Rich

Very difficult to explain, but if you understood from that then I'm very impressed.

It would surely be better if we knocked them out though? Some of their posts on here prior/post group-stage meeting were legendary. "you no will underestimade fener, we will beat you" turned into... "scored a lucky sibioerski goal, we will get revenge later" then... "fener will crush AZ, turkey atmosphere is best in world!" etc. etc. etc. I would love it if we beat them... again.

It's an English phrase, a shortened version of the full saying - so people will know what I mean when I simply say "lightning never strikes twice..." It's why I put the "..." on, you bastard guy!

Who would you prefer? Has to be AZ for my money, a lot closer to home and I'd feel a lot more confident playing over in Holland ahead of going to Turkey. I literally know nowt about AZ mind, apart from a few of their players from the Dutch national team and that they had Co there last term. Fenerbahce looked shite at SJP and Turkish football is fairly poor, so I wouldn't exactly fear them. Get the feeling that they couldn't handle Martins and Dyer, either. Admittedly, the prospect of the Turkish board invasion (ala Olympiakos - some of the greatest days ever on here) and us beating them is a mouth-watering prospect. I actually hope Panathinaikos get past Lens and we draw them later in the cup, just to see if they'll be the same. Crazy Greeks. Crazy Turks. I know talking as though we've beaten Waregem is dangerous after we all did so for Birmingham, but lightning never strikes twice...

Completely agree mate. Give me the likes of those ahead of Bolton, Wigan, 'Boro etc. any day of the week.

How ye, post more often

Cannot believe they tear-gassed the Man Utd fans. Apparently van der Sar copped a load of it an' all... very sneaky way of putting the opposition keeper off like. Gas the bastard. Sometimes I shake my head at the dross that happens in the "biggest club competition in the world."

2 positions off the playoffs, only missing out on GD! Championship is looking exciting, but I do hope the Mackems come up.

I do agree that his body must be a knackers yard these days! It's amazing he's managed to play so much this season already. Might be due to cutting out night-time activities or certain habits out of his lifestyle and getting a specified training regime? By habits, I of course mean sleepwalking and nosepicking. He only trains a few days a week compared to the rest of the 'Boro squad, they seem to have him wrapped in cotton wool. Watch him pull a hammy against us! If he's gonna get injured it will be at SJP in a couple of weeks.

'Boro have got at least 12 games left this season, including the FA Cup, let's say that if he misses more than 3 of those through injury (25%) and not suspension/being rested/being dropped, then you win. Sound fair? We'll arrange the actual wager via PM!

You're judging him based on the past, while in the present he's staying fit and playing really well! I do agree that he's still a major risk, but he's not been a crock this season... yet! The bandwagon thing is just the preconception everyone has of Woody (and rightly so!), let's just see how he does for the rest of the season and over the coming years. If he gets crocked again before youknowwhatty, I'll sort you a pint or two for your victory. Come on Woody son, stay fit! We should actually wager on it, but I warn you, I'm a poor man.

I'll meet you in the Woodgate thread!

That's a shit argument, btw.

So aye, are we now agreed that we've had a bit of a miscommunication and that we've been arguing over absolutely nowt? That would be great, if we could. This Bellamy debate is a real crowd-puller, like, I'd love to know the wordcount on here that has come from the little bugger. I suppose until we reach the "heights" that we did when he was here the debate will rage on. We desperately need to win something, or start playing some cracking football again, just to take people's mind off him. Although, if those days ever come I bet we get a barrage of posts saying "I'm glad Bellamy isn't here anymore, Martins and Owen are mint, etc. etc." It's a vicious cycle, I tells ya, but at least if we were doing well we'd hopefully be bickering less as a result. Has there ever been a situation like this before with a Toon player? Being relatively young this is my first experience of an incident that has split the supporters so rigidly. Do we at least all agree that Souness is a wanker?

If Bellamy indeed DID beat Riise with a golfclub, then it's surely not much of a stretch to say that Barton probably hasn't done anything that bad this season! Nothing reported, at least. Surely that bit is undeniable, though?

I'm still at a loss to when "this year" was mentioned. I've read back over the thread again, and looked at both GeJon & HTL's posts and can't find HTL saying anything about "this year", the couple of years comments were made and then it suddenly just changed to "this year" a bit later, but not from the auld bugger. Apologies if I've missed something, I'm just trying to dull the bickering by discovering that there's actually nowt to be arguing about at all, hopefully bringing an end to this latest episode of spoilage. Barton and Bellamy are both prize arseholes by all accounts, it's not something that we can really measure either. This apparently happened after the anger management, an' all Guardian Story For the record, I don't think I'd want either at Newcastle at the current time anyway. I'm not on any side here.

The arse incident was this year, wasn't it? Are we talking 2007, or this footballing year? Was it not the "past couple of years" asked about? I did read the thread previously and I can't recall HTL asking about "this year" in particular (all 7 weeks of it!) In any case, do you actually believe Barton has reformed his attitude that quickly?

Didn't Barton put a cigar out on a youth team player's face? ...And show his arse to away fans at the end of a game? There has been more as well IIRC. Certainly been in about as much bother as Bellamy has since leaving us. A lot of footballers are utter cunts though, they're only human like. Meet plenty more cunts out on a wander through the Toon than you would find in a dressing room.

Never said he was cured, but it's food for thought. Certainly a lot more depth to it than your bandwagonised opinion on the subject! "Aye that Woodgate, he'll never get fit like." Also, I never said we should spend £7m on the lad but we should have certainly been in for him on loan, which you were also against. If he had of come back here, he could have been crocked again, I'll openly admit that. But you've been in numerous posts lately laughing at the notion of Woodgate ever putting consistent runs of games together and talking down to people who suggest we might go for him and based on this season, i.e. "the present", he's starting to disprove his reputation. I was surprised to see how many games the lad has played so far this season (was amazed when I compared it to our players), I don't see what was so wrong with pointing it out. I have previously considered him a crock as some of my older posts on here have confirmed, but maybe he's improving because 'Boro are taking proper care of him. He might get crocked again very, very soon, but 21 out of 24 league games since joining 'Boro is impressive.

Gilardino with perhaps the best dive I've ever seen tonight. Cunt. Mainly flicked between that and Madrid, the other two looked like snoozefests in the first-half. David Beckham was mint, but Munich are crying for a decent left-footer in midfield. Emre could be brilliant for them.

About Jonathan Woodgate: Woodgate has started 24 games this season for 'Boro, Jon (finished 22 of them) in all competitions, plus his game for England the other week. That's more than we've had out of Bramble, Moore, Owen, Carr, Dyer, Duff, N'Zogbia and Babayaro (plus others). It's the same amount of club games played this season in all competitions as Shay Given, amazingly (and we've played much more than 'Boro). Puts things into perspective a bit. 21 games out of a possible 24 for him in the league he's played for 'Boro (he was signed after their first 3 games). Just seen you laughing about Woodgate staying fit a fair bit lately, when he's got a better appearance record this season than about half of the players we would probably consider to be first-teamers when they're not injured. If Jonathan Woodgate had started 21 games in the Premiership for us this season he would only be behind Martins, Milner and Parker out of the ENTIRE squad - they all have started 22, just one more game than him (and Milner and Parker have been here since the start of the season!) If we include substitute appearances, then only Nicky Butt would move ahead of him (to 22). Really amazing, I've only just found this out when looking into it.

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/4214/tablekq4.jpg Looks realistic enough to me with these results... D, W, D, W, L, D, L, L, D, W, W = 4 wins, 4 draws, 3 losses. Fairly pessimistic I'd say, so here's hoping for a few more points than 51 come the end of the season - blimey, I've just realised this is the same total that Northern Monkey has predicted we'll get

The fact that you quoted Prince of Thieves in that post means I am in complete agreement. Brian Blessed IS a legend, as well.

Think he was pointing out left-backs, mate.

A Geordie John Terry would be ideal, because I'm not sure if he'd be as good as he is for Chelsea playing for Newcastle. Obviously he'd still be a quality player, but would he really be THAT brilliant for us in terms of leadership/popularity with the fans/relating to the club? I know it's speculation, but there's food for thought there. He embodies Chelsea, much like Shearer embodied us, it's hard to replace that at a new club. With that in mind I'd go for Cristiano Ronaldo. Exciting to watch, improving all the time, nerves of steel and the best player in the business at running at people and committing defenders. I'd offer him more of a free role than he gets currently at Man Utd and I'd basically let him rip people a new arsehole. He's proving all the time that he can score goals with either foot, he sets up a fair few and he's decent in the air. He's about as close to an all-round attacking player as I can think of.