Rich

Think the bigger question is why do students get discount ?!?! I'll still end up paying far more than the price of a ticket with my trips back from Hull every other weekend to watch them. They want a younger average crowd in, it's not just the 18+ students this is offered to, it goes for the 16+ college sorts as well, which is fair enough if you ask me. It'd probably be better if they did just offer it to 16-18 year olds, actually.

Don't think so. Chronicle forums, perhaps?

If this lad signs for us now, I'll eat a hat.

SHUT UP BRIGHT!!! IGNORE THE GOAL!!! Fair play to the lad, he looks a fucking player.

Rather exciting stuff!

Wonder if Seb Larsson is going to be his replacement, more than anything.

He's just had a sip of Yakult man, it's made his day!

You want to punch Alan Shearer in the face

I'll let you off with the quote. Back to Butt, it wasn't just the balls over the top, it was also the passes that were meant for players in space to the side of Butt which went to the opposition players who were yards away from ours but ended up gaining possession and running in on our goal. It happened fat too often throughout last season and I can only see it becoming more frequent. I do know what passes you're talking about, he delivers some cracking hospital balls at times too. But basically, you think it'll become more frequent, I think it will improve if the team is strengthened and we play as we did towards the end of the season, time will tell. I can't be arsed to dig the stats out for his passes/pass accuracy in the run we had that pushed us up the table, but I would expect them to be better, I could be wrong though, obviously.

Oh dear. http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=53474.0

Not sure but it was reported yesterday that he hasnt been paid whilst inside so probably not.

It's fucking laborious though. We all know exactly what UV and NE5 have to say on the matter, we all know OzzieMandas will come and set it all off or keep it going with inflammatory one-liners, we all know the likes of yourself and others will argue against the old board... it's been done so many times we know exactly what the craic will be every single time. Apologies to the other usual suspects I haven't named, but the same goes for you too (although I appreciate that a lot of you have stopped the shite recently). We know where everyone stands on this, we know none of you will change your minds, that's why it's such a waste of time. How about focusing on the future, rather than the past?

One of the rags was saying he isn't getting paid while in prison, whether that's true or not is anyone's guess. Surely if a bloke is locked up then he shouldn't be getting any moolah, though.

Good on FM, has short, dark hair, is fairly tall, young. That's about as far reaching as my knowledge is of Digard, will be interesting to see how he does for them. Could it be another that FM gets right?

Stephen Spence, surely?

I hope that quote in the first paragraph wasn't meant to be my quote, I don't remember saying "We can't buy a first-team centre-half because the whole midfield will be different." As for Butt, if he's playing and wins the ball, he'll then have to find one of our players and that's where he falls down far too often and I expect it will get worse with every season. Paraphrasing. Too many daft arguments with NE5 have got you quote-paranoid, man. "I think we need an entire midfield who will need time to settle and work together, putting a defence beind that who have not worked together could cause us problems." I've been as big a critic about Butt's passing as anyone on here, but it did show a marked improvement when he had options during the spell where Keegan got them playing again, I see no reason why that shouldn't continue. It's the dinked balls over the top to the opposition goalkeeper that kill me, but hopefully we'll see less and less of those if there's more movement/options for him in other areas of the park.

That was the goal that made it 2-3, wasn't it?

I'm colour defficient, but even I can see that it's not "very similar"!

I can't disagree with that either except to say that Butt being one of the first names on the teamsheet doesn't fill me with confidence at all. His distribution is shocking at times, no point winning the ball if we're giving it straight back. He did that far too often and I can only see the problem becoming worse, a bit like when Rob Lee was getting on and doing the same. He might do better if he's got better players around him although I can't see that happening as you can just as easily find a bad player in space as you can find a good player in space. I am saying what I would like to see happen, we all do that. Aye, but you can't argue against my point with a completely fabricated one based on the fact you want to see the whole midfield changed! That's bad cricket! "We can't buy a first-team centre-half because the whole midfield will be different." I've never been a fan of Butt, although he's won me over more and more with his performances over the past couple of seasons (that winning goal down at "The Lane" helped tremendously), he's the one midfielder I wouldn't mind keeping his place, at least for next season. When he hasn't had the added burden of trying to "playmake" and do all of the stuff a defensive midfielder is supposed to do (because he was playing in a team of shite/who was bereft of confidence) he's looked very, very capable at his job. If I had my way I'd still try and replace him, although I think KK will want to keep him in there (along with Owen and Faye) to give the team a solid spine of experienced players.

I'd love to have a player as good as Woodgate was when here and fit but I don't think it's a priority. Once Keegan got the players believing in themselves we were OK. Most of the teams we played towards the end of the season were beatable but we showed against Spurs that when we are attacking teams our defenders can defend. We also showed that we could defend in the first half against Chelsea. We slackened off in the last game and a half when we seemed to go on holiday early but I don't think we would have done that if something was at stake. I think we need an entire midfield who will need time to settle and work together, putting a defence beind that who have not worked together could cause us problems. Can't disagree with much there, but I will just say that I'm only advocating one change in the backline. You never know, one of Taylor/Faye might be injured in the pre-season, so it might not even be an issue. Neither of them are exactly bulletproof for central defenders. We still need an experienced leader in the defence, ideally a British/Irish one who's been around the league a long time, and even if that doesn't happen, we still need to sign more defenders as we only have six on the books now. EDIT: Also, if we start next season with an "entire midfield" I'd be completely shocked. I'm fairly certain if Butt stays fit then he's one of the first names on the teamsheet, even at his age. That part of your argument is hypothetical based on what you'd like to see.

A trophy, man! Think about it! Actually winning a final at Wembley! The League Cup, though? I know we're not really in any position to be snobby, but howay man. You just know with NUFC when we do eventually break the duck it will be in some style. If we're in the CL it means we've finished top four, that's the bigger/more important achievement these days unfortunately.

Has to be the Champions' League these days.