CaliMag

Yes. I don't claim to have any insider knowledge, but we are known for paying very high wages and at the time the Guardian reported that his agent approached us first to keep him at his very high wages. Now if Campbell's agent said "Sol want to play for Newcastle and we'll settle for 50k a week" I would think Roeder would be tempted, but up until the time his agent spoke with Pompey he was talking about going to Spain or Italy and had delusions of granduer. Campbell's form and appearances (due to his psychological breakdown or whatever) dropped last year and he is nearing the end of his career. That seems like the definition of risk and had he come here a very expnsive one IMO.

Campbell was a huge risk and I suspect many on here are rewritting history. I would think in normal circumstances we could agree on a couple of very obvious issues regarding Campbell. 1. He was a headcase last year and was not playing for Arsenal due to emotional/psychological reasons 2. He was on 100k a week 3. His agent approached Newcastle first with the idea of maintaining that very high wage and 4. Discounts were only discussed once Campbell and his agent were faced with Harry Redknapp 5. 'Arry is one of the greatest (if not THE) greatest bargainers in the Premiership So with these pieces of information at hand it is not outlandinsh to envision a situation where Campbell signed for Newcastle but ended up not playing for whatever reason - so he would have joined Owen and Dyer with a combined weekley wage of around 270K a week (probably greater than that of Wigan's entire squad) resulting in the PLC and supporters calling for Roeder's head on a stick.

Definately hope Charlton win this one. Same reasons as listed above - also I hate the Ultra-Cockney East Endedness of WHam fans... I am prejudiced and admit it.

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Very disappointed. Howay Aah-Tset get it together man!

If (big "IF) Keane is successful - meaning he gets the makems promoted and keeps them up for a season my predicition is that he would be off to manage the Irish National team or something like that. Keane is already a footballing great - as soon as there is a hint of managerial success about him he will be recruited very hard by bigger and better opportunities. He has no ties to Sunderland so he'll be off.

Up until the 1960s you only got paid when you played games... Maybe Toon's Taylor is really an 80 year old man. Newcastle Rocker: I think if we met Villa in the next round we would be equally cautious. Although I think the comparison to Spurs is a bit harsh... they aren't THAT bad.

Any "entertainment" at football is to be frowned at as far as I'm concerned. Get to your seat 5 minutes before kick off, watch the first half, go and watch the goals on the screen at half time, watch the second half, f*** off. That's my routine at SJP and that's pretty much how it should be. I don't want cheerleaders or fireworks or Janet Jackson getting her tit out. The entertainment comes from what you go and pay to watch, not some school kids pretending they can dance in the centre circle to 'Is This The Way To Amarillo'. I agree with the sociopathic bairn here.

Campbell was a risk - he was a headcase last year who walked out on Arse's training and games and when his agent came sniffing around Newcastle it was with the intention of keeping him on the 100k a week he was earning. It wasn't until we said no that his wages suddenly halved and he started speaking to Pompey. Many people thought Campbell was worth the risk at the time - I didn't and it would seem Roeder didn't either.

I can't see that working. We might create some space but how will we defend from the front with those three? Also Dyer is not a playmaker so all of that space would be wasted without any prolonged posession or chances being made and if we put Emre in there withOUT Parker or Butt holding (since Dyer would be taking the other CM role) we would be completely overrun on the counter-attack. After about fiev minutes our defenders would be resorting to hoofing it an dit would be route one football with no height... could work against some teams but would disasterous other times.

I am also unconvinced. Owen has been lacking movement for sometime and after this injury - who knows. He is the best finisher in the Premiership though and has a way of losing his marker at just the right time (Gary Lineker all over again). Neither of them are particularly good at passing but Martins is improving. I would like to see them both up front if we have Solano and Emre in the midfield actually working the ball up and getting some intelligent crosses in. Having Emre means probably losing Dyer in the middle and going with Butt (or the mysteriously mis-matched Parker) - or having Dyer on the left. Back to the subject at hand: Martins is getting better and running down the ball like that shows committment and energy. Keeper mistake or not, you need a striker who wants it that bad and in 1/100 times you'll score. That goal actually reminded me of Shearer's five years ago against Citeh. It was kick-off for Citeh they passed it back to Steve Howey who fluffed a back pass to the 'keeper - Shearer kept running it down and the 'keeper miskicked it at Shearer leaving him with the ball and an open net. He scored in the first 10 seconds of the game or something. Hard work does pay off... eventually.

Satisfactory from me. He might still be able to turn it around... but that remains to be seen. He has his own style that I admit to not liking, but if he does a job and gets us sustained Euro involvement and perhaps even the holy grail (silverware) then he should stick around to see if his long term plans work. I remember people not being very happy with SBR in his second season - we finsihed 11th again and people were not pleased. He had signed only a couple of players, papering over the cracks was a favourite expression at the time, we had cronic injuries in Cort, Dunc, and Dyer and seemed to be going nowhere. Maybe we are again only a couple of new players away from making real progress and maybe we already have those couple of players and we just need them to come back from injury. I am much happier now than at any time that Souness was manager.

Perhaps I am in the minority but with our form and squad I see a loss at JJB and perhaps 4-6 points from the rest at a maximum. I reckon we'll lose either the ManCiteh or Smog game and it will be put down to inconsistancy. I would like to be proven wrong but I fully expect the "Roeder out" Campaign to be out in force at the end of this period.

Chelsea is a joke. They bought the past couple titles. No one really respects them or their achievements. Seeing them win again just draws out a lame joke-- it doesn't mean a thing. When the Russian loses interest and pulls out his money, no one will look back and admire these teams--- it'll all be a big joke, sort of like Pele, the Cosmos, Best and the rest cashing in the NASL or overweight Brazilians shuffling off to the UAE. On the other hand, were Manchester United to finish first you'd never hear the end of it. Another feather in Ferguson's cap and more blab from the ManUtd fans--- whom I despise. Were it Arsenal or Liverpool, I might have a different attitude. f*** Man Utd. Can't root for them. Ahmen - absolutely correct. In an ideal world I would want the team that wins the Premiership to 1. NOT wear red and 2. not be from London - probably never happen though.

American's own Man Utd, they are taking over Liverpool, a Russian owns Chelsea and Americans looked at Spurs last year...How am I paranoid? In your own time sniffles. So you are worried that we will turn into ManUre or CHelsea... So far the doom and gloom predictions of foreign ownership have (unfortunately) yet come to pass.

Interesting thread packed with the expected responses. Nothing would make me happier than having a group of American investors completely destroy Liverpool and ManUre - if that doesn't make Geordies get up and sing "god bless America" than nothing will. G.L. - Having lived in both the Northern and Southern parts of California I can attest to what you say. In SF everyone is always comparing themselves to LA and going on about how much better they are than LA ... and in LA, SF never even comes up. For the record: Texas does indeed suck* (with the excpetion of Austin and certain parts of San Antonio). My dream is to have Parky forcably deported to GitMo so he can honestly have something to complain about ... or barring that deported to NYC because its big, loud and full of jewish people.

Similar to above comments I think all of those points are irrelevent. When we last won the lague regularyly in the 1920s we did it by playing most of the Scottish national team (probably even started a few games with all scots) and we won by abusing the offisides rule to such an extent that the game was at times almost unwatchable and caused the FA to change the rules to outlaw our practice that "killed the spirit" of the game. And yeah we have spent loads - in fact second only to chelsea in the past 5 years so that point is moot.

Most yanks dislike the NUFC strip... their loss. The one serious point that this dude fails to recognise as that since Howard left ManUre - Gooch is now playing for the biggest club of all American players. NUFC may not be bigger than many but Fulham and the Scouse makems are definately on that list. This is a career move for Gooch and this is the biggest step availabvle to him. He is also not good enough to play for the greatest teams in the world... he just isn't. This move works for both parties and the author knows this but decided to be a dick about it.

The gooch will not achieve expectations. He is a good player but not a leader nor is he that great at anticipating attacks, but uinlike Carr he is fast and a massiev physical presense and will make up for most of his shortcomings with hard work. Unlike others this will be a huge step up for him and he knows it - he understands that he is lucky to be here and will try to make it work.

Not happy about him living on the Quayside. I remember when SBR came in he made Dyer move away from there - a wise move IMO. At 22 years old living in the Quayside is poison. I would much rather he moved next door to Nobby in Jesmond - although anywhere not near clubs would be nice.

Definately the latter - though he had his moments when he was here that were class.

I look forward to a response from the Halls. FFS has had his fare share telling his side of the story. I hope the Halls and maybe even the prospective buyers give us a better idea of what is going on.

Not so bizarre really. And completely understandible when you consider what his wife (and maybe what he) wants in life. Should be slightly less media scutiny now as well since he will be in an environment with many other very famous stars. I have mixed feelings personally. Getting tickets to the LA Galaxy will now be a challenge and I only ever admitted publicly that David Beckham was any good after he moved to Madrid (privately I did, but most footie "fans" I meet here are tossers and support one of the red shirted scum) - now going to Galaxy games and supporting him publically would be awkward... if he signed for NUFC I would have no problem supporting him but my feelings toward the Galaxy are a bit more reserved. Add to the fact that now half the people showing up to Galaxy games will be wearing ManUre replicas I will be extremely irritated... I may even support the away team if it gets out of hand.

Excellent posts from Bellers and Legacy. And I whole heartedly agree with Bellers on the ManUre fans... f*cking tossers. I would love it if they never ever won anything ever again. Their problem with Chelsea is simply that they see the trophies as theirs and get irritated that someone has crashed the party so to speak. They don;t have nearly the same bother with Arse or Pool because they see them as part of the "club" its arrogant elitism. On Chelsea slipping up... I think the main issue is the loss of Gallas and Terry. Mourinho has less confidence in his defenders ability (without those two) and that lack of conifdence has bled into the team. Mourinho has said repeatedly that he doesn't believe in creativity in defence - he believes in drills and repetition. Defensively he sticks to a very regimented and disciplined almost Rehhegelian tactic - when the team concedes a goal they lose confidence in their creative abilities and get stuck in very predictable defensive possession. During our cup game against them, they were never going to score from open play. Our team somehow unnerved them and they decided to play for a draw/shootout or hope for a set piece winner (which they got). Chelsea are even more boring this year than when they first started under Mourniho two years ago. He makes George Graham look like Kevin Keegan. I think that when the defence concedes (as they have done more this year than previous years) Mourinho makes them train more and more conservatively - he's a perfectionist after all. This lack of attacking flair has all but killed Shevchenko and there is no way he is goign to prosper in Chelsea this year. It makes perfect sense that Drogba is the first choice striker at the moment. It would kill me to watch my team if they played as conservatively as they do with Ballack, Makelele, Robben and Shevchenko - these are creative and exciting players and somehow Mourinho has made them uninteresting and almost unwatchable.

Kenton: This will come as a shock, but Santa Claus isn't real... those were your parents getting you those gifts. Apologies, C.