TRon

It was great management of the situation from those running the club at the time. fantastic, our best player gone and left with 2 donkeys up front The chairman was best pals with one donkey and had to back the other donkey to hilt because he'd appointed him manager.

What has Avram Grant done to deserve a trophy in this country? He's a caretaker who looks like an undertaker. I don't like useless kids who inherit daddy's fortunes, and I don't like ordinairy managers who inherit a winning team. The thought of this shuffling zombie getting a trophy cheaply while the likes of King Kev are still doing it the hard way makes my blood boil. Man U for the double!

It was great management of the situation from those running the club at the time.

I'm off to get a bowl of sugar puffs

Maybe Sunderland will step in with a rival bid and start a bidding war!

Just to put the record straight, Sidwell would give his right arm to come here so this story is absolute shite. So is Sidwell, so he can stop day dreaming about ever pulling on a Newcastle shirt.

They'd be pretty rock solid IMO.

Edgar is an inexperienced kid who has still to fill out. In this match I would have expected Taylor to be the dominant defender who would be responsible for keeping Ashton quiet. From what I've seen so far, Taylor needs a big dominant defender to do that, while he plays the secondary role.

Yep, turned Edgar inside out for the goal Taylor has to take his share of the blame for the goal, he didn't even jump with Zamora for the header and let him have an easy flick on to Ashton. We're desperate for some leadership in the heart of defence. Exactly. Edgar could hardly be blamed for getting turned once the ball had bounced for Ashton who then produced a nice piece of skill to score. Fucking hell Getting turned requires skill from the attacking player so credit goes to him if he can do it. Getting beat in the air just requires a centre half who can be dominated.

first touch great second (the one which bounced off his shin)not so good. to be fair his control when the ball is coming over his shoulder so to speak is exceptional. his control when the ball is trundling towards him leaves a lot to be desired. also take a close look in that he's gets lucky bounces and such...todays second touch that wasn't deliberate and tho extra non-deliberate touch in his goal at spuds. They're not lucky bounces, he just recovers from them quickly. aye but i call it lucky if you hit the ball when you don't mean to and profit from it He's lucky that he's quick as well. A bit lucky that his first touch sometimes works, and that he can score goals with a hard shot, and a delicate touch sometimes. Also with his head. Fucking flukey cunt if you ask me.

Yep, turned Edgar inside out for the goal Taylor has to take his share of the blame for the goal, he didn't even jump with Zamora for the header and let him have an easy flick on to Ashton. We're desperate for some leadership in the heart of defence. Exactly. Edgar could hardly be blamed for getting turned once the ball had bounced for Ashton who then produced a nice piece of skill to score.

Mar first touch great second (the one which bounced off his shin)not so good. to be fair his control when the ball is coming over his shoulder so to speak is exceptional. his control when the ball is trundling towards him leaves a lot to be desired. also take a close look in that he's gets lucky bounces and such...todays second touch that wasn't deliberate and tho extra non-deliberate touch in his goal at spuds. Fortuitous i suppose. The previous touches make up for it though, as do the finishes. He took Tainio to f****** Alaska* at Spurs. *© Johnnypd tainio dived in because of martins unintentional touch Martins keeps getting these fortuitous gash first touches, and he keeps stroking the ball into the net through sheer luck. What a lucky bastard he is, and he's not that quick either really.

Looked pretty weak today without Faye alongside. Dean Ashton ran riot pretty much as he liked tonight.

Went from possibly beloved to cunt over the course of two days. Record? Who think hes a cunt? On reflection I think he's a cunt to be fair. And as Billytray has pointed out he is pretty ugly so we may well have dodged a bullet here.

If anything it's encouraging we are going for £20m players in the first place. Obviously there will be other clubs competing so we don't have a divine right to win every player's signature. Modric seems to be a decent player but he looks a bit puny, so Spurs might get outmuscled in midfield next season.

Agree with this. We will finish the season higher than Spurs next season, they can sign all the Woodgates and Modric's they want. When Berbatov leaves they will still be weaker than before.

Would Deco want to come here? I have my doubts, so I'd vote for Modric on that alone. We want hungry youngsters not players who will always be yearning for their past glories at Barcelona.

It's the bolded bit I'd be concerned about. We signed Duff and played him ahead of N'Zogbia on account of reputation rather than ability. I'd be worried if we signed the likes of Riise for that reason only. By all means sign someone better if possible. Just make sure he is as good or better first.

Get in Big Slav. Reading those last few lines made my day.

The fact that it has been made public from Dinamo's side, and that wages haven't been agreed suggests there's still a lot of work to do yet.

I can picture it now.. "I can reveal in a Chronicle exclusive Modrich's agents have been in Newcastle..."

The thing with Modric is that the possibilities are as mind-boggling as they are exciting. I would say you're guess is right and he will drift in from JB's starting positon on the left, taking up more central positions the further forward we have posession and falling into formation center-left when we don't have the ball or have posession deep. I imagine JB will slot into a center-right ( of the 3 man). Geremi will downgrade into a backup/squad player. Of course what he gives us is the ability to deliver those passes and vision that currently by default is falling to Butt and Geremi niether of whom really have that in their locker and also as a by product perhaps spells the end of Duff (if Zoggy stays). All the signs from the side recently is that they are happier to move the ball around patiently with Owen and Martins rotating (coming deep) to make the extra man in midfield when called for. The advantage of the 433 is that it really always puts an opposition flat back 4 at a disadvantage as they really don't want to follow wandering forward around the park and at some point will lose them off the radar (owen has been profiting form this coming late and unmarked). On the other hand if we do go 442 Modric will slot into the middle with a minder. I haven't seen enough of Modric to pass a definitive judgement, but from reports it seems that he can put his foot in when needed, so maybe he won't need a minder as such. Might be ok in a 4-4-2 bearing that in mind.

Maybe I should rephrase that: Keegan would probably want the option to go back to 4-4-2 so he'll want a squad to cover all bases. FWIW, Modric is probably more suited to 4-3-3 in any case.

Barton's got quite a defensive role at the moment, Modric is further forward usually. Probably where Owen is playing I think. Leave Owen where he is man. As i said, direct replacement for Geremi. I'm not suggesting Modric should replace Owen, I just think that's the position Modric would play naturally, just off the front two. Geremi's role is quite defensive as well, like Barton's. KK could be thinking of going back to 4-4-2 next season in any case.

Barton's got quite a defensive role at the moment, Modric is further forward usually. Probably where Owen is playing I think.