chicago_shearer

How about Saha in the summer?

 

Would he come? Would he make us better?

 

Alan Smith and Nicky Butt. Now Wes Brown and Louis Saha. Why don't we just go and sift through their wheelie bins while we're at it?

 

I could watch Man U tv for £6 a month if I wanted to watch their reserves.

Good point.  I'd prefer players who view joining the club as a step up rather than the only way to maintain an enormous salary outside of the top 4. 

Players like Bridge, Brown, Saha...what is the incentive to come to Newcastle and succeed?  Surely the whole point of getting Jimenez/Vetere/Wise is so we have a more competitive transfer policy; not the same old overpriced, motivationally challenged cast-offs.

Forget a solid spine man, Taylor, Butt & Smith work their b*llocks off. What we need are players who can actually do something with the ball.

Yep.  Work rate always helps, but some of them just aren't up for this level.  You can't polish a turd.

Are Troisi & Lua Lua any good?  Any chance throwing them in might give us a spark?

Boro 1-0 Fulham

 

Boro are above us now.

 

It would be a tremendous achievement if we finish in top half this season.

Fuck the top half.  I'll take the top 17. 

Rivalries excepted, some good results for us.  Derby are down basically, and we are still 9 points clear of Fulham. 

He can drop who he likes - I've got no affection from any of them really.  But if he did drop all the underperformers I don't know what sort of a team we'd have left.

Posted this in the match thread, but gonna post it in here and all, so I don't have to keep reading the utter bollocks that people spout in there whenever we lose - is there anything worse than the match thread after a defeat!?!? - anyway:

 

It's pretty simple really.

 

The team's confidence is very very fragile and their fitness is also not up to scratch. We start games well and at a good tempo, but we can't keep it going into the second half and when the other team comes back into the game we don't have either the heart or strength to cope with it. Once one goal goes in then our heads go down and it's almost inevitable that more will follow. What people on here are either ignoring - or simply to f****** stupid to see, perhaps - is that our good periods are getting better and lasting longer, progress is being made.

 

At the moment it's not important how badly it goes wrong once it's gone tits-up, it's all about what happens before that point. What we really need is to manage to grab a couple of goals when we're playing well at the start of a game and then scrape home to a win. Once we've done that, you'll see the confidence come flooding back into the team and I reckon we'll go on a bit of a run towards the end of the season. However it's going to take a while and it could go wrong if the players stop believing that it's going to happen. KK will have his work cut out to keep their morale up and if you see us start a game like we've been finishing them, that's when we should start to really worry. For once the fans do actually have a real chance to make a positive difference and hopefully the people who seem to love nothing better than wallowing in our own crapness, by booing the team at the earliest opportunity and going way over the top on here, will either shut up or suffer some unfortunate accident.

 

Yeah, we're poor at the moment, but we're getting better, there are still positives to be seen.

Confidence and attitude is probably 40-50% of the problem.  We also have to recognize that this is a shockingly poor team - when we eventually get rid of half our players you won't see them again at this level. 

Hysterics don't do anyone any good, but if we manage to survive this season, drastic, expensive action has to be taken.

In the mean time, I think we need about 9 points.  Anywhere will do.

Boro 1-0 Fulham

Why sad?  Fulham and Birminham both losing is excellent news.

Don't really need to be losing coaches when the season is still in the balance.  This should have been taken care of two weeks ago instead of distracting from the important business of not getting sucked into the relegation battle.

A crafty bit of political opportunism from the prime minister. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/7235912.stm

Speaking from the perspective of a Far East "Glory Hunter," I don't want this either.

 

Our domestic leagues are having a hard enough time as it is trying to interest people who just want to watch the Premiership on the telly. What happens when the Premiership now actually comes in for a weekend every year, steals our stadia from our hometown clubs, and start a media circus which will no doubt leave any interest in the domestic league swept up in the dust.

 

I love Newcastle United and the Premier League too, but who do they think they are, saying that they'll just barge in and hold competetive games here with no regard for what we think. It's not like American football which basically isn't played outside of the US, these foreign countries have leageus and tems of their own. And if the Prem thinks that we're goign to drop everything and open up our stadia for them whenever they decide to waltz, in, they are sadly mistaken. We aren't beggars ffs.

 

The Japanese FA has already issued a condemnation of the proposal, and I'd be highly disappointed if the Korean FA didn't soon follow.

 

So English fans don't want it, and foreign fans don't want it. The only ones who want it are the walnut-for-brains glory hunters who follow Man U/Arsenal but would be hard pressed to name a single player from any other Prem team, and the club owners who seek to make money off those unfortunate souls.

 

Bad idea.

Fair point really.  It is a slap in the face to the leagues in Asia and America, although I hadn't really thought of it like that.

Why does Newcastle still have a horrible PremiumTV website like lower league clubs when most of the top Premiership teams have their own format?

Well personally I think it's a grand idea. 

The man is a true legend, but was Sir Bobby a bad judge of character or what?

Bellamy, Zoggy, Jenas, Bowyer....some good players (with the possible exception of Bowyer) but he assembled quite a set of moody, disloyal and/or unlikeable players.

To be fair to Sam, we don't have anyone capable of playing right wing effectively so you can't blame him for trying it.  Oba, Geremi, Duff, Barton and Milner have all been tried there with no success.

from the past 5 games then stephen carr, tbh hes been class

Did you like the way he jumped like a fat leprechaun's grandmother for Boro's goal?

He is an old, useless player who has no business in this league.  We are the only ones daft enough to employee him.  I have my doubts about whether he'd even end up at a Championship club if we cut him loose.

Definitely Retain:

Enrique and N'Zogbia have the pedigree to be very good players.  Definitely retain.

Cacapa is on a bad patch, but put him behind a set of good midfielders and I think he will come good.

Beye is exceptional IMO and should be our captain.

Faye is exactly what this team lacks; Premiership ready professionals who don't panic and act like children.

On the fence:

Taylor and Milner are sub-par at the moment, but should probably be retained as squad players unless massive offers come in.

Martins is a good player, but not a great one.

Emre hasn't done enough to convince me, but may stay unless we make a profit.

Given is not as irreplaceable as he once was, but is still valuable.

Owen, Duff, Viduka may be past it.  Sell if possible.

Smith I don't particularly care about or see the point of.  But I wouldn't cut him loose for less than 3 or 4 mil.

Out now:

Barton is a nasty thug, I don't have the patience to put up with him.

Butt, Carr & Ramage should be taken into a large field and shot like the poor, lame mules they are, by a teary eyed Farmer Keegan.

Bottom line:

We need 8 or 9 new players at a minimum, 5 or 6 of whom should be able to walk into the first team.  A tall order, but a necessary one.

Faye, midfield, Martins up front with Owen.  The little/large combo only works when you have people playing accurate long balls to players capable of bringing them down.  Since we can't pass accurately anyway it shouldn't matter and we might as well try them together for a run.

Anyone still reckon this squad can get in the top 6. 

 

Yes if KK would play our best player in their best positions and that they would stay fit, and pot a good system in play.

If Keegan bought good players to play in those positions, then maybe.

As it stands, we don't have enough quality for the top half, never mind the top 6 or 7.  Ask your City, Pompey, Villa supporting mates how many of our squad they would have instead of their own.  Not many I would wager (if any at all).

I'm quite looking forward to Euro 2008.  Didn't think I would be, but it will be nice to enjoy nice football without the cruel blow of bitter, soul sucking, weekend destroying disappointment for a change. 

Just curious - has anyone found an online newspaper that isn't written by Alan Oliver and doesn't hate us?

Times & Guardian are clearly out.  Independent or Telegraph?

    I wonder where all this negativity comes from. I mean it is just crazy when was the last time we saw all attacking instinct like this in our team. With the right referee and luck we could have won easily today.

I wonder where all the positivity comes from.  These misfits keep kicking us in the balls, and yet some people keep telling me they are almost ready to turn the corner.

As my grandfather used to say, you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.  Which I think is a nice way of saying you can't make a top 6 team out of dogshit fizzy pop players.

The big mystery to me is how, after all the money spent in recent years, we ended up with a team no better than relegation fodder.

Keegan is irrelevant.

The blame falls on our bad players.  I'll form my opinion of Keegan Mk 2 based on what he does this summer (provided we stay up). 

I want to see some careers ended.  I want to see some of these players find themselves playing for Swindon or Norwich or Stoke, suddenly realizing that they also have to pay the price for underachievement.  Although it may be harsh on two of our new players, there isn't a player in this squad that I would be upset to see the back of.  And that is the first time I can ever remember thinking that.  I have no respect for them.

Can the sunshine "not the bad" brigade please just stop with the laughing emoticons and annoying, unwarranted positivity?  It is a defence mechanism against more disappointment dished out by this hopeless excuse for a football team, and it isn't fooling anyone.

They are going down.