Rich

Well aye, but it's just such an incredible thing to say. I know not everybody rated Robert but he produced for this club. He had his problems with Souness, but even when that twat was manager Robert changed the way we played when he was eventually selected. Some people have bloody short memories. Robert scored and created more goals than the rest of the midfield combined, comparing his contribution with that of Luque is one of the most ridiculous things I've read. Agree totally. I think most people who continue to defend Luque are basing their opinions on snippets they've seen on tv of his time in La Liga rather than on his contributions in black & white. He's looked a poor player almost from day 1. I know he's had a bad injury and he's still settling in etc etc but he's produced virtually nothing when he's had his (limited) chances. Time to bite the bullet and take another big loss on another failure I'm afraid. Wish it had worked out. It hasn't. There's nothing to suggest it will happen. Sell him on for as much as we can as soon as we find someone to fill his shoes. I suggest we could get someone from the Championship to replace Luque's contribution. I said nothing about end-product/contribution, you pair of tarts. If you'd bothered to read the rest of my post, I was merely comparing the fact that Souness thought Robert was useless (which he obviously fucking wasn't, loved the bloke when he was here and he was a massive player for us) and replaced him with exactly the same type of footballer: only a worse version, for the same price that we paid for Robert originally - while selling the Frenchman on for next to nothing. I cannot believe that you've taken my post completely out of context and thought I was trying to defend Luque by comparing him with Robert. I really don't know how you can take that to be defending Souness/Luque, it's completely the opposite. Souness sold a quality player for whom we paid £9.5m for nowt and then bought Luque, a player in the same mould of Robert style-wise, for £9.5m - and Luque has never looked like being the player Robert was for us. That's why it was a laugh... and that's why I called Souness a c*nt for it.

I remember one where he let the ball drop over his shoulder and couldn't bring it down. But it'd be harsh to criticise that. He general touch on the ball was excellent, imo. Aye, gross overexaggeration tmonkey from what I saw last night. Thought Milner was pretty good, looked extremely lively and he was involved in a lot of what we did right. That freekick was a pearler, as well. As for Luque, I really can't be arsed to debate on a grandiose level because no fucker ever changes their opinions/listens anyway so it'd be a complete waste of time, but I thought he was played out of position last night and suffered because of it. However, that doesn't account for the numerous shoddy passes and miscontrols that we saw from him. He did win a few balls in the air against Ndeki mind, and could hardly be criticised for "not trying", I thought he was putting more effort in than I've seen from him so far entirely. Still not convinced he'll make it, but I hope he does - although I can't see him getting near a game in his preferred position, which is a real shame. He's obviously not a shite player but on the other hand he's hardly some technical wizard, like others are making him out to be - and he's not all that quick, either. He's similar to Robert in that shooting/crossing is his real strength (haven't really seen it yet, like), but technically he's not brilliant: touch, dribbling, control, etc. I still maintain that he could be useful when played in his correct position, but it will never happen because of N'Zogbia, Duff and now Martins being at the club. The biggest laugh for me is that Souness let a £9.5m player go for near nowt and then brought in quite probably the nearest thing to him for the same fucking price. What a fucking joke that Magnum PI c*nt is.

Freekick, surely? Couldn't be offside from a goal kick last time I checked. Never saw the highlights of the second half on Football First... in the ground I thought Luque was onside when he scored, glad to see I was right. Thought he did alright in his brief stint, despite getting half-a-dozen long balls to contest for against their huge defence.

Born in Rake Lane Hospital, North Shields, raised on the fine streets of Wallsend and later North Shields.

Deary me!

Deary, deary me. "I JUST WANT DEM TO WIN A GAYME!"

Poor bloke's fighting a war on two fronts with this thread and the "board" thread running simultaneously. That's what did for Hitler's Germany, that.

It's all been in the Chronicle today already... usually .co.uk are first with the news. Oliver back in the club's good books?

Completely agree. Dunno how anyone can argue with this insight.

Exactly, not to mention the fact that he probably wasn't ever running at full-pelt last season after his injury. Wasn't my opinion, btw, just Oliver's.

Similar story in today's Chronicle... everyone's favourite journo still doesn't seem convinced:

You smashing big bastard, you!

RONALDO 9!!!

I think you should go to Clinton's and buy Albert an apology card. And write it IN SPANISH without your bilingual friend to help you. THAT'll learn you proper good. Can I use an online translator, please? (I was apologising to LTA, not Albert - just to clear things up :winking:.)

Bloody hell! That's skim-reading for you, sorry about that. Good lad, Albert.

it's nice to see he doesn't need Solano around as much to do the translating for him Apparently Solano was there translating, as usual. (In the Chronicle today.)

Luque's future has never been safe here, I still think he'll be gone before the PL season starts.

I can't see how Roeder's looking at bringing in 5 players if there's no money available, I really can't. Especially when he's talking about bringing in players with Premiership experience, it's just not realistic. There must be some sort of cash floating around, not to mention what still could be incoming from Boumsong/Butt/Faye/Luque should any/all of them leave. In regards to the loan deal, I hope the way that it would be structured would be installments, so talk of it eating our budget up simply doesn't hit the mark for me. A new signing is an investment over a number of years, we could do with taking a leaf out of Spurs' book here. It's another one of those Summers where Shepherd has to gamble on getting it right by putting more money into the transfer kitty, but this could well be the last (it's already going to be scaled-back from last season.) Unless we get relegated/continually miss Europe then the risk isn't as great as Leeds' was, for example (I hope.) The way the talk has gone leads me to think that there is money there still, but we're being exceptionally careful this time around because we know it's our last chance to get it right in the market before a bit of asset-stripping comes in. If you think about it, it makes sense for the club to be playing pauper in an attempt to not get ripped off by selling clubs. I could just be looking for a silver lining here, but I think there's logic in what I'm saying. I agree with NE5, too, we must pursue SWP with everything we've got. He's huge pals with Bramble and Dyer and was apparently close to moving here last season before Chelsea moved for him, so things are in place to make this an attractive proposition to him. I think his season at Chelsea has made people forget how brilliant he was for a shite Man City side, the boy is pure class.

Lee Howey, Garry Bennett, Marco Gabbiadini, Phil Gray, Gary Owers and Martin Scott amongst others.

Just beat 'Boro 3-1, goals from Beardsley (2) and Beresford. Hendrie scored for them.

That team with Souness would have undoubtedly lost, it was a piss-poor team both on paper and in practice, so I suppose Roeder deserves a hell of a lot of credit for even getting a point. Pattison, Faye, Babayaro and Chopra are nowhere near what we should have in our team, and the rest are hardly great shakes either (barring Shay, Nobby and Charles week-in, week-out). I'm not in support of Roeder taking the reigns full time but the way he has run the team, for the most part, has been extremely uplifting and to think we'll be finishing top eight is quite something after the first part of the season. Disappointing day, nevertheless, but it was never going to be a classic. Still an awful long way to go.