Rich

Fucking hell man, it's late. You said "who wants to bet that once he's had 3 or 4 consectutive games at Ajax he won't start to look like the player he was before he came here?" about Luque and then said that you're not an expert on him pre-NUFC either, much like myself. My point is this: how can we compare him to the "player he was" when barely any of us had seen much/any of him before 2005? Was he ever that great for Deportivo? He certainly wasn't an invaluable player for them, as his appearance record shows, if anything he was possibly their less-effective version of Laurent Robert who scored a few raspers for them and an important goal or two, but was quite probably as infuriating as fuck the rest of the time and offered little/nowt from open play. From what I remember he has a goal ratio 1 in 4 or something throughout his career, which would be mocked for most other strikers/forwards. Don't believe the hype, basically.

I beg to differ

I'd be surprised if more than 1% of this forum knew what Luque was like before he came here. Personally, he never caught my eye and I never heard anyone raving on about him. Ever. I'd bet a lot of people will say the same as well.

I liked Aston Vanilla somewhat already, and this fella here does nothing but enhance that feeling. Was actually hoping for a 1-1 simply due to Villa being our rivals and Chelsea being in another league to us altogether, but couldn't hold back a sneaky grin when Agbonlahor turned in their second. Proper club, proper style, proper players, proper manager. Can't say fairer than that.

Voted yes, don't need to explain. I'll let his performances do the talking.

Today he'll be trying to solve the mystery of who barfed all down his stairs. Did you French them up a bit, Nut?

I'd rather see Owen with Heskey in these two games than with any of the other strikers in that England squad, and that includes Crouch when he's not suspended. Fair play to McClaren for having the bollocks to select him again and here's hoping it works out for them.

I'd imagine the NUFC Squad Picture 2007/08 will be with us very shortly and will answer this better than most on here could. Personally, I'm not sure. I think a lot of this sort of stuff has been kept well under wraps by Bolton and ourselves for whatever reason.

Of the eight defenders we have, nine if you include Edgar (Ramage is KO'ed for this season) I'd actually be alright seeing ANY of them in the starting eleven, which is exactly what you need/want from your squad. Of course Carr and Babayaro aren't my favourite players and aren't anywhere near top-class, but they're adequate and have been our first-choice pairing at fullback since Souness signed Babayaro in January 2005. When you think the weakest defence out of that lot we can probably field is Carr - Taylor - Edgar - Babayaro these days, it shows how far we've come in this transfer window when you consider that last season we'd have had something like Huntington - Taylor - Ramage - Edgar from our first nine defenders (did we have that many defenders under Souness/Roeder?). Anyway, looking forward to seeing more of Caçapa with Beye and Enrique at full-back. An entirely new back-four (+1) is more than I expected from this window, personally.

Allardyce will get money if he needs it and if we're in a position to take the club into the UEFA or even better if we're in 5th place come January. I have no doubt that he will be backed if and when he asks for money, especially as Ashley seems to be turning up on a regular basis. Was Ashley at the game today? Yes, he went crackers when we scored an' all.

Cult hero in the making, most definitely. I've never been this confident about/happy with our central defensive options.

Short answer is probably "no", and what happened to 4-3-3?

They celebrated separately with a few players surrounding each, then they went and gave each other a big hug like a pair of gaylords. Good point about Milner as well, needs to get his head up sooner and start picking crosses if he can. It'll come, though. Defenders look scared shitless of him these days, though, seems he's building himself a canny reputation as someone difficult to play against. Melchiot did handle him well, but he still looked like being our best bet at creating something - not that he had much competition from any of the others in the front-six. The win today was the important thing, an early goal against these sorts of teams like we should have had with Owen in the first-half, and it's a completely different ball game. 8 points from 4 games, Derby away next and then West Ham at home. Still optimistic, but I cannot wait to see this team with Barton/Emre in it and N'Zogbia further up the park.

Beye had 21 on his shirt today. Faye could well get 12. Will he not just be #25 again, like at Bolton?

HOORAY!!!

Best username/avatar I've seen on here for ages, fantastic stuff.

Corradi joined Parma on loan from Manchester City.

And he's wearing #23 still? Poor Shola.

No there isn't...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6971774.stm

http://english.ajax.nl/web/show/id=48420/dbid=12168/team=1/typeofpage=55719 He's listed in their squad, an' all. Definitely theirs.

There's no such thing as wingers these days, man!

And if Solano goes, the #8 shirt is free... Solano is 15, Dyer was 8...

Emre's injured and Viduka was rested on Wednesday specifically so he could play against Wigan... It's a bloody difficult prediction, this one, far moreso than it has been for a long time - I'll take a risky stab at for what I'd like to see: Given Geremi Caçapa Rozehnal N'Zogbia Smith Butt Milner Owen Viduka Martins Bench: Harper, Enrique, Taylor, Solano and Ameobi. I think Allardyce will go for this, though: Given Taylor Caçapa Rozehnal Enrique Milner Geremi Butt N'Zogbia Viduka Martins Bench: Harper, Edgar, Smith, Owen and Ameobi. Score: 2-1

People are greedy, greedy bastards. Once upon a time most said they'd be delighted with just a right-back after we signed Enrique, then that turned into a right-back and a centre-back... and now people seem to be relying on us getting in a big-name creative midfielder as well! I just hope the disappointment isn't too great if/when it doesn't happen.