Rich

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a gigantic cunt.

Re: Carr, aside from the second goal he was partly to blame for their first goal (throwing to a man with 3 opponents around him and conceding the throw cheaply in the first place) and there were two clear occasions elsewhere in the game where he completely lost Bocanegra from a set-play, resulting in a narrow miss and a Milner clearance off the line. Not to mention the awful back-header to Steve Harper. There was probably more, but that's what I can remember. He has offered very little to this club lately and is constantly injured, not to mention that if sources are to be believed he was trying to engineer a move back to London in the summer, but no bugger would have him. I do agree that it is easy to form "hate-bandwagons", especially on this forum, but people have been questioning Carr for a lot longer than this season.

Underrated Eleven might have been a better bet than simply "top ten": Jussi Jaaskelainan Phil Neville Joseph Yobo Abdoulaye Meite Gael Clichy Morten Gamst Pedersen Mikel Arteta Kevin Nolan Matt Taylor Brian McBride Kevin Davies I'd have any of them at SJP.

No, thats true. Butt is not "inept", he's just "mediocre at his very best". And Parker is "decent int he main". BRAMBLE is inept. Completely agree on Nicky Butt. More like his usual self against Fulham and has been awfully bad on numerous occasions this season. His winner against Spurs was fantastic and some performances have been good, but in the main his passing is inaccurate, he's far too slow, he's not strong enough in the air and for a defensive midfielder he doesn't win the ball nearly enough in one-on-ones. Decent player for someone like Sheffield United, but not what we should consider first team at NUFC. I still maintain that if Scott Parker was asked to play the role that Butt does, as he was a lot last season, then he would excel. Parker simply doesn't have the creative spark/passing/shooting ability to be considered a playmaking midfielder, but I feel his attributes/performances have exceeded Butt's by a long way when played in the same role. It's plainly obvious to me that Parker, even when with Emre, was being asked to be a box-to-box midfielder, instead of a holding player. I don't know how anyone can dispute that, given Roeder's comments about him last season and in the pre-season. Granted the lad has scored goals, but I'd rather see Dyer or Emre in the advanced role alongside him. If Mourinho classed Parker as an anchorman, then that's good enough for me, I don't know what Roeder is playing at trying to suggest otherwise. Parker/Butt together is cringeworthy and reminiscent of the Faye/Clark dynamic duo from last season in terms of an utter lack of creativity. Parker loses the ball far less than Butt and is a far better passer of the ball as well.

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Injured again today, apparently, will miss Ireland's match this week. I fucking hate the cunt.

I only want Butt fit because I don't want Dyer in CM, or Sibierski up front.

Both the Neville's are underrated, I'd argue. From what I've seen of Phil lately I think he's been immense, would have been a quality signing for us, although many would have poo-poo'ed it at the time. Wonder if we could snatch him in the summer? ...Seriously. Doubt he would join now like, and probably doesn't want to leave the North West.

iirc, he's made more apperances this season than anybody but milner - not saying much, but there's plenty of people on the team who deserve that title before he does. No, thats not right. I don't think Emre is injury prone, i just don't think he's particularly committed. I think the opposite, funnily enough: Only played 22 games last season in all comps, according to NUFC.com. Babayaro played 33. He's made 28 appearances so far this season, level with Parker, Ramage and Taylor in second. Milner has 33 already. So Tampa is right. He played in a total 27 club games in 03/04 and 25 games in 04/05 (both sub & starter), although at Inter he wasn't an automatic choice. I do think he gets injured fairly frequently, but his commitment (especially this season) is hard to fault.

from .com Praise be to Jesus.

Good policy, Stozo. I have to say those Journal articles this morning is the most sense I've heard from Shepherd and Roeder perhaps ever - it made for very pleasant reading. If we can keep in with this apparent "plan", while maintaining good league placings and (hopefully) European qualification, then it should stand us in very good stead for the next few years. It is frustrating to be lower down than we were under Keegan/Robson, but that's life, no football club has a divine right to be at the top forever. Granted, we might have done a lot of things wrong along the way - probably more than most of the other "big" clubs - but if Roeder can get us into the UEFA Cup again next season then, along with the new TV money, we should be able to bring in some very good players. It's interesting to note how Shepherd says that there was money available, which is something I've maintained all along - it was proven by the fact we made a definitive offer for Ryan Babel towards the end of the transfer window. There does seem to be money there for the right players, and if it takes until summer to get some of them, then so be it. However, if we start next season without bringing in a new (and decent) right-back and left-back, then my patience will begin to wane further. It's all well-and-good to say we're waiting for the "right" players, but as NUFC06 sort of said, who's to say they will instantly become available in June/July/August? However, I can't imagine Chelsea, Arsenal or Man Utd wanting to sign Peter Crouch, for some reason. Even though I rate him, to a degree. I also don't imagine Liverpool will sell him if he keeps playing as he has been lately.

He's just about getting away with it while we're still in the UEFA and still within touching distance of the top-six in the Premiership. That Birmingham game is obviously the major blot on his copybook of late - as we looked jaded and out of it for the whole 90 minutes, mainly because the same core of players had played in every single match for weeks/months on end, but other than that he's done relatively well with what he's had available to him. If we get knocked out of Europe by Waregem then I suppose things could easily turn nasty again and anything less than a top-ten finish is obviously going to raise a lot of eyebrows (top-seven in my view), but you see there are people who will simply be appeased by the "we've had loads of injuries" line, when really we all knew Shola and Owen were paggered before the season kicked-off, not to mention that a lot of people could safely predict some sort of injury "crisis" within the club, again... and the fact that we started this season with only 6 senior defenders, two of whom are the widely-detested/incredibly injury-prone Babayaro and Carr, one of whom is Titus Bramble (who also gets his share of knocks) and the other two barely could be classed as "senior" either, Taylor and Ramage - I'd completely forgotton about Craig Moore as well, who is surely as injury prone as Jonathan Woodgate, not to mention him being half the player. Wasn't Taylor injured as well for the start of the campaign? We did get Bernard in to make it 7... I suppose... If we don't qualify for Europe again then Roeder/Shepherd do deserve some form of a slap, as the blame will rest squarely with the pair of them. Because, at the end of the day we finished 7th last season after enduring Souness for much of it, why should we finish lower this term? If we think the financial situation is bad now, I dread to think what it would be like after another year without any continental football (thanks Graeme ).

It was mentioned at the time. Shepherd had allowed the game to be moved forward for Sky despite the midweek game and a lot of people were angry about that. I was specifically meaning IRL after the match. Duff and Rossi up front, though... those were the days.

I think I'd rather have Shepherd in full-control than this Dubai lot, when I put my sensible cap on at least. There is a reason why Liverpool didn't accept the offer... granted, it may just be that Gillet "the best a man can get" will offer them more cash, but it might also have been that they realised they'd be villanised as well if DIC got their way and used the mighty reds as a cash cow (it would be a sin rivalled only by mass genocide, in fairness). It is a worry that we're falling behind a host of clubs financially, though. Suppose we've lived a charmed life since the Hall days in that respect and I can't help but feel that we missed the boat on numerous occasions. Proof that money without sensible management isn't as great as it sounds. I disagree. I think it would be excellent if someone went in and messed up the scousers' chances. Sarcasm.

People like you are proof that it's catching on, though. Are you you going to get Onyewu 15 on the back of the shirt? You might just start a craze.

3 of the 5 managers he names are ex-Man Utd, though. He brightens up my day. I barely see any Championship football, I prefer to pretend Sunderland don't exist.

At the time we were all seething, but I don't remember anyone mentioning the Palermo farce. It is a fairly big ask to play 2 games in 3 days, when Sheff Utd had the midweek free... we also had Duff and Rossi up front.

More accurately: "here are my thoughts on 9 of the 24 Championship teams." Classic bandwidth wastage from Delima. Keep up the good work

About 36 hours after Palermo, wasn't it? Slightly forgivable, although admittedly it's only recently I seem to have remembered this.

On ESPN in the Summer I heard Paulo Wanchope, Jared Borgetti and Kasey Keller, amongst amusing others, described as "world class" - all in complete seriousness. The "soccer" coverage over your way is diabolical. They will "get it" some day, hopefully. Until that point, I hope USA do as well as they did in 2006.

Idiots ? I'd say the idiots are the ones who dwell lovingly on every word, star struck and drooling. Wouldn't be you by any chance ? ^-^ How many games has he played in two seasons again ? How many games did he play for 3 months after the 2 goals in the Argentina match, in which he walked off fit as a fiddle ? Quickly forgotten, his comments to Ericsson, eh ? Dear, some peoples memories, eh Gemmill ? Strange that many Liverpool fans - the ones not screaming and crying about him coming here, that is - said he'd do exactly what many Newcastle fans (like me) are getting mightily pissed off about. Wasn't the poster on here - "Rafa" one of them ? Phil, I've said it before and I'll say it again, but every time you post on here I wonder how you manage it in a straitjacket. He was a far bigger wanker back in the old ToonTastic days, imo. Getting back to his best lately.

Are we though? Obviously we're falling behind the teams regularly in the CL as the money from that increases, but it's irrelevant to Chelsea anyway, Man U have always had loads to spend, and Arsenal have a new stadium to pay off. Liverpool and Arsenal haven't spent anywhere near the full amount they have pulled in from being in the CL in recent years. As for the recent takeover clubs, well they may have an initial burst of spending promised to the old owners to make them and the new owners look good and get the fans on their side, but don't expect them to keep pouring in money year on year that isn't generated by the club. Don't think all these takeovers are being done by altruistic philanthropists just in it for the love of the game, and solely for the good of the team being taken over. They're in it to make money. They may be better than the old regime, but then again they may be even more incompetent, and just be content to spend the bare minimum to keep the team in the Premiership and sit back and share out the new TV cash amongst the themselves, reaping a healthy return on their investment. Remember, there's a consortium out there looking for a club with a Mr G. Souness at the helm. Be careful what you wish for. Wasn't wishing for a takeover, was I? I'm actually less supportive of the prospect than most on here, but you cannot tell me that Spurs/Portsmouth/West Ham/Aston Villa/Chelsea have LESS money now than they did under their previous regimes, can you? They'll keep putting money in until they get success, I reckon. Also, I wasn't speaking in the immediate - it's more a thing that will happen over the coming years. Gaydamak, Lerner, ENIC and others have fair whacks of cash behind them, something that we seem to be lacking for the first time in a good while.

Which is what I've been saying since he joined the club. Get your tin hat on is my advice. BTW Barry is a very good player, I'd like to see him playing for us tbh. Barry was mint last night, he seemed to have endless amounts of time when he was in possession and was all over the pitch, generally involving himself in everything good that Villa did. We missed a trick not going for him when Villa were in the mire, IMO. Always been a fan.

He's always been injury prone, hasn't he? Made of Turkish paper. Not sure if he's injured this time like.

I'm not counting out the teams from 11th down, I just had a gargantuan shite mid-post and it killed my thought-train... which is much like a ho-train, except without the sluttly broads