Rich

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!

Never heard of Harry Redknapp like?

I did actually agree with you if you read it again You do have a nasty habit of looking at everything in "black" or "white", though, which was the follow-up point... and even that's being kind when I'd best most would only grant you the former.

nowt to say then ? Just joking man, I'm pretty bored, we all know spending money improves your chances of doing well, but it's not a given, you need the right manager, the right scouts and the right amount of money but you can do well without spending massive amount if you have the right manager e.g. Moyes and Everton. on the other hand, if you are lucky enough to get a decent manager, and it IS a lottery, and don't back him, he'll be off. Like Moyes, unless Everton are taken over or it all suddenly goes tits up for him. When you say "do well", how well do YOU want to do ? It's a lottery getting a good manager? No it's a skill, not an easy one but it is definately a skill. is it now ? We'll see how easily Arsenal replace Wenger and ManU replace Ferguson. Or Everton replace Moyes .......... Even a "good manager" isn't necessarily the "right manager", which I suppose adds credence to NE5's "lottery" theory. Bit simplistic on the whole though, as usual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack Tagadab had one of them to deal with, which would explain the slowness across their service. Sorry folks, but nothing to do with us for once!

Haha, that did cross my mind...

Managed to get a server report, at least, although it took ages to complete and showed no signs of any trouble at our end. Tagadab.com itself was acting in the same manner to be honest, so it might be a pipe problem rather than our own server. Will try and get some information.

Is the forum slow as bollocks for anyone else?