The College Dropout

And that makes a central defender worse than useless. Mental that so many managers kept trying to get something from him that wasn't there. He wasn't worse than useless, though. He had far more good games than bad. His major problem was a bad dose of the brain farts in game. He could be playing very well at times and then BOOM he'd go and do something inexplicably stupid. You just couldn't rely on him to see out 90 mins, hassle free This. Bramble played his part in those high finishes. Had some excellent bouts of form. Quick, strong, good in the air. Basically, the lad had great ability. But my word he was a car crash waiting to happen. One of Bobby's greatest gifts was his faith and patience with younger players - especially the British ones, something I see in Wenger too (minus the British thing). He would go out and spend good money on them at young ages and it's not like Bobby only signed British players like MON. Throw em in the first team. Overall I think Bramble was a good player for us but Bobby showed too much faith in the lad.

Best performance in awhile. Tremendous. Away from home, particularly on the counter his runs are breath-taking.

No goals in 3 games?

Ozil won't start you daft lads. Since i'm doing so well I decided to spend 8 points on having a front 3 of Benteke © - Sturridge (vc) - Soldado

Aye... who would want a 20 goals a season something midfielder who also happens to create a s*** load of goals too. Much rather have someone who scores next to no goals but can spray da baal aboot like a boss man innit! he doesn't have the legs to be in the current Juve side. Marchisio & Vidal are better all-round players and both know where the net is. Between them they'll have scored something like 25 goals last season. Now the AC side let's talk prime Lampard... he may have taken Seedorf's place. But with Kaka in that side... I don't see him scoring as many goals. Also you have to consider he wouldn't take penalties in that side either.

Pirlo/Lampard Both modern day legends of the game. This is how I seperate it - Pirlo would play in every single side Lampard has played in. Lampard wouldn't get into those AC sides nor the current Juve side right now. What Lampard has over his contempories is largely consistency. What Lampard has done which no other player has really managed. Is to get the goals while spending a lot of time so deep. His runs, shooting, heading, positioning in the box is next to none. And e has a superb eye for a killer ball is amazing. But at the highest level. He's not as good a footballer as others. He doesn't have the talent. Now, he may be as or even more productive than them. He wouldn't dominate a top class contest- that's one of the reasons why Engkand struggle I bad. But he would score/assist and his team (well Chelsea) win anyway. Just depends which you prefer.

Most people here are deluded when it comes to NUFC. All I've said is tat the players that finished 16th have played like shut and people are up in arms. Unbelievable.

You should be able to explain better than anyone Why? Because I think Cisse is crap at football? You also were in favour of Carroll coming back and a big sceptic about Anita I believe, based on his size. You seem to have changed your tune somewhat lately though. I want us to compete. Physically and technically. Sissoko's a big strong lad and i'm not sold on him either. Precisely. You put competing physically above competing technically. That sentence there just epitomises it. You do need players to compete, but the better ones use their movement and passing to avoid geting into physical wars and run rings round the old fashioned Stoke type teams these days. I'm talking strength & athleticism. The best Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Dortmund sides in recent times could be flat-track bully's at times. Even us under SBR - often simply too fast for the opposition. The only great team in recent memory to give up a sizable amount of physicality to opposition in recent years is Barcelona. And especially in recent years, they've been bullied and beaten by teams that can make that count. We have a good technical side but they are not good enough to give up a sizable physicality to the opposition. Case in point - Debuchy. I don't see much of the superior technical skill we heard about. Aye, he passes it along the deck better than Simpson but so far that's it. I think he's just adjusting to the league and will come good eventually. But he looks half a second too slow for the division. He's not managed to use this supposed superior technical ability because at the moment, he can't compete physically. Once he can compete physically, then we'll see his technical abilities much more. Generally, the best players in the world now are fantastic athletes anyway. With regards to Carroll. He can hold up the ball, bring others into play and help move the team forward. With Cisse the ball bounces off him time and time again and we lose possession. Bloody RVP can hold off a defender ffs.

You should be able to explain better than anyone Why? Because I think Cisse is crap at football? You also were in favour of Carroll coming back and a big sceptic about Anita I believe, based on his size. You seem to have changed your tune somewhat lately though. I want us to compete. Physically and technically. Sissoko's a big strong lad and i'm not sold on him either.

Pretty certain we spent all of the season we finished 5th in, in the top 5, before Hatem got into the side. Clean sheets + Ba's goals took us there. Regardless, as a Newcastle player Robert > HBA. By a mile. HBA's behind Solano too for me.

You should be able to explain better than anyone Why? Because I think Cisse is crap at football?

Robert was one of the main catalysts in us finishing so highly. He was a cornerstone of the SBR side. Without Robert it's a totally different team.

Why would anyone pine for the glory days of Mark Hateley?

is that a subtle dig at me? If the shoe fits.. but i'm not sure what you're talking about....

Scotty where you born in 1966? The England strikers I grew up with are Lineker, Shearer, Sheringham, Owen & Rooney. I don't see the parallels with Carroll and Lambert if there's none with Sturridge and co. apart from one thing...

A good number of Anichebe's games would've been off the bench. It's only a couple million more than he's worth and it's better than nobody. He's a decent Premiership striker imo. He leads the line well and causes defenders trouble. At 25, he can still get better in-front of goal.

"injuries aside" Michael Owen would've been a success at Newcastle.

Agreed. Not sure HBA would get into Bobby's starting XI. It would probably be on the left or up top. Colo would walk into SBR's team easily. Krul too perhaps. Cabaye perhaps but that would dramatically change the whole dynamic of that team

He vomited and stuff. He wasn't pretending, he's just soft.

Aye money aside it's a decent signing. They've kept Long so they should be okay. Vydra and Anelka to get the goals, Long & Anichebe for athleticism. Not the worst. At a point in time it was looking like they where going with Anelka, Vydra - selling Long and no Anichebe. That was a relegation formula. Now, I think they'll have enough firepower. Just.

Might just let my paint dry and just take out Silva.

We only allowed 1 sub this week? That sucks. A few of my players are doubts. and i've only got a useful first XI.

Anichebe is a great impact sub.

Souness era - Sold Robert and Bellamy, replaced with Albert Luque and Michael Owen, Boumsong too. Souness was THE worst that I know. Allardyce was bad but in that era (and this), none of his teams will get relegated. JFK and Shearer where totally useless as interims too. We just needed the slightest honeymoon period under Shearer and we would've survived. I remember reading somewhere that if he got us 6/7 points in his 8 games we would've stayed up as Hull fell like a brick. We ended up with 5 points. Knacker.