Shearer9

Ameobi pips it, for years and years of bad performances + little effort. Smith has had at least one good performance and has a bit of a pedigree.

A manager at Newcastle would never have the time to get into this kind of thing with all of the pressure and responsibility that comes with managing the first team. If it was going to be done, it had to be done by bringing in more staff to oversee it.

Today's other games. Not going to be f****** War and Peace is it? Sorry, there's me thinking 'Today's other games' was going to be about, hrmmmm, TODAY'S OTHER GAMES Give us your black perspective.

Black people are simply better athletes than white people. Faster, more agile and generally just more explosive on the whole. No real point deluding ourselves and trying to be PC about it, it's a stonewall fact. Conversely, white folks are, by and large, better equiped at the cerebral side of sports (i.e reading what is going on around them and making decisions) You need only look at american football to see this. In the positions where speed and athleticism are crucial, like running-back, reciever or cornerback, you will do well to find a white person in the entire league. You get some wide-recievers, admittedly, but most of these are "slot recievers" who generally are expected to work the middle of the field and spot open space in zone coverages (which further illustrates my point) rather than be big playmakers. On the other hand pretty much all the elite QB's, for my money the most mentally challenging position is sport, are white guys. There are exceptions to the rule of course, but this is the way it generally goes.

Did anyone see the guy who's made a pop single with his family about Keegan on SSN to go along with this story? Absolutley cringeworthy...

Is it just me or does anyone else think the standard of goalkeeping in this tournament is awful? They don't even move a lot of the time, and when they do, they look like they've never played GK before. Can't catch or move quickly.

I think Walcott has more potential than Rossi, plus he has PACE, which we need. I think he could be a good players to have here on loan, although if I were Wenger, I'd just look back to the Rossi loan and say no to any young players going to Newcastle.

Man Utd is not such a far fetched option. They've been playing with those 2 strikers all season, and when one gets injured, they have trouble. They're still competing on 3 fronts, and will need another striker. If he's smart he'll figure out a way to move to Man Utd if they have the cash.

Rooney used to be a boxer Rooney, Barton, and Bouba Diop.

Rafa must be gone. He may not go now, but surely he won't be around by August. Actually, I think doing really well in the CL could give him one more season, but still...

Good post, I pointed out under Roeder that we need a team full of technically gifted players who are all comfortable in possession and passing the ball around, Arsenal are a good example of that, I don't rate Flamini that highly as an individual but because he's cool in possession and can pass the ball means he can slip into their way of playing quite easily. Right wing should be our top priority and then a midfielder who can dictate the pace of the game. Carrick would be an amazing attacking player if we got him, even if he is a DM. He's the best passing DM in the Premiership right now, I think he's an amazing player. I'm not sure Scholes, Anderson, and Hargreaves have actually moved ahead of him though. He's not exactly in direct competition with Scholes or Anderson, who he's played more than, and he has played more than Hargreaves, who he is in direct competition with. Carrick + a creative attacking midfield player would be a perfect midfield partnership. I'd love to see him come back home.

I thought that conversation with Lineker on MOTD was a bit awkward, but it needed to be said. I'm sure if he hadn't come straight out about the fact that he's going to be in Africa for the next week, we'd have heard stories like "Shearer sensationaly snubs Keegan for entire week!" from the papers. They'll talk, if it's the right move for Keegan and Mort, he'll be back. Simple as. The media are way off on this one.

It's awful to watch and it's terrible football, but I can't really blame Megson. He's done well in a really shite situation, and now he's lost the only bit of quality the side has, and Anelka ain't gonna be back in a month. I think we could have broken them down if there had been better passing from the centre of midfield.

0-0 was the last thing I expected. We had two really good chances to score, once when Cacapa and N'Zogbia combined and then the Zog's pass was really poor and he went to Ameobi instead of Owen, who was unmarked, and then we had a penalty claim turned down. Also when Ameobi had the ball and could have easily slotted it through to Owen, but chose to send it wide to Milner who then had 3 crosses blocked. We've got to work those kind of channels and slot those balls through if we're to utilize Owen, and most of the passes will come from the AMC, and I'm not sure N'Zogbia's passing is up to that. Given - 8 - MOTM for me, was really composed, took control of the game when the ball was in his area, and made a really good save there at the end. Carr - 6 - Good performance, actually looked athletic and skilled. Needs to work better with Milner on the right and produce some kind of end product, also work on shooting. Taylor - 7 - Good work, composed in the middle, cut a lot of stuff out as usual and got forward a few times Cacapa - 6 - Game of two halves for me, dodgy in the first put picked it up in the second as he was less threatened. Enrique- 7 - One of his better performances, defended well, and also helped out in attack Rozenhal - 7 - Looks good as a DM but can't shoot, I doubt his future is in that position under Keegan anyway. N'Zogbia - 7 - Productive and dangerous, but needs to know when to keep possession and when to pass, and also to work on that passing in general. Duff - 6 - Didn't really do a whole lot despite a good bit of time on the ball. Milner- 6 - Invisible for long periods of the first have, little end product in the second. Ameobi - 6- Put himself about but nothing special really Owen - 6 - Little to do, little service Lua Lua - 6 - Not enough time to judge really, but gave the ball away a few times. Bolton, consider yourselves lucky. If you actually manage to make it back to SJP next season, it won't be this easy.

Cacapa looks dodgy, makes me really uncomfortable. Especially when he plays a 1 yard pass to someone in tight quarters so that they can turn round and make a 5 yard pass to try and get out of trouble. He needs to play the ball himself. Milner's been invisible, Enrique, Duff, and Charlie have looked OK, and Owen needs more service. Matt Taylor's been all over the place as well.

Those hats

Why do pictures of this always make it into the media?

I remember hearing that the guy needed to come up with a website to generate a bunch of ad revenue really quickly, and soccersucks was born.

SSN says his first press conference will be tomorrow.

I think it's an OK choice, but everytime I see him he looks totally overwhelmed. I'm worried that there's no plan in place, that he really has no idea where to start. Makes the transfer window all the more worrisome.

He looks out of his element to me so far, like he can't even believe it's happened.

Only man who looked like doing anything all match.

Damn FSC and I hate how they mention it, show the score and you're like.......wait for it.....wait for it....Ohhh it's a commercial for worldclubsoccershop.com! Jerks! I'll be sitting here in fifteen minutes telling the TV that I don't want a f****** fathead, I want to see highlights. I know this is dead set to happen, yet I'm still sitting here. You're not alone. It's even worse when Fox Soccer Report don't show it. c***s. To be fair, I don't know anyone who doesn't run to the TV to see the top ten college goals of the week. How about The National Indoor Soccer League friday nights? My cousin actually made the college goals of the week when we was captain at Notre Dame. Haven't had the pleasure of seeing the Indoor stuff yet. Last I remember, they used to just toss nine hours of Dream Team up on fridays. Nice for your cousin. I should have said saves of the week. He was a CB, one of 2 goals he scored during his four years there. He's a lawyer now. My indoor team had 3 goals that would have made the MISL top ten goals last week. Can we get a fox camera at our game?

I love how the Scotch bloke shit's his pants when going on about 'Pool and Manu. Barely a wimper or any sort of extended thought on anyone else. I've never thought it was that bad, always kind of funny, I like the repoir they have. They spend like half the show on Premiership highlights and analysis on Mondays, what more do you want?

Elano. 1-0 Man City.