James

In the end, our summer transfers turned out alright - we have instead sufferred due to injuries. I'm sure by the end of the window, we will have all the players we need for the next 5 months, and maybe even have a few players in who can greatly improve the club's long-term fortunes.

Apparently he is on a funny contract which we could buy out for peanuts.

SkySports reckon that we are sniffing the contractual situation of Abel Xavier to see if we can acquire him as short term full back cover at a minimal price.

For me, £10m split between two first-team defenders, a squad-place central midfielder and a squad-place striker.

I'm saying that he is just as good as Coleman, and that he could peak late like the football player Zidane did. So basically he's average now, but he might get better so we should persevere on the off-chance? bluebigrazz.gif Which in my opinionh is better than sacking and appopinting another manager. That would set us back for ages. Even Hitzfeld would take years to sort things out, and by that point, he'd probably have been sacked, and we'd be playing non-league football with HTT as chairman, the soccer master as manager and Luque up front.

Cliff Bastin played about 15 games for Exeter City before going to Arsenal and getting that famous goalscoring record, yet one of the stands at Exeter is named after him. Shearer played 118 games for them over 4 years by the way. Meh. Sorry. I just want to win most knowledgeable poster this year. Take the Wikipedia stats with a pinch of salt btw. Not saying you are incorrect... it' just that it also has Shearer down for 148 goals in 303 appearances in his ten years at the club. Wikipedia also only counts league appearances/goals

Cliff Bastin played about 15 games for Exeter City before going to Arsenal and getting that famous goalscoring record, yet one of the stands at Exeter is named after him. Shearer played 118 games for them over 4 years by the way. Meh. Sorry. I just want to win most knowledgeable poster this year.

I'm saying that he is just as good as Coleman, and that he could peak late like the football player Zidane did.

Cliff Bastin played about 15 games for Exeter City before going to Arsenal and getting that famous goalscoring record, yet one of the stands at Exeter is named after him. Shearer played 118 games for them over 4 years by the way.

Don't know what he was like for them, but generally, Southampton fans/experts don't regard Shearer as one of their great players, and many seem to like ignoring the fact that he ever played for them.

When away at Manchester United, Roeder opted to play 5 in midfield and sit back and try to hold on to a nil-nil draw. The Red Devils obliterated us - we never got close to taking anything. Post match, Roeder was insistent that his decision to play a 4-5-1 formation was the right one. Fast forward by a few months to yesterday - when we played a 442 and took the game to Manchester United whenever possible and get a draw. Roeder points out post-match that to get a result against Sir Alex Ferguson's side, you have to attack them. He may be in his 50's, but Roeder has the experience of Chris Coleman, and both are probably similar in terms of managerial ability i.e. they can get results, get the best out of most of their players, but they cant man-manage certain individuals, and their teams are prone to the odd bad match, generally away from home. All good managers have had their failures early in their careers, and have learnt from them - see Sir Bobby Robson at West Brom, or even Alex Ferguson in the late 80's as an example. Because of the higher stakes in the game, Roeder's has had much less chances at management (ignoring stints at Watford and Gillingham as lower league management is a lot different) than the Robson and the Fergusons of the past have had. Subsequently, perhaps he has not been allowed to mature as a manager. Perhaps he genuinely needs to be given time to both build his own team and simultaneously learn how to cut it week-in week-out in the Premiership. It can be debated that over recent years, high expectations of immediate success from the fans and chairman in the past have perhaps forced a change in regime at the wrong time. Glenn Roeder has undoubtedly demonstrated that he possesses greater managerial attributes than the likes of Souness, Gullit and Dalglish. Some fans have in the past called for the immediate dismissal of Glenn Roeder. Others, myself included, have previously proposed that he should be dismissed at the end of the season if the team's performance hasn't reached expectations. However, the fact of the matter is that with this club, even a high-achieving manager would need time to get things right, and another managerial change would set us back by another couple of seasons. Newcastle United may as well give that time to Roeder. After all, rhetorically speaking, have any managers in their late-thirties/early-forties ever won anything?

If you think about it, before he appeared, Edgar was our 11th choice defender.

I would agree with the first two points Lloydie. However, the third point wouldn't be a good idea as it is never a good idea to have 1st and 2nd choice players, as it is important that players aren't guaranteed starting berths as it improves the motivation and morale within the whole squad.

Thats what I did, but it took me ages to transfer everyones votes onto the spreadsheet.

At the speed you count? Not the best idea you've ever had. I had a full time temporary part time Christmas job. Had no time.

By the way. Most Improved Poster 2006 Looks like I actually won something this year. YEEESSSSS! GET IN! Also, I think someone fiddled with the votes so that I didn't win Most Optimistic Poster and Best Writer. I demand a recount on those two.

That can only be good news. Richard Steadman has proved himself to be a great surgeon over the years, and you have to trust his opinion.

I thought it was just the chin. Who is Jay by the way?

So KR, Taylor, Bobyule... then everybody else. I think a couple might not have quite got two votes. All writers got a vote from someone though (I think)

This should be the results rearranged into some kind of medal table: Gold Silver Bronze Total Gemmill 4 3 4 11 Invicta Toon 3 0 0 3 Dave 2 2 0 4 Alan Shearer 9 2 1 1 4 Knightrider 2 1 0 3 Crumpy Gunt 2 0 1 3 Northern Monkey 2 0 0 2 Taylor27 1 2 0 3 Parky 1 1 2 4 BlufPurdi 1 1 1 3 CaliMag 1 1 0 2 NE5 1 1 0 2 Dr Spectrum 1 1 0 2 tmonkey 1 0 2 3 Geordie Messiah 1 0 1 2 Mick 1 0 1 2 Skirge 1 0 0 1 magorific 1 0 0 1 Testa Mora 1 0 0 1 Ridzuan 0 3 0 3 Indigo 0 2 2 4 Ohmelads 0 2 1 3 Kitman 0 2 0 2 Rob W 0 1 3 4 Howaythelads 0 1 1 2 Newcastle Rocker 0 1 1 2 Wullie 0 1 1 2 Verlaine 0 1 1 2 Lee Stewart Academic 0 1 1 2 alex 0 1 1 2 Stevie 0 1 1 2 GeJon 0 1 1 2 M4 0 1 0 1 Kasper 0 1 0 1 scottass 0 1 0 1 Bottled Dog 0 1 0 1 Optimistic Nut 0 1 0 1 bobyule 0 1 0 1 Jay 0 1 0 1 Martin Jol 0 1 0 1 Brummie 0 1 0 1 MalcolmSm1th 0 1 0 1 Riches 0 1 0 1 Douga 0 1 0 1 2Sheds 0 1 0 1 JayJaySea 0 1 0 1 DonCheeseCake 0 1 0 1 Shido 0 1 0 1 Yorkie-Geordie 0 1 0 1 Chez Given 0 0 2 2 ankdh 0 0 1 1 Paul Mosley 0 0 1 1 Stevie 0 0 1 1 Hindu Times 0 0 1 1 NSG 0 0 1 1 Andrew Flintoff 0 0 1 1 Elric 0 0 1 1 BoSelecta 0 0 1 1 Baggio 0 0 1 1 Jonny2J 0 0 1 1 midds 0 0 1 1 Ally 0 0 1 1 cas 0 0 1 1 niina 0 0 1 1 Mandy 0 0 1 1 Snoopy 0 0 1 1 Thompers 0 0 1 1

Time to release what everyone has been waiting for. Many thanks to the 35 people who voted. Best NUFC forum poster First Place: tmonkey (6 votes) Joint Second Place: Knightrider, Ohmelads (3 votes) Joint Fourth Place: Shaman, Yorkie-Geordie, Matt (2 votes) Best Chat poster First Place: Parky (8 votes) Second Place: Gemmill (4 votes) Joint Third Place: Geordie Messiah, ChezGiven, Rob W (2 votes) Best overall poster First Place: Gemmill (7 votes) Joint Second Place: Indigo, Rob W, Dave, Kitman (2 votes) Best Wind Up Merchant First Place: Crumpy Gunt (8 votes) Second Place: Ridzuan (7 votes) Third Place: Gemmill (4 votes) Fourth Place: Invicta Toon (2 votes) Best foreign poster First Place: CaliMag (9 votes) Joint Second Place: M4, Ridzuan, Kasper (2 votes) Poster you'd like to post more often First Place: Alan Shearer 9 (4 votes) Second Place: Ohmelads (3 votes) Joint Third Place: Ankdh, BlufPurdi (2 votes) Most knowledgable poster First Place: Knightrider (4 votes) Second Place: Indigo (3 votes) Joint Third Place: Howaythelads, Rob W, tmonkey, Ohmelads, Paul Mosley, Stevie (2 votes) Most optimistic First Place: Skirge (6 votes) Second Place: Taylor27 (3 votes) Third Place: Hindu Times, NSG, NewcastleRocker (2 votes) Most pessimistic First Place: Northern Monkey (12 votes) Second Place: Wullie (7 votes) Third Place: Crumpy Gunt (5 votes) Worst poster First Place: Invicta Toon (11 votes) Joint Second Place: Verlaine, NE5 (4 votes) Joint Fourth Place: Ridzuan, the soccer master (2 votes) Best thread - NUFC forum First Place: Souness Sacked (4 votes + tie-break winner) Second Place: Albert Luque (4 votes) Best thread - General Chat First Place: So I met this lass… (5 votes) Second Place: Is Israel the real danger to world peace? (3 votes) Third Place: Attention Lee Stewart lovers! (2 votes) Best avatar First Place: Dave (5 votes) Second Place: Bottled Dog (2 votes) Joint Third Place: Andrew Flintoff, Elric, BoSelecta, Gemmill, alex, Stevie, Baggio, Jonny2J, Alan Shearer 9, tmonkey, midds, Parky, Rob W (1 vote) Best signature First Place: Alan Shearer 9 (8 votes) Joint Second Place: Optimistic Nut, Stevie (3 votes) Fourth Place: Skirge Best Administrator/Moderator First Place: BlufPurdi (14 votes) Second Place: Dave (6 votes) Joint Third Place: Wullie, Ally, Indigo (2 votes) Best Writer First Place: Knightrider (4 votes) Joint Second Place: bobyule, Taylor27 (3 votes) Joint Fourth Place: Andrew Flintoff, DJ_NUFC, Yorkie-Geordie, Paul Mosley, Jonny Hall, ankdh (2 votes) Funniest thread First Place: So I met this lass… (4 votes + tie-breaker winner) Second Place:Attention Lee Stewart Lovers! (4 votes) Third Place: Glory Hunters (3 votes) Joint Fourth Place: This bug a lot of people seem to have…, Post Your Pic: **Newcastle-Online’s Little Shop of Horrors**, Good Evening lads and lasses (aka ‘sgrey’ invasion of lounge) (2 votes) Funniest poster First Place: Gemmill (17 votes) Second Place: Alan Shearer 9 (3 votes) Third Place: ChezGiven (2 votes) Poster you'd most like to meet First Place: Gemmill (2 votes + tie-break winner) Second Place: GeJon (2 votes + tie-break runner-up) Third Place: Parky (2 votes + tie-break third place) Fourth Place: Crumpy Gunt (2 votes + tie-break fourth place) Fifth Place: midds (2 votes + tie-break fifth place) Best looking poster First Place: Testa Mora (6 votes) Second Place: Jay (2 votes) Joint Third Place: GeJon, Verlaine, niina, Mandy, Snoopy, Gemmill (1 vote) Best vendetta against a player/club official First Place: Northern Monkey vs Kieron Dyer (8 votes) Second Place: Gemmill vs Albert Luque (5 votes) Third Place: Mick vs Freddy Shepherd (3 votes) Fourth Place: Northern Monkey versus Shola Ameobi (2 votes) Best Forum Feud First Place: NE5 vs Mick (7 votes) Second Place: CaliMag vs alex, Gemmill vs Thompers (3 votes) Joint Fourth Place: Thompers vs The Moderators (2 votes) Best non-NUFC poster First Place: Dr. Spectrum (14 votes) Joint Second Place: Martin Jol, Brummie (3 votes) Most controversial. First Place: Crumpy Gunt (7 votes) Joint Second Place: Ridzuan, Howaythelads (4 votes) Joint Fourth Place: NE5, Parky (3 votes) The Kitman Award for Best Rookie/Newcomer. First Place: Geordie Messiah (5 votes) Joint Second Place: Douga, the soccer master, Dr. Spectrum, JayJaySea, DonCheesecake, 2sheds, Shido, riches, malcolmSm1th (1 vote) Most Improved Poster First Place: Taylor27 (4 votes) Joint Second Place: NewcastleRocker, Yorkie-Geordie, Kitman, Gemmill (2 votes) Most reliable/helpful poster First Place: Dave (10 votes) Second Place: BlufPurdi (7 votes) Third Place: indigo (4 votes) Special Recognition Award Toontastic – Toontastic aka Phillip Craig has long been responsible for running Newcastle-Online and its previous incarnations. He has recently stepped down from his role in running the site, but his legacy lives on, and his past work is much appreciated by the users of Newcastle-Online. Runner-Up: Andy – The long serving Admin and Lost fanatic has recently departed for pastures new. We wish him all the best. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations to all the winners! May everyone have an excellent 2007!

Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic are Atrocious That has got to be an all time great.

Classic headline there courtesy of Football365.com What other genuinely good football headlines have there been in the past?

There are a few tie-breakers to be decided on: Best NUFC Forum thread Funniest Thread Poster You'd Most Like to Meet Information on these tie breakers can be found in General Chat.

Important, injury-prone match-winner would be my description of him these days... Total wanker would be my description. As was Bellamy. Would always prefer to have a bunch of winning wankers and winkers than a group of average nice guys.