves that it can be done though. s*** team + Good manager + flair players = Entertaining football But...there's no comparison mate. Not now there isn't but before Allardyce and Sven were appointed Newcastle and Man City were in a similar situation. They weren't in a similar situation at all, as Sven inherited a good spine of players that takes time to develop, he just needed to wisely add to these players. Dunne, Richards... ... ...the goalkeepers, Ireland, Hamann, Mpenza, Johnson, Ball. All these players were already there and would have developed a good understanding of one another in training. In reality, Sven has added Elano, Corluka and Petrov to an existing squad, and reaped the rewards similarly to how Robson did with Robert and Bellamy. Well N'Zogbia, Milner, Emre, Owen, Given, Butt (if you're including Hamann), Oba. Yes he Sam didn't have as much to spend, but he still had a decent amount and didn't replace what he sold, and we're paying for it now. Ball > N'Zogbia (LB) Ireland > Milner Johnson > Emre Hamann > Butt Given hasn't made a single good save for weeks, and I'd hardly consider Owen and Martins as being a spine of our team due to the fact that they both play as individuals.

Name calling very good. NE5 style posting no good. Sorry, couldn't understand what tosh you were speaking, not that am that arsed, only i do like to reply to people who quote me, even if they are talking gibberish. I think he was trying to say that a team considered half-decent isn't good enough to finish mid-table.

Sven is an international class manager and had a year to scout the players he brought in. Proves that it can be done though. s*** team + Good manager + flair players = Entertaining football But...there's no comparison mate. Not now there isn't but before Allardyce and Sven were appointed Newcastle and Man City were in a similar situation. They weren't in a similar situation at all, as Sven inherited a good spine of players that takes time to develop, he just needed to wisely add to these players. Dunne, Richards... ... ...the goalkeepers, Ireland, Hamann, Mpenza, Johnson, Ball. All these players were already there and would have developed a good understanding of one another in training. In reality, Sven has added Elano, Corluka and Petrov to an existing squad, and reaped the rewards similarly to how Robson did with Robert and Bellamy.

Sven is an international class manager and had a year to scout the players he brought in. Proves that it can be done though. s*** team + Good manager + flair players = Entertaining football But...there's no comparison mate. Not now there isn't but before Allardyce and Sven were appointed Newcastle and Man City were in a similar situation. They weren't in a similar situation at all, as Sven inherited a good spine of players that takes time to develop, he just needed to wisely add to these players.

Also Manchester City started out with a better spine to their team.

Who? Ashley Young's brother. Meant to be better throughout all the youth teams.

We don't know whether those are wise words until we see how the players react. If they react well, it is good man-management. If they react badly, it is the end of Allardyce.

Anelka Arshavin Lewis Young

So are people disputing what Robson says about strikers being better at converting chances from one flank opposed to the other? Owen has always been more prolific from crosses from the right hand side (although that doesn't mean that he doesn't sometimes convert crosses from the left), as has Martins at Newcastle. I had mentioned Viduka versus West Ham - He clearly prefers it from the left, the only question is whether he can keep up. The bottom line is that we need to get our right hand flank sorted, preferably with a pacy player so that we can provide crosses that Owen and Martins stand a better chance of converting.

Whoops, my mistake.

6.8m Euros = £4.2m It was 9.3m Euros though It wasn't. One of the newspapers cocked up by putting the Euro price down as pounds sterling, and people with poor memories subsequently start coming out with the £7m price as its just another negative to beat people with.

Why do people keep suggesting Hutton when our best player is a right back?

A midfielder? Well lets put it this way: whenever one of the numerous Martins fanboys on here describe the talents of Obafemi Martins, they are actually describing the talents of Sulley Muntari, many of which do actually not apply to Obafemi Martins.

A dream player. Everything Martins should be but isn't.

Lets hope when the time comes, be it tomorrow or in five years time, that Ashley and Mort don't listen to people like you.

Ideally, yes. But who was the better full back? I was only 15 or so at the time, so my judgement of Domi is blinded by his assists and not his overall contribution, I'm just interested to hear what older people think.

Beye now or Domi then, who would you choose?

6.8m Euros = £4.2m

Aye, like I said in the opening post, its not just about speed, the player needs to know how to use that speed to best effect. For example, Martins can run 100m in less than 11 seconds, yet I dont think I have ever seen him make a quick and effective forward run that is going to stretch our opponent.

Bottom line is, you couldn't buy the quality we got on the right hand side from Solano and Dyer for £12.5m What quality did Dyer provide like? See pace thread.

Certainly from late November when he returned, the team became more urgent, found more space on the ball in dangerous areas, scored more goals and won more matches, and this carried on until his performaces started to become more gutless from Late January/February.

I'm torn 50-50 as to whether he uses his pace well. I'm not sure either that he is quite as quick as he was, he seems to have stockened up at the expense of his pace.