Mowen

I thought he should have put it out.

No more... Essien.

Are there any legal radio links I can listen to?

From BBC "Dinamo president Mirko Barisic claims the fee amounts to £16.25m but BBC Sport understands it is around £7.5m". So...erm...ya. IIRC it was a mistranslation, he said something along the lines of "Arsenal have spent some of the £16m they received for Henry on him" and the translators omitted the words "some of". Could easily be wrong though

He might scare Hilario into dropping it.

They paid about £8m for Eduardo.

The wings are the key to this team. Faye and Butt will be destroying, and our wings are Beye/Milner and Zog/Duff. Hilario is shit, so if Smith gets forward to challenge for crosses we could cause trouble.

Need to get Milner and Duff swinging in as many crosses as possible with Hiilario in goal.

You're probably right. If we played with two wide men, two up top and two destroyers in the middle we could be very effective though, imo.

That's a big and strong midfield they're sending out. Having Faye in the mix could be important to us.

I really hope that lineup means a 4-4-2 with Smith up top rather than in midfield. If so, I'm reasonably happy with the selection.

That looks like a 4-4-2 with Faye and Butt in mf and Smith and Martins up top to me. We'll see, but that wouldn't be too bad.

Very much doubt it'll be 4-4-2. But with Martins, Milner and Duff, it's a struggle to work out just what the hell the team actually is going to shape up like. Probably 442.

Someone's been playing a LOT of FM.

Good post NE5. A lot of people talk about the "complete midfielder" and I don't think such a thing exists. Fabregas can't head the ball, Essien can't shoot, Gerrard is wank 50% of the time (and can't tackle...unbelievable he never gets sent off). You have to look for the best compromise you can, and find someone or something that fits into your gameplan.

I quite like the sound of this. I'd probably play Viduka ahead of Smith, if only to dissuade us from playing long balls, Oba showed against Arsenal it's very unlikely he's going to be getting on the end of flick ons anyway. Also, fuck it, let's have a look at Enrique!

That sounds like someone declaring himself a legend for two top 5 finishes.... howay Martin! You were only the second top spender!

As I agreed with someone in the match thread, we would have comfortably beaten Derby had Owen played.

Yeah, just like Keegan did. Well, it might work in the way Keegan did but why take what is such a huge risk? Not many people go on to do well in their first job at a big club (which we are, without wishing to get into that debate). Yeah, I realise that, think it would be a huge gamble myself. Just wanted to point out Parky's hyperbole as much as anything. These appointments can work, but I'd say they're a bad idea generally.

Yeah, just like Keegan did.

Don't suppose you know where there are any quotes to this effect? Can't find them...

What are you on about? Trying to be funny, again. coming from mr personality, that hurt. did you see that referee not giving the advantage in the stevenage/cheltenham match? fucking hell!! whats his game!! mackems.gif Can't believe I didn't notice this!

I'd still like to see Appiah here if Diarra can't happen for whatever reason.

Souness was undoubtably worse for NUFC than Allardyce could be, unless he sends us down. Souness took a team that had finished 4th, 3rd and 5th and took them well down the league. He pretty much destroyed them. Allardyce can't possibly destroy a team to that extent, given that he's inheriting a team that gained our lowest ever PL points total.