James

I've been suspecting this for a couple of days now...

Isn't the kid a big Newcastle fan?

Look at this seasons inevitable champions - Manchester United. Against other teams, they are confident dwelling on the ball in the final 20 yards of the field. It is the incredible amount of goals that they score from getting themselves in these positions that is leaving them in with a shout of a second treble. Whereas we try to play like Chelsea - camp ourselves in the first 60 yards, and occasionally smash and grab. We'd be hard pressed to think of an example where we've spent more than 5 seconds in the final 20 yards of the pitch. There is probably even a statistic where if you average the distance of each goal we've scored, we would have the longest in the Premiership. This is not the sign of us having a good attacking team. Of course, if we intend to play smash and grab football, we'd be better off buying two defenders and an attacking midfielder. This would mean that we'd concede a few less, and score a couple more. However, under current management the improvement will not be significant. We'd just be benefitting due to slightly better percentages. I can't see Roeder increasing our creativity by reorganising the side such that the wingers get the ball in better positions. New defenders wont improve creativity. If we signed Tevez, we could become a creative attacking force. Of course, we'd have defensive problems, but much less goals will be conceded due to percentages, but we'd score a shedload more, with Tevez ability of bringing his teammates into play in creative positions in the final 20 yards of the pitch. Also Tevez would reduce the pressure on defence with his constant pressure on opposition defenders, which would force them to misplace passes etc, whereas right now, it is easy for an opposition defender to collect the ball and play it to the feet of a more offensive player. At West Ham, Curbishley doesnt need to concentrate on attacking tactics. Much of his time is spent towards defensive organisation, knowing that by instructing his teams to make forward runs, Tevez will be there to orchestrate every single attacking move. Given the manager we have in charge, Tevez will yield more success than any other player in any other position right now. Sign Tevez, and we'd finish somewhere between 4th and 8th. Sign defenders, and we will finish 6th-15th. Lastly, what would our two most successful managers of recent times do if they took over right now? Both Keegan and Robson would choose to add creativity, drive, gung-ho-ness, enthusiasm and a will to win to the attack before they even bothered to look at the defence. If you want a good team, do what the past masters would do.

I'm trying to keep things realistic. Carlos Tevez would inevitably lose if voters were allowed to pick defenders of their choice. He is losing anyway Look mate,Its not that he is a bad player, i really admire Tevez and his abillty, before and even after he joined West Ham But the truth is,we don't need any more Midfield players or Strikers, what we need is clear : solid and consistent defenders Unless of course we are going to sell the likes of Emre,Luque, N'Zogbia and buy Tevez with the money we got from them,that will be ok because we will still afford to buy Defenders But If we are going to sign Tevez for lets say 20 million,and buy no one else, i can't see us going anywhere further, because even if he plays his heart out every game, a mistake from one of our defenders or something like that will cost us the game, he won't even have the chance to show his abillty because our team will be -as ever- on the back foot for a whole 90 mins. I completely disagree with the bits in bold, A team with Tevez in it will not find itself on the backfoot, they will be on the front foot, as Tevez will significantly increase the time that the ball is inthe opposing half, not just when we've got the ball, but when they've got the ball to, due to his harrying. Less time in our half means less mistakes. I think you are too young to truly remember the Keegan days - we played in their half, and it didn't matter how many we conceded against all but the top-3 teams, as we were bound to score more than them. Signing Tevez would create a Keegan team. The only reason not to go all out on Tevez would be the risk of injury, as midds has pointed out.

For what its worth, I dont believe it will be for 'any cost.' I'd suspect as long as we have our usual £15m to spend, we could afford Tevez in addition to two defenders and Sidwell.

I'm trying to keep things realistic. Carlos Tevez would inevitably lose if voters were allowed to pick defenders of their choice.

I've added a poll.

On crack tbh. Why? Obviously, we do need to replace our defence, but the reality is that with Tevez in the team, the ball would spend a lot less time in our half, and thus we will score more and concede less. Assuming he becomes available, he is to good a player to pass up on even if it means not buying defenders. He would propel us to top 6, and then if we invested well in defence the following summer, we'd have a team that would be challenging for both league and cups.

We could play all three of Tevez, Owen and Martins in my opinion, dropping Emre out of the team. Parker could then revert to the everywhere in defense role that he had under Souness, which would allow him to stop the opposition breaking through central midfield. Tevez would not only create chances for the other strikers, he'd bring our wingers into play, bring the ball into attacking positions on the ground.

People often refer to the fact that we are missing the engine of Bellamy, the ingenuity of Beardsley. Some people even miss the passing of Hugo Viana. Sign Tevez, and we would miss none of them ever again.

Looks like Tevez is now completely settled in the Premiership. I'd say, that in terms of individual quality, he is up there with Zola, Bergkamp and Beardsley. Combine a Bellamy like work ethic, determination and never say die attitude on the pitch with speed, magnetic dribbling ability, and an exceptional ability to hold the ball up and play killer passes INSIDE the oppositions penalty area, and you have the player that we have been crying out for since the days of Keegan. I'd be happy not to sign anyone else if we signed Carlos Tevez.

The best prediction I ever saw was when we were 1-2 against Reading, and someone wrote a prayer asking for a 3-2 win with goals from Martins and Emre.

Well done Mr. Paul Mosley

Does this constitute as humour to a manic depressive? Whassamarra son, did I piss on your pessimistic parade Obi, I'd like to produce one of those rolling on back with stick legs moving about while laughing smilies, just for you, but sadly they dont exist anymore.

What exactly happenned?

I'm suprised you heard it, given that you were in your mothers womb at the time.

Unless somehow Charlton win and Wigan draw, it will become mathematically impossible for us to get relegated. It is unacceptable for us to have to wait until the third last weekend of the season to ensure survival in my opinion - shows how low our star has fallen. Heads should roll this summer, starting with the manager, and the man who appointed him.

Reminds me of the Feyenoord vs Newcastle, Juventus vs Dynamo Kyiv games in the CL. Manyoo fans must be at least as elated as I was that night, if not more

if there are inacuracies in my post tell me and argue against them. The bit about not knowing anything about Sibierski is wrong there. Roeder had tried to sign Sibierski while at West Ham, but he opted to go to Man City instead. If he did make any phone calls, it was jus to inquire about fitness etc. Otherwise pretty much all you said is spot on.

"and this is how I'm subtly going to win a penalty for Liverpool next season when they play us"

Do Boca Juniors have a relationship set up with any clubs? If not, it would be worth trying to follow it through. Imagine having an exclusive link with the club with the best academy and youth scouting setup in South America.

tell you what i've just looked at that poll about this and i'm blown away that 80% of people on here would go for allardyce, i really am... this, to me, can only be attributed to dissatisfaction with roeder rather than any affinity with allardyce and as for attractive football yeah, of course, but i never want us to become consumed by winning...when we were losing the league or cups to manu i never wanted to see toon players chasing refs about screaming, or seeing players diving or whatever to get the win... to allardyce, from my perspective, it's only about winning....when have we EVER been about that? and by the way bolton are 4 wins ahead of us in the table and we've had what is to be considered a travesty of a season, whereas bolton have had just about their best season ever.... are you that sure that given time in the summer to fulfil his plans, assuming he has them, and with michael owen playing say 20 games that we couldn't do just as well with roeder as we could with allardyce? i'm not.... You cant go from a poor, boring team to an attractive team overnight - it takes years of work on the training ground. Took Sir Bobby Robson 2 years and 3 months to get Newcastle flying. Same with all new managers - results come ahead of performances Sam Allardyce has, with limited resources got a team with lower ability playing more attractive football than we are right now. The whole boring direct Bolton is a pure myth based on Bolton's first two seasons in the Premiership. Would suggest that you dont watch many non-NUFC matches. You need to get rid of your ideology, as things wont happen the way you want, even if the idea of attractive football plus results is the best outcome. PS stop permanently contradicting yourself, you do this in every single thread, and makes you impossible to respond to. when do i contract myself? quite a lot. You say: "I didn't say that this would happen" "But I think that this thing that I didnt say would happen will happen"

I think we need to lay the floor in the away changing rooms with really strong glue, so that our opposition don't come onto the pitch, meaning that we win all of our home matches. Also, hope that we get the top ten teams at home in the first half of the season, so that they miss the rest of their season recovering from glue burns, meaning that we'll win the away ties as well.

Wasn't aimed at you GeJon.