The College Dropout

Madrid look awful

He wanted Maguire - too expensive for the board. They've also got exciting youth players that he never seems to want to play. But aye they should've replaced Kompany. They might as well bring him back

Wesley looks pap Fornals looks pap

It's a dive and wouldn't be a yellow anyway. Horrendous refereeing. Horrendous use of VAR in this country

In today's football, he'd be Theo Walcott essentially. Lucky to have played in the era he did. Well that’s just bollocks tbh. Twat of a man though. Referring more to the type of player. Smaller striker with pace, movement and finishing, although Owen was a better dribbler. He played in an era where a lot of clubs used partnerships upfront and these smaller strikers could be better accommodated. Currently most clubs use one striker upfront, who has to have more of an all round game. Theo came through at Southampton as a striker, just as we were going into the era of lone front men and he suffered for it in my opinion. Ended up being shunted out wide because he didn't have enough about him to play upfront by himself, but he isn't technical enough to be a wide man. Theo would have had a much better career as a striker back in the day I reckon. Injuries played a big factor but he also wasn't that good for Owen and Walcott. Rafa ended up preferring Craig Bellamy to Michael Owen, that's how 1 dimensional Owen ended up. The selfish nature of the man reflected in his game.

I don't even think that's true. Ronaldinho lit the world ablaze for no more than 5 years. But we remember those 5 years fondly. He delighted us. Owen's no Ronaldinho obviously

I never would've thought Zinedine Zidane wouldn't rate a player like this

I won't lie - he's rattled me. I just want someone in the media to point out; 1) he earned over £20m at St. James' Park. Scored 30 goals - does that sound like a good transfer? Can he see why fans would dislike him? 2) he never wanted to join but somehow blames the supporters for his lack of effort / belief / care, does that make any sense? 3) after 10 years he's never once attributed the slightest bit of blame to himself for the club getting relegated - as CAPTAIN! is he not a prick? 4) Nobody at SJP has a nice word to say about him. Not club legend and former manager, not the owner that brought him in, not the fans. Are they all wrong? 5) Suggestions he didn't want to play the final 2 games of the season due to a phantom groin injury. True or not? What a horrible cunt

Anita was so shit. Some on here swore he was a top player being under utilised. Imagine we had the nerve to be in the PL with him and Colback in midfield week in week out.

Agreed he’s looked great

That video screen thing was terrible. But with the new rules and how the PL have implemented VAR we will see fewer goals.

Staying up with Krul in goal and Hanley in defence is something

I was having dinner in a local Caribbean restaurant / rum house then none other than Garth Crooks himself came in for a drink. He's a big lad, The end.

Depends if he knew how far Rose was from him which i'm 50/50 on. It was such a calm finish i'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Get it out his feet, slide into the corner.

Started an 8, still an 8. Not entirely down to Bruce either (as manager). There's just not enough fret in this team. A team that finished 10th lost 23 goals and 8 assists from 2 players. We'll replace them with half those goals and assists from the replacements and go down. We haven't had a match I thought we would get points from tbh.

RIP

Was he ever ‘on the wing’. Spent the best part of his career as a false 9 or on the right as an inside forward. Real’s CL golden era revolved around building a functional team and just letting Ronaldo be ‘the difference’. The same would work for Barca imo. Messi doesn’t need to conduct everything.

Maybe it's hard to play with Messi, Busquets and co.? Turan, Coutinho, Dembele and others are fine footballers.

Rooney was done by 30. Torres too. It happens to a lot of players that start young. It's that much harder for attackers imo.

I would never wish serious injury on a NUFC player. I personally hope the lad does as well as he can. I know he’s not fit for the role he’s been out in. He’s not fit for the manager. Won’t get us the results we need. When we struggle and get relegated I don’t know want injuries to be an excuse. I know we will struggle because we are not a serious sporting organisation.

He's a prick. Average league position the 10/12 years before Ashley came in... 6th or so? Since Ashley came in... 15th or so? He's the reason we are a bottom half PL team. He's the reason Bruce is our level. Since he's been in charge we've had Shearer for a few months, Keegan for a few months, Benitez... the rest have been shoddy managers and names. Before MA, we had Dalglish, Gullit, Robson... even Souness won multiple trophies and is a big name within the game. MA is the reason we get second class managers. That's why we hate him and why we hate Steve Bruce.

Agree with this. Quality of the championship is miles better than last time, plus we won’t have Rafa. I genuinely believe a season in the Championship is part of his 5 year plan. Sell out the most valuable. Spend most of it on a core team to get us promoted and to stay up. Recoup the losses over the next season in the PL. 3 years straight profit on a lower wage structure, then back down again for a season.

It's relegation. And staying down. I've no doubt when we get relegated, we'll spend to try and get out. Eventually, we'll fail to get out year 1. Then fail to get out year 2. And that's a game-changer. 4 years in the Champo and things will change. I think it would take 2 years.

That was an outlier of the Ashley era. He's never intended for us to challenge that highly. I think the worst aspect of the Pardew era was Pardew being the focus of hate. He was doing the job he was intended to do. SMC's ineptitude was also a distraction. It was only under Rafa, who attempted to build a sporting organisation that the majority on here properly turned against MA. He's never been interested in sporting success.

Tbf we are still spending the 8m, 6m, 11m on defenders now as we did with Wooodgate, Boumsong and Bramble.