James

You may have something there, Edgar didn't even feature for the reserves tonight whereas Hunty did. Unless he's injured of course.

Holloway had Huntington on trial at Plymouth, sent him back, didn't think he was good enough.

Well Roeder seems to take several over the top steps to protect his youngsters where possible: a) Signing Duff to keep Zoggy in the background b) Signing Srnicek to keep Krul out of the picture c) Picking Bramble, Moore, Onyewu and Carr ahead of Taylor Perhaps Roeder's waiting to unleash his star defender if and when he is 27 years old and able to play in a team with 10 other decent players.

Good defenders are hard to spot, as they are anonymous if playing well which is perhaps why he is hard to spot in the reserves. Remember how Malaga bid for him on the basis of a single friendly appearance.

Is everyone mystified about his lack of opportunities? With the chances he's had, he has looked more composed, and better on the ball than any centre back we currently employ. Even the local journalists are puzzled: http://www.easy-ryder.co.uk/2007/03/yet_another_case_for_the_toon.html#comments So what has he done to be overlooked in such a way?

Not right now, as there is no-one else I trust at right back, whereas I have faith in our central midfielders abilities, just I have no faith in the manager having them tactically organised.

It is a problem, not a crisis. Although the wages/turnover ratio is ridiculously high, and lack of European football next season would make this even more than an issue. However, the £30m extra per season every team will receive will mean that there is no short-term threat, which means that we are not going to immediately have to flog off all our best players, and instead we can choose to be shrewd with our dealings over the next five years to gradually bring our ratio in line with the PL average.

Previously on 24: Freddy Shepherd cant finish his jigsaw because he dropped the pieces in his steak bake, and then ate them without realising. We are going to have to wait for him to digest them.

If we could secure cheap and lower wage direct replacements for the majority of our players, I'd take it, even some of our better players can be replaced for less imo. For example: Harper -> Krul (save £15,000) Emre -> Sidwell (save £25,000) Butt -> Chelsea/Arsenal loanee (save £30,000) Bramble -> Onyewu (save £10,000) Moore -> Edgar (save £10,000) Luque -> Anyone (save £40,000+) That would save a hell of a lot of wages, some of which could bereinvested into the defensive positions.

How good is he at defending the near post?

We get £30m extra TV income starting from next season, so things aren't all that bad.

Basically, they've given Fat Fred a jigsaw puzzle, and on average, it takes him 12 hours to work out where the next piece goes.

I dont think that anything is happenning with Watford. The press reported it, but we denied it, saying that the press were just trying to stir things up iirc.

This thread is better mind, so make sure that one is merged with this one

Why do I get the impression that every time my thread reaches top of the page, stozo bumps this one.

I know, I'm just trying to enflame the situation.

That's slanderous.

Are any charges going to be brought against Tim Howard for being a liar I wonder?

on .cock http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~999315,00.html Good news.

I think we need one of those bonding weekends in some remote ex-army training site. NE5 and Mick would have to settle their differences if they want to beat HTT and Gemmill on a three-legged assault course.

Sounds like us on Thursday.

To be honest, even if the player in question did tell you that, it is not necessarily fact, as I highly doubt the management would have deemed that fact as worth telling to the academy boys. At best, Roeder told Clark who told Given who told Harper who told Carr who told Duff who told Butt who told Sibierski who told Martins who told Emre who told Parker who told Dyer who told Bramble who told Huntington who told Edgar who told whoever your mate is. In which case truth will become distorted. Its like telling a mate that you kissed someone, soon someone will be saying that you got laid.

All young keepers make a mistake eventually. The real test is whether they can bounce back from it. I'm sure Tim Krul will find him in a similar position one day.

Typical that it had to be less than 36 hours after i'd announced that i'd flog off given if foster became available.

Got Hannemann and Campbell in my Fantasy Football, so hope so! I was speaking more in regard to our soon-to-be fantastical charge for Europe, masterminded by Glenn Brian Roeder. Dont really want another season of us getting a higher league position cos others are shite. Things like that encourage shepherd into making wrong and deluded decisions.