Northern Monkey

I'd love to know what it was that "dizzied" him. Maybe they wrote the offer in that horrible font that common people use for tattoos of names, that gothic one. That could make you dizzy if you tried to read too much of it.

For how long did that system work? I seem to remember Heskey doing better than i thought he would, but genuinely i don't recall the system(s) they used. I think it was about 1/2 a season when Anelka was on loan. I remember them battering us at their place 3-0 although that possibly wasn't the toughest test for that system. no, i don't think that many teams have historically had us down as "hard to score against" too often!! As for OUR formation, the simple fact is that our forwards seem (to me) to be more suited to a 442, and we are not a big enough or good enough squad to have ther players to fit a system, it needs to be the other way around - i'd rather have a system that Owen did well in than one where he didn't.

no? coudl have fooled me.

For how long did that system work? I seem to remember Heskey doing better than i thought he would, but genuinely i don't recall the system(s) they used.

Come on now. We need to break into the top 6 first! As for the referees, fans of EVERY club think they are hard done by, and really none are to any great degree. We're not given worse treatment than any other club overall.

based on his performances for us, probably best to. I'm not having a go, but do you see anything positive in relation to our playing squad atm? Our current squad? SOme positives, yes. And some negatives. I KNOW you don't think we shoudl be all "X is great just cos he plays for us".

How can you say that? Mourinho is a great manager who has never cheated or ask any of his players to do so.Yes I admit some of the players might cheat before,but I dont think that he instructed them to do so. I strongly believe he does... his comments about his team never diving and being too innocent, are typical hypocrisy from him. The man has no class. Name a top manager who does, when it coems to protecting his team/lambasting others.

It's not a "we're bigger than spurs thing," it's a spurs fan perpetuating the tabloid driven crap that annoys me. You asked why he'd invest in the shite that is Spurs. Well, he invested in us, and we're worse. We'll have to agree to disagree then. Yes, unless you can show how, at the time of his investment in us, we were better than Spurs. Are you leaze in disguise? Where did I say we were better than spurs? No I said and I'll quote to make it easy for you: No mention of when he would invest (as you suggested) or that spuds is worse, just that they are sh!te, personally opinion but hey it's mine and it's all I've got. by inference...oh, fuck it, it's a waste of time. Yes, we'll agree to disagree, it's easier.

For fucks sake.

It's not a "we're bigger than spurs thing," it's a spurs fan perpetuating the tabloid driven crap that annoys me. You asked why he'd invest in the shite that is Spurs. Well, he invested in us, and we're worse. We'll have to agree to disagree then. Yes, unless you can show how, at the time of his investment in us, we were better than Spurs.

Having a great start to the season AND talking sense. A double whammy from the blue half of Manchester!

Yes, yes he would. In Spain.

based on his performances for us, probably best to.

we didn't play all long balls, and he was just as ineffective with the ball on the ground. Bet you wouldn't be saying that if smudger had actually put his chance away or if Oba1kenobi was smart enough to break forward when the ball is played to him. Why would either of those things have changed my opinion on Viduka's lack of ability as shown last weekend?

i don't understand or agree with the "fuck England" thing, but i agree with the benefit to us. I don't give a toss about England. I'm from the People's Republic of Geordieland and I support NUFC. England is a distraction that usually hinders NUFC, perhaps on this occasion we might derive some benefit from it but I doubt it. I come from Newcastle, so i support Newcastle. I therefore also come from England, so i support England. I don't see any element of conflict in supporting both. Maybe one day, when Newcastle are in the World Cup, i'll have to choose. Until then, they are both my teams.

It's not a "we're bigger than spurs thing," it's a spurs fan perpetuating the tabloid driven crap that annoys me. You asked why he'd invest in the shite that is Spurs. Well, he invested in us, and we're worse.

who cares where he goes, so long as he fucks off?

I had to read that aloud, to get full the full benefit.

who would you have starting for us (if all were fit)?

I was talking to someone last night who has a good mate pretty high up in Sports World and apparently it's fairly common knowledge in the higher ecehelons of the organisation that Ashley is none too happy with the state he's found the club in and would be willing to sell if there was a suitable buyer. If that's the case then all the talk of what a great, self-made, businessman he is, is utter sh!te. No-one goes into a 150m investment without a thorough investigation of the business they are buying, if that was his way he wouldn't of made it any further than the half arsed local sports shop he started out with. Forgetting the fact that no-one really knows what Laura thinks, his business history is that of buy low and build it up. There is no history of selling out, there is no history of giving up on one of his investments that he has taken full ownership of. If all he wanted was a quick turn around why delist the club? Earlier in this thread I mentioned that the media here likened him to Howard Hughes. Hughes was constantly hounded in the press with rumour and speculation and this was the 1950s, imagine what it is like in this day and age of everything being scrutinized on football forums, in the tabloids, television and radio - the media has to justify its existence therefore it looks for any angle, something I doubt Ashley would of even considered before thinking about buying a football club, let alone the one with the largest neurotic fan base in the world. Ashley for the money he paid could have bought almost any premier league club, he didn't and there must be a reason why. I was also under that impression but I read somewhere that because he didn't make an offer to buy the club outright, he bought pieces that built up over time, he couldn't undertake due dilligence where the prospective purchaser gets to take a look at the state of the business including the accounts. That's why he quickly undertook his "internal review" to find out exactly what he'd got himself into. The review has revealed that the club is in a worse state than he anticipated, including £80 million of debt. Perhaps his chairman is now advising him to sell and take even a small profit. Possible but let's be honest most of us knew the club was at least 60m in debt just from the various NUFC finance sites that have been about for the last 3-4 years. You'd hope a man who allegedly prides himself on the people that he surrounds himself with business wise might actually had someone look into things, a trawl or two of most NUFC message boards and you'd be at least aware of the concerns for the clubs debt levels. Like I said, the media needs to justify its existence and perpetuating rumour and speculation is an easy way to drive headlines. (By the way, Mike, if you or one of your many advisors are reading this - you stepped up to the plate, now follow through and actually turn our club into the huge club it has always had the potential to become.) Nail on head. I agree with all of that as well, but didn't Mort say recently that there had been some sort of creative accounting going on that had "hidden" a lot of the debt. I'm not an accountant so I don't know the technicalities, but I got the impression that the new lot had been a little outsmarted by the old lot. I don't think there was any real statement from Mort about financial or accounting malpractice, was there? Every company in the country does soem form of creative accounting, or uses the loopholes available to it. If Mort did say anything, it's more likely to be to buy more time for the review, curb fans expectations of loads of cash being pumped in, or to get the fans onside by having a dig at the Fat Man.

Sorry but why the fu<k would Laura want to invest in the sh!te that is spuds? Please leave the sh!tty tabloid media where it belongs. Oh, please. We know it's a shite story. but don't start the "we're bigger than Spurs" crap again. Because it makes us look stupid.

Oh yes. Hopefully Berb might see this as an opportunity to jump ship. I think his people may have played their part in engineering this to make that possible? If he does go, it strengthens a Big Club, which is a shame, but it weakens one of our "rivals", so thats good.

You managed to disagree with yourself there I think. My main point is,if you want to play with Viduka,4-3-3 is a bad choice.You have to play in the 4-4-2 formation where the balls will come from the wide area and he would then be able to head the ball in which he is mostly good at.If not,then his talent is truly wasted. he couldn't cope with the ball in the air or on the ground at the weekend. And we can't blame "not settled into the premiership yet"!

Some good points. None of our forwards seem up to a 433, either out of style (Owen), lack of instinctive play (Obafemi Mitty), style and to a point ability (Viduka), and inability to be a decent Prem player full stop (Ameobi).