TRon

What does Nolan do as captain? What do we miss when he's not playing? Just look back to when Michael Owen was captain and you'll answer your own question. I agree with that like. Say what you like about Nolan as a player but he's obviously been a big part of the dressing room die hard spirit.

and you were spot on.

Agree with most of your choices but for me Ronaldo is definitely up there in the top tier. He scored goals most people couldn't even dream of.

I am hoping that the fact he only has 2 years left will work in our favour. Clubs won't want to bid daft money and it won't be worth our while to sell him for say, £8m. He might end up running his contract down and that would give us a chance to build a team which would make players like Enrique want to stay.

Van Basten as a pure striker was almost perfection. But Ronaldo added running power and dribbling skill to all that. He was like two players in one.

I wish people wouldn't bring Shearer into this. I don't want to knock our local hero but to compare the two isn't doing Shearer any favours.

I was lucky enough to see Maradonna at his peak. Before that Pele and Best were considered the best of all time. In latter years only Zidane and Ronaldo could touch those guys. Ronaldo was the ultimate forward, no one else has come close in this generation.

Nolan’s goals have brought us 3 points this season, we might have had a lot more points if we had somebody more effective in his position when he's not scoring. How many points have jonas's goals brought us? Probably quite a few if you count the intangibles. You wouldn't score many goals if the ball was in your own half all the time. Seeing as Jonas is one of the few who can carry it deep into opposition territory from deep then he's probably had an indirect effect on points won. So If that is the case how can someone say Nolan only gained up 3 points? Probably hinting that other than goals he doesn't do much real midfield work, i.e, tackle, bring the ball out, close down players, create chances with clever passes to the forwards. That sort of thing.

Nolan’s goals have brought us 3 points this season, we might have had a lot more points if we had somebody more effective in his position when he's not scoring. How many points have jonas's goals brought us? Probably quite a few if you count the intangibles. You wouldn't score many goals if the ball was in your own half all the time. Seeing as Jonas is one of the few who can carry it deep into opposition territory from deep then he's probably had an indirect effect on points won.

This should put to bed all those rumours that he hasn't got a good engine anyway.

Caught speeding. Oh the irony

Because our fantastic Enrique will most likely be packing his bags this summer for financial reasons.

FWIW most people assumed Ashley wouldn't invest last season but we did buy Best and Routledge. He's in a position to spend proper money this summer, he might just shock everyone by doing it.

We'll find out if the Ashley policy is comparable to Arsenal and Sevilla this summer. Wenger might buy only promising players but they tend to be the best in the world and don't cost peanuts.

If they get promoted he'll have been worth the money just like he was for us. They can always sell him to another championship club next year.

I'd be happy with £1.5m...get back what we paid for him as I don't think he's going to do much in the premier.

That's funny but I'm hesitant to laugh in case it's taken from a mackem board

he offered a lot more than the majority of one paced clapped out farts he was playing with.

I don't think the club selling Carroll for £35m shows that they lack ambition. Failing to reinvest that money back into the squad will show a lack of ambition. True, that is kind of what I'm trying to get at. I just don't think they will reinvest the a lot of the money, which is why I am bitter about the sale. TBH selling a player for the all time british record signing of an english player doesn't demonstrate that we'd sell our best players due to a lack of ambition. It shows that if you want our best players, you better be willing to cough up the dough to pay for them We'll see what happens with Enrique and Tiote in the summer ... I agree tottally with the sentiment of distrust that you have, I have it too. But there a number of reasons I'm certain that they won't leave 1) Where are they going to go? All the top teams have it covered 2)Even if a top team do want them as benchwarmers, are these teams gonna pay over ten million minimum for a benchwarmer? Mind you if we do go down they'll be gone as well as the fact that I don't hold high our chances of keeping them if we don't bring any players in. Hypothetically speaking ... Evra leaves Man Utd for a Barcelona/R. Madrid/Inter type club for £8 million. Guess who they come to first? Liverpool shed Konchesky ... they come for Enrique. Barcelona look for a long-term replacement for Abidal (plus he's Spanish). Man Utd finally get rid of Hargreaves, Tiote could be the athletic DM they've needed for years. Abramovich continues to pump transfer funds into Chelsea, so they bid £15m. West Ham stay up, and Redknapp finally gives up on Parker, guess which DM they come for. Call my viewpoint grim, but with these bastards as owners I've lost all optimism for this club. Just think we're going to become a conveyor belt for talent, Ashley's cash cow. Do you know what a cash cow is? Ashley will be lucky if he ever breaks even let alone makes a profit out of Newcastle United. I have a business degree ... so yes. You seriously think he can't turn this club into a "nice little earner" for himself? Decreasing wage bill, emphasis placed on "developing young players" to be harvested in the future - leading to increasing revenue from transfer sales. He sold Carroll for £35 million, Tiote and Enrique could realistically go for a combined £22 million. This situation would put him £47 million in profit from 3 players. Let's say Ben Arfa has a good season next term, he could be worth £12-15 million by the end of 2011/12. And he would still be considerably short of the £200M plus he has already invested into the club. So no, I think it is a long way from becoming a cash cow or a 'nice little earner'. He'd still possess the value of the club though in absence of those players (a value which will have increased in the mean time). Furthermore, with ticket income remaining strong and guaranteed, if people take him up on 3+ year deals, he'll also have a relatively cheap wage bill. With television money having leaped up recently also, of course. Isn't there talk of a price freeze on tickets for people who buy in for 10 yrs? That would be a nice little pot of guaranteed income. This club might well be costing Ashley money as it stands but it will be a huge asset if he continues running it the way he has been.

If he scores against us I am going to look back at this thread and name names. Stop fucking jinxing it you twats

Nothing wrong with that in my book. Nolan's goals have been important but they have dried up lately. Without them he doesn't offer much so we definitely need him to start hitting the net a few times in the run in.

And is he?No,and half the idiotic/inbred support will never realise a decent player until it's too late. Spanner. Reading this thread from the first page should prove interesting. Not that I have like but just from memory. Best thing to do is not ever make your opinion known on a player but then call anyone up who said something negative no matter when or what context it was in about a player [/stu] Lazy journalism, best thing to do is "not ever make a ridiculously OTT knee-jerk reaction everytime we don't win 3-0 or better" [/rational fan] We got relegated in that season, do you think fans were going to praise our players in a season where we only won 7 times in 38 games. Some of the guys here did see a player in there, similarly with Enrique. Does that make them the idiot or...? There was a player in him, but quite a few of those performances in that last season were inexcusable by him and many of his collegues no matter what the environment was. Any criticism of our players in that relegation season was totally justified despite if it was their first season in the premiership or not. If it's important for you to be right then ok. Let's move on. No, I'm just saying anyone who thinks that he didn't deserve any of the criticism is being a little naive in my opinion. It's ok to blame the likes of Owen, Duff etc for our relegation but not the likes of coloccini etc when at the time they were all to blame imo. This isn't about those who went with the mob mentality and jumped asll over Coloccini who had some difficult times early on. It's more an appreciation of those who were shrewd enough to see some quality in there despite the abuse being thrown around. Don't recall who they were but Teasy and Ronaldo come to mind.

All this slagging of Martins while we are starting with Best and Lovenkrands is making me nervous. The term "asking for it" comes to mind.

And is he?No,and half the idiotic/inbred support will never realise a decent player until it's too late. Spanner. Reading this thread from the first page should prove interesting. Not that I have like but just from memory. Best thing to do is not ever make your opinion known on a player but then call anyone up who said something negative no matter when or what context it was in about a player [/stu] Lazy journalism, best thing to do is "not ever make a ridiculously OTT knee-jerk reaction everytime we don't win 3-0 or better" [/rational fan] We got relegated in that season, do you think fans were going to praise our players in a season where we only won 7 times in 38 games. Some of the guys here did see a player in there, similarly with Enrique. Does that make them the idiot or...? There was a player in him, but quite a few of those performances in that last season were inexcusable by him and many of his collegues no matter what the environment was. Any criticism of our players in that relegation season was totally justified despite if it was their first season in the premiership or not. If it's important for you to be right then ok. Let's move on.

And is he?No,and half the idiotic/inbred support will never realise a decent player until it's too late. Spanner. Reading this thread from the first page should prove interesting. Not that I have like but just from memory. Best thing to do is not ever make your opinion known on a player but then call anyone up who said something negative no matter when or what context it was in about a player [/stu] Lazy journalism, best thing to do is "not ever make a ridiculously OTT knee-jerk reaction everytime we don't win 3-0 or better" [/rational fan] We got relegated in that season, do you think fans were going to praise our players in a season where we only won 7 times in 38 games. Some of the guys here did see a player in there, similarly with Enrique. Does that make them the idiot or...?