Northern Monkey

Given - 4 Some good things, some bad things. Not a good performance overall. Carr - 5 Not too bad, but christ, he's slow. Cacapa - 5 Made a few good challenges, but got turned inside out on a number of occasions. Taylor - 5 Not great, not terrible. N-Zoggy - 6 Did ok today at the back, far better and more confident going forwards. Barton - 6 - Nothing for big chunks of the game, then some times where he looked good. Butt - 3 Shit. Emre - 5 One good moment in the entire game. Moaned a lot for most of the rest of it. Duff - 7 One of his best performances I can recall for a while. Smith - 6 Lack of particular skill from the Beasts meant that Smith's limited ability wasn't a problem. Owen - 5 I genuinely think Li'l Mikey believes he has lost all of his pace. A shadow of a once great player, who was briefly shown with a very well taken goal. Viduka - 4 Nothing, really. Past it. Milner - 5 Meh.

i cant complain about people complaining? the difference is i'm trying to do something constructive that will HELP the club, you know, support? dont mention ticket prices to me, if you consider it too expensive dont pay and dont go, its not like paying to see a band, you're not guaranteed anything in sport and people need to remember this, you're exactly the sort of person i'm fighting against. I don't personally boo, but how do you suggest fans, who go to the game and - rightly - feel let down, get across the point to the manager and players that some players simply should not be playing for us, and that certain performances are not acceptable?

Sacred cows? Biggest sacred cow around here is Keegan, tbh.

Our rightful place in the EPL? We have that now, more or less, based on recent history.

Yeah, thats cunning, that. I'm sure no-one else ever thought of that, we're BOUND to catch them out.

we possibly could have,but at the time it didn't seem too bad a deal.shall we go through every deal. does kuyt look the £12mill super striker everyone was clamouring for ? whats with this "soopafan" stuff ? cos i'm realistic enough not to be crying cos we aren't the bestest ever team in the world ever.....ever. No, because you're unrealistic enough to make excuses for incompetence.

Dave reckons he's funny and clever. He's not. Work THAT out.

"...Sam.....Sam?...SAM??!...why won't you answer, Sam? Where are you? I've not seen you for ages...Sam!...."

You forgot to mention that Birmingham and Wigan lost and gained no points last night ! Fck me man. Because they were playing other teams in the bottom half. You happy with 4th from bottom? For this season? Yes. Next? No. This shows how far we have fallen - all of you who said "give Souness more time, give Roeder time, ALlardyce will fix us" should be f****** ashamed of yourselves. We should be railing against being in the bottom 5 or 6 (a genuine threat to us now), we should be making SJP not just a bad place to come to for away teams, but a place where players KNOW they have to play well for us. Anyone who accepts s**** like Geremi, Smith, Ameobi, Rozenhal, and even TRIES to make excuses for them should bow their heads in abject shame. he's right. in the past few years we should only have signed proven quality world class players. simple really No, we shoudl have signed better players than we did. And not pretended that players who are at best average are top class. Simple, really. not top class but possibly as good as we could have got at the time. you should be a football manager,you make it sound so easy All we coudl have got at the time? Get to fuck. You seriously think we couldn't have gotten better than SMITH for £6m? Well done, you are a soopafan. God bless you. You forgot to mention that Birmingham and Wigan lost and gained no points last night ! Fck me man. Because they were playing other teams in the bottom half. You happy with 4th from bottom? For this season? Yes. Next? No. This shows how far we have fallen - all of you who said "give Souness more time, give Roeder time, ALlardyce will fix us" should be f****** ashamed of yourselves. We should be railing against being in the bottom 5 or 6 (a genuine threat to us now), we should be making SJP not just a bad place to come to for away teams, but a place where players KNOW they have to play well for us. Anyone who accepts s**** like Geremi, Smith, Ameobi, Rozenhal, and even TRIES to make excuses for them should bow their heads in abject shame. Agree & disagree with you in equal measure. It's why some supporters, and the following thoughts were voiced on this forum, were stunned amidst the flacid crowd response in the wake of Souness' first season. A season of underwhelming performances were lost amidst the result of the day, that being a gutsy season closing effort against Chelsea. Such incompetance, both from a team & management standpoint, over the course of a season wouldn't stand-up at Anfield for example. Houllier was virtually shouted out of the job, the board listened to it's supporter base who became frustrated at the brand of football Houllier's team was dishing up at the time - despite the Cups and his penultimate CL finish which imo was greatly influenced by injuries to our key players down the stretch ie. Bellamy and Woodgate, our defensive rock & our creative foil around the box. I still think if the SJP terraces had rallied against Souness enmasse, as was the case re: Houllier/Liverpool, after the already mentioned season closer against Chelsea the board - ie. The Halls - would've swiftly pulled the trigger in response and that would've would've stopped the cancerous Souness regime dead in it's tracks. As for supporters 'hanging their heads in shame' for accepting shite like Geremi etc etc. It's my opinion that Geremi would still make a better RW option than Milner. The likes of Cacapa & Rozenhal, i wanted to see how they'd fare beyond the first month of the campaign where they're were blessed with having to face some lightweight attacking frontlines during the opening stages of their premiership careers - both have failed. Don't peddle this 'don't try to make excuses for them' because i'll rewind the clock a bit. Up until Parker pulled the finger at home you spent the best part of a year defending Parker's performance level under successive managers, especially during Roeder's tenureship where at one stage you suggested playing him in exactly the same role - positionally wise - as he was utilised in Souness's so called 442, and Souness' so-called 442 resembled a narrow & unbalanced 4-1-3-2 which because of it's the team's inability to laterally stretch the opposition's defensive ranks with some left-to-right sideline passing/possession play across the midfield line only served the purpose of having the team play out of it's own half & defending for their lives for the best part of 90 minutes. And yet despite the ramifications of such a positional change, as opposed to Roeder's misguided faith in utilizing him in a balanced offensive & defensive 442 central midfielder in the Rob Lee mould - a role which he clearly wasn't up to, you made that call. At the time you were more than happy to see the midfield formation & balance compromised in order to get the best out of a player who in your exact words was s***. Take a leaf out of you own book mate Oh, yes, i made a mistake with Parker. I fully accept that. Which is different to those who STILL pretend Geremi, Smith, Cacapa, et al are good enough.

Arsenal make a lot of the premiership teams look average or below par. Jesus man, dont judge us against one of the best young footballing sides in the world at the moment. Judge us in our own little spazz league from 10th down to 4th bottom. So we can only be judged against Boro, Brum, Sun'lun, Derby etc from now on? We accept that we never want to be a top 6/7 club again? Because THAT'S the mentality of a small club, pretneding some games don't count.

THIS.

You forgot to mention that Birmingham and Wigan lost and gained no points last night ! Fck me man. Because they were playing other teams in the bottom half. You happy with 4th from bottom? For this season? Yes. Next? No. This shows how far we have fallen - all of you who said "give Souness more time, give Roeder time, ALlardyce will fix us" should be f****** ashamed of yourselves. We should be railing against being in the bottom 5 or 6 (a genuine threat to us now), we should be making SJP not just a bad place to come to for away teams, but a place where players KNOW they have to play well for us. Anyone who accepts s**** like Geremi, Smith, Ameobi, Rozenhal, and even TRIES to make excuses for them should bow their heads in abject shame. he's right. in the past few years we should only have signed proven quality world class players. simple really No, we shoudl have signed better players than we did. And not pretended that players who are at best average are top class. Simple, really.

But if we played NONE of the players who genuinely offer very little, we'd have no-one at all to start up front.

But lauding them, and pretending they are good enough/real class will?

You think Barton "loves the toon"?? Based on what, exactly? The way he went out on a bender after Christmas? The way HE PUT HIMSELF in the position where he was unavailable to us for important games? The way he has been very poor for us so far?

I'd rather we had a club that had the fucking sense to have bought decent players by now, bearing in mind they must be absolutely STUPID to think the ones they have are anywhere near good enough. I'd not play either of those two though, they're laibilities.

We cant do anything about at the moment tho, we have to wait until the summer. So lets not make excuses, pretend some games 'don't count', and keep fucking pretending that the lieks of Viduka, Duff,. Barton etc are "world class", or whatever. We owe it to ourselves to at least be honest. Then, when Dennis Wise signs s load of shite of rus in summer, we can pretend they are fantastic, just because they've signed for NUFC.

No, get rid of both, and get actual decent players in. NEITHER are good enough.

So we shoudl ask not to play the big teams from now on? Fucks sake, man, we're supposed to be a football club, not a fucking charity. We get judged against ALL the teams we play, and rightly so. We're getting to the pathetic end of spin when we start to dismiss results just because its a big club! PS - Boro beat Arsenal not too long back. And we failed to score/win/have a shot on target against Bolton. But does that not count, because it doesn't fit into this nice new ethos of ignoring games that illustrate how bad we are?

You forgot to mention that Birmingham and Wigan lost and gained no points last night ! Fck me man. Because they were playing other teams in the bottom half. You happy with 4th from bottom? For this season? Yes. Next? No. This shows how far we have fallen - all of you who said "give Souness more time, give Roeder time, ALlardyce will fix us" should be fucking ashamed of yourselves. We should be railing against being in the bottom 5 or 6 (a genuine threat to us now), we should be making SJP not just a bad place to come to for away teams, but a place where players KNOW they have to play well for us. Anyone who accepts shite like Geremi, Smith, Ameobi, Rozenhal, and even TRIES to make excuses for them should bow their heads in abject shame.

Our squad is shite, mate. We don't even have a good first XI, honestly. We WON'T be relegated, thanks to the utter shitness of 3 or 4 other teams, but we'll notbe top half either. We simply aren't good enough.

Thank you. Maybe - just MAYBE - I have come to the understanding that i need to explain what i mean more, and not just rely on snappy (and frankly, very funny, if i do say so myself) one liners and mockery. This epiphany has nothing to do with Rodhamino.

Mind, Smith has worse hair. I think their should have been a third button, for "they are both shite". And a fourth, for "predictable 'hilarious' comment that it's another - clearly better - player".

Right, i get slated for being a negative c***, etc, but come on! Jesus.... 1) barton was not "really good", unless your idea of what is good has been permanently damaged by watching Smith and Rozenhal play. 2) Our passing play was good, was it? Did you see Asrenals passing?? THAT was good passing. 3) If our passing was so good, how many shots on targets (or even CHANCES for shots on target) did it create? 4) You are confident that we'll end up in the top half. We are 6 points behind 10th, who are a better team than us, and have 2 games in hand, and TEN points behind 9th, who have a game in hand. What exactly is your confidence based on? Because as far as I can see, WITH the African players we have 3/4 of a decent (and no more at this point) defence, a weak midfield and a poor front line. WITHOUT them, its all of the above, minus the decent defence. I'm not saying we are going to get relegated - Derby, Fulham etc will make sure of that for us. But please, please, take of the black and white tinted glasses, and try to see us with some objectivity. We're NOT a good side, the so-called class players (Barton, Smith, Viduka) are miles from that, and unless we do something drastic EARLY in summer, the other clubs (who are making forward steps all the time) will move further beyond us. We used to think we were a big club like Man Utd, Liverpool etc. We weren't, really, but we thought we were. Then we thought we were the biggest and best of the "second tier" - us, Villa, Spurs, etc. We aren't that, either. we're 13 points behind the bitter Blues (who have a game in hand), 14 behind Villa, 15 behind Everton (who have a manager some cretins were vocally against us getting). These teams are better than us - their players are better than ours, and their managers have been better than ours. We need to f****** sort ourselves out just to keep up with those clubs. And we need to stop the f****** pathetic idea that anyone who plays/works for us is by default "great". I can see why. I also get slated for one sentence replies that do fuck all to contribute to the discussion. No doubt the wankers who see fit to do that, the unofficial forum police, will not do the same to you.

Right, i get slated for being a negative c***, etc, but come on! Jesus.... 1) barton was not "really good", unless your idea of what is good has been permanently damaged by watching Smith and Rozenhal play. 2) Our passing play was good, was it? Did you see Asrenals passing?? THAT was good passing. 3) If our passing was so good, how many shots on targets (or even CHANCES for shots on target) did it create? 4) You are confident that we'll end up in the top half. We are 6 points behind 10th, who are a better team than us, and have 2 games in hand, and TEN points behind 9th, who have a game in hand. What exactly is your confidence based on? Because as far as I can see, WITH the African players we have 3/4 of a decent (and no more at this point) defence, a weak midfield and a poor front line. WITHOUT them, its all of the above, minus the decent defence. I'm not saying we are going to get relegated - Derby, Fulham etc will make sure of that for us. But please, please, take of the black and white tinted glasses, and try to see us with some objectivity. We're NOT a good side, the so-called class players (Barton, Smith, Viduka) are miles from that, and unless we do something drastic EARLY in summer, the other clubs (who are making forward steps all the time) will move further beyond us. We used to think we were a big club like Man Utd, Liverpool etc. We weren't, really, but we thought we were. Then we thought we were the biggest and best of the "second tier" - us, Villa, Spurs, etc. We aren't that, either. we're 13 points behind the bitter Blues (who have a game in hand), 14 behind Villa, 15 behind Everton (who have a manager some cretins were vocally against us getting). These teams are better than us - their players are better than ours, and their managers have been better than ours. We need to f****** sort ourselves out just to keep up with those clubs. And we need to stop the f****** pathetic idea that anyone who plays/works for us is by default "great". I can see why. Because i tell the truth, yes. That, and the kicking puppies in the eyes thing.