Rich

David Kitson is also a decent striker. Of all 3 of them, Kevin Doyle is the best and perhaps is most complimental of our strikers So speaks the authority on all things football.

If Belgravia also owned the club, nothing whatsoever. As outside sponsorship, naming rights run into millions, but we'd be more likely to get a Bolton kind of amount than an Arsenal kind of amount. Understood that about Belgravia, was more thinking along the lines of Northern Rock (they'd most likely get first dibs.) £5m isn't as much as I expected and perhaps isn't a sum worthy of the proposal... unless you believe that every little helps. I'd just rather someone proper rich bought us without altering much of our tradition, ala Chelsea.

Any ideas how much stadium sponsorship brings in, anyway? In reality, how much would changing the name make us per season?

Not at all, because everyone would still call the place St. James'. Small price to pay.

If they pay his wages from January to June it would save us over/around £1.5m (if he's on between 50 and 80k a week) and then give him a stage to increase his value before a potential sale in the Summer. We're going to get nowt for him at the current time so it might make sense to try and put him in the shop window, while saving money in the process. Surely a loan couldn't decrease his value further... or further reduce the number of clubs who are interested in him for a fee, so it might be the best option available. It has got to be better than him playing the odd reserve game and making the odd first team appearance for us.

Sarnie, that lass in the Toon top in your avatar is Alex off that Beauty & the Geek thingy, innit? PHWOARRRRRRRR!!! As for Nobby, he is mint, that video is class.

Probably one of about fifty decisions of a similar nature during that period in MUFC's history... though there'd undoubtedly be a lot of people who would say the same about us. David Ellery definitely loved them, though.

Emre's suspended, unfortunately. :wullie: And the vast majority of those "offensive" players selected take about one chance in every 5 that comes their way... they cannot hit a cow's backside with a banjo is basically the idea I'm trying to get across. It would be novel - could be the highest scoring Premiership game ever if we went in with a team like that.

Aye, and surely even if VP played right playing a right-footer against a left-footer playing there would be good sense an' all, rather than the other way around!? 4-5-1 is a certainty, pace up front and on the flanks will be vital. Dyer - Parker - Butt - Emre - N'Zogbia would have been my preferred midfield, but I suppose you can move the Zog inside and stick Duff on the left flank, if Parker doesn't make it then you move Dyer inside and stick Nobby on the right flank. So either: Dyer - Parker - Butt - N'Zogbia - Duff or Solano - Dyer - Butt - N'Zogbia - Duff for the midfield. Defence, again if all fit, would have been for me: Taylor - Bramble - Moore - Ramage, simply for the extra height it would give us for set-plays both in an attacking and defensive sense, pace would be a worry though. No idea what the defence is going to be with the mooted injuries. Given in goal and Martins up front, if possible. PS: I seem to have forgotten that James Milner exists.

We played a lot of long balls under Robson, thing was that we actually had Shearer to win the lion's share of them and Bellamy to chase the knock-downs so it was a tactic that was actually exciting to watch.

N'Zogbia, only player we have capable of bringing the crowd up by simply winning/receiving the ball.

Just been on Revista de la Liga (sky sports) with Guillem Balague about this, here's what he said... - There is a 5 million Euros offer on the table from Newcastle for Navarro right now (£3.5m-ish). - While Valencia have injuries he may get more game time, so that might keep him there. - The money being offered to him by NUFC far, far outstrips what he's getting at Valencia and he would "jump" at the move from a purely financial perspective. - However, there are players dissuading Navarro from moving here and he himself "knows little" about the Toon, people are telling him Newcastle is a very difficult place to play and would be a bad move. (Luque?) Basically, if Balague is correct then it looks like another instance where the player only comes for the pay if indeed he does come at all. I know nothing much about him myself, but there's not much shame in being a squad player in a team as good as Valencia. Bit of a gamble though, surely?

Totally undermines the manager, and from someone who was sat in Mallorca at the weekend while the players played their second game in 48 hours at his behest, it totally takes the piss. Spot on, but unfortunately all the ingrates will see is the fatman riding in to save the day on his trusty (giant) steed. Like the clowns at the match having a go at the people chanting against Shepherd. SEE MAN! HE DUZ FKN CARE LYK!

So THAT's the reason he's went downhill. Of course! Nowt to do with him being shunted between team and bench, flitting between positions in a God-awful team and seeing an underperforming Irishman taking away his first-team slot mind. If Boumsong was still here he would be MINT.

So, we've known Shola's due an op for months now and because it's got past the point of no return recently we've tried to book him in ASAP... but now there's a queue for the surgeon so he could be sitting around for weeks before his rehab begins. Classic.

So speaks the most literate Soopafan around :wink:

For the record I never said he should never play again, but how can anyone justify a player telling practically an entire stand to "fuck off" and then sarcastically applauding them in the midst of potentially his worst performance for the club? The captain, no less. Admittedly the East Stand IS gash, though. It's just another measure of despair in my mind, because other than at half-time and after Sheff Utd scored I thought the support for the lads on a mong of a night/game was fairly outstanding, that's what makes it galling. I've never been one to slam Parker, but he was bang out of order.

Worse than any display I saw under Souness and not a word of a lie.

Disgrace what he did yesterday, much like some of the daft comments in here from people who weren't even at the game and had no clue about what went on between him and the East Stand. He was jeered every time he got the ball after his outburst and rightly so, Carr wants a slap as well for what he did to the Corner at half-time. I'm not even sure if it's the players who people boo/were booing, in my mind most ire was reserved for Shepherd/Roeder/selection/tactics/substitutions rather than the lads themselves. Until Parker did what he did the team was receiving tremendous backing and offering up absolutely nowt in return. I've never seen anything like the Parker incident before, could never imagine Beardsley or Shearer telling his own supporters to "fuck off" after he was rightly moaned at for a half-hearted bit of play on a day when he was absolutely shocking overall. The fans had every right to have a slight moan at him in that particular instance and his reaction was shambolic. Captain fantastic, my arse.

i guess that's a reason to decide if a player is good or not... Well most Asian are good,like PJ Soong,Seoul Kee Hyun etc. And I think Lee YP is not that far either. Well most European are good,like Henry,Rooney etc. And I think Wayne MB is not that far either.

Apparently, like Carr, Butt has been "top class" this season as well... deputy captain behind Moore as well... Do my negative goggles prevent me from seeing this or something? What has he contributed this term so far? ...and we're expecting Luque to play as target man by the sounds of things (Roeder is hoping he'll hold the ball up.) Marvellous. I am expecting a decent game, in fairness, but I can't help but laugh at a lot of Roeder's comments recently.

Canny wad of cash to get an adequate replacement in with, would be an excellent move for all parties concerned (Emre probably would jump at it, he'd probably be exceptional for them, Man Utd get Hargreaves and we end up with a lump sum), my only worry would be how the dosh was spent. Would love a player like Diop though, we've been crying out for a bit of physical presence in the midfield since Gary Speed left. The amount of headers he won was paramount to the sort of football we played, as it allowed the more creative players to do their thing and took a hell of a lot of pressure off the defence.

Why? What if the team who is playing the better football is Inter Milan or Porto or an equally grotesque club? What if the team playing "better" football is also diving all over the shop? That's how I would judge who I want to win as a neutral, as far as I see the British clubs are miles behind a host of others in the play-acting/cheating/time-wasting/diving stakes. Until that changes, I'll still support them. It's not just about the pretty stuff for me, yesterday I thought Chelsea were the better team and played more like a team than Barcelona did, same as Arsenal did in the CL final in the face of adversity. Saying all that, I don't dislike the big teams much at all - the only time my British supporting goes out of the window is when Spurs are playing in Europe... something I haven't had to contend with too much over the years bluebiggrin.gif

this is what i was thinking but not what i want to see Same here, I'd actually chuck Luque in for Emre to keep him fresh for Saturday (like Skirge has done) and I'd love to see O'Brien get a run out at some point. Fairly sure we'll see Milner on the left and N'Zogbia in the middle though whatever happens.

Don't know about anyone else but I always support English/Scottish teams in Europe, logically being a Newcastle fan there's a few problems there (increased revenue for "rivals", etc.) but at the same time there are a few positives as well (improves the reputation of the PL, means more games for our "rivals".) Anyway, I can't fully explain it but it'll be a rare day when I support a foreign team over a home team, especially a team like Barcelona - or any Spanish/Portuguese/Italian/Turkish team for that matter. Don't mind the Dutch, French or the German teams at all, though, I've just been soured by our own excursions in Europe against the "clever" nations and by England's failings in tournaments due to questionable conduct.