Mowen

Any arsenal player that's shit, including Baptista, if my two arsenal supporting housemates were anything to go by last year.

Yep. Would also probably be first-choice right-back anyway. Will turn out to be Babayaro at Right back tbh.. Don't trust Chelsea,all we get from them is shit players who are past their best.. If the thread is being bumped, so is this post

Robbie Savage

If, and it's still a big if, the deal goes through for more than the initially reported £6m (not all up front) then those who said Ashley fucked up will have some egg on their faces!

Wouldnt really say that tbh. The strikers had no problem netting 68 goals between them last season with the same midfield providing them. "The final ball was not good enough and we couldn't create a lot," conceded Jol. "You can have all the finishing power but if you don't have the loading systems it's difficult."

Agree with the first part but not the second. They had an awful start to last season and still came 5th. If they're still struggling after 4-5 games then the pressure will be on.

Or N'Zogbia, Taylor, Milner, Enrique? I see what you tried to do there, but people aren't going to fall for that on a Newcastle board. Dont forget the premiership's top scorer I wasn't going to include him, but seeing as he's happy to use Bent as an example, then yes Martins as well. His point doesn't stand up to scrutiny at all, I don't know why he thought noone would pick up on that on a Newcastle board. The players I named, IMO, are exceptional talents (from what I've seen of them) and have massive pedigree in their respective countries. Notice how I missed out the likes of Dawson, Huddlestone, Jenas etc. If you're trying to say James Milner is in the same bracket, ok, whatever. Obviously I was trying to make a point when I named those players, and to a certain degree, they are your 'ones for the future'. Not to much of a degree though, because it's very unlikely Ramage will be around after this season, and Huntington won't be unless he comes on a lot. Edgar seems to have something about him, but I don't think too many are pinning all their hopes on him being the future.

I've got Bianchi in as captain for these midweekers.

Wouldnt really say that tbh. The strikers had no problem netting 68 goals between them last season with the same midfield providing them. Think how many they could get if they had a better midfield behind then than Zokora, Jenas and Steed. All are good midfielders tbh. Our problem is none of them can actually defend that well. Steed's good, and Zokora looks OK from what I've seen of him. My point about a lack of service was fairly obviously mainly about service coming from a wide area I would have thought, but never mind. Shearer scored goals throughout his Newcastle career (until the very end) and we had a wank midfield a lot of the time. Spurs's midfield doesn't do their strikeforce justice.

Wouldnt really say that tbh. The strikers had no problem netting 68 goals between them last season with the same midfield providing them. Think how many they could get if they had a better midfield behind then than Zokora, Jenas and Steed.

All that firepower and no service.

As such he would seem the ideal candidate to loan out.

Fantastic for Man Utd. If they could get him on the pitch, which would take a miracle. He'll play a lot for us this season I reckon and £10m is absolute peanuts. Mido's just nearly cost Boro £7m. Boro are a joke, desperation to the max with that purchase. As for Owen, i'd be pleased to see him play 20 full games this season, i doubt he will. I'd rather take the money and sign someone of lesser quality who plays 80% of his games, rather than 8%. Do you have anyone in mind though? I just think if we can get him fit we have a great asset on our hands. And I don't see the point in signing some middle of the road striker as a squad player and that's all you'll get for the money unless we unearth some foriegner. And even then you're probably talking about writing off the first season. I'd rather have Owen here until his contract expires (at least) and try and get him playing as much as possible. That's the best way to get us where we want to be, i.e. top 6. Agree absolutely. He's not played anywhere near enough so far, but he's the sort of calibre player we need if we're going to kick on.

Cheers for your help Ozzie, much appreciated. Vasas are at home to Diosgyori that weekend as well so I might check that one out instead. My knowledge was so limited that I just looked for a team with Budapest in their name! No sign of Ferencvaros in the top flight! I'm going to be in Split when the game is, might look into heading back to Zagreb for the night but probably won't bother, if they'd been up against better opposition it might have been a different story.

Looking at it, we're going to be in Croatia when they play Estonia at home (Sept 8th), anyone know where the croats play their national games? Isn't there a problem with violence in Croatia?

I lived in Budapest for a while, and went to games at Ferencvaros, Ujpest, Vasas and MTK. It was all pretty crap. At that point (late '90s) only Ferencvaros could fill their stadium, Ujpest had the next strongest support, and MTK were winning everything because a businessman who'd made his money out of a national retail chain (!) had put some cash into the playing staff. MTK were always known as the "Jewish" team, which meant they got a lot of racist crap from rival supporters. I was at an MTK-Ferencvaros game where the Fradi support outnumbered the MTK fans, and they were all singing anti-semitic songs. I found that aspect of the game there pretty depressing. Otherwise, no money, crumbling stadiums, bumbling football. Everyone eats toasted pumpkin seeds, which you can buy from street sellers on the way to the stadium. Ferencvaros had the best atmosphere even though I hated the club. Vasas was my favourite. Friendly crowd of drunken trade unionist types, and a bar behind one of the goals where you could get a beer and breaded chicken sandwich while watching the game. It's changed a bit since I was there -- then dominant Ferencvaros in deep shit, for example -- but I think you'll find it's still pretty crap. When you go, who are MTK playing? They've got Zalaegerszeg (sp.) - we're only going for 5 days and that's the day after we arrive so I figured that a club with the name Budapest would be the wisest - is there another team in the city? It's on 1st sept, was looking into going to a game in croatia first (go there after Buda) but there doesn't seem to be anything on. Don't suppose the Internationals are being played early sept?

I wanted to go when I was out there, the bastards were away that weekend though! Couldn't be bothered with Espanyol.

Anyone been to many? Good experience, different culture or the same? I'm planning on going to an MTK Budapest game when I'm there on holiday, tickets will cost me about £1.50 so if anyone knows anything about Hungarian football (hooliganism?) then that would be pretty helpful, even a decent English website to read about it on would be good. Quite looking forward to it, will be an interesting way to spend an afternoon for not much money. Obviously would prefer a higher profile game but there isn't that much scope for it in Croatia and Hungary

Did anyone think to egg it?

Last season I would have said Reo-Coker at Wham.

Robert? As far as his handling of Alan Oliver is concerned, Laurent Robert could not be more of a legend in my book.

Barton? I see your point, but I think where the difference is is that Diouf's a cunt on the pitch; diving, cheating and spitting. A large proportion of football fans don't care too much about what they don't see on a saturday afternoon(/ saturday morning/evening/sunday morning/friday afternoon etc.) so long as it doesn't hinder the team's progress.

Besides, even after that you've probably still got Defoe and Johnson ahead of him in the queue.

Bent and Crouch will probably play.

Would hasten Rampage's exit....