Mowen

I'd forgotten you fancied Rossi.

Are'nt you his mate though? He IS Darren Fletcher. I worked this out a while ago.

Had a decent year at Pompey last year according to my housemate who supports them. Didn't see much of him myself, but he'd add pace.

I would reckon the same lineup again with a 2-1 win.

Not top half with that strike force, imo. Mido and Aliadiere as first choice?

He went out on loan to Brum for the second half of the season iirc.

Duff and Shola have both been much better players for NUFC. And I say that in full knowledge of how s*** they've been. I agree with you there Alex but how many chances has Ameobi had compared to Luque? Why do you think he gets more chances, and has done under every manager? Could it be because he looks like he's trying when he's on the pitch?

Is 9m for Viduka your honest guess at his market value?

I'm also amazed by how many people seemed to watch him every week in Spain...

Even after all this time I'm still staggered by the staunch defense of Luque put up by some posters. I just can't understand it.

mackems.gif

Could turn out to be a useful signing for them. If he chips in with 5-10 goals he could well keep them up. I was an advocate of us signing him last season: he's not good enough but would have been better than Sib, and Martins could have learnt a bit from him about how to use his pace.

That's probably what I'd pick, but I reckon we'll have pretty much, if not exactly, the same team we had out for the last two. I think Barnsley will be Cacapa's first start.

I agree. Besides, we still have Taylor, Solano and Geremi as options there,

Just wanted to quote this bit.. unfortunately? Who would you play instead? He had a weak game against Villa but with Emre not looking likely to be fit he's probably the best passer available from our CMs.

He's on the right track anyway. Also it seems fairly clear that we are/were trying to sign Beletti, which would indicate that he's not too happy with Carr.

Spot on I reckon. My only slight criticism is that I would prefer him to be busting a gut to get a decent RB in before the deadline, but there's a good chance that's happening anyway.

If he's happy, then he's an idiot. If he's just saying it to keep players happy until he finds better,fair enough. The fact that he looks to have been attempting to sign Beletti and Faye would suggest he knows it needs improvement.

I'd be very surprised if Owen starts on Sunday. If we were to play 4-4-2 it wouldn't be a shock to see Shola and Martins line up; they looked as though they had the makings of an understanding in the few games they played together at the start of last season.

If we're going to do this hypothetically you have to assume everyone is fully fit; in which case I'd go for Owen and Viduka. Martins would be a pretty exciting impact sub.

In fairness I find it hard to blame the ref when he's taken in by play acting. At high speed it's bloody hard to tell whether it's a foul or not: neither Lawro or Green on the radio had a clue whether or not it was a pen at high speed, yet having been unable to make the decision for themselves at high speed with an elevated view of the situation they then call someone incompetent for making a mistake. Fucking indicative of the way refs do, but shouldn't, get treated iyam.

Does Shay Given still creep in?

Didn't notice Smith do too much apart from that near post flick on, which was excellent. Owen should have scored a couple but it's at least promising that he's getting sharp enough to get into goal scoring positions. Hopefully a copule more games and he'll actually be converting them as well. Shame Taylor didn't get on the pitch, had a quid on him being last goalscorer at 60/1 on the basis we'd probably be behind, and if he'd come on he would have been up for the set pieces!

No they didn't he left Chelsea on a bosman and signed for Barca. He went for £8m.

Dyer showed that you can stretch a team if there's pace and movement there. He also displayed he's not very good at football. It's all very well looking dangerous, but if it never amounts to anything then is it worth it? He missed two very good chances and played the ball behind Lampard when a simple pass to the right space would probably have meant a goal. On another note, the only players who impressed me were Richards, Cole and SWP. Cole really is a pleasure to watch when he's running with the ball, and the way SWP managed to wriggle between the two players stood next to each other near the end was brilliant.