Rich

Blame Nut and KaKa... and the fact it's a Sunday morning and not a high percentage of this forum go to Church.

Definitely. Good shout.

I'd be amused if we paid almost 50% of the entire club's sale value for one player, I have to say. Does anyone on here buy the NOTW, btw? If so, why?

Hasn't been sent off in the last 2 seasons I don't think, been booked 17 times like!

Totally agree with Gemmill and Mick here. I can understand why people are getting carried away but is it really too much to ask to give Allardyce and Co. a bit more fucking time to do their jobs? Every player we've bought so far looks better (on previous form/paper admittedly) than the one they've replaced in the squad and if Sam keeps on doing this then you won't hear me complaining. Queudrue is a massive step-up squad-wise on Olivier Bernard as well, if he comes. Like I've said elsewhere, it's "baby steps" at the moment while the so-called "review" takes place and we look at how to stabilise the club before taking it forward. We're doing things quite similarly to Spurs did when they got Santini/Jol and ENIC on board as far as I can see - and that has served them very well so far. I do see both sides of the argument, but I'm amazed at the amount of whinging/impatience/people who think they know better than Ashley and Allardyce on here!

It's just that the link needs to be included along with it as far as I'm aware and credit needs to be given.

That's what it comes down to in the end. Definitely. Whatever his motives are and even if he's just here until January, let's hope he's banging in the goals in for us in the meantime. Getting £9m for him wouldn't have mattered much now that Ashley is here and we'd still have had to replace him with someone (not an easy task when you're talking about Michael Owen, either). This has to be good news for us, surely? He has to perform though, I suppose, because people will be quick to get on his back otherwise.

I've let it grow, you should see it now! You can have some of mine, I've got tonnes of cuttings - that is officially AS9 henceforth.

You won't be expected to donate anything anyway, Parkster, so don't worry about it. The knowledge and insight you provide is generous enough.

I know it's cheeky, but some of the later stuff in here has been classic.

Yep, as I sit in row "AA" of the Gallowgate for Premiership games and it is indeed the front row. Also, used to sit in Milburn Paddock B Row LL which was canny near the front, as well.

All I can say to this most recent news is "Howay Luque!" blueyes.gif

My thoughts exactly on this. Still willing to trust Allardyce's judgement for now, he hasn't really put a foot wrong yet from what we know.

Allegedly, though. We don't know if that really is the case with Oba.

We could get away with 2/3 I'd reckon, if Sam is going to do what we expect and reduce the injuries. Obviously we need at least another left-back and another centre-half, but right-back looks fairly well-covered to me.

1 LB, 2 CB's and 1 RB will be my guess for what Sam wants. What we'll actually get is, of course, a completely different matter. For him to say we need "4 more defenders" means that he either doesn't see Solano/Geremi as defenders or that he intends to either sell Carr and/or Babayaro and/or loan out Ramage/Huntington/Edgar, etc. Depending on how you look at it, we've either got 5 or 7 senior "defenders" at the moment: Carr, (Geremi, Solano), Ramage, Rozehnal, Taylor and Babayaro.

If I didn't think OML was such a mint poster generally I'd have handbagged the bastard already! As for me being non-confrontational, pffffft!

Howay man, as I've just done with that sarcastic post there you've just changed the argument altogether and then said that me, Shak and Midds are "mistaken" for thinking Gudjohnsen can "skin people on the wing or hold the ball up as a lone striker" when none of us were talking about using Gudjohnsen in the speculated 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation! Apologies if this comes across as overly-confrontational but I'm not having that. The last I heard was us lot discussing the merits of Gudjohnsen and Martins, based on what we'd seen of them with our own eyes, and whether Gudjohnsen would really score that many less than Martins would for us if he was used in the same/a similar way. You were debating about them both being "second strikers" a few minutes ago... and now they're either up front alone or on the wing! The debate then got diluted by the introduction of some statistics which didn't tell anything near a "whole story" about their goalscoring records over the past four years and then you completely changed the scenario! I'd have been happy to "agree to disagree" with you along with Midds and Shak, I'm sure, but to be told "you're all mistaken, I'm afraid" is a trifle cheeky when none of us were actually talking about using Gudjohnsen in the way you assume he's going to be used if he does come here.

Just to be an arsehole I'm going to do your post from the other side of the fence, because that last sentence of yours has narked me: Martins' best ever season in terms of 'goalscoring' was 3 years ago when he scored 11 league goals. For argument's sake, let's assume that 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 is going to be the standard formation we employ next season: where would you put Martins? Do you think he can effectively partner Michael Owen in the Premiership? Do you think he's good enough to oust Owen from the starting line-up to partner Viduka? As someone has probably already said, there's a reason why Inter Milan sold him to us, he simply is not good enough to be a first-choice striker for a "big club". Martins has no place alongside Viduka because Michael Owen scores more goals than him and he has no place alongside Michael Owen because the two will not work effectively in tandem and anyone who thinks they can is mistaken I'm afraid.

06-07 Newcastle 11 Goals, 33 Games 05-06 Inter Milan 9 Goals, 28 Games 04-05 Inter Milan 11 Goals, 31 Games 03-04 Inter Milan 7 Goals, 24 Games Doesn't exactly look great either, like, although it's obviously "better". Posting stats like that is utterly naff though, because like you did I've simply took the league games he was involved in whether he started/was subbed/was a sub and used that as my measuring stick. No mention of circumstance or anything, just that Martins has scored 38 goals in 116 league games over four years, for different teams and quite probably playing in different positions. Whereas Gudjohnsen has scored 25 goals in 113 league games over the past four seasons according to Soccernet, whether he be a starter/subbed/a sub himself, etc. Utterly useless, basically. Anyone who's seen Gudjohnsen play knows he can score goals. For example, in 01/02 he scored 23 goals in 43 games for Chelsea - which sounds fucking brilliant when that's all you say to quantify that he's a good finisher. It's obviously not something we can "measure" too accurately, but I am inclined to agree that playing with exactly the same team-mates and in exactly the same games as each other, the goals outcome wouldn't look too different. It's why the choice between them is so difficult. To expand the debate further: I think Gudjohnsen would be a better partner for each of our 3 other "senior" strikers than Martins would, but again how can we know for sure? As long as we have one or the other I'll be happy, but I still hope we keep Obafemi for the age/potential factor.

I voted for Riise, by the way. Just. I haven't seen a jot of Heinze in the Copa America but he was fairly atrocious when I saw him last season for Manchester United. On the other hand, I've always been a big fan of Riise and as someone who saw Liverpool plenty last season I'm not sure if he's as poor a defender as he's being made out to be by some. Also, I did see him put in plenty of crosses as well, lots of them were exceptional. Heinze comes with the added benefit of being adept at centre-half mind you, which could be a bit of a bonus, but I think we'd have more chance of getting Riise if I'm being sensible.

Incredibly difficult to choose between two exceptional players and I've just about gone for Martins for more logical reasons than any (he's already our player, would Gudjohnsen come?) Would love to have both and would think they would make a mouthwatering partnership together, that's for sure.

This match is on about 3 times a week! Ruel Fox plays the game of his life and we still get tonked.

That probably is the point, actually! Be a bit boring if it was simply people picking either Riise or Heinze without any discussion, plenty of people have said they'd rather we went for someone else (Bridge mainly)! I know the thread's title makes it seem really streamlined but you've got to allow for some wiggle-room where a topic is concerned. You can bet if the "Neither" option wasn't there someone would have said: "where's the 'Neither' option!?" Contrary bastards, the lot of you.

He's worth more than £13M after his debut season, that's for fucking sure. At the very least he proved he could score goals in the top division (in a shite team) and that he could stay fit for the vast majority of a huge campaign (in a shite team) while carrying massive responsibility and everything as well. I'm not his biggest fan, but I hope he stays at least another year and that we get rid of that escape clause.