Theregulars

Mate, nine new signings... unbelievable. Gutted about Solano, mind. Think we are light on the right wing/ right side of midfield. Haven't replaced Dyer or Solano... but still ecstatic about us actually having a defence. Is our team now the hardest in the league or what?!

Would have gladly seen him given another role at the club, maybe in Academy, some kind of ambassador type thing, cares a great deal about NUFC at heart and genuinely nice guy. Can't blame him financially and for belief in himself in taking the job on when it was offered, not exactly about to turn it down when wanting to prove everyone wrong after his failures at West Ham. Blame Fat Fred (NANANANA HEYHEYHEY GOODBYE tosser) for hiring him and sacking Robson at the worst possible time and thus leading to the crisis which Roeder nobly sorted out and thus was in the frame when he never really should have been. Also blame Jabba the Hut for ensuring no serious manager would want the Newcastle job at that time. On the other hand I wish Roeder would stop appearing on SSN in relation to us, he's irrelevant now.

Come to think of it, Rozehnal looks slightly like Lord Voldemort from the Potter films. I clearly should be asleep by now like a normal person. I don't have the required 100 posts to start a thread, but maybe this could be a fun idea for one? EDIT: On the subject of Potter lookalikes, Sammy Lee and Wormtail from the films. I promise I'll stop now.

Depends what you mean like... long term value to the team in theory would be Enrique, maybe Rozehnal. I think if Barton could put his twat side behind him then he could become the face of our club, like Gerrard at Liverpool, for a while to come. Short term could be Geremi or Cacapa, if he turns out as good as he was against Barnsley... Overall I'd agree with Rozza right now, he's a big step up in class and calm from what we've had before.

If only we could get Beardo to sit in dungarees and hold the haribo logo... it's uncanny.

He seems to be playing more DM than AM at the minute, which is a strange waste of his actual, and limited, talents. It's the same with Geremi sitting really deep, don't really get Sam's 3-man midfield, Butt usually seems furthest forward. I'd take the three and have Butt deepest, and Geremi and Smith to the right and left respectively in more advanced roles. In actual fact, I'd drop Smith for Emre in that trio.

On the subject of that lookalike above, does anyone else think that Peter Beardsley looks like the cartoon kid on the haribo packets? Not sure how to put a picture comparison up, if someone knows what I'm talking about though... had me giggling for ages like.

any highlights tonight?

I've tried a translation off the top of my head: The English club are about to complete the siging of Brazailian player Juliano Belletti. Last week the player met with his brother and representative to listen to offers and it seems that he didn't leave disappointed. Bar a complete twist of events, within 48 hours Newcastle will announce the signing of the "hero of Paris" and Belletti, who will be very sad to do so, will abandon Barcelona.

Maybe he wants an attacking RB who can cover both RB and RW to replace Solano if he moves on to West Ham? Watch a lot of Barca and has played for them at RW a few times if they playe 4-4-2/when they have a few injury problems as regards the right of the three forwrds in a 4-3-3. Not up to much defensively, mind, but niehter are Carr or Solano.

Sad/disgusting that players use family as an excuse to engineer a move for money/moving to what they see as a nicer city. So many footballers live a relative hike from their families, get used to it! You're only required at the club for a few hours' training a day, if it was that bad make the commute a few times a week, on Dyer's salary he could fly in every morning by helicopter. If Nobby loved his family so dearly, why are there reports of his lovechild?! Ridiculous. TBH would be gutted if Nobby leaves. Would pay for Dyer's way to London.

IMO Martins is better anyway. How many people really expected Owen to come back after basically two years out and not pick up muscle injuries? No substitute for match practice/fitness. He'll never be truly fine but I'm sure he'll still contribute, people having a go what's the point? Just forget about it and get behind whoever plays instead. Remember that thing that Wenger used to do? Tell everyone Henry or Pires or Ljungberg was injured and then play them at the last minute? Maybe it's something along those lines (Sheer optimism).

Does anyone need any translations? Can speak Spanish.

Perhaps Smith isn't necessarily the replacement for Dyer - maybe Sam sees a current memeber of the squad being able to step up/forward and take on Dyers role (N'Zogbia? or Troisi? or Milner?) - hopefully with less injuries, and with more end product. Smith adss other qualities to the squad, and as a body, yes he is a Dyer replacement, but maybe not so much in actaul role. Just a thought! Good point, sir. I like your optimistic outlook on matters. Plus I'm happy to take it because I think Dyer is a snivelling turd.

does nobody have any confidence in Allardyce? I'm sure Bolton fans were as bemused as we are here when they signed people like Kevin Davies and El-Hadji "lack of saliva control" Diouf, but both turned into crucial players for them. Ffs lads, Sam has a talent for bringing the best out of mediocre players. Unlike Roeder, he isn't just going to sing a player based on the name and for the point of it (see Duff), he probably has a conrete plan for Smith. That said I don't quite see how he's a replacement for Dyer...

Talk of the massive clearout in the summer, but with his known ability to seemingly reinvigorate players, does anyone reckon it's an idea to see what he can do? Obviously players of the ilk of Bramble can go (imo past salvage) and anyone with attitude issues, but players like Duff/Dyer etc could become more consistent? Dare I say it 'd like to see if he could work with one Albert Luque......

I think my amazingly insightful point got lost up in this unfortunate incident of handbags!

I think one good reason to play him is the comparatively poorer/inauspicious starts players like Henry, Pires and Reyes had to their Premiership players. If he's kack, and he hasn't looked like a world-beater yet, then shift him off. But what we don't need is to be in a what if situation, as in what if we had given him more time and at his next club he becomes awesome. I DO believe the stuff about the injury and settling, there are many instances of confidence players, maybe he is one and he has every reason to be low on it at the minute. In the last two appearances he made, he looked like he could make a difference- much more so than Chopra in my opinion. I think Roeder has likely marked him down as someone with a bad attitude (I wonder what role Shearer had in this?) or something so is overlooking him, but he might look mank in training, who cares/knows. Point is, we paid a lot of money, he hasn't been given a fair chance- if Ameobi can blossom after looking terrible 90% of the time, I have confidence Luque can. I think a big reason is the fact that he is totally not suited to long-ball football, which we play a lot of the time. With him and Owen up front we'd have to pass it about and then I think he'd excel. I think people who simply dismiss him are missing a trick and overlooking a potential gem- why splash out another big sum for Shearer's replacement and make a loss on Luque, when we can try and nurture/encourage him over 6 months/a season and see if he comes good? His value can't get much lower than what it is now, and besides his reputation in Spain will remain intact for another season at least, in my opinion.