Mowen

He was crossing to Martins, Owen and Viduka last season and couldn't pick them out. I like him but he can't cross for shit.

Jonas, but see your point I think 'ability to beat a man and put a cross in' was all one thing

How much did Fulham, Everton and Villa spend last season? A lot, Villa certainly, but they and Everton were also building from squads who had done well the previous year. It's madness to think of the Top 8 being unreachable though - Fulham had miraculously escaped the year before and up to their late recovery had been worse than Newcastle were last year. There's no reason why a club with such a large support shouldn't be looking at Top 8 after promotion.......as long as the management is right. Depends what you think of as a lot, certainly nothing they spend should be out of our reach given the right people making the right financial decisions. Like you say the support is massive and that puts us an another league financially to most other clubs (apart from the two sugar daddy clubs and the top 4). Most clubs in the Premiership have very high wage bills as a percentage of their turnover, but Villa and Spurs (and Everton?) have shown that keeping that bill down can be done without the Champions League. Getting rid of (most of) the high earners plus the weakest Championship in my memory means this year is an opportunity to get it right. The need is for a manager that can stamp his authority on the team and squad-building (with some cash); if this doesn't materialise then this squad will come straight back down again. The thing is we haven't exactly cut any dead wood, the dead wood on ludicrous wages is the reason we're winning this league (likes of Nolan, Smith, Coloccini) - Duff is the only one who wasn't anywhere near delivering on his wages we've got rid of who wasn't off anyway. As it is, we've weakend our team substantially and have a, despite being reduced, very high wage bill even in premiership terms. In terms of players sold, other than Duff we've lost Bassong, Beye and Martins who were all very important to us in the premiership, Dukes and Owen were leaving even if we stopped up. Our squad will need massively rebuilding if we go back up as we seem to have a lot of players who are too good for this league but not up to scratch in the PL. It's going to be a massive job, and I don't buy it when people say being relegated could be a blessing in disguise.

now i'm a keegan lover ? seems like my work here is done. i've found a position on which i can disagree with everyone seemingly on all sides. That's basically the utopia, even Vic couldn't do that.

There's been talk of a new ground being built in Nottingham which Forest would move to. I've always thought the City Ground was decent though, only got one pretty decrepit stand.

reply no19. he's a long time toon fan. Didn't see that. Good lad. Has he got any known connection to the area?

Isn't Norman Wisdom a toon fan? Sure I've seen it alluded to on nufc.com before. Jimmy Adams the Windies cricketer is as well.

Glorious, was it? I'd say agonising and humiliating, and we still bear the scars. Our nerve failed us when the prize was well within our grasp. If Man U's late charge for the title had ended in failure, that could maybe have been called glorious. Yeah, what a shit time to be an NUFC fan Humiliating? Fucking hell man, we were the second best team in the country playing the most attractive football. We got edged out by a very, very good team who were only slightly better than us. It's the best we've been since the 1920s.

newcastle at 85/40 right now. should we win tomorrow and saturday and the price comes down enough, say 2.5, i may be tempted to lay us. Leave it, we'll piss it. Wish I'd stuck more than a fiver on now, £5 on Shola to be top scorer doesn't look so astutue anymore either

NUFC are only giving out 15% of the oney to the SBR foundation from the new replica shirts on sale. Fat stingey bast***d 15% of the seling price or 15% of the profit? £50 aren't they? So even if it's 15% of the selling price that presumably means more is going to the club (£42.50) than would do from a normal shirt.

You can get 1.7 on betfair on there to be no 50 scored in the match

Laid NZ at about 1.1 on betfair, only 80p (so to win about £8) though.

Seen mention of replica kits that were worn in this game being sold for £50 with only 15% going to the foundation, is this true or bollocks? Can't get on the official site at work.

Given that it's a known and accepted fact that Butt can't really play two games a week I'd imagine there's an outside chance that he and Taylor will be replaced by Geremi and Guthrie if Simpson is fit. Possibly wishful thinking.

Peter Rampage.

They're either dyslexic or didn't pay attention in alphabet lessons.

Andy Impey.

FKN Skirge, making me think Guthrie was out.

One of a few clubs that is not named after geographical location. Erm, they are actually, Queens Park in North West London. Loftus Road isn't actually in that area though is it? Thought it was more SW London. edit: Loftus Rd is more Shepherd's Bush / Hammersmith way but it seems QPR were originally from Queens Park in the 1880s.

Interesting article that. I don't know a huge amount about Bragg but he's clearly a bright guy.

Only the televised games have been sub 40k.

Different kettle of fish at home though. So far, anyway. I'm a little concerned about who the '11th man' is going to be if all the doubts aren't fit to start as I mentioned a few posts up. Still reckon we'll do them though.

So worst case, none of them can start, what will the team be? Presumably Geremi in for Colo with Zurab switching to the middle and who comes in to midfield for R Taylor? One of the kids? Or do we put a kid in defence (Kadar or Tavernier presumably) and leave Geremi in midfield?

Not as strange as your interpretation of it. Most people expected him to be the best midfielder in this league (mainly based on his Man City form and a few games under KK), but he's been very poor so far this season and our worst midfielder bar Butt. He's not been justifying his inclusion ahead of Guthrie this season.