TRon

Duff and Milner failing to live up to their pre-season hype...who'd have predicted that? Oh wait...

We knew this would happen tbh. They can be beaten but someone other than Martins needs to pose a goal threat.

Mouthinho Arda would cap a perfect end to a miserable summer Are you referring to the weather? Take a look outside and there's your answer.

Mouthinho Arda would cap a perfect end to a miserable summer

Warnock, Saviola (fingers crossed) and a mystery midfielder (?)

"We must get two or three more in, we know that and we will do it." He sounds quite confident, that's good enough for me.

woohoo!

How did he intimate this then? He hasn't been quoted. Maybe he gave the Sky cameras a sly wink or kissed a match attack playing card with Senderos' picture on it?

that's a plus if true.

Why are we still talking about this cunt? His attitude stinks and Everton are welcome to him assuming they can actually drag him to Goodison.

I am actually more concerned about tomorrow. I wasn't expecting anything from Old Trafford, but this is the sort of game we need to win if we want to achieve anything this season.

Just do it Mike.

We only have 3 players out, and already it's a "make do and mend first 11", and if you look at the bench, there's no-one you'd really want to bring on if you needed to change things. I think that shows how thin the squad really is. On average, most teams will have around 5-6 players injured at any time, and unless we strengthen with at least a few more players capable of holding their own in the premiership then we're going to struggle to do much better than last year when we had a fairly injury free year. We can forget trying to get into Europe with the squad we have now IMO unless we're very, very lucky with injuries, and all the new signings maintain their 1st game form. I also really hope we can get someone in who can take a decent free kick from just outside the box, otherwise we're just going to waste loads of good scoring opportunities throughout the season, and as a knock on effect, any team with a manager smart enough to realise we don't pose a threat at free kicks will just send his team out to hack us down outside the area whenever there's any sign of danger. I'd love to have someone in who's a genuine threat on dead balls. As you say it's something we badly miss, both in terms of a direct goal threat and the capacity to make the opposition think. We only have 3 players out, and already it's a "make do and mend first 11", and if you look at the bench, there's no-one you'd really want to bring on if you needed to change things. I think that shows how thin the squad really is. On average, most teams will have around 5-6 players injured at any time, and unless we strengthen with at least a few more players capable of holding their own in the premiership then we're going to struggle to do much better than last year when we had a fairly injury free year. We can forget trying to get into Europe with the squad we have now IMO unless we're very, very lucky with injuries, and all the new signings maintain their 1st game form. I also really hope we can get someone in who can take a decent free kick from just outside the box, otherwise we're just going to waste loads of good scoring opportunities throughout the season, and as a knock on effect, any team with a manager smart enough to realise we don't pose a threat at free kicks will just send his team out to hack us down outside the area whenever there's any sign of danger. I am still hopeful that a deal for Saviola can be struck. It would be a signing in a key position as he could play in the Owen role and mean we wouldn't be crossing our fingers on lil' Mikey being fit. Other positions need strenghtening but we can get by IMO.

problem isn't behind the scenes though with the players you name there, it's on the pitch - where they're s****!! i think you're right about this however, trouble is in many cases we're not even talking about replacing (except FWs), we're talking about supplementing If we're talking about supplementing, why are the likes of Bassong ignored then? Guthrie is a weird one as I assumed he would be a squad player but looks better than that, but still - if we just need to fill out the squad, why the complaints when players don't cost £10m each? The squad fillers in essence should be Duff, Smith, Milner, Zoggy, Butt. Buy quality in those positions and the squad would look very healthy indeed. So only another 5 and we're laughing! Nice in theory, but adding five new quality players to the wage bill (and shifting the no doubt hefty wages of Duff, Smith and Butt onto the bench/out of the squad) just isn't realistic. Yet some seem to think we can accomodate this and should be doing so. We've got some shit players here, many probably on big money. But until they leave we can't just keep adding to them. Our biggest problem is nobody seems to want them. I don't expect Ashley to be chucking money left, right and centre, but he has made approaches for players who cost a fair bit so I don't think we're that hard up. I can accept there needs to be some balancing of the books but if it's the case players need to be shipped out before others come in, I would put this down to another season of transition. I think at full strength we are ok, but if we have many games like tomorrow with make do and mend first 11's we will end up dropping too many points to finish top 8.

what crawled up your arse and died the day mate? what do you want to see people discussing at this time of year on a football website, out of interest.... I've got nowt against people discussing this, hence my comment not being directed at anyone in particular. However, I've just had my fill of people picking players out of thin air and arguing back and forth their role in the team, where they'd live, what boots they'd wear and where they'd get their hair cut. If anything, I'm annoyed at myself for continually reading this shite, but can't avoid it on the off chance that something of note actually comes up! what crawled up your arse and died the day mate? what do you want to see people discussing at this time of year on a football website, out of interest.... I've got nowt against people discussing this, hence my comment not being directed at anyone in particular. However, I've just had my fill of people picking players out of thin air and arguing back and forth their role in the team, where they'd live, what boots they'd wear and where they'd get their hair cut. If anything, I'm annoyed at myself for continually reading this s****, but can't avoid it on the off chance that something of note actually comes up! Just check NUFC.co.uk once each day then. what crawled up your arse and died the day mate? what do you want to see people discussing at this time of year on a football website, out of interest.... I've got nowt against people discussing this, hence my comment not being directed at anyone in particular. However, I've just had my fill of people picking players out of thin air and arguing back and forth their role in the team, where they'd live, what boots they'd wear and where they'd get their hair cut. If anything, I'm annoyed at myself for continually reading this shite, but can't avoid it on the off chance that something of note actually comes up! Personally I get fed up of moaners who don't have anything to contribute butting in for no reason.

Christ, I bet if we beat Bolton by a decent margin that will surely change. Just do what I do and try to maintain a level of calm throughout the season, although this was broken when I thought there was a real possibility of us going down. we'll be alright man. I'll be happy if we beat Bolton, never mind by a decent margin. We need to win games like this to have a decent season and we need re-inforcements up front in the next week for that to happen. Can't say I'm thrilled we are going into this game with only Martins up front, but if it gets addressed in the transfer market by next week I can live with it. I quite like the system we used against Man U, I'd rather play 2 up top at home but I'd like to see that away from home especially against the better sides. I like the system as well, I just think we need players in attacking positions who can also get goals. I know Martins can, I don't think Duff or Milner will based on watching them last season. Maybe Spiderman or Guthrie will surprise us.

Christ, I bet if we beat Bolton by a decent margin that will surely change. Just do what I do and try to maintain a level of calm throughout the season, although this was broken when I thought there was a real possibility of us going down. we'll be alright man. I'll be happy if we beat Bolton, never mind by a decent margin. We need to win games like this to have a decent season and we need re-inforcements up front in the next week for that to happen. Can't say I'm thrilled we are going into this game with only Martins up front, but if it gets addressed in the transfer market by next week I can live with it.

Starting to lean from cautious towards concerned. Last season we were saved from relegation when Keegan bit the bullet and dropped Smith and Duff, and Milner was injured. KK said he didn't want to put out another team without goals in it, but that is what we are doing right now. Duff is playing Owen's role (I think) but despite scoring for fun in pre-season he will go back into his shell the longer the season goes on. Milner doesn't score goals, and Jonas hasn't got many prior to coming here. Either we address this in the transfer market or we live in hope Viduka and Owen will stay fit. That doesn't fill me with confidence it has to be said.

Well he's usually fit and available unlike our other big name bastard strikers so that's a plus in itself.

Just sign another player who can deputise when either he or Viduka aren't available ( quite a lot) and by all means keep both the fuckers.

I know Owen is 'over' his injury problems, but he does tend to miss a lot of games during a season, and so does Viduka. Whether Owen signs a new contract or not I don't really care, but I would like to see another striker brought in so I'm not constantly praying one of those two will be fit for the next match. Did I mention that I think we need to sign a new striker?

The deal will probably be back on at a reduced fee if we agree to it, which we probably won't.

Man U was a bonus point, Bolton is a game we'd be looking to get 3 points from. I hope our failure to sign a striker so far isn't going to start costing us points.

Given their lack of appeal to footballers of any stature, I think Diouff, Chimbonda and Malbranque are as good as Roy Keane is going to get. That's not to say the job couldn't be done better though. Keane will be a name-chaser like Souness, I doubt he's got much of a scouting network. He's probably looking in the papers to see who we are after then putting in a bid (David Healey?) It'll be interesting to compare Sunderland's progress with boro this season. Both are clubs which would find it difficult to attract good players, so I suppose it will come down to which has the better management set up.

This This ^ that.