Northern Monkey

We'd be equally toothless with or without any of the 'strikers'. None of them offer us anymore up front than a midfielder would, as none are good enough, so at the moment I don't give a shit if any of them get injured. We're going to lose constantly unless we sign players anyway so perhaps a few injuries will encourage some more buying, and perhaps the ones who do the signing might actually learn to buy more wisely after the recent farce of a transfer window. thompers are you really as stupid as you sound? you say you couldnt give a shit if any of our strikers get's injured? it's piss fickle fans like you who are making this club shit! I bet you boo every tiome a player gives the ball away, " I he's shit wish he was dead me, sack them all & sign henry & rooney" & when do you expect us to sign these players you fool, like it or not were stuck with this lot until january, get behind your team & stop being a cock! YOU ****ING MORON!! So we should reward a player for not being good enough, and pretend he is? Excellent.......hurrah, Bramble, you are a defensive Collosus.

Martins doesn't look like he's going to be a scorer of loads of goals, so Anelka.

I like Fat Fred*. * I don't, really, i just wanted to bring some balance to the thread.

Can't see the 12 or 13 teams above us at the end of the season ALL not going for the Interwhatsit.

That's a quite ludicrous statement/opinion - Bramble was supposed to be picking up Diouf on both goals and failed completely. This isn't the first time he has been guilty of ball watching either. I don't disagree with your thoughts on the full back position but Bramble is just as bad - his concentration levels are lower than a child's. It's not as simple as saying Bramble was poor, the back 4 as a defensive unit aren't working as a team. Maybe Bramble left Diouf for the 2nd goal because his concentration failed him, maybe he didn't have confidence in Moore to clear the cross, maybe he thought Carr would cover for him. The back 4 have to take collective responsibility in what they're doing. To blame Bramble in isolation is no different to blaming one midfielder when the MF is being overrun by the opposition or to blame one striker when there's no goals being scored. Pardon me but where did I blame Bramble solely for our defensive mistakes this season? Carr is utterly dreadful, Moore very, very average and it isn't worth mentioning Ramage. But give me a break, you sound like f*cking Roeder - Bramble has made some dreadful mistakes this season! Enough with your 'maybes' - they are excuses, I'm sure you could use those excuses for almost every mistake he has made - it was a blatant and schoolboy error for that second goal. Exactly. But there are still people who think he has some mythical (and nonexistant) ability. Because they believe what they are told. Bramble is NOT a premiership defender.

Newcastle v Fenerbache - loss Boro v Newcastle - draw Newcastle v Pompey - loss Newcastle v Charlton - win Palermo v Newcastle - loss Newcastle v Sheff. Utd - draw Man City v Newcastle - loss

No As I've argued elsewhere, do we have a better player than Bramble to bring into the team... on form alone? And if it's all Roeders fault that we didn't buy defenders, then why do we ALWAYS fail in the transfer window (who's the common factor through all the managers)? Yes - Bramble is the worst central defender we have.

How often has he played this season? its CLEAR he is a far better pkayer than Shambles, who isn't even comically bad any more, he's just shite. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Bramble. I'm just arguing the point that do we really have a better player on our hands in Taylor? I agree he has shown promise, but in his games this year (for us and England) he has been just as shocking as Bramble. No, no he hasn't. Bramble is one of the least talented central defenders in the Premiership. Taylor has a lot of quality, imo.

Hindu, did you think we shoudl have stuck with Souness as well? Of course Roeder should go, he's not good enough.

How often has he played this season? its CLEAR he is a far better pkayer than Shambles, who isn't even comically bad any more, he's just shite.

Wait till the end of the season. They'll be fucking MILES from us.

wtf you doing in Norway? Maybe we've started another war? Damn those Norwayians, and their sneaky WMDs. blueupset.gif

hahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaha

Because Roeder is as much a disgrace as a mangager as Shambles is as a footballer. We are, rightly, a laughing stock.

Roeder is a fucking idiot. Failed to get any defenders. Went for a poor one on the last day. Drops our best defender as soon as that piece of donkeywank Bramble gets back. Plays Moore and Bramble ON PURPOSE, despite the fact that they are suited, at best, for the Championship. The ONE thing Roeder might have brought to us was the fact that he was a defender (albiet only a mediocre one). But he can't even sort that out. Well done Roeder, you are creating a genuinely shite team out of the heading-towards-shite that Soumess left us with.

Maybe but I don't think he is fully to blame for the transfer window debacle and I'd be shocked if the board didn't undermine him in some way on that front given they did so to the previous two managers. I don't doubt for a moment that Sibierski and Bernard were boardroom deals either and not Roeder buys because they just don't fit the profile, I don't think Duff was either, not in so many words. I think the club went to Roeder and said: "would you like Duff" Roeder: "sure but we need defenders and strikers first" Club: "don't worry Glenn, we'll work with you to bring those players in" Roeder: "go on then, aye, I'll have Duff as well in that case" I could be wrong like, but I don't think I'm too far off. Thats just guesswork though, isn't it. Simple fact is that we only have one defender worthy of a team trying to achieve - and then better - 6th place, and that's Taylor. Roeder is the manager, and he failed to bring in any defenders in the transfer window. He did but I wouldn't say he is fully to blame for that, what we have learned since is that he wanted Huth but FS wanted Woodgate, and in typical Toon style, we tried to buy both at the 11th hour just as they were putting pen to paper at Boro. I don't think GR is fully to blame, no, but he does still bear a large portion of the responsibility, as manager.

Maybe but I don't think he is fully to blame for the transfer window debacle and I'd be shocked if the board didn't undermine him in some way on that front given they did so to the previous two managers. I don't doubt for a moment that Sibierski and Bernard were boardroom deals either and not Roeder buys because they just don't fit the profile, I don't think Duff was either, not in so many words. I think the club went to Roeder and said: "would you like Duff" Roeder: "sure but we need defenders and strikers first" Club: "don't worry Glenn, we'll work with you to bring those players in" Roeder: "go on then, aye, I'll have Duff as well in that case" I could be wrong like, but I don't think I'm too far off. Thats just guesswork though, isn't it. Simple fact is that we only have one defender worthy of a team trying to achieve - and then better - 6th place, and that's Taylor. Roeder is the manager, and he failed to bring in any defenders in the transfer window.

Fact is, there are some fans who think that any player or manager who represents the club automatically deserves support for a given amount of time. This is why some people were saying we should give Souness iuntil the end of last season, and beyond. They were wrong. Roeder came in, and helped us out, and the team did what it had to. Now, though, with the "new manager" effect gone, it is clear that he is not up to it. He ballsed up in the transfer window (and shortly after it), his player/tactics/subs selections have been poor, and he has to go (for me, anyway). The "well, who else do you want" argument was used by certain fans to justify keeping Soumess on, and it was as lfawed then as it is now. I don't claim to know the availability of every manager in the world, but i DO know that Roeder is not up to the task for me, and that keeping him on is not going to help him or us. There are clearly problems at Board level, and we are by no means a big club, but lets not allow that to cloud the fact that Deadly Doug Ellis got O'Neill only a few months after we failed to do so. They now have a better manager than us, by a long way. Our first team is a shambles, the manager makes seemingly random substitutions, our best outfield player of last season is sat in the bench, and as soon as Bramble comes back, he'll be back in the first team, despite the fact that we play in a division above the one his ability should have him in. We see ourselves as a top 6 team at the least, but half of the first team, and the manager himself, aren't good enough for that.

The way I look at it is if an average player like Johnson can score goals in this league despite limited technical ability and moderate movement/positioning then there is no reason why Martins can't start producing similar results. Agreed. If Johnson can then so can Martins. I think everyone is being really impatient. The situation is not ideal, he is being asked to take on responsibility, he is 21 years of age and has just moved via Milan to the north east of england, playing in a league COMPLETELY different to the one he came from. HE NEEDS TIME!! Now, i know Gemmill and me can talk from experience about working abroad, he went to San Fran for 3 years and am sure would be the first person to say, great thing to do but you need time to settle. It took me 4 or 5 months after i moved out of the country for my professional standards to get back up to the level they were before i left and i have 10 years experience under my belt. But you could hold a pen still? You didn't forget how to write? Because MArtins has shown an inability ot even control a football. How is that the fault of him moving to a different league??

No, I'll admit I was wrong there (though I never said he was two-footed, just that he had a decent right-foot) Fair enough, it wasn't meant as a dig and I hope Raconteur is right that it may just be a confidence issue. It would make a massive difference when he has the speed to get to the ball, to not have to stop and check back onto his left and lose any advantage that he might have just gained. He's gaining no advantage by not being able to control the ball. Which is a worry, because we can't hide behind him being new to the Premiership for THAT.

Thats ok then, Martins certainly isn't that. We can't blame the "getting used to the EPL" rubbish for this one - the ball is the same shape as the one in Italy, he is just not good at controlling it.

Thats right - its the CROWDS fault Luque is shite, not the players!! If only we'd realised before. Are we to blame for Shola, Bramble, Moore and Babayaro being sub-par as well??

How many games woudl you gove him? 6? 12? another season??? If he was to be played, i'd want to see regular GOOD performances within 5 games. But he won't do that, we know he won't. Because he's not fit for the EPL.

See, that's my point. He's hit form and still barely fits in a premiership team. You think he's playing well cos you know how incredibly shit he is. His hitting form is losing the ball more times then anybody I can remember and a first touch that goes 8 yards away from him (if he's brought it down well). Looks like he woiuld make a good squad player at Watford. Shola is NOT a top half (or even top 15) Premierhsip player. I don;t see how anyone who has watched him play can think he is. HOWEVER, he is still better for NUFC than Luque. I just wish neither of the twats were on our books.

Yeah, well done Roeder. It's your fault that Luque's wages and the fact that he is completely shit have made him a non-viable purchase for pretty much any club not willing to take a massive risk on a player. The fact is, there were clubs who did came in for him and we presumably turned them down because the offer wasn't big enough. Well guess what, those clubs are gonna come in with an even lower offer in January and this time we will sell less we want to let him go for free at the end of his contract, which all makes a mockery of Roeder's (or Freddy's) decision not to sell him on in the last window. We can debate endlessly bout Luque and whether he was given a fair chance, but what is not debatable is that if Roeder wanted rid of him so bad, then he should have sold him by now instead of keeping him and loose him for even more money in January. So you know for a fact that certain clubs came in, and if so, why we knocked them back? You must have friends in high places. Or you believe rumours, one of the two. To answer your question, I have friends in high places blueyes.gif If no club came in, then we should have transfer listed him, because that's what Roeder is affectively doing now anyway. Transfer-listing him would further devalue him in terms of the fee we could get for him imo. Roeder has affectively transfer listed now that he has been frozen out. The difference is had we done that in the last window, presumably we could have got a decent price after his decent performances in the pre season. In January, he would go for much less seeing as he would have hardly played any game for us. Decent performances in pre-season?? A goal against Lillestrom you mean? I don't see anyone breaking the bank because of that. Yes and he was arguably also the MOM for that game and had a reasonably good game against PSV. But I'm sure you missed all that and prefer to focus on the last 5-10 minutes he played last season to rationalize your conclusion. Whereas you can safely base your conclusion on one good game (arguably not MOM), and one half-decent one??