Rich

I would like to see us get a keeper on the major cheap in the summer, so that Harper can go and be a number 1 somewhere. Surely it would make as much sense to just keep Pav on in that case and bump Krul to 2nd choice?

Delima is a football supporter, the man IS football.

I remember dancing around my living room like a fool that night, what a fucking match. Still think that squad was worse than we have now, but that was a team without European commitments (which take a huge toll), without masses of injuries to key, key players and massively high on confidence at that particular time. Undoubtedly SBR was a better manager than what we have now as well. Would also venture that the league wasn't as strong then as it is now, also. Chelsea have moved on miles since then, as have the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool, Everton, Bolton and Villa.

I haven't seen anything from Martins at NUFC yet that makes him out as more of a playmaker than a goalscorer, maybe that part of his game is still to come when the right partner comes along. He's under pressure to score being the number 9 so that's what he's been doing. Bent, Owen and Martins is one hell of a "samey" trio of players to my mind, we're crying out for some options in the striking positions - Sibierski has served to highlight how effective target men can be when used correctly (in the Ashton/Sheringham mould of holding the ball and playing intelligent passes/lay-offs), if Martins can play that sort of role then fantastic but I can't support us spending a wedge on Bent when we already have Martins, Dyer and Owen capabale of doing the nippy striker bit. As for Bent being the same height as Shearer, true though it is I'm fairly certain he doesn't have anything like the nouse/strength of Big Al during his time here as partner to Bellamy/Owen in order to be as effective. Although Shearer's hold up play had disintegrated greatly by the time Owen came along. If it's Bent or nothing, then I'd obviously take him because he scores goals (as you've said), but if there are alternative options available then I think we need to explore them first. He could be moulded into being exactly what we need, in regards to Johnny's points, he's still young enough to greatly improve on a lot of the aspects of his game.

Absolutely thrilling.

Powerful, quick, runs directly at opponents, scores goals, hits the ball extremely hard, not particularly tall but decent in the air, same age, can use both feet (although not as well as Oba)... aye Yorkie, he's not like Martins at all. I'd say he's more like Martins than Owen and I'm not convinced he could work with either because none of them are target men or playmaking forwards, I know people class Martins as a "second striker" but from what we've seen of his link-up play and his passing I'd hardly call him a playmaking striker in the mould of a Gudjohnsen.

Thankfully no, but they're just normal lasses who work there, it's not like banging someone famous, is it? Was just amused by womblemaster's response. We're all jealous of Babayaro because he knocked up some stripper, not because he earns more in a week than most of us do in a year or he plays for the team we love, or that he's won trophies. Pure daftness. I'm more jealous of Beckham knocking up Posh, or Ashley Cole for slamming Cheryl Tweedy, fuck, even that Darren Byfield bloke for having Jamelia... not of Babayaro for shagging a lass from FYEO.

Do people not see how often Butt misplaces passes? For all he does well there is a lot of shite in amongst it, he knows his position like but I still believe Parker plays the role better - the main problem with Parker this season is that we've been trying to use him as our attacking midfielder when Emre is blatantly more effective in that role. Parker was excellent last season playing more defensively, if people can cast their minds back a bit to those glorious days under Souness.

Goalkeepers are absolutely no problem at all, barring another injury crisis. Given, Harper, Srnicek and Krul make for an excellent pool to choose from with all the right qualities necessary. We're absolutely blessed in this department and have been for years now, it's probably been good to have Pav around the place this season and I wonder if he might be kept on in some capacity next season to help Krul out (we might even see Harper leaving for a fee and Pav staying on as 3rd choice if Tim gets "promoted" to second choice.) Might make sense financially that way around, despite leaving us slightly worse-off squadwise. In the defence a CB must be a priority with our current injuries and the fact that Moore is definitely in 6 months, not to mention that Bramble and Moore are both very injury prone anyway. Despite our shoddiness in the fullback areas, I reckon a centre-half is the position we'll strengthen first due to the lack of cover there (whereas there is Solano/Duff/Carr/Babayaro/Taylor/Ramage/Huntington for the wide areas.) In an ideal world we'd get a pair of new fullbacks as well, but Roeder might hang on until summer in order to get the best players he can/until more cash is available. Still would hope that Bridge could be bought, despite his new contract (he's only played 17 minutes in the last 3 league games since he signed it.) The midfield doesn't need any adjustments and hopefully we won't see anyone sold just yet, in the summer I'd like to see Butt replaced by a top-class defensive midfielder with a bit of height/pace and better passing ability, but right now I think we have a good enough midfield group to do what is required. It seems to be nailed-on that we're also in the market for a striker with Rossi and Luque leaving imminently/being fairly useless. Sibierski, Dyer and Martins can possibly be described as our "front men" at the minute, so I see us as having only one option here for both the short-term and long-term - to attempt to sign a high quality "target man" of a striker to play the role Sibierski has been to a much higher level. Antoine is an average player, he always has been, yet he has performed this role brilliantly - but think what a specialist target man could offer to us and the goals he would score with our wingers and with Martins beside him. We need an aerial threat up front and while Sibierski has exceeded expectations he really struggles at times to compete with the sheer brute force of a lot of the Premiership's central defenders, even when Ameobi is fit he isn't at all adept at this side of the game and disrupts a team's flow rather than adds to it (hopefully we'll get shot of him in the summer or he won't be any better than 4th choice). Someone like Dean Ashton would be a perfect signing for this season and for the future, but it's massively unlikely now that West Ham are on the rise. Viduka would only be a stopgap in my eyes due to his age, and he gets injued/uninterested an awful lot of the time so would be a massive gamble. Darren Bent is too similar to Martins/Owen in the fact that he's an agile forward who scores goals rather than creating them, I'm not entirely sure if Bent/Owen or Bent/Martins would work but he might be our only realistic option with Charlton looking increasingly likely to take the plunge and Bent would be an investment as well, I suppose. I'd love Peter Crouch to come here, beanpoletastic! Again it's really unlikely. To sum up: a) a big target man, b) a big, experienced centre-half and c) a quality left-back. Not sure if £10m will buy those three these days, let's hope some fools give us cash for Luque.

I'd love it if they went down and it's possible that they might, although I tend to think that Watford and Charlton already have the two bottom places signed and sealed... Sheff Utd will do very well to stay up, but I think West Ham will be alright from now on in. Sheff Utd, Charlton and Watford to go down.

why should a left back be on the post?it's a stupid idea that a player should do that just cos of the position he is playing..for example if the left back if 6'2 and great in the air,why stick him on the post?...in babayaros case it was to guard a particular area. this works both ways,we have been stupid enough when ramage or taylor were at full back to keep them on the half way line when we had corners instead of bringing others out and letting those go up,just because they were playing full back. Spotted this as well... leaving Ramage back when there's the likes of Milner/Emre, Dyer and Butt forwards.

No way has Butt been as good as the jizzfesters have been making out. He's better than he has been, that's about it. A proper defensive midfielder with a bit of pace and who could compete in the air would be a massive asset to us. An average Butt has already made a difference.

Have you seen the lasses in FYEO? Not exactly an achievment to knock one of them up.

Solano's "60/40" like, I think he'll be doing everything possible to play. Might be a gamble if we went with him and Duff at fullback against Chelsea with their wingers. Praying that Terry is unfit and that Drogba gets rested again, Sheva, SWP and Kalou as their front three would be as good as we could hope for - if the likes of Mikel get a game as well then we have a real shout.

I think the most likely team is probably this, but it's not what I would go for. Given Solano Taylor Ramage Duff Milner Parker Butt Emre Martins Dyer Subs Srnicek Huntington Pattison Sibierski Rossi

Just in from school?

Biggest game of the season for me, cannot wait for it (due to how much I hate the bastards). Potentially having 25 points at the halfway stage of the season is something I wouldn't have predicted a few weeks ago, but we have a nightmare run of games on the way now in the league: Spurs (h), Bolton (a), Everton (a), Man Utd (h), Spurs (a). It's absolutely must-win against Tottenham if we harbour any ambitions of top six still (which we really should considering we're only 7 points off Portsmouth (6th) and we've been widely regarded as having had an absolutely terrible start to the campaign, against their "brilliant" one. Shame JJ isn't playing.

I agree with Delima, Vidic is the next Steve Bruce.

Fantastic insight, although Stephen Carr is unavailable through injury is he not?

I agree with this whole-heartedly. This man knows his stuff.

03/04? When Robson was still in charge after us finishing 3rd the season before? Surely 04/05?

Disgraceful tbh. More amusing than anything else IMO. Could just be resting him, mind? We do have 2 more important games following this one (within 7 days.) I could even support Roeder playing 11 youth players on Wednesday in order to keep us fresh for the weekend... he could send out 11 academy lads and instruct them to injure Chelsea's players. Might give us a chance in the Carling Cup?

Agree, and I'd add Bramble to that list as well based on his previous selections. 9 starters injured. Harper, Solano and Ameobi would almost be nailed-on subs as well if everyone in the squad was fit.

On the radio they said the first goal was definitely onside. It was level at worst, definitely not "offside" in the literal interpretation. The red card came after Henchoz had got away with 2 previous fouls, further justification for the straight red (as well as it being what the law says.) Martins turned him and Henchoz rugby tackled him to the ground.

Undoubtedly a first-choice player, mind. Although he is shite.