TRon

Said it a few times now but he offers a different option to all the other strikers we have got even if he lacks real quality at a higher level. The goal he scored on Saturday is the type none of our other strikers will score. If he offers us another strike option for the rest of this season what have we got to lose?

SBR had a thing for buying central midfielders, especially those with good engines. Jenas and Dyer along with Speed provided as a good a central core as we've seen for a while and the most successful. I don't think anyone could claim Allardyce or Souness improved it.

Emre & Parker. That was under Souness, following him we also had Sam Allardyce and Kevin Keegan, I don't think either of those two considered Milner through the middle. Keegan had some success with playing Owen in that spot, Allardyce played with nine defenders so he wasn't really too concerned with midfield. Milner was injured under Keegan wasn't he when Owen played through the middle? And in pre-season last year Keegan played him through the middle a couple of times. Milner struggled under Keegan as well early on and then got injured. When Keegan was asked to put a valuation on him he reckoned £7-8m according to Ashley's camp, you can choose to believe that or not. In any case, I think the real reason players like Milner, Duff, N'Zogbia and others struggled at Newcastle was because successive managers failed to address the central midfield area. Souness and Allardyce were both given funds and both spunked them up the wall on over the hill pricks like Owen, Geremi, Smith etc. Keegan wasn't given a chance so he is excused as far as I'm concerned. Souness and Allardyce wrecked our club. Completely ignoring the fact that we signed Emre, Parker & Barton all in that time, all highly-rated and welcomed here for the most part. Luque and Boumsong were welcomed here for that matter. The truth is Parker was a holding midifelder, Barton has been a disaster and Emre was a flop. None of these provided the attacking midfield flair which we lost once SBR's signings were sold.

If he's dragging his feet about moving down a division or up north for a few months he sounds like a right precious little bastard anyway. He should stick with Arsenal reserves and run home for his tea at Mum's house.

Emre & Parker. That was under Souness, following him we also had Sam Allardyce and Kevin Keegan, I don't think either of those two considered Milner through the middle. Keegan had some success with playing Owen in that spot, Allardyce played with nine defenders so he wasn't really too concerned with midfield. Milner was injured under Keegan wasn't he when Owen played through the middle? And in pre-season last year Keegan played him through the middle a couple of times. Milner struggled under Keegan as well early on and then got injured. When Keegan was asked to put a valuation on him he reckoned £7-8m according to Ashley's camp, you can choose to believe that or not. In any case, I think the real reason players like Milner, Duff, N'Zogbia and others struggled at Newcastle was because successive managers failed to address the central midfield area. Souness and Allardyce were both given funds and both spunked them up the wall on over the hill pricks like Owen, Geremi, Smith etc. Keegan wasn't given a chance so he is excused as far as I'm concerned. Souness and Allardyce wrecked our club.

Is he speaking as Ashley's offical PR man or as an individual? I was going to say I can't believe Ashley would be daft enough to hire a twat like Clifford but sadly I can.

I am going to stick a few quid on Burnley beating Wolves at the weekend. McCarthy's white flag at Man U has brought their winning run to a halt, their fans will be livid at travelling to Manchester to watch a reserve team...everything points to a defeat for thick Mick in this one. What a fucking tactical mastermind he will look then

they will metro in and out for the game, but eat and stay in newcastle. like most of the sunderland squad

If other struggling teams decided it wasn't worth risking players against the better teams then the fixtures become meaningless. Might as well split the league up into a top tier, middle tier and bottom tier and keep the games competitive. At least that way 3000 fans won't get conned into shelling out money to watch a reserve team.

It's a shame that outsiders will have their view of the north east soured by visiting Sunderland. I just hope any negative viewpoints aren't associated with us.

No-one is saying Owen was the only one to blame, no-one is saying that if he looked like he cared he would have kept us up. He was our captain and he didn't look bothered when the team was teetering on the edge of relegation. That is why I don't believe he deserves to go to the World Cup. Now stop putting words in peoples mouths, of course the whole team was s****, that doesn't change the fact that Owen showed a complete lack of effort and lack of respect for the club. I don't think that not showing any real effort for us at the end of last season has anything to do with deserving to go or not to go to the World Cup. What he has done to us has nothing to do with his England career as long as he plays well for his current club. True but this is a Newcastle forum so obviously Newcastle fans posting are going to have their views coloured by his efforts (or lack of) for us. In my opinion Fergie won't give him enough games to qualify selection anyway.

Emre & Parker. That was under Souness, following him we also had Sam Allardyce and Kevin Keegan, I don't think either of those two considered Milner through the middle. Keegan had some success with playing Owen in that spot, Allardyce played with nine defenders so he wasn't really too concerned with midfield.

He doesnt deserve it why? Because you expected him to turn around the team single handedly yes. If he performs well he'll deserve it obviously. Fuck off man. He was our Captain, and he didn't give a damn. Expecting him to turn it around? No, that's your words. Expect him to look like he wants to keep us up, as our captain, a big resounding YES. He doesn't deserve to go, because he completely let us down in every way, as a captain and as a striker when we needed him most. There were other factors of course, but expecting him to try is not expecting him to turn the whole team around. 1 goal ffs. I agree. The biggest plus this season has been the great team spirit amongst the players who all wanted to stay and prove a point. This contrasts massively with Owen who despite being made captain looked like he wouldn't wipe his arse with a Newcastle shirt. I can'#t see him getting much game time in the Premier for Man U so his England place looks like a long shot.

It was obvious to many of the more knowledgeable fans here, clearly not to the massively over-paid thick cunts who were managers here during Milner's years here. I wonder who our central midfielders of choice were at the time?

Definitely the right type of club for a big bustling lad like AC, but the story is obviously bollocks.

Can't say I agree with a lot of Hugton's team selections but while he's getting results it's hard to argue. I can only assume that his decision to play two holding midfielders in the last two games is to accomodate two wingers, although for me Guthrie should have enough bite in his game to be up to the task by now. Pretty poor show if he can't get in ahead of a creaking geriatric like Butt in this division.

Hughton is expecting Simpson and Guthrie to be fit for Sunday so that means Butt out and a return to 4-4-2 surely? While he can try to justify playing two holding midfielders away from home, I don't think he risk such a negative approach at home. I reckon Pancrate will drop back to the bench with Smith and Nolan in the middle, Guthrie and Jonas out wide.

There's a chance he could be like Vukic, great individual skill but not enough all round physical presence or nous to keep a Nolan out of the side. I don't think he'd be a guaranteed starter which means Wenger wouldn't want him coming here.

Allardyce is a one trick pony only because that's what you have seen from him, which is in turn due to the very thrifty budget he had in Bolton and Blackburn. What's wrong with long ball football anyway ? He wasn't given enough time Newcastle to turn things around after "things didn't work out". Every manager makes mistake. If you have your ways Ferguson, Benitez and Wenger would have been sacked long time ago. If only stupidity is all it takes for all the success Allardyce has achieved so far. I'm not a fan of long ball football but if you are going to go down that route it helps if you aren't launching the ball at the heads of midget strikers like Owen or Martins. What a glorious and versatile tactician.

At the moment we need him, his goals might make the difference between staying in this division and getting promotion, but next season we should sell him as he'll be over run in the premier. There will probably be some long ball team like Bolton who will gladly have him back assuming they can afford him.

I'm very happy with how things are going on the pitch at the moment but there are plenty of reasons to be concerned given Ashley's track record of getting pretty much every major decision since he arrived wrong. This is a man who, when faced with a relegation battle last season sold two important players, made a profit on sales and hindered our chances of survival. Logic dictates he'd keep the team together to give us the best shot at going up but history suggests he may well not. There are plenty of reasons to be happy at the moment but it would be naive in the extreme to not be concerned about what will happen in January. Regardless of what you believe re: finances he's shown himself time and time again to be utterly clueless with regards as to what's going on out on the pitch. That was nowt in comparison to his disastrous managerial appointments. Zog wasn't important IMO either, he was impotent if that's what you mean. IMO we'll sell nobody and bring in another loan or two. If we're very very lucky we'll sell Barton and some club will be desperate enough to take Geremi on a free, but unfortunately thats just not going to happen. I agree. Everyone was basically saying the same thing before the close of the summer transfer window with Taylor, Jonas and Coloccini expected to leave but it didn't happen. I think it will be a fairly quiet window this time and we won't sell or buy anyone.

Mate, at £80m for a potentially top 6 Premier League club free of debt, there is a lot of desire to buy out Fat Mike, its just a lot more difficult raising enough to buy the club and fund it as one might think. The only people who are rich enough to buy and fund it without bank finance are the status buyers, and by that I mean the rich Middle East interest. Rest assured, if we're still up for sale and a Premier Laeague club come May, there will be plenty of buyers. which is why I said desire or cash. I'm sure we would all love a rich owner to come in and start throwing money at the squad but it hasn't happened, and I don't see any reason why it will happen if we go up either. For Ashley to sell it will take a good price and if that was going to happen it would have by now IMO.

He's got to find the goals which they have lost from Ronaldo. Good luck to him on that one. If the fickle manc fans aren't abusing him from every corner of old trafford by the end of the season he'll have done well. Little shit that he is.

I reckon he should have come for the ball on the second goal as well. The ball was headed in from inside the 6 yard box. In fact there's a case he could have commanded his area a lot better on both goals.

Allardyce is not a shite manager - his achievement during his Bolton stint is very impressive and Blackburn are now at 12th position in the premiership with nearly half the season gone and spending very little during the summer. Things didn't work out in Newcastle United, however I was always confident that he would become a success given time. As I have already said, I would rather stick to Chris Hughton unless we can get excellent managers such as Hitzfeld, or Ferguson, Wenger, Benitez, Ancellotti etc. Allardyce is a one trick pony and he's built two mediocre teams based on long ball football. He was found out at Newcastle where he attempted to play long ball with 5'8" strikers which is testamount to his stupidity. That probably had quite a lot to do with why things "didn't work out".