chicago_shearer

Exactly. When the extent of your central midfield options are Geremi (30), Nicky Butt (34 next year), and a player that may or may not be out of prison in time for the season then you need more than one quality signing to compete. Signing a young 21 year old with Premiership experience strengthens the team.

For starters, the team is slow, short and numerically small. It doesn't have any creative flair, Viduka never plays, set pieces have been atrocious and the defence struggled against very average attacking talent last season. But more generally, the league table doesn't lie. Those 11 players earned their 12th place finish. Smith and Allardyce were bad, but I'm not scapegoating those two for some collectively inept team performances. Big Sam wasn't masterminding all those mistakes. Yes...in the end we were six points off the top 10. But worrying about relegation in April wasn't just our imagination. Maybe Keegan can get them playing consistently better, and cracking the top 10. But that is the absolute limit of where a midfield of Geremi, Butt and Barton will take you, even under excellent management. I don't want the best possible performance from average players (sub-average when you consider that a team like Pompey has a midfield that is 10x as good as ours) because it will always yield average results in the long term. You are placing an extraordinary amount of faith in a team that has shown us nothing and putting too much pressure on Keegan to overachieve with players of limited ability.

MaethiS = SHITEAM = AM SHITE The joke is waring a bit thin. You've had your fun, now stop.

MaethiS is not a Newcastle supporter. He has no sources, no original information and there is no Jonas Gutierrez DVD. All of these responses are probably being cross-posted on a Mackem board so they can have a good laugh. Or it is a regular poster having fun. Please, just ignore him.

Get Inler & Larsson and we can afford to let either Barton or Emre go.

Working hard and step-overing their way to the Championship.

I'd actually like a few central midfielders who aren't grandads and/or in prison, so I'll vote yes. He is average, not shit.

Exactly my thoughts, I'm not his biggest fan and I don't really see him as much of an improvement on anything we've currently got at the club. Not only do we not have Premiership quality in his position, we hardly even have players at all. Maybe we should be aiming higher, but Sidwell would walk into our team (which says more about our squad than his ability). Butt & Geremi for another Premiership season? Fucking hell.

I like that Villa kit a lot. All the Nike kits seem far superior quality to the Adidas tack.

Very gracious from Bassedas. I can't remember much about his time here....didn't he break a leg on the US tour or something?

It's a Saturday with no real transfer speculation or activity, which allows the WUMs and wrist slitters to crawl out of their dark holes and moan/gossip about Oba to Arsenal, Ashley selling up, and the quality of players they know nothing about. WUMs thrive on days like these.

No ambition?? Getting paid what Harper earns for the amount of work he has done over the past 15 years is the extent of my personal ambition. I'd be very happy with that gig. Who wouldn't? It's not as if the squad have been winning medals and trophies while he sat on the bench.

In commemoration of our two Texaco Cup titles.

Close up... http://www.footballshirtculture.com/images/stories/fsc6/juventus_08_09_home_nike_shirt.jpg http://www.footballshirtculture.com/images/stories/fsc6/juventus_08_09_away_nike_shirt.jpg Swap the badge on both of those and they would be perfect Newcastle kits. I'm so tired of Adidas, bin them and get Nike ASAP.

Went and found this on YouTube.

I'm shocked. Not at the story, which is typical media bullshit, but at the fact that the club put out a denial via the club spokesman in the same news cycle without letting it fester in the papers for the weekend (which was the intention of putting it in on a Friday). That almost seems like good public relations, I didn't think NUFC did that.

Him and Derdiyok look like twins. I liked the look of him at Euro 2008, he plays in a position we desperately need to fill, he is the right age and it isn't a stupid amount of money. Sounds good to me.

If Mallorca are suing the player, not the club then how do they expect to get 15 million euro? In fact, it says here: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080702.wsptnew2/CommentStory/GlobeSportsSoccer/home that they announced their intention to sue before he signed for us. Don't understand that part.

Jesus wept. Martins to Arsenal, Keegan to be sacked, Ashley selling up, Barton in court again...do we really have another month of this to look forward to? No more Euro 2008 to use as a distraction either. The only people who seem to genuinely enjoy the silly season are Spurs supporters.

How many times has Custis linked Martins to Arsenal? Let it go man.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7477586.stm If Liverpool are selling at a reasonable price, I'd take Benayoun in a heartbeat.

God help the rest of us if that is true. 7th is the new 4th is the new 1st.

They didn't even use the "unnamed sources at the club" line. Also, what are "Tyne-Wear management circles"?

Me too. Would fit the bill in terms of our requirements.

very harsh On Joe Cole or England's left-footed talent? Because I did consider including Heskey or Barmby instead of Cole. I rate him, but he's done next to nothing in an England shirt.