Cronky

Good question. I wonder if he's fallen out with the new manager and wants to go.

Derby have more or less said, up the offer and he's yours. So I think he's coming. This could be as significant as the arrival of Gavin Peacock, Beardsley or Bellamy before. We need someone who can add a bit of zip and unpredicatability to the attack. From what I've seen, the only potential problem with the lad is his attitude. There's no question of his ability.

I can't remember my exact personal view at the time, but he went to Blackburn for what was a British record transfer fee. He'd already established himself.

If the bid really was £2 million, then it was bound to be rejected. I reckon it'll take about £6 million to shift him.

As with Owen, Shearer's physique changed after his injury. Looking at the old displays for Blackburn, he looks at least half a stone lighter and therefore significantly quicker. Shearer was the better overall package, but you can't say that his touch on the ball was better than Berbatov's. Berbatov is absolutely brilliant in that department.

I had the feeling that this season was going to be difficult for him. Last season, he was probably the best player on the pitch in every game, and his attitude reflected that. It's different this season, and he's playing with a team who are inferior to the opposition all the time. Down to earth with a bump. But as with Bellamy, let's buy a player when their career has stalled a bit, rather than waiting till he's hitting the headlines.

As I recall, we'd been doing okay in the league, until we reached the cup final. Our focus then went and the players strolled their way through the remaining matches, thinking they'd be able to raise their game again at Wembley. It didn't happen, of course. Bit of a lesson to keep giving 100%. You can't always turn it on exactly when you want to.

He's just what we need - a quick, skilful player who can operate in a free role between striker and midfield. Whether he's ready or not is a different matter. Personally, I'd take the gamble.

This whole idea of Shearer being the King in Waiting produces some very strange thinking within the club. The manager hadn't spoken to him for over 2 years after a falling out. Why would they suddenly be able to work together as a number 1 and number 2?

I can't believe for a second that this has been done behind Keegan's back. No way. What confuses me is that Wise very much came across as a hands-on manager type, rather than a backroom DOF type. It would be interesting to know how he and Butt get on. A few seasons ago, Wise managed to get Butt sent off. He tackled him and then pulled a hair out of his leg as he was lying on the ground, adding a few provocative words in the process. Butt reacted and got a red card. We can only hope that Wise's off-field personality is hugely different from the on-field one.

Do you think the failure to push on is due to the change of manager? Newcastle had Allardyce, a confirmed 4-5-1 man, boring tactically, long ball, solid defensively. So SA started to buy the type of players he needed for his system. Allardyce gets sacked, KK comes in, a manager who couldn't be more at the opposite of the managerial spectrum, 4-4-2, attacking football, we'll score more than you will. KK's problem is that he hasn't got many of the type of player he needs to play the style he wants to. I agree survival this season is assured but there will have to be (imho) wholesale changes to the squad in the summer to get the players KK needs to get the style of play he'll be looking for. I'm not saying the current squad consists of poor players, just not suited to KK's style. If Benitez asked his squad to play in the Man Utd style Liverpool would very quickly look more ordinary than they do right now. Bit more complicated than that. Allardyce brought in some of the players that he wanted, but he was still left with strikers who were more suited to a 4-4-2, when what he wanted was 4-3-3. He ended up batting between the two. Allardyce only had a limited amount of time, and wasn't the manager that the new owner wanted, so I think there was a lot of indecision in the transfer market which came to a head when the window opened again. The squad suits Keegan's 4-4-2 more, but there's a lack of pace going forward so we find it difficult to break teams down.

I haven't really noticed a problem with fitness levels tbh. If we're talking about yesterday, Arsenal must be the most exhausting team to play against, the way they move the ball around. There's a shortage of pace throughout the side, that's clear. I'd put that down to the particular players, though, not the training.

I think the situation is the same as for the last three seasons - relegation is a possibility but not likely because there are worse teams below us. We'd all hoped that things would push on this season, but it looks like it's not to be. I'd agree though, that we should be trying hard to bring in one or two players now in order to be safe.

I'm a bit suspicious that KK's policy of looking at ready-made Premiership stars is down to the fact that he's been away from the game for a long while, and those are the only players he knows. I imagine that he's simply not had the time or opportunity to do any research into foreign talent.

Owen is finished as a top-class striker. Anyone who thinks that the problem is 'the service' is kidding themselves.

I bet he's failed his medical.

I'd agree that there's a problem with the strikers. I'd play Smith as a target man. He's not ideal, but he's better in that role than Viduka, who's very slow and can get completely dominated by a good centre back. For the more withdrawn striker, I'd have Duff. Martins and Owen are finishers and aren't creative enough for the rest of the team to play away from the front line.

I just get the feeling it would be a good time to buy Barnes. He's had a taste of the Premiership, so some of that cockiness will have been knocked away and he'll know what standard he needs to reach for. Good talent, though.

Shearer is a TV pundit now, and he should be left to build his own career in the same way as everyone else. The club needs to move on.

I'd plump for experience and go with Barton.

Wot he says.

I didn't think we're playing too many long balls at all. We seemed to be trying quite hard to keep it on the deck. It was too slow to be effective, but the intention was there. It didn't look like Keegan wants Owen to be hanging around the penalty area, waiting for 'the service' to deliver chances. It wasn't the way Keegan played, and I can't see him wanting it from Owen. Owen's clearly lost a lot of his pace, and isn't the same player. He has to adapt, but I'm not sure that he wants to. Keegan's a big enough personality to confront this problem, in a way that I think other managers, at club and national level, have failed to do up till now. With Keegan, it's my way or the highway.

Chelsea aren't going to release SWP at this stage. They're still in the title race and they certainly don't need the money. Carrick looks a good shout to me, because he looks to have slipped down the pecking order at Man U. We'd have to pay over the odds though, just like Man U did. Keegan likes his strikers, and Defoe looks a likely target. Hyypia? Now that Liverpool are out of the title race?

Owen's performance yesterday bothered me a bit. Everyone else seemed to have a role and, within their limitations, was performing it to the best of their ability. Owen just looked lost, and not very happy with it. It looked to me like Keegan wanted Owen to play as more of a withdrawn, roving striker, like Beardsley or Bellamy - ie get more involved in the build-up rather than just wait to finish off chances. Trying to get Owen to play in a different way produced a clash when Keegan was England manager and I wonder whether we're headed the same way. Making him Captain seemed to be Keegan's way of giving him a role and a status to live up to, rather than have him on the periphery. On yesterday's showing, it ain't going to work.

Souness shouldn't have tried tapping up both Anelka and Boa Morte leading into that particular transfer window, especially Anelka who was then plying his trade at one of Galatasary's - ala Souness' former rival - hated rivals. Souness, being a despised figure in Fenerbache's circle - ie. a lunatic who planted a Galatasary flag on Fenerbache's pitch - that he is, 'tapping up' one of it's star players in Anelka backfired on him when Fenerbache's board issued a 'hands-off' warning but then again the clueless idiot didn't consider the parameters in play - ie. his negative link to Fenerbache - before trying to unsettle the player in question. I'd say this, that is the Souness/Fener parameter, cost us any chance of signing Anelka..... wrong time/wrong manager pissing off the wrong club. Afterall they did end up offloading him to Bolton. If Souness wanted strikers in early, to work with them over the course of the pre-season, he shouldn't have turned his attentions - and blown 10m of transfer kitty - to signing Parker & Emre immediately after. Not only did he miss out on a 'bedding-in period' with both players - ie. Owen and Luque - but as we all know transfer fees rise towards the end of the window as selling clubs can hold a smoking gun at the heads of desperate buying clubs, and with a goal tally of 0 goals in the first month of the premiership that's exactly what we were and we payed over the odds as a result, for both Luque and Owen that is. Souness' mismanagement of the squad, in his failing to correctly prioritise his initial 10m which was subsequently thrown towards the Parker & Emre signings, is to blame............. not the 35m that was handed to him to supposedly spice up the team a bit. I've never seen a manager more 'financially backed' in such a short space of time as Souness was by Shepherd. The story that went around about Anelka was that Shepherd found out how much Fener had paid Man City for Anelka (which was about £4 million), and then bid the same amount. (He only did that when Souness had practically forced his hand by going public about his wanting Anelka and Anelka wanting to come.) It sounded like a token gesture on Shepherd's part, because such a low bid was bound to be turned down. The other thing I'd heard was that Shearer wasn't keen on Anelka coming, and that both he and Shepherd were determined to secure Owen, no matter what the cost. Apparently, a similar thing happened with Boa Morte, where Shepherd wouldn't bid a reasonable amount. I'd not heard the story about Fener being reluctant to deal with Souness because of his Galatasary connection. Personally, I think that if there was a problem at all, it wouldn't have been so great as to prevent a transfer going through. I didn't get your point about Parker and Emre, because as I recall, they came quite early in the summer. It's true that a lot of money was spent at that time, but it wasn't spent wisely, and Souness didn't have the degree of control that he should have had, over when and how it was spent.