Rich

As Dave has said, it's more like "I haven't joined anyone yet" - not a thing about "not joining Newcastle".

Me, its fucking rubbish. I'm adopting 2J's stance, in that case!

Who the fuck doesn't like The Terminator?

Milner shades Butt for me, with Martins next because of his goals. At times Nicky Butt has been absolutely tremendous for us, yesterday was just another example of a top-notch defensive midfielder display (although his passing still rankles and his lack of pace isn't brilliant). Although I don't think he's been as consistently brilliant as some claim. Milner has played more games than anyone and is still looking as lively as ever, no matter where he's asked to play for the team. He constantly attacks and drives at opponents and with two quality strikers to aim for instead of one (and with a goalscoring attacking midfielder in the side) I can only wonder how many assists his numerous crosses into the box might have given him. The great thing is, he should only get better with age and with a better team around him - having Owen in the side should be a massive boon to his game. Great stuff after what he went through early in the season.

If Titus is heading South then this could have some mileage in it as he'll be the last man standing out of his assembled "posse". Smacks of cheek to me as well after some of his antics over the years, I think people are entitled to be a bit peeved if it is true. Other than that I will personally be gutted if we don't get a Kieron Dyer testimonial to attend.

Will probably still be here next season if he doesn't get his move back to London sorted out, so I'm glad that the chubby little fecker is hitting something resembling Premiership form. He's still not outstanding, but he barely put a foot wrong yesterday and got up and down the park more than I've seen him do for a long, long time. Fair play to him for doing so well out of position.

He gets better with every game, as others have said, and there isn't a better sight in football than a winger attacking the life out of his opposing fullback. Luckily Milner does it constantly during games and so constantly gets the crowd behind him, much like N'Zogbia did for us last season. I do wish he had a little bit more pace about him as it would seriously push him to the next level and I feel he really needs to start attacking passes he receives (both short and long), instead of waiting for them to arrive and losing seconds for the opposing defenders to regain their position. It's something he'll learn in time, though, and he'll improve further because of it - I just wish we had someone useful in the area for him to hit with his crosses, although having Owen in there will no doubt help him out a great deal. If we keep a hold on the lad I cannot wait to see how he does next season. Surely Glenn must realise he's a first-choice player now? I'm still not convinced he'd get a game if the likes of Duff, Parker and Owen were fit along with all the rest of them. It will be interesting to see how much he gets used next season as we really cannot allow another N'Zogbia situation to occur. As much as people will say Charlie's been shite this term, he was almost as important to us last season as Milner has been this time around. Certainly would prefer both of them to stay and see the likes of Dyer/Duff shifted on, would save us a fucking fortune as well.

After thinking about it this morning, and depending on Parker's fitness I wouldn't be surprised to see: Harper Solano Taylor Bramble Carr Milner Butt Parker Emre Dyer Martins With Srnicek, Babayaro, N'Zogbia, Sibierski and Carroll on the bench. I would personally like to see: Harper Solano Taylor Bramble Babayaro Parker Butt Emre Dyer Milner Martins A 4-3-3/4-5-1/4-4-2 (with Milner moving to RM at points, Dyer going central) when necessary - like we'd able to pull that off To give them something to think about, basically.

Woodgate's fault, for the goal. Sell him.

FM does, aye, but the quote from Newcastle Fan didn't.

lol whatever! There's literallly dozens of players that end in Escu, give me a break! At least you got the club right He was a quality little player, an' all.

Dan Petrescu? You mean? The canny little right-back?

wait till beckham buy diamond shin pad... ehhh skirge... he surely can buy his wife diamond tits ;D Was that in regards to the shape of them?

Things like signing a backup left winger for 5mill and 70 or 80k per week dont help. The point had already been covered about the players who had come in/gone out, the lad was asking for other reasons as to how the wage bill could have increased. It was an attempt to bait someone, for which ive been warned. Anyway, with regards to the increase in wages/salaries, from that list of outgoing players, we may not have been paying Viana's wages, we still might be paying part of the wages of some who have left (eg Boumsong, Bowyer), Shearer hasnt left the club's payroll as he may be getting a wage as ambassador, weve surely appointed more staff with the addition of Roeder (Bond, Pearsen), some players will have signed new contracts - eg Zog, Given(?), or recieved a pay rise (as you say, Dyer). I thought the bold bit was exactly that, hence why I jumped in ASAP to get you posting sense again. You're right about the rest of the stuff. Although if Shearer is getting paid for being an ambassador I'd be shocked, personally. I'm surprised the wage bill has increased in the first place, judging by the players we sold/brought in - and I didn't expect that people's contracts would fluctuate all that much in the space of one season. Even though it's "only" 1% I thought we'd have made progress towards reducing it in the summer, more than anything. This summer I can only see more people going out than getting brought in, because of that. As MJ said previously, it's going to be difficult to decrease the wage-bill while improving the squad so the payoff will probably be a few more "free" players coming in and using the transfer budget money to go towards the wages.

He's got his draw though, the spawny bastard

No hard feeling mate,was actually going for that Definitely, I know. It was quality As for Yorkie: Still doesn't change the fact that not every goalkeeper in professional football will peak between those ages, which is what the wording of the phrase suggested as there was no "generally" or anything in the quote. Peter Schmeichel (probably the best in Premiership history) was arguably at his peak between the ages of 28 and 31, for instance, although he remained excellent between 32 and 35. Was van der Sar better at 32/33 than when he was winning the Champions' League with Ajax? Nigel Martyn used to get called up to the England squad ahead of Seaman back in his earlier career, did he not? Was he undoubtedly better at Leeds? I can't answer these personally, as I can't with the likes of Schwarzer and Friedel either. Could it not just be because of the increased media circus these days and the tendancy for hyperbole that people are inclined to believe that they've "never been better"? You can't tell me it's a rule that players peak at a certain age, it's nonsense. You might have seen all of these players throughout their careers, though, so maybe you know better than I do. I suppose we'll see with the likes of Buffon and Casillas if the "rule" applies to them, as they're going to have to go some way to improving on what they've done already during their twenties so far, although again it will be very difficult to judge. I suppose Given will be our only real measure, though, as we see him play every week - he's another that's going to have to go some way to better what he's done already before the age of 32.

I think those 2 lines highlights what is wrong with Newcastle's planning currently. Roeder has several targets and he's watching one game? It's too much of a job for just one man to line up prospective signings and prepare the first team squad for the upcoming matches, and Roeder doesn't have the staff who he can delegate the jobs to. In the last 16 days Comolli has been to 9 different countries, including Argentina, Brazil (twice), Spain, Portugal and Bulgaria as well as England and Scotland. Much is just checking on players first hand but there is a lot of optimism about signing a Brazilian and Levski Sofia's 18 year old striker Atanas Kurdov, who's scored over 30 goals this season, comes over in the next couple of weeks to look around and train with the first team squad for a week. Getting the setup right to recruit the right players in the window is more important than finding some players to sign without the right setup imo. You might sign a decent player but was there a better option out there for Newcastle? Without the right setup in place, Roeder will never know. I agree with you that you need DOF to handle this sort of tasks.I always though that Tottenham are going in the right direction when it comes to watching young talents,watching alot of promising players all over the world.So far Newcastle didnt do anything like this and i think its a big mistake because if we have someone famous as DOF who has alot of connections and knowldege about European football this will help enormously when it comes to signing young talents. I dont know about Comolli and i dont know what kind of job he is doing at Spurs?Maybe you will tell me.Did he sign anyone so far? About Atanas Kurdov im from Bulgaria and i know alot about our bulgarian talents and i must tell that i would be very surprised if you sign Kurdov.Why?Because i dont think he is anything special.He is pretty much overrated.He has enormous confidence and is pretty much because his father was famous football player and he things he is something special. When it comes to real talent i think Marian Ognyanov is one of the biggest talents in Bulgarian football.He is only18 years old and scored the only goal for Levski in the Champions league. Like i said i would be very surprised if you sign Kurdov Where did you hear that btw? Well, I heard from a friend who lives in Yambol, he told me that it had been in the Bulgarian press/media that Kurdov and someone else whose name I don't know will be coming over for a week to have a good look at them. If we like what we see, tentative agreement is in place with Levski to one or other or both. He said Kurdov had scored 32 goals this season, which hasn't yet finished, which on the face of it sounds great, but statistics can always be misleading. Maybe Ognyanov could be the other one? Just know it's 2 youngsters from Levski Sofia, one is Kurdov and they will be staying with Berbatov for the week, whether he recommended them I have no idea. Comolli is doing a solid job for Spurs. Amongst others, signed Berbatov, Zokora and Ekotto for the first team and Taarabt, Pekhart and Olsen as youngsters to progress through. Also set up a number of arrangements with other clubs, either as homes for loanees to get around work permit problems or with a view to taking their better youngsters. Only cloud on the horizon is that Arsenal have made an approach to talk to Comolli about joining them. Permission was refused but I don't reckon that will be the end of the story. Time to go, hoping for something really good at lunchtime but probably fearing the worst. King is highly doubtful irrespective of what is being said publicly, Keane's out, Berbatov don't like playing with Defoe (doesn't play with intelligence), I'd take a draw now if it was offered! Keane and King both started, the latter has scored. Martin Jol is yet again wide of the mark. mackems.gif

Debatable really, as you cannot really streamline when every goalkeeper will be at the top of their game, but I understand what you're getting at and who you're probably thinking about when you posted that. I wasn't mocking Newcastle Fan, btw, I thought it was an extremely funny post he made. FM is a far more reliable source for information than the vast majority of opinions on here, amazingly enough.

FM tip: Goalkeepers reach their peak and play their best football between the ages of 32 and 35. (Stolen from Newcastle Fan, yesterday.) It would be madness to sell him before his Football Manager-predicted peak! MADNESS!

We sometimes play this "game" on a night out when tedium sets in, and I have to visualise sticker books every time: Julian Darby.

Ah. It has been a while since you got your crazy pills mixed up with your cornflakes, so I suppose we can let you off Apart from the obvious I'm sure Glenn could do without having to convince yet another player to come here after selling half of the current squad.

I noticed that yesterday as well, but thought it was a mistake and found a fair few more sources quoting £1.5m - it's also the figure I remember at the time. The official site (ho ho) says £1.5m, an' all:

Things like signing a backup left winger for 5mill and 70 or 80k per week dont help. The point had already been covered about the players who had come in/gone out, the lad was asking for other reasons as to how the wage bill could have increased.

He was only £1.5m. Why would I lie? Probably cost us a heck of a lot in wages on top of that, mind.

Heh! I know man, I'm trying to keep you entertained by stringing out this "debate" with utterly shite posts like comparing Upson to Bridge and the Woodgate comment. Bridge has actually played 29 games (8 as sub) already this season against Woody's 32 starts and like you say, it's probably only that low because of Ashley Cole. As for Upson, he played 111 games in 3 seasons between 2002-2005 and 29 the following year, has struggled since. Bridge played more than that during the same spell. Although the difference overall isn't as large as I'd expected. You can check here: Upson - Bridge