chicago_shearer

The obvious answer is that O'Neill has someone lined up to replace him.

If he can pass a medical then fair enough. He's hardly going to get anyone excited, but it might provide some competition for a place and I doubt the transfer fee is anything at all.

Rozenhal, Cacapa, Drago & Taylor with Edmilson possibly joining them in January. Not bad at all.

Why exactly do Parker, Dyer, Bowyer & Bellamy have a reason to "up their game" against us? The only one that might have a grievance at the way he was treated was Bellamy, but that has f*** all to do with Allardyce & the new regime does it? The rest of them were paid very well for very mediocre performances. If they had anything to prove, they had plenty of opportunities to do it when they played in black & white. You think they will magically fulfill any potential they had because of a move to London? As it stands, I see a group of highly paid, ageing underachievers who don't have the best of relationships with each other. If Curbs can turn them into a group of winners, then well done. But I'm not any more worried about West Ham because of that group of players.

Pretty much sums up how I feel. I hope he is in the squad for the Sampadoria match. It would be a blast from the past to see Smith & Viduka line up together for each of their Newcastle debuts.

Dear Kieron, You were very fast and scored some impressive goals a few years ago. You got punched in the head by Lee Bowyer. Then you got injured, and I forgot you were in the squad for almost a year. But then you came back for a while, and looked half decent sometimes. And now you are leaving. Best of luck in the future. Bye!

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?