Cronky

Robbie Fowler? Sounds like Ince needs a friendly face in that dressing room.

Fixed.

I think Sidwell's a good player who could do a job for us right away. I can't compare him with Guthrie, but yeah I'd pay extra for proven quality over the unknown. Doesn't make this lad a bad buy though.

I don't know the player, but for a 20 year old to hold down a place in centre mid for a Premiership side is a fair enough achievement in itself. He won't be anywhere near his best yet, so let's wait and see. It's a lot better than forking out £17 million and £5 million pa in wages for a player who's already peaked.

Tino's signing certainly wasn't the only reason, but I think it was a mistake, if only in hindsight. It wasn't so much his quality as a player, as the fact that KK broke up the Ferdinand-Beardsley partnership to accommodate him. They were the combination that was always dangerous, no matter how poorly we might be playing. My memory is that the real weak link at the time was Gillespie. Sticking Beardsley in his position was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. (no pun intended)

Milner may be the sort of player that thrives in a good side, or at least one that's superior to the opposition and can give him time and space. He may be more use to Liverpool than us.

The Blackpool manager at the time was a certain Mr Bob Stokoe, who was determined that, if Green had to go, it was going to be to Newcastle. There were a lot of clubs sniffing around.

Fair point, and it wasn't a very convincing denial either.

'Partners?' He needs to be careful. Look at how well the partnership at Liverpool has worked out.

I'm not too sorry about this one, because I've had my doubts. He might be a bit lightweight for the Premiership.

It's absolutely incredible on two levels. Firstly, that he should think it's his role to stick in his oar in what's a private issue between player and club. Secondly, the view that he's come out with. Contracts are there to protect players as well as clubs, and moreover the smaller clubs as well as the larger ones. He's made himself look rather stupid here.

This one always brings us old gits out of the woodwork. The only player to compare with him IMO was Gazza. Both had the ability to really dominate a game.

Money over first team football? Hardly. maybe he had confidence in his ability to get a first team spot. He was never going to get in a Chelsea team in front of Ballack, Makelele, Essien, Lampard, Mikel. That's not confidence, it's delusion. Well either way, he's clearly showing now that first team football does matter to him.

I don't know why people are so resentful of him choosing Chelsea instead of us. Unless you were a supporter, that's the decision that every professional player would make at the moment.

I'd read somewhere that he doesn't want to move too far north, and that's the advantage that Villa have over us. I think he's a good all round player, and it'd be a good time to buy him. He's had a bit of a setback with Chelsea, and he'll be eager to prove himself.

It's impossible to tell what's going on here, because what few quotes there are from either side come from that mysterious gentleman 'A. Spokesman' or his female counterpart, 'Ann Insider'. Perhaps there's no smoke without fire, but I can also remember Mort - who seemed a pretty straight kind of guy - hinting strongly that there was someone out there with a grudge against Ashley who was trying to stir things up. You can imagine for yourselves who that might be. Looking at Ashley's actions, I can't say that he's done anything that isn't sensible and in the club's interests. Clearing the debt and then making sure that the club is run on business-like lines is far better than dipping into your pocket and hoping that a one-off heap of money on players is going to get you into the Champions League, when your money can supposedly be recouped. He has to look at long-term sustainability.

Only a YouTube opinion, but he seems to play with a bit of spirit and determination. I can't see him being a Luque-style disaster. He looks the sort that gets involved and tries to make things happen.

I've seen the BBC website, and 'Newcastle owner not in takeover talks' would be a more accurate headline. The Americans are looking for a European club to buy, they've made a preliminary enquiry through a third party about how much money it would take to tempt Ashley, and they've been put off by the answer. It sounds like the end of the talks, not the beginning. Ashley's not going to take a 'not at any price' attitude.

You know that the only bits of him in the Argy video are the cross, him giving away a free kick, and him kissing the goalscorer? All the good bits were other players and he wasn't involved at all in those particular sequences. That cross was quality though-Owen will thrive on service like that,as it seems Guiza did last season. Said that same thing when I saw him whip the cross in. It'll be nice to have a pacy winger looking to make the pass. Instead of a s*** winger,Duff,looking to take the piss.(Out of us) i like his two-footedness (from the small clips i saw) but i'm scared by the idea of a winger just whipping balls in. it's why gillespie got found out easier than ginola I think any winger,worth his salt,would expect a decent striker to be near post in that situation Mads.Time and again we've seen Owen and Shearer,over the years, profit from darting near post runs. owen does it all the time but too often we dont have someone following in (the perfact example was manutd with beckham wide, not even looking up but knowing he'd have sheringham/cole splitting front post/in behind). i just don't like the idea of just trying to hit the byline and hit someones head all the time. it seems to many on here think the ferdiand-ginola-gillespie axis would work aswell today. I agree with you. Premiership football has changed. It's not enough to rely on a specialist winger supplying crosses. You need to be able to improvise more, and have a variety of ways of opening up a defence.

I agree. Acuna was under-rated.

If it's true, it still wouldn't be quite as surprising as Keegan's appointment in the first place. So I'm not prepared to dismiss this out of hand. If it's not Shearer lined up, it may be someone else. A lot of people think it was a fuss about nothing, but I think Keegan's outburst after the Chelsea game exposed a significant problem behind the scenes. Perhaps it's been sorted out, and perhaps not.

I can understand Ashley being annoyed, but if there's nothing in Barton's contract which empowers the club to cut his wages or sack him then that's the end of it. Life's unfair. Deal with it.

I thought Germany would put up a better show than that. They looked very lacking in confidence. Lots of players looking static or running backwards to receive the ball rather than getting forward. Spain were strong in every department and won with something to spare.

No Ballack, no win.

Germany to win the final 2-0. They played so badly against Turkey and Spain played so well against Russia that no other result is possible. This is the way the Gods of Football work.