TRon

Viduka won't be fit to start the game.

Poor Keegan was fed a diet of lies and horseshit. The club died that day. nice bit exaggeratin there! Look at the football we were playing then and what we've got to look forward to under Joe Kinnear. What do you think? didn't fuckin die though did it? No, everything's grand. but it didn't die Hve you ever heard the word pedantic and do you know what it means? what about the word 'melodramatic'? or the word 'knobjockey'? Yes I think that's a good description of the situation and yourself.

One thing I did appreciate on Sunday was Harper throwing the ball out to the wide players. Started off a lot of good moves and ensured we kept posession. Shay did like to hoof and hope a bit too much for my taste.

It will work for us here as well then. I didn't realise Kinnear was such a genius.

Don't bother trying to make the point that he was our best outfield player in the final dozen games of last season. Nobody's listening. I thought it had more to do with Barton, Viduka, Owen and Martins tbh.

Taylor demostrating double standards wrt Given and Zog. Highlights how there is probably a split camp between the foreigners and homegrown players. No worries, Joe will fix that by bombing out all the Johnny Foreigners and bringing in more Nolans and Taylors.

Just looking at our squad, I'm trying to assess what our playing style will be for the remainder of the season? Pass and move seems out as I don't think Butt and Nolan are mobile enough to make that work. Maybe a 4-3-3 with lovenkrands and Oba off Viduka/Smith. Defend deep and launch the ball long and hope one of the nippier forwards get on the end of it.

Lee Ryder's blog is worth a read. Basically saying the £8m offers for Michael Johnson and Kieoran Richardson were a piss take and that was precious time we could have spent on proper targets.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/02/03/trio-to-return-from-injury-for-west-brom-crunch-72703-22841927/ Wonder if any of them will actually be fit to start? Smith probably.

He's not prepared to listen to any head-turning offers from AC Milan or Liverpool bless his loyal soul.

I don't think we did really, We need a right winger and another cm, I know we have injuries atm but our striking options are quite strong. Owen Oba Viduka Ameobi Carroll Xisco Smith Lovenkrands I only see one striker who could be described as a strong option there, and that's Oba. The rest are either crocked, shit or disregarded (Xisco).

All that says is there was an option for another year, that doesn't mean he was guaranteed it. Kinnear made a point of actively offering the contract extension to Butt, a massive vote of faith I'd say.

Martins will be back. Lovelyhands will play in midfield imo. Will be interesting to see Lovenkrands playing in midfield as there seems to be a consensus of opinion that he wasn't too good out wide for Rangers, and was better employed as a forward. It might work as I see us playing more direct football in any case for the rest of this season.

Counting his 60k wage packet at home.

Name a better NUFC youth product since 1994. Shola. Edit - as the previous people said, he's hardly a youth product. This argument If all other products of the academy / development are utter shite, the even if N'Zogbia is one of the better ones, this benchmark is so low that it therefore DOES NOT mean he would save us from relegation. In fact i'm finding it impossible to fathom the logic of an argument that involves N'Zogbia and fighting for relegation. Thats probably because such arguments are not based on logic but agendas tbh. Whether he goes on to be a better player at Wigan is irrelevant, he wasnt going to go an be a better player here so cashing in was the best option. He wasn't going to be a better player here because we have other players ahead of him in his position, Duff previously and now Jonas as well. This is the situation which has led to him being discontent and being sold. Personally I think Bruce seems to be a good judge of a player and Charlie will show some of his old form at Wigan.

What's amazing is that with the entire world thinking he's such a good player, no one ever puts in an offer for him. well no top team in their right mind would make an offer for a 34 year old We just did. Although obviously we aren't a top team and this just underlines where we are headed.

Don't think we'll miss them much in this one.

What's amazing is that with the entire world thinking he's such a good player, no one ever puts in an offer for him.

I remember being underwhelmed when we signed Alan Smith because I didn't think he was a particularly good footballer. This is similar, although I hope I'm proved wrong. Fancy skills aren't the be all and end all, but if Nolan was just a bit quicker I'd be more than happy with his type of player.

We were never going to sign Johnson any more than we were going to sign Veloso or M'Bia.

Mostly slow and unathletic.

Giving Joe Kinnear the job sure is paying off big time.

I'm quite surprised Allardyce didn't sell Santa Cruz to City for £20m then snap up Smith for £3m seeing as he rated him so highly. Ok I'm not.

He was good when he didn't have the ball at his feet, I would agree.

It was worse. I remember Keegan taking Newcastle to Roker Park and they huffed and puffed for 90 mins but we picked them off and won 2-1 because we had class players like Ginola and Beardsley and they had a team of Kevin Nolans. This time they had Cisse and Jones, we had carroll and Shola. Wrong decade man. I know but that was what was going through my mind watching on Sunday. You were comparing us challenging for the top of the table compared to now. That's just plain daft, we've not been in the position for years. If your hopes are that high you need to drag them back down to the earth quick smart as this won't change over night. What we had then and what I expect now are totally different things. I am quite happy to see us spend wisely and follow the Wenger blueprint. I don't see any evidence of it though. We have a temporary manager who has over-stayed his welcome and looks to be recruiting footballers a million miles from Wenger's preferred types. The Tony Pulis blueprint would be a better description.