Mowen

I concur. Still think it's a scandal.

Or you could come for a beer

Regardless of how much money I had, if I was a professional footballer at the top of my game I'd be absolutely gutted purely from a sporting perspective if I had to pack it in earlier than I expected.

I like Guthrie, he's tidy, retains possession better than any of our other midfielders and seems to understand the game well. He's unexciting for the time being but could progress. It's shocking that he's ended up being our best CM this season mind, he needs to be learning from those around him, not trying to drag them up to his level.

To be fair to him his free kick taking is actually fairly decent. It's his inability to pass the ball to team-mate 5 yards away that grates. fairly decent? not really, abysmal is the term i'd use It's better than I expected tbf (not that that's saying much). Unless that's just selective memory. I can only think of about 4 times he's had a dig this season, and of those he hit the bar at Villa and had one heading top corner against boro on monday before on of the people in the wall got enough on it to send it out for a corner. I actually think his finishing is one of his better attributes

Right so I've got about £44 in betfair now. Might try and see if I can get anywhere with this (I appreciate it's a low starting value...) by putting on bets I think might win rather than my usual betting technique of wasting £2-5 at the bookies on a friday with ridiculous accus. For anyone who does this, do you have any rules about bankroll e.g. never put more than 10% on per bet etc.? I'll undoubtedly get bored with this after 2-4 weeks and piss it all away on something stupid like the Tour, but it might be more interesting betting on something I actually know a little about. i done exactly that including the 10% thing. once i broke through £100 but got carried away on accu's. since last april i've taken 3 lots of £100 out at seperate times and on top of that had a balance of just under £400 but recently had to rely on a refer and earn to get funds in. learned my lesson re accies (though had a short priced five timer up last night).£78 now in the kitty through mainly singles. Interesting stuff, cheers. Do you look for value bets in particular or just what you fancy? Are there rough prices you look to bet at? How much of your betting is constrained to English football and how much do you branch out?

Carried the ball forward through the middle a few times. I thought he did very well, and would agree with starting him alongside Viduka against Fulham.

Class act that bloke. Brummie will be gutted.

Hopefully it's more Dave Kitsons. We've got loads of players that bad if they're in the market for them. Maybe they've forgotten Shola's not good enough? Xisco's a real talent if they're breaking transfer records here. Damien Duff, Geremi and Alan Smith all have real pedigree, rubbish players don't get championship winners medals you know. There's life in Nicky Butt yet, and who's to rule out an audacious swoop for Michael Owen on a free? The world's their oyster, exciting times ahead.

Any chance it's going to be Duff and Smith?

wow, i missed covenrty and QPR aswell......reading too. did you go through the country geographically in your mind to get them ? Pretty much. Then when I got stuck at the end I went through those I already had and tried to think of rivals etc.

Didn't even stick to the rules! He coloured outside the lines, he wasn't afraid to expand the scope of the task. But you, Mowen, you're a gossip and a snitch. I don't like that. You're fired. Didn't want to win anyway.

39, missed Coventry, Charlton (been there twice!) and QPR.

Would have preferred Leeds to come up. I guess Dave being annoyed is some minor consolation though.

Didn't even stick to the rules!

Can't be that sick. Skiving.

Don't remember that bit.

I agree with this. This isn't the time to be spunking money on "big" players. More Bassongs and less Luque's please. That's pretty much a nonsensical thing to say. Obviously we all want to sign better players for less money, but it doesn't work like that. We did well / got lucky with Bassong, but in the main better players cost more money.

Signed a few players. A few, not a lot. Brilliant at ManU, spiderman world's best player. "we're going to challenge the top 4" thought I and likeminded idiots. Keegan went, it hit cp40 particularly hard. Almost as hard as the team. I won £32 on an accumulator. JFK started well, faded out (lost at sunderland), and then went a bit heart mental. Hughton made Roeder look Churchillian. Bassong emulated Desailly. A danish man arrived: we signed him on a free, from germany and we like him. Almost there but yet so far. SHEARER, SHEARER, SHEARER, SHEARER, SHEARER, SHEARER, SHEARER

Foxy sounds decent. What will he cost?

Gorgeous, but just not Newcastle. Agreed would it work as an away kit? I wouldn't have thought so. I think Spurs did a similar thing a couple season's back (a halved shirt) - think it was third choice. But that actually had historical relevance. We've never, ever, ever been owt other than stripes. I'd rather see us go for a red and white striped shirt than go for a halved one, if we were to do summat sentimental... Infact, i'd rather go for Decky's cracking idea of having black and white stripes as an away kit. Am I the only one who is stunned at how Yorkie has gone from quoting that post to thinking of me? The man is clearly obsessed, and despite what he says, he has gone from the post he quoted to bringing up a post about me that was made months ago. The lad needs to go out and lose his virginity, anyway, someone give him the laughing smileys he is dying for in reply to that post.

Would dawson be an acceptable cover for Jose? Don't know how old he is but always assumed quite young for some reason. Can take a decent set piece too. Turner was getting rave reviews early on, always suspected this might be because he was scoring rather than his defending, not seen enough of them to really comment. Digard looks alright at Boro. Dawson is 30. No idea why I thought he was young, just always assumed it. Haven't seen a great deal of Hull this season, but those were 2 who were getting good write ups (and a lot of fantasy points...) early on. Have we been linked with Dan Fox recently? Doesn't billytray fancy him?

Would dawson be an acceptable cover for Jose? Don't know how old he is but always assumed quite young for some reason. Can take a decent set piece too. Turner was getting rave reviews early on, always suspected this might be because he was scoring rather than his defending, not seen enough of them to really comment. Digard looks alright at Boro.

Centre mid is the most important position for me. We're one centre back away from a potentially excellent defense, but we're 4 midfielders away from a decent middle. I think we've got the worst midfield in the prem, which is pretty impressive given that Blackburn have played Andrews and the Axe together this season.

I never had a problem with Enrique before though. He's always looked competent enough to me. Especially when Keegan was in charge. It was just that halfwit Kinnear who had a problem with him. I know Keegan wanted cover but I don't remember him coming up pretty much slating Enrique in the press. Don't think he ever criticised him outright, but Allardyce didn't seem keen on him. Strange, especially since we've seen glimpes of his quality and how good he can be.