Rich

Roeder, in the Sun...

Yorkie, I'm not even sure myself if it was serious or not. Can we afford to sell Luque for peanuts and then not even bother to replace him? Or is he such a non-entity that he doesn't need to be replaced? I'm not thrilled about the prospect of seeing more Pattison/O'Brien next season, when I think about it (although they'll apparently be on loan)... and N'Zogbia will be on his tricycle as well, leaving our "left-w(h)inger" count down to one. It's a funny one because as Roeder alienates more and more of the squad, Luque is actually starting to get a look-in as he's no longer his number one scapegoat. I hope he does something absolutely brilliant in one of these last four games, just to see the reaction to it on here. Someone like Bouazza would not be a bad signing, but £4m is probably a little bit steep. If Roeder is still after Babel then I suppose he would suffice in his mind as another option on the left. Who knows what the feck is going to happen, basically? Bouazza has been having a decent season in an utterly toss side, that's undoubtable. But then he's mint on FM, so he's bound to be decent in reality.

How very cynical of you Am I the only one around here who actually quite likes Liverpool? Never met a proper 'Pool fan (Scouser) I didn't like - although I haven't met that many.

Ronaldo is the nailed-on winner, surely? Probably rightly so, too.

Is that actually a genuine statement? Not if Luque doesn't get sold, no, because then he won't need to be replaced.

Like the sensible ones have said, Martins does have poor touch/movement the vast majority of the time but is hardly helped by usually being paired with a duff partner and while playing in a team who averages something awful like 4/5 shots on target per game. Not to mention it's his first season in English football, his age, and all that stuff that could also be used to defend him. He's not brilliant, he's not the quickest player in the world, he speaks like a baby mouse, but he's done pretty fucking well for us this season and I genuinely hope he continues to get better and better. 17 goals in this team - with this manager - isn't exactly poor, is it? All of the other stuff aside... some of his goals have been of astonishing quality, as well, absolutely unparalleled strikes some of them. I'm miles away from being his biggest fan, as I'm sure people know, but some of the criticism he gets is fairly unjust - although people like Gemmill and others have raised concerns about his intelligence/passing/control/movement, which I think are perfectly reasonable ones to have about a bloke who plays football for a living and gets paid a fortune to do so... and who cost £10m. He will undoubtedly thrive in a settled team with a solid defence and with a good partner alongside him, he has shown what he can do when given the right service. If he works on the poorer aspects of his game then he could become world-class, but it's a long-shot, although his touch/control isn't as bad as some make out - sometimes the ball sticks to him like glue. My basic point here is that you don't have to be hysterical about him either way - just be happy that he's been here this season, otherwise things might have been far, far worse than they are right now. I don't understand the jizzfest over him as much as I don't understand people who think he's utter shite. He's a good player, though - and should only get better - which will move him up to the level of an "excellent" player. I just worry that by being too mental about him either way: i.e. "OMG he iz better than Rooney" or "Fucking hell he's shite isn't he... sell the cunt"... will do him more harm than good. Let's keep it real, eh?

I prefer the javelin.

We will need to replace Luque, mind.

That said, Taylor's onto about his 80th appearance or so for the club now. Aye, but I'd wager around half of them came in the full-back positions! It's a bit naughty to be judging the lad at his age and before he's played even half-a-season as a first-choice central defender (and after a horrific injury), which is why I've held back on my dislike for the evil-looking bugger, I'm willing to wait for him to "come good" for a bit longer yet. At this precise point in time, he isn't any better than Titus, can't argue there, but he hasn't fouled-up off the pitch numerous times, or been consistently dodgy/injury prone for donkey's years. It's almost incomparable to a bloke who's been playing at the top level for what must be 7 seasons now as a first-choice player, really. It's not just Bramble's errors, either, he gets injured fucking loads and is barely ever called on it, as opposed to the likes of Woodgate, Dyer, etcetera. I bet he hasn't been fit for many more games than those two over the past 7 years. He's most definitely Roeder's numero uno scapegoato, though. Easy target. (Sorry about the delayed reply, got a ferkin' phone call mid-type.)

You're certainly not alone in holding that view on Bramble and Taylor, although the sensible ones would argue that Taylor has only had one or two "full seasons" (not every match at CB, either, of course) and is far younger than Titus. Still, neither exactly instill confidence as first choice players at this point in time and so it does seem strange that the currently better player of the two cannot get a look-in any longer, while Taylor seems the only centre-half destined to stay next season out of all of them... I'm forgetting Peter Ramage, mind, who I would not be surprised to see back against Chelsea.

I think they look pretty swish, anyway. Far more interesting than that fucking grass stuff.

Good on them, I suppose. "Iconic home" (Smellnet) is a bit heady, mind.

Dear me, I was waiting for this thread. Watched it a couple of times the other day and couldn't help but laugh. Classic NUFC. "ALREEEEET!?"

It has returned! They've probably took it offline to purge naughty members and delete multiple posts, while adding numerous "new member" checks. I'm glad it's still there, though, because it's bloody funny.

Exactly the same as me, mate - aside from the Milburn bit. I certainly don't mind the Mackems at all, especially when they're not beating us, and my Granddad (from Jarrow) supported Sunderland but had a lot of time for Newcastle, much like my Uncle does now.

I've heard he already has a steady grasp on the workings of the universe, so I think he'll be alright. In seriousness, I see your point and I agree with what you're saying. He'll need to beef-up a fair bit if he can, but he's definitely tall enough to be considered a modern target-man.

Chronicle set up their own message board, much like this one/Toontastic and had a load of moderators. However, the place was full of anti-Chronicle/icnewcastle/Alan Oliver posts, a lot of which were pretty OTT and insulting, and it's been banning/deleting the offenders - before simply removing the whole forum altogether. There was a big defence from the Chronicle's Sports Editor and everything, appealing for people to lay-off his journalists (it's in the opening post.)

It could be that people are blackballing N'Zogbia so there's less opposition to his inevitable sale? If people keep saying he's crap (especially in the media), it will eventually become the wide-held opinion amongst the plebs. People around me at the match are already in on it, so it won't take long to get a decent majority calling him a "mercenary", "lazy frog", etc. and it won't give Roeder half as much trouble when he does go, from the people who know no better. Never mind the fact that we'll get a vastly reduced fee for him, much like we did with Robert/Bellamy, because he'll end up in a position where he has absolutely no future at NUFC and his value will be greatly affected because of that. To think Glenn Roeder talks about changing the philosophy of this football club, eh? This whole season has had an utter stench of familiarity about it from pillar to post. Nothing is changing - certainly not quickly, anyway.

Milner on the left, Dyer on the right, Sibierski and Martins up front is what I'd expect to see now that Duff is injured and N'Zogbia is on the naughty step, waiting for his train to King's Cross. Carroll should/will also probably be involved ahead of Alberto after his weekend performance. For comedy value, and for another stick to beat Roeder with, I do hope Luque plays though - and that he's like the second-coming of Laurent Robert

I wondered how long it would take them to take the whole board down. Utter mongs.

Emre, Moore and N'Zogbia are the immediate three that spring to mind, considering the latter two were brought off early doors (was Moore injured or was he simply hauled-off?) and the little Turk doesn't get a game when Parker and Butt are injured, so that would make sense on that score as well - plus he's foreign, of course. Aside from that, I can't see it being Milner, Harper, Butt or Taylor, because all four can hardly be blamed for "not trying", especially Harper (being a 'keeper) - which obviously leaves us with Martins, Duff, Solano and Carr. Now, Martins and Duff are Roeder's signings but out of the four mentioned are surely ahead of Solano, at least, for players who don't "run" enough or "try enough". He seems to love Stevie Carr, as well, although perhaps his team selection against Chelsea will give us the answers. I certainly think Emre, Moore or N'Zogbia won't get a game and that will put those three beyond doubt, but if we don't see Carr either then I think you can add him to the list. For some reason I can't see Roeder telling one of "his" signings that he thinks they're a cunt, so it's down to Nobby and Carr for the "4th player" who was being "carried" and it will be interesting to see which (if either) of them are still here next season - although obviously I hope that player will be Solano. This whole thing is starting to smack of Souness versus Robert for me, though, as we seem to be moving towards a team of "grafters" again, rather than a team who play attractive football and who can accomodate some flair players into their line-ups. If Glenn thinks the likes of Emre and N'Zogbia are lazy, I'd love to have seen how he would have handled the old number 32, a player who runs half the distance of those two (while undoubtedly offering more in the goals/assists charts than our current pair.) These players simply are not playing for the manager, it just cannot be argued that they are. He's losing fans, he's losing the dressing room and he's losing the media - he's most definitely on the slippery slope. Worrying times, again, as I can see us bringing in 4/5 players of a similar nature to Steve Sidwell, making us perhaps even more boring to watch than we have been for the past few years. It will certainly be interesting to see how many squad players we have next season who aren't British/Irish, though, because the likes of Babayaro, Emre, Luque, Moore, N'Zogbia and Onyewu seem to be top of the list in Roeder's "sell/release" pile. I know it's not much of a measure for anything, but it's interesting nontheless as the bloke seems to be physically/mentally unable to handle/motivate a squad of players adequately - especially the ones who are from different cultures.

The Times was wrong... again? Jesus wept.

I heard it labelled as a "dipping shot on the run" from 25-yards, but that could be wide of the mark. There's something in that response that tells me you're an Alan Oliver fan! Glad someone caught it. And Yorkie, my source was nowt more than hearsay, from what I recall... might have been the Times, though, which is pretty much the same thing.

I heard it labelled as a "dipping shot on the run" from 25-yards, but that could be wide of the mark.

He was on the pitch on Monday, man. Wake up.