Rich

Thought this worthwhile of a bump as it has now come out (from Llambias at the Supporter's Panel meeting) that the fee we received for Shay Given was £5.9m. Let the moaning commence. (Probably justified, to be honest.)

46 points would be fucking mid-table!

£100k a week for fuck all most of the time though, which is really what grinds my gears. The bloke is made of paper and is heavily reliant on good service, he's been absolutely gash in a 4-4-2 for a good while now. Very poor captain, would probably be happy enough to move on, doesn't even get in the England team now... Pretty much everything that is wrong/has been wrong with NUFC on the park is embodied by Owen. Brilliant at times, infuriatingly unreliable, heart isn't in it. Get rid. Replace him with someone on less than half the wedge who plays double the games and scores the same amount of goals a season while offering more to the team (a Bellamy sort, basically) and we simply would not miss him.

Sticking with a draw and I'd not be too upset with that. Delighted with a win like!

If we offer him another contract anywhere near the one he has now then someone wants slapping. He's a crock, he's been a massive let-down and he's not integrated at all with the club or the fans. Personally speaking I want him out.

Fuck him off.

They got bum-raped in the final though, which was delightful. Remember Navas in particular being fantastic. I do think Valencia would have done similar to us had we beaten Marseille though, especially if the injury problems had remained so.

This, exactly. If Shearer had been in a better team in his later days he would have still scored shedloads. Immense footballer. If anything it was "painful" watching him playing with shite like Michael Chopra and Amdy Faye and under managers like Souness.

Howay the Nacho.

fuckin hell is there a person on the planet who wouldn't make those changes?

Don't forget Smith, man!

Still a "no" for me like, although I realise beggars can't be choosers.

Just watching some highlights from the reserve game... all he does is go in hard

He looks fucking gigantic Came across well in the video, didn't expect anything less.

Should have been mentioned on there by now like, it's been ages.

Must have topped himself, would be fitting. Used to enjoy reading his site as well.

Who's picking the team on Sunday by the way? Kinnear from hospital or is it now totally Hughton's gig? Me, hence my confidence. I showed Llambias my FM achievements and he said I can "troubleshoot" until Joe returns. Seriously though, who would get dropped for return of the Smith? Nolan? Butt? Highly dubious. Duff? No chance. Then there's Jonas, Viduka and Martins back with Lovenkrands having just put in a quality performance. He might get a game at left-back like...

I'd be shocked to see Smith thrown straight in without any appearances from the bench, even moreso after the last performance. Don't worry.

Smith will be with him, judging by what he was saying on NUFC TV last week.

Strikes me as he hasn't been able to put enough money into the squad during the window (for whatever reason) and he's doing his utmost to support the staff in gestures like this. He needs to keep it up, and the odd interview to let everyone know his plans or hopes wouldn't go amiss either. Shame that he couldn't do these things sooner. Good point. Nice to see and gives me some optimism for the future but this is the sort of thing a "football daft" bloke like Ashley should have been doing since day one. Ultimately, the decision to be a hands-off owner and trust others with running the club has been a bit of a stinker.

Just to clear things up a bit, as far as I'm aware the club would have to pay the initial cost of installing the scoreboard (at least some of it) and would then be looking to recoup and build on this money over the coming years with sponsorship and suchlike. It would be an investment. I think this is why it's been held up in the pipeline for so long. Obviously there could be a possibility that a sponsor could pay for installation and enter into a contract whereby they have branding on the scoreboard unit and advertisements on the display as well, over a long-term period, but that doesn't seem to be the case right now. It's not cut and dried either way, basically, like most things.

Nobody beats that. I don't even begin to know how people come up with stuff like that. Killed me.

They get extended...?

Brings in loads of money through sponsorship, I suppose, which is the be-all-and-end-all these days. I'm not a huge fan, but like you say plenty of the "big" teams have one. The scoreboard plans have been in the pipeline for a good while now.

This lad could be excellent really but he's going to have to get some first team football sooner rather than later whether that be here or for another team, on loan. Doesn't seem to fancy interviews too much like!