Cronky

The test will come after the international games, when other clubs will have had the chance to look at Owen's fitness. There's no reason for them to put in an offer now. They may as well wait.

I suspect that he was told to keep to his position more, but he ignored instructions and drifted backwards and inside. That's why McClaren dropped him the minute he took over. I think he was fed up with a player who either couldn't or wouldn't play for the team. He went that way after he was made captain. Took on too much responsibilty imo, to the detriment of the team/shape. Yep.

I suspect that he was told to keep to his position more, but he ignored instructions and drifted backwards and inside. That's why McClaren dropped him the minute he took over. I think he was fed up with a player who either couldn't or wouldn't play for the team.

Campbell - Ben Haim would be very tasty. I'm not too sure about Hyypia now.

Just a gut feeling, but I can't see Liverpool losing this. All these comments from the Italian camp about how crap Liverpool are, suggest that Milan are scared of them.

He failed to deliver the expected results, and in the end the Board felt they had no alternative.

It's not the Killer, is it?

I got a bit fed up when I heard Mourinho talking, yet again, about 'all that we have been through this season'. Christ on a bike, Jose, it's a few injuries. That's what happens in football. Nobody's died.

No. He's a nutter.

I'd like to see a really bad-tempered, niggly final with lots of flare-ups, preferably involving the managers as well, several bookings, a juicy sending off, and for Man U to win by a blatantly offside goal in the last minute.

I can't see how Sidwell is going to get a regular place (or even an occasional place) at Chelsea in competition with Ballack, Lampard, Essien and Makelele in the centre midfield. The most plausible idea I've heard is that Chelsea will lose some players to the African Nations Cup next season, and Sidwell is only cover for that. I think he's a good player though, and just what we need. Career-wise, he'd be far better off with us.

Even Big Sam's legendary powers of motivation would not be enough to turn Luque round IMO. Besides, in Duff we have a better player in his position.

Well though Viduka has played for Boro, I still don't think he's as fit or as motivated as he should be. If Sam can sort that out, then Viduka would be a very good signing. Not good news for Shola though.

I don't think he's that bad. He's still young and developing so it's a bit difficult to assess him at the moment. But I don't think he's worse than, say, Taylor. With Toure and Gallas around, it's going to be difficult for him to get the chances he needs. But I'd agree that we need an experienced CB who can act as a leader.

True. He's going to hold out and force the Halls to sell to him, regardless of whether there are people out there who can invest more money in the club. Sad because it's an opportunity of more investment that's going to be missed, and we'll slip further behind the top clubs. Sad because a bad Chairman who needs to take advice and listen more, will be given unrestricted power. Still, at least he's dropped the dishonest pretension that he didn't sell because the potential buyers were 'time-wasters'. He wasn't going to sell no matter what.

I think Zog has a major weakness in that he tends to lose control of the ball when running forward with it. When he first came on the scene, defenders tended to dive in to the tackle, but he's so quick that he was usually able to get to the ball first and nick it past them. They now tend to back off him, and then take possession when he inevitably lets the ball run too far ahead. He's not playing so well now because he's been sussed. I actually think he'd eventually be better off as an attacking full back, where he'd have a bit more space to operate going forward. Trouble is, he lacks composure and defensive skills at the moment - maybe that can be coached into him.

I'm not sure why you say you 'believe' that Newcastle wasn't his preferred option. Owen made it absolutely clear in words of one syllable in a statement to the press that we were not his preferred option, the week before he signed. 'Belief' doesn't come into it. Freddie then boxed the player into a corner by outbidding Liverpool by a vast amount, making it impossible for Madrid to agree to his going to Merseyside. We took advantage of the fact that he was desperate to leave Madrid and get regular football in a World Cup year. Even then we had to sugar the pill for Owen by paying him a ridiculous amount of money and inserting a very generous escape clause in his contract. Freddie probably thought he was being very clever, but the whole thing was totally insane, and yes I did say so at the time.

With Owen, we should be asking him to make his mind up sooner rather than later. He's got every right to leave if that's what's specified in his contract, but we don't want a situation where he leaves in the last week of August, and there's no time to replace him. He owes us that much.

Mourinho considers himself above the law - they call that news?

The sad thing for Newcastle was that SA never accepted the job when it was offered to him before. The years of Souness and Roeder have put the club back years. If you believe the stories, Sam wasn't the only one to turn us down at that stage, and you have to wonder why. It looked to me like Souness, Roeder, and Robson in his last season, weren't really in charge. But I think that's changed. It may take a long or a short time to get back to where SBR took us, but a corner has been turned.

For the first time in a while, I feel I can relax. I have faith in his judgement, and I think he has a strong enough personality to impose his ideas from top to toe of the club. Over the last four years, I've often wondered what the hell was going on, and queried a lot of the decisions. Sam, I can trust.

The only kind of decision that Freddie can be guaranteed to get right.

He came across very well in the press conference. He was very articulate, confident and seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do. In short, a real leader.

I think it's true that we're not that popular around the rest of the country, or rather that other supporters are quite happy for us to continue to fail. I'm not sure of the reason why. It may be down to that old term Schadenfreude. Watching us come so close to the dream in 1996, only to see us crumble would have given many of the 'neutrals' a kind of guilty thrill. They now want to see more of the same.

Alan Green. Loud-mouthed, self-righteous twat with nothing interesting or original to say.