Mowen

"attainable" - Santa Cruz??? Agbonlahor? Carrick?? Bentley??? Are you quite insane? Do you know what potentially means? Do you think we're honestly in a position whereby a display of ambition wouldn't be able to attract players from Blackburn Rovers? We need to aim as high as we can this summer. If we get knocked back with most of our bids then so be it. But I for one would rather we went for the best we could possibly get. Santa Cruz and Samba would both be attainable targets that would slot right into our first XI. Other alternatives to Santa Cruz, Cavenaghi at Bordeaux is showing good form and is a fantastic finisher, tho perhaps better as a number 9. Guerrero from Hamburg is another i have spotted from watching setanta, very strong, excellent in the air and skilful on the ball. I'm not certain that any Blackburn player is attainable if Hughes doesn't want them to be. Last summer Spurs were offering what I thought was silly money for MGP but Hughes said he wouldn't sell and he didn't. I rate Santa Cruz highly but I don't think Hughes would sell him, no matter what. If big money offers were coming in for a few Rovers players (Roque, Bentley, Samba) then I think Hughues would find it extremely difficult not to let one of them go.

"attainable" - Santa Cruz??? Agbonlahor? Carrick?? Bentley??? Are you quite insane? Do you know what potentially means? Do you think we're honestly in a position whereby a display of ambition wouldn't be able to attract players from Blackburn Rovers? We need to aim as high as we can this summer. If we get knocked back with most of our bids then so be it. But I for one would rather we went for the best we could possibly get. Santa Cruz and Samba would both be attainable targets that would slot right into our first XI. Other alternatives to Santa Cruz, Cavenaghi at Bordeaux is showing good form and is a fantastic finisher, tho perhaps better as a number 9. Guerrero from Hamburg is another i have spotted from watching setanta, very strong, excellent in the air and skilful on the ball. I agree. In an ideal world we'd be able to take our pick from anyone on that list, but I put a lot on because some wouldn't come/wouldn't be sold. I mainly wanted to prove that there are a lot of players we could get hold of in this division that would improve us. Kranjcar and Ireland are two of the more attainable from that list that would help us imo.

I reckon that only letting captains speak to referees would make a difference. The reduced pressure they would come under on the field could only be a benefit.

Martin Petrov repeatedly intentionally broke the laws through use of flagrant and pathetic dissent. Martin Taylor accidentally mis-timed a challenge. What he did was no where near as bad as, for instance, what Ben Thatcher did last season, and even this season I recall Robert Huth following through on someone clearly looking to do some real damage, and only receiving a yellow.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_3191398,00.html Skysports.com understands Birmingham defender Martin Taylor has visited and spoken to injured Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva. Taylor made the personal visit to Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital to see Eduardo after being left distraught by the serious leg injury suffered by player. Eduardo suffered a horrific broken leg just two minutes into Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Birmingham at St Andrews on Saturday. The injury occurred after the Croatian was caught on the leg by a mistimed tackle by Taylor with the defender seeing red for the incident. The injury left Taylor visibly shaken as he left the pitch with Eduardo being stretchered off after receiving lengthy treatment on the pitch. Comments Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger launched a stinging attack on Taylor at his post-match press conference before later retracting his comments. It is understood Taylor sought out Wenger in the tunnel after the match to speak to the Frenchman and to find out about Eduardo's well-being. The former Blackburn defender tried to visit Eduardo at hospital on Saturday evening, but was unable to see the player as he was undergoing surgery. Taylor returned to the hospital on Sunday morning to see the player and is thought to have spoken to Eduardo to find out the full extent of his injury and pass on his best wishes for his recovery. Good for him. The absolute least he should do. What else do you think he could/should do?

"attainable" - Santa Cruz??? Agbonlahor? Carrick?? Bentley??? Are you quite insane? Do you know what potentially means? Do you think we're honestly in a position whereby a display of ambition wouldn't be able to attract players from Blackburn Rovers? We need to aim as high as we can this summer. If we get knocked back with most of our bids then so be it. But I for one would rather we went for the best we could possibly get.

Potentially attainable targets who could be good for us, from the prem that I can think of: Agbonlahor, Carrick, Pennant, Bentley, Yobo, Kranjcar, Ireland, Santa Cruz, Doyle, Shorey, Bellamy, Ashton, Chimbonda, Nelsen, Samba, Muntari. Just off the top of my head. I'm well aware that most of those players currently are important to teams who are higher than us in the premiership, but ambition is essential this summer. If we're going to improve dramatically, we will find it very difficult without proven ability in this league. We are going to have to spend big to bridge the gap back to the European places, and we should have enough clout in the market that teams like Blackburn and Portsmouth will find it tough to hold on to their players should we come calling.

Yeah...and it was fucking brutal. You could see the bone and the foot just dangling...sickening. It was pretty horrible.

The word 'apologise' was just that little bit beyond him.

Didn't you wait until you were about 16 before you decided to support Newcastle though?

NM gives a masterclass in WUMmery. A class above Crumpy!

Aberdeen 1 up unbelievably!

Is that really true? I've been setting the queston "What's the biggest city in England never to have had a top flight club?" and giving out Hull as an answer.

Given that we tried to sign Woodgate, who went for £8m, it would seem he just couldn't find anyone to spend on. Maybe the Wise appointment will be helpful for the next transfer window.

Don't think we'd be able to get him, but would be worth a try if he does want to move on. Of those already mentioned I like the sound of Appiah, SWP, Bridge and one of the fanciful creatives eg Deco, VdV, Diego etc. I think there is a very strong chance of Brown being an NUFC player come the start of next season.

Totally agree and then add in right wing and pace up front. Absolutely.

Villa fans were booing yesterday ffs. A top 6 position is obviously not good enough. And "the media" didn't notice. Funny that. I'm not advocating not booing necessarily because it would make us worse than other fans. You just know the media would be all over it like a development in the Maddy case.

I concur.

Yep, let's boo. The media would fucking love that.

Something I find frustrating about his play is that, seemingly, when he gets the ball into feet he moves forward about 15 yards. But he has his back to ground, and is taking us back down the pitch. I realise that this sort of move would be acceptable sometimes, but it happens with distressing regularity.

I thought Joe Cole was a class act last night, was disappointed to see him go off. Probably the most entertaining England friendly I've seen since the Argentina game, we looked like a decent team who were comfortable in posession and capable of creating chances.

Superb midfield? You're having a laugh there. On the evidence of hte last three games, we don't have one. Brummie's right, Villa are shit. 3 points minimum on Saturday!

Apart from King and Woodie (who have bad injury records so can't be considered imo), you've only got one really good player Sadly that's still one more than us.

Not really! Although having said that Zokora and Tainio, for all their faults, are better than anything we can currently offer in CM.

Adebayor's got 6 more than him.