James

First-half diagnosis? Second-half diagnosis? Full-time diagnosis? Star man for United? Worst United player? Opposition comment? Toon-pros? Toon-cons? Post-match feelings?

Look at how Bolton havesuddenly fallen apart without the organisational brilliance of Sam Allardyce. They could be missing him already - would really demonstrate his managerial ability.

On .cock now Although 30 year olds like Nicky Butt are graet to have around the place he'll only sign players that will be available on a free. Claims to be in constant communications with Freddy Shepherd - would suggest that Shepherd has no intentions to fire him, as in pervious years, Shepherd has been known avoid the manager in the period prior to a sacking.

The difference is that there are clips of Bond discusing a deal, whereas all they had on Allardyce was his son promising to talk Allardyce into something.

Nil points. FYP I havent spoken French for four years! sorry.

C'est merde que Glenn Roeder est permis pour le travail de Newcastle United. A mon avis, Allardyce n'est pas une mauvaise choisi, mais Hitzfeld est la choisi meilleureuse.

I think today is an important day, if there is no denial, Shepherd must be strongly contemplating this.

It would, like. I'm sure there's some mug out there willing to pay money for a youngish defender who they optimistically think they might fix. Bramble's contract expires this summer, so its not as if we can get anyone else to pay up.

Campbell - Bramble straight swap That wouldnt be a bad piece of business.

I hate ads between extra time/penalties. I like watching the preparations.

Fuck sake man. Abuse doesn't bother me to be honest, but I just hate to see posters self destruct with a mere few words.

I predicted at 7:30 that Liverpool vs Chelsea would be 1-1 aet, and that Chelsea woill win on penalties. This may come true.

Do check the rules about abuse though, as although swearing is allowed, swearing at other users is not usually permitted.

Bellend coming on.

Did Roeder just see that??!?!

Well its obvious that this story is made up then, as Roeder always tells the press if he has had to shout at someone. Seen as you're so adamant it's made up, how on Earth would you know the bit in bold is true? Or did you just make that up? I'm referring to the original post in the thread if that clears things up. If you did realise that, then my response would be that there is interview after interview where Roeder has come out and said: "That was not good enough, and I've told the players that," which is evidence that my statement is probably true.

Well its obvious that this story is made up then, as Roeder always tells the press if he has had to shout at someone.

Harper 5 Solano 7 Taylor 6 Bramble 4 Carr 7 Milner 8 Dyer 5 Emre 6 Sibierski 6 Martins 6 Owen 7 Shola 6 NZogbia 5

On the plus side, Owen played the full 95 minutes, and looked as quick as before, and possibly stronger. His brain is still there, and apart from some shin bounces, he had an outstanding first game back. Midfield organisation was awful mind, allowed Reading to just run through each time, but that is what happens when your most defensive midfielder is Emre. Of our 'front 6,' all six of them have played up front for Newcastle. Bramble had a poor game.

For me, the turning point was when at 2-1 down Rooney chases a loose ball, and realising that he wont get there in time to control it, he runs anyway, catches the ball and concedes a throw in instead of a goal kick. Everton lose possession due to intense pressure, and the rest is history.

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.