chicago_shearer

Please be Everton. Not likely. Everyone turns them down.

Smith, nailed on. Can't wait for the Smith/Barton partnership of non stop leg breaking & (alleged) cigar-in-eye action.

Who knows where all these rumours come from, but Faye & Dragutinovic seem like the sort of players Sam has been describing. Experienced, strong defenders. A 31 year old might not be the long term solution, but thats not what we need at this point. Fingers crossed.

Minor strains probably aren't unusual in pre-season. Trust the press to make a story out of it though.

I'd be very happy with that.

Even if it somehow ends up being true it's still poor journalism. Is he getting this news from the typical 'source close to the club'? An agent or representatives of the player? Another journo in the north-east? Even if he doesn't want to use direct quotations, someone has to have phoned him up with this info and he should give us some hint who it is.

How do British sports journalists keep their jobs when they get it wrong so often? Surely there has to be some sort of editorial standard. This is a story in a national broadsheet that has the same credibility as TeamTalk.

That would probably be: 'It is my understanding that following the departure of Freddy Shepherd I have become a complete irrelevance. I know longer have any meaningful access to the club, making it difficult to speculate on matters of which I have no insight or understanding. Anything I subsequently con an editor into printing is therefore wide of the mark.'

This strikes me as the product of a petulant, amateur journalist who has been cut out of the loop by recent changes and consequently decided to stir up trouble for his own sake.

I'd love to know why these family problems weren't mentioned at the beggining of the transfer window when more could have been done to plan on replacing him. Or why a resolution couldn't involve moving his family to Newcastle. I don't want to be overly cyncical, but this coming out so close to the end of the window appears very much like twisting the clubs arm into accepting a cut price bid. Engineering a move even. It could be true for all I know, but he signed a contract not that long ago and he should be expected to honour his commitments. Especially to a club that has made him a very rich & successful man.

There's quite a few people on here would like to see Owen leave, and given the chance of a decent move, he'd want to leave as well. Just doesn't have the balls to say it. Should we boo him also? He's said just the opposite and things are made worse by Dyer's history. But if Michael Owen had actually said he wanted to leave, then I wouldn't care if he was booed or not either. I'm not advocating it, but it just doesn't bother me.

The people that booed want him to leave. He has said himself that he wants to. And it looks like it's nailed on that he will. A waste of time, I agree. But in this case who cares?

Sell all but two and then complain about injuries later in the season.

This match could do with some Boumsong. Come on Ranieri, give him a run out.

Exactly. What the fucks he doing just standing there?

I would bring Geremi & Rozenhal off now. Simply cannot afford any injuries to them.

Was in the toilet whilst Luque was substituted.......did the crowd give him a well-deserved applause?? Yes.

Didn't look serious.

He's pretty good on the ball, doesnt just hack at it but plays the ball well. You mean a defender who is also a decent footballer? At this club?

spurs. not sure personally. depends what his role would be. if he didn't interfere with transfers other than to approve funds for them then i would be for. His heart is in the right place, it could be a really help to allardyce is used right, if used wrong it would be a very bad thing. Frank Arnesen was in charge of transfer policy, recruitment and youth development. Keegan has been out of football for years and couldn't possibly offer anything in either of those areas. Nor would Allardyce be likely to willingly cede control over these areas. This is just stupid nostalgia. Hopefully it's in a tabloid and therefore complete bollocks.

If Ashley appoints Keegan as a DoF (without Allardyce himself having requested it) then Sam just might tell Ashley where to shove his strategic review and resign. It undermines his authority as a manager and would represent a deliberate attempt to question his style of play. It would be a complete disaster. I would imagine that when Sam signed, he had agreements with the previous regime as to what he would require. I'm going to guess they did not involve a strategic review during the transfer window or a popular predecessor with a reputation for attacking football being brought in as a babysitter.

Please no. If I were Allardyce, I would be furious. And rightfully so. No good will come of this, and I really hope Ashley isn't that stupid.

Beaten by about 5 seconds. You can probably find somewhere on the internet showing his goal in an Asian friendly this week. Looks a frighteningly good prospect.

Not really looking forward to seeing what Nani will do in a team with C. Ronaldo.

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