Rich

Aye, but you don't need an account to buy stuff, you can just put in your debit/credit card details through PayPal without having to register.

Think people have already.

Far better than astroturf, it's what the first team here at Hull Uni plays on when the weather is bad. Far less bouncy than the sand-based astroturf and acts much more like grass, although it'll still burn you up if you slide on it. It's more expensive because it's a lot better, basically, you can wear any type of boot on it.

We're definitely not mate, I can promise you that. The commissions we're taking out of them are very small, more like 10% than 300%! but the base cost for the tee-shirt, then the cost for adding text/designs and then the shipping aren't at all helping us. £12.30 for the more basic tee-shirts isn't bad, considering the quality of them (very good) and how customised they are/can be. I think Dave is looking at adding a US (worldwide) store as we can't ship to Canada at the moment anyway, so maybe that will drive the prices down a bit?

3G would be belter. 2 hours, £2.50 each.

Butt started every single game under Keegan that he was available for (missed the Stoke 4-1 and the Bolton 0-0 through suspension). That was 20 games, he completed 18 of them and missed a total of 34 minutes out of 1800. KK rated him, I don't think he was "lying", and that's part of the reason for my U-turn on him. He's an important part of the team/squad. Edit: Which for some could just be a sign of how far we've fallen.

We've got 7 strikers kicking around the first team squad at the moment but only one fullback on each side. It's not numbers we're short on, it's balance.

We can afford to let one of Smith or Ameobi go, surely? Even both if Owen's staying until the end of the season as there's still Viduka, Martins, Owen and Xisco then. Not to mention Carroll if we get desperate. I'll refrain from mentioning you know who. Up front is one position that we're over-stocked in, when we're crying out for fullbacks (cover there at least). We could probably do with another midfielder (central) as well, although I'd be extremely surprised to see us bring one in who'd be good enough to be a first-teamer for a few years to come.

Where's Jon to tell us how injury prone Upson is!? He's missed 73 minutes of football all season and has played 90 minutes for Engerland as well. Cue a horrendous injury at the weekend for him, then. Quality defender, would hope that there would be some truth to this and I'd like to see him here. Experienced and English, something we've been crying out for a long time now. Him, Coloccini, Taylor and Bassong would be a quality pool of central defenders, quite possibly the best we've had since Keegan's first stint. Still a couple of fullbacks short at the back, mind!

If that were the case I'd make sure SJP was the most prominent feature, for obvious reasons. Definitely. Could be interesting to have the Angel with a Shearer shirt on!

So he's not a good player anymore then? I thought most were basing the fact on not wanting him back on his injury record and/or the way he left the club, which is fair enough! Fairly harsh with the "idiots" comment as well.

Pretty sure it lasted for a good couple of minutes or so there for me, might have just been a case of my cache playing catch-up or something. You dudes do ask that we report everything and anything, to be fair... Calm down dear. I thought the two "!!" and the would be safety enough man!

Couple of minutes! It was 30 seconds!! Just me messing on again, it'll stop now. I'm a bad lad.

The Nike one we use was only £15 and it's just the replica of the current PL ball, but there's been no complaints so far. Whenever we've lost it over the 3G fence or whatever mid-game for a spell all the other balls we've used (Mitre, Umbro, other Nikes) haven't come close to it and plenty people have said so, asking for the original to be brought back on (not just me either!)

I think it's probably a good idea to get as many balls there as possible. I've got a nifty new Nike one that we've been using for our 11-a-side league matches and which has been fine. I'll bring that. Can't hurt to have a few though. I'll bring 'keeper gloves as well and a ball pump, seeing how I've got them in my kitbag anyway.

Good. Well, apart from Shola...

Bassong is doubtful now, as well:

In fairness to Fat Mike, I'm thankful he didn't put us through any of this shite before he bought the club and he appeared to just do the fucking deal without leading anybody on. All of these media leaks and stories are a load of old bollocks and aren't done in the interests of the support at all, more for personal gains. As suspicious as people have grown of him since things went sour, I still struggle to believe that he didn't have the best of intentions when he took over the place and his undoing was closely linked to my opening sentence. He was undone by the mess the club was in (edit) and his lack of knowledge/backing in this area, general naivety basically.

Cryptic.

That's good but you should whack SJP right on the edge and squash some other bits in there. I like the concept though. this one is great. bit like the blue star logo you could throw in an outline of the cathedral and castle or even the angel or the north or somehting like that. Brilliant suggestion and what I was just talking to Dave about yesterday. Rather than a completely accurate skyline of the river you could chuck in Grey's monument, the Angel of the North, SJP, the Baltic, etc! Just the main icons of the region, basically.

Re: Hangeland - I do think he's looked a very good defender when I've seen him play, particularly in the air due to his size.

Oh dear.

That's all fair enough and explains a lot really, refreshing to see an honest picture of where someone has come from and why they're here too. It does fascinate me how our environment and those around us influence our opinions on everything. My identity with football has always been a regional thing and because everyone at school was Newcastle, I was never really pressed into it and the family I speak of weren't exactly football-daft or season ticket holders, though my Granddad used to be a regular back in the day. Most of my family - especially the serious football heads - are Sunderland fans as my Mam's side was from Jarrow. That's probably why I can see both sides, I would imagine, as I haven't been brought up in a dogmatic "Newcastle, Newcastle, Newcastle" environment and I was never forced into following NUFC, it just sort of happened because of where I was and because all my Mackem family had moved to Manchester so I only saw them a few times a year - if that - and they couldn't influence me into the dark side. Suppose it takes all sorts really.

To be honest, I was just saying what I think when asked the question in the thread header. Sorry, like. Apologies if that is genuinely the case, but it's the impression I get from you the majority of the time in here, whereas in Gen Chat you make fantastic posts like the one about Morocco earlier on. Apology accepted. My posts on Bellamy here may sound a bit sarcastic, because they are, but I am trying to make a point too, and it's a point that I often try to make in a roundabout way -- that we spend far too much time living in the past and mooning around wishfully over long-departed players and managers. Bellamy is history. He should stay that way. Morocco... well, I was in a position to be helpful, so I tried to be. Different kind of discussion. That's fair enough as well, I don't see how anybody could honestly dispute that as any sort of ridiculous opinion or perspective, although I would argue that it's sort of inbuilt into us as Newcastle supporters and it's inbuilt into the club in the way that players/managers always seem to come back, by hook or by crook. Obviously simply because it happens doesn't mean it's right or that it will "work" for us, but I genuinely believe it's part of the romance of being a NUFC fan and I'm not sure I would want to swap it for a less emotional, more robotic approach, despite it often being the cause of most of our woes. I admire the fact that you can distance yourself enough emotionally from the club to have that sort of opinion, like, as I'm not sure I'm quite mature enough/experienced enough to do it myself. Upthread somewhere I think I used a "girlfriend" analogy. In normal life we all have to learn how to let things go, say "Well it was good while it lasted" and move on. Remaining stuck on a lost love simply isn't healthy. The attitude you describe may well be hard-wired into the romance of being a Toon fan, but if so I'd say it was one of the club's problems. Most of the other fans I speak to -- family and old friends, rather than people on here -- have similar attitudes to my own, though. It's different for me, to be honest, and I'd imagine it's different for NE5 as well based on his perspectives on things. All the lads I talk to about the game reminisce about the "good times", like we've been doing in the thread of the same name on here and the likes of my Granddad and my Dad always hark back to the same sort of times and wish that the same people could be involved and the same effect could occur (Keegan, Shearer, etc.) I tend to agree that it can be a major problem for the club but when harnessed correctly - as has been the case with Keegan in particular on two occasions now (no matter how brief the second was) - it can be the thing that pushes us on and makes us the best that we can be. As with most things I don't think the issue resides at one end of the see-saw, it's more like somewhere in the middle. This topic is a fascinating one, though, and one that you're never going to get everyone agreeing on as it goes far deeper into things such as sociology, psychology, history and emotions than most other topics do. It takes some brains to be able to debate it effectively, basically, and a hell of a lot of time as well. It's one of those things that you can only really philosophise over yourself or talk to with your closest mates (who can actually think along the same lines) about and it's something (like most things regarding NUFC) that we, as individuals, cannot really do anything about - and is probably why things get so heated when discussing it/writing about it, as it comes bundled with a lot of frustration. The whole thing is a massive headfuck, basically, much like anything else that matters in life. I have to say I'm definitely a lot happier since I accepted the fact I cannot change anything regarding NUFC and I just tend to roll with the punches a bit now. Still get that aching in the gut though when things like Keegan-gate occur or when we throw away a 2-0 lead against one of the worst top-flight teams I've ever seen in the flesh (bear in mind I'm a young 'un.)

Honestly, with you two it's just about a completely opposite way of looking at things and way of evaluating things that mean a personality clash is unavoidable. This isn't helped by the fact that both of you can be unbearable arseholes at times - especially with each other. Suppose things would be boring if everyone got along all of the time like, but do the pair of you (and others) really need to be so fucking awful to each other all of the time? We all have our moments on here, but I think it's easy to see that this "NE5, UV, HTL, etc. versus Mick, Ozzie, fredbob, etc." thing has spiralled out of all proportion and is now to the detriment of the forum as a whole. It can't be healthy.