TRon

Yeah, don't knock Glen Roeder. He successfully scouted and poached Matty Pisshead Pattison under everyone's noses during his time here.

I think Fulham have to go for the win though, even if that's a bit out of character for the cautious Hodgson. A draw is a worse result for them than it is for us. I still think they'll play defensively knowing Hodgson. Maybe not as defensively as Bolton but looking to catch us on the break.

Too right. As far as I'm concerned I feel much more confident we'll get goals with both starting. I'll bet not that many Premier defences are all that confident at the prospect of facing them. Martins is a handful, and Owen's so hard to track.

There's a danger this could turn into another Bolton type game, where we go in on the back of a decent performance and then get frustrated by an ultra defensive line up. The difference this time hopefully, is the triple strike force might provide the firepower that Duff and Smith couldn't. 2-1 for me and that'll do nicely.

Agree with this tbh. He's not that great to start with, when you add that to the fact the twat is never available, I'd say he's highly expendable.

In other words, whatever happens, appointing him was the right thing to do. If he succeeds, he's a genius, if he fails, it's someone else's fault. Easy fodder this for NE5. Like you say, if Keegan succeeds, he's right. If Keegan fails, he'll claim he's right about our new board. Aye, as a general rule of thumb on Planet NE5, if The Magnificent Shepherd is in charge, anything that goes wrong is someone else's fault. But if someone else is in charge, everything is their fault.

Nail on the head. If we are going to buy another LB then he has to be exceptional as far as I'm concerned, or an outstanding prospect, although Ben Tozer would probably fall into that category. There's no point in buying an 'ok' left back when we have one who looks like he might be better than that already here.

It sounds daft but people keep going on about Owen offers nothing apart from goals, yet against Birmingham he was almost linking the midfield to the attack when he dropped deeper, while still providing a goal threat. Just what we've been missing recently.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. What a fucking knob.

Pound for pound, Andy Cole IMO. We had him at his peak, I don't believe that about Shearer. I think our football declined after Shearer arrived if I'm honest, although it wasn't down to him individually, just the balance of the team wasn't the same.

I'm going to be pedantic and say not for an entire decade as he was pretty ineffective those last couple of seasons. I can't agree with that, even in his last couple of years where his ability was fading (which is a fair enough point I reckon), he was instrumental to the club, the fans and in the players we signed. I reckon we could have been deep in the mire well before now if he hadn't lasted so long. Held us back at times due to his influence behind the scenes iyam. Especially when Kluivert/Bellamy was definitely the way forward at the time. Kluivert?! Shearer was more nimble than Kluivert even sitting on Doctor Richard Steadman's operating table. Of course he was. Shearer was quick, nimble and skilful, whereas Kluivert was a tough, uncompromising typical English centre forward.

Andy Cole. Pound for pound, best by a mile.

Good point. Let's drop Viduka and Martins and bring back Duff and Smith.

Yes - they are conceding 4 goals a game pretty regularly. What masterful tactical awareness

That article was uncannily good.

You're being a bit too negative for my liking. He will make us competitive again I have no doubts. Winning things is harder now...So what? so what? if he couldn't win things before with a transfer budget comparable to anyone in the league, i seriously doubt he will win anything now This is the difference between you as an outsider and us. You are looking at winning cups, we are first of all looking to get back in a position of challenging the leading clubs again. You don't need fantastic tactical awareness to do that, just a good chairman with money, and a manager who will buy good players. When we get there, we'll look at it again. All fair enough, but Spurs brought in Ramos, a proven winner, City bring in Sven, another manager with an excellent track recordin club football, Villa bring in O'Neill, a man who has won cups and Championships. Newcastle bring in Keegan that seems to be a decision based purely on sentiment. Not really. We brought in Dalglish and Souness previously, who had a track record of winning trophies and they were disastrous appointments. With Keegan we know we will play good, entertaining football, hopefully be challenging for Europe again, and enjoying it. Anything after that will be a bonus compared to the shite we've had to put up with over the last 10 years.

You're being a bit too negative for my liking. He will make us competitive again I have no doubts. Winning things is harder now...So what? so what? if he couldn't win things before with a transfer budget comparable to anyone in the league, i seriously doubt he will win anything now This is the difference between you as an outsider and us. You are looking at winning cups, we are first of all looking to get back in a position of challenging the leading clubs again. You don't need fantastic tactical awareness to do that, just a good chairman with money, and a manager who will buy good players. When we get there, we'll look at it again.

You've got to keep a level head about Owen though. He's not the player he was, but he's still a striker who scores goals, and his general play was really good in the second half, even though he was playing really deep.

You have to hate Owen if you love Oba. It's the law. When there was a poll for the strikers forum members would most like to see paired together, the leading vote was for Martins and Owen by a fair distance. So obviously not everyone thinks they have to be pitted against one another. I was taking the piss. It's true for a lot of Martins' most ardent fans though imo. You are right it is. The truth is, we don't have any real world class strikers in their prime, so we end up bigging up what we do have. It would be great to have Anelka or Drogba but beggars can't be choosers and all that.

Shearer wasn't just loved, he had far too much influence around the place. Very different from fans chanting Oba's name because he put in a good shift.

He was there against Brum on Monday. Shit, lets hope he doesn't get carried away by Nicky Butt's only half decent performance all season. Butt had a canny game on Monday, fair play to him. It would be great if he can produce it for a few more games and even better if he keeps his passes short and simple. But I digress...

You have to hate Owen if you love Oba. It's the law. When there was a poll for the strikers forum members would most like to see paired together, the leading vote was for Martins and Owen by a fair distance. So obviously not everyone thinks they have to be pitted against one another.

He was watching on Monday but he looked bored shitless. Still, he's getting paid for it, it's better than a kick up the arse.

He'll be in the England squad on Pearce's recommendation, Cappello will be having a look that's all. Shame for Taylor fans as he'll now think he's worth much more than he is, and we'll probably have to sell him.

This has the fingerprints of the Mob written all over it. Taylor's family must have connections and someone's calling in a favour.