TRon

I would definitely take 107 goals in 337 appearences from a midfielder over what we currently have. (smith, barton, butt and Emre who have about 3 goals between them in the last 2 years) Like I said, a goal-scorer playing in midfield. If he was 24 fair enough, but at his age, no thanks. Let's look for a genuine playmaker instead.

I think Lampard is highly over-rated tbh. He's not a playmaker, he's a goal-scorer playing in midfield. I'm quite glad he's too good for us really.

He signed some very good players for us. He should've we were the 2nd best team in the country, one of the richest in the world and in the Champion's League. and those players still took us from that position to mid-table. given time i'm sure he'd have done better but he did a poor job short-term. The football we played under Dalglish was atrocious. He did make some good signings in Given, Solano, Hamman (for that 1 season) but made some equally bad signings like the jobs for the boys (Rush, Barnes, his son etc), Des Hamilton, Andreas Andersson, Lionel Perez...... falling out with Ginola,selling Ferdinand and replacing them sub standard players. Everyone goes on about him taking us to 2nd place in the CL, but that was with Keegans team. The season after was his team......the one where we performed so miserably, playing largely boring negative football and finishing 13th. Hardly his fault Ferdinand was sold though. i'm no apologist for dalglish but to underestimate the effect losing shearer had is to do him a massive disservice - was the best striker in europe at the time and would have affected everything maassively agreed. The point about Dalglish is that, at the time, he had a winning record better than even Alex Ferguson, he appeared to be a top, top appointment, of the calibre of Fergie, Wenger, Mourhinho etc now. He had also taken a great team on at Liverpool and improved them, and with flair players too. Exactly what we wanted here at the time. Then won the title with another club, a feat few have equalled. Won 3 manager of the year awards, and 4 titles in all. Saying he was crap or anything like questioning why he got the job, well the reason he got the job is for the reasons above. These hindsight merchants really make me laugh. Dalglish was an excellent appointment at the time, which is why I've never slagged Fat Fred for it. You are right in highlighting just why he looked such an attractive option back then. But his limitations became pretty apparent the longer he was away from Anfield. I think the dissent only set in with the consecutive appointments of Souness and Roeder, both terrible decisions from any angle. I hardly think a manager with all those honours could be termed as "limited" however I'm pleased that you acknowledge that for 7 out of 10 years you were quite happy. By the way, Roeder also came 7th in the league so make it 8 years out of 10. Hardly the sort of figures you would associate with a shite board. They say that Greggs pies are especially nice these days. I wonder how many company chairman buy them with company funds, despicable practice. Truly only shit chairman do such things. You know you're the only one who mentions pies these days Leazes? If you dropped that side of your attack I'm sure a lot more people would agree with your posts. maybe so, but they didn't agree with them at the time. Maybe some people could admit that being a fat bastard doesn't really have any relevance, although its all quite a lot of people said. Nothing whatsoever has changed in my comments about the old board BTW, but thats because they were based on facts. The fact that after sacking SBR, Fat Fred wanted to hire thick Steve Bruce, got knocked back, then hired Souness who proceeded to destroy the squad, followed by appointing lame duck Roeder? Are these the facts you are referring to?

Revised team (4-4-2) : Harper Beye Faye Taylor Enrique Geremi Butt Barton N'Zogbia Viduka Martins I can't believe I've gt Butt and Barton in central midfield, but against a physical Birmingham I think we need Faye at centre back, and I refuse to play Duff any more as he hasn't provided anything all season.

Why are so many people picking Emre? Is he fit?

He's called Bentley Bentley isn't that fast. Excellent player but not because he's got blinding pace. And Lennon really isn't an appreciably better player than Milner at the moment. Certainly has more potential though. Bentley looks quite slow to me for a winger, although his use of the ball is faultless.

In their report on the wolves game under SBR. They spent the remaining part of SBR' managership sniping at him and generally leading the cheerleading to get him out. Nice one lads I hope your happy with the last 5 years but lay off the hypocrisy of other fans expressing their views eh? POT KETTLE BLACK. Ha ha. Glass houses. I don't think we were in a relegation battle back then, just another season going nowhere. A small but crucial difference.

He's got 10% of the work ethic of Smith, yet has still brought 100% more to the club this season than Smith has. Exactly. Aye he's overweight and he's not quick (fuck's sake, what a comical accusation of a player who has never relied on pace), but he oozes class when we actually get the fucking ball into his feet. I'm going to go out on a limb and call him our most important player - Martins included - out of the dross that is our squad. He has been involved in the majority of the good that has occured this season, much like Oba and N'Zogbia have. He has also scored goals which changed matches when we were playing dire football early in the season. Allardyce had a lot to thank him for. Although staying fit would have helped. We knew what we were getting when we signed him though, didn't we? He's the sort of player who will keep us up, much like he did for 'Boro last season. He was immense in the latter stages for them lot. He was. If he can stay fit for even the last 9 games and scores the goals which keep us up, everything else will be forgotten and we can move him on in the summer and start again. The thing is, if he does stay fit he will score the goals. I don't really doubt it.

He's got 10% of the work ethic of Smith, yet has still brought 100% more to the club this season than Smith has. Exactly. Aye he's overweight and he's not quick (fuck's sake, what a comical accusation of a player who has never relied on pace), but he oozes class when we actually get the fucking ball into his feet. I'm going to go out on a limb and call him our most important player - Martins included - out of the dross that is our squad. He has been involved in the majority of the good that has occured this season, much like Oba and N'Zogbia have. He has also scored goals which changed matches when we were playing dire football early in the season. Allardyce had a lot to thank him for. Although staying fit would have helped.

Thanks for reminding me - before we turned to Saviour Souness we actually approached and were turned down by Steve Bruce whose main qualification was that he was a geordie and his team played rotten football. Yet more evidence of Freddie Shepherd's football knowledge

It will be interesting to see what type of players Keegan has got in mind as transfer targets. Henry would be a typical Keegan signing - quality but maybe past his peak.

If Viduka is fit I'd start him with Martins as well, with Zog on the left, and Geremi or Duff wide right. I doubt we'll see it though.

God no, that hadn't occurred to me. Sure as night follows day, it will happen.

Keegan will have to make a choice between Viduka or Martins. Which means he might well stick with Smith.

He'll replace Smith, that's all that matters. If the fat sponger can stay fit for the run-in, it could be the difference between staying up and going down. It's a nice day outside so he might even train properly today.

I picked them to go down as well. They have a poor squad, and with the pressure of relegation I can see some of their earlier spark fizzling out.

Looks like Viduka could be playing against Brum. Keegan talking him up big time: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article3549953.ece

If Leazes makes a valid point, I don't have a problem agreeing with it. The idea that the appointment of Souness or Roeder were well reasoned appointments I don't accept. Souness had taken Liverpool back years, and Blackburn were heading for relegation when we made our move. No one at that time still regarded Souness as a top manager. Roeder was appointed on the back of decent results as caretaker. At the time, Shepherd ruled out any overseas candidates because he probably didn't have a clue about football outside of England.

It was a cracking goal as well. Kelly was a technique player and that goal was symbolic in importance, timing , execution and beauty. Beat that.

Really? I always thought Milner's good at beating his man even if his final ball isn't always great. He ripped Sagna to shreds at SJP against Arsenal. For me it's the other way round. Milner never beats his man, he usuall does a step over or three by which time the defence has regrouped, so despite the final ball being a good one it's ineffective because everyone's marked or stationary by then.

Each to his own, but for me sinking into the third tier of English football is unimagineable. Plenty of clubs have failed to come back from those depths,so I'd far rather lose some 2nd rate Euro cup final and at least live in hope that next season we could be back amongst the elite.

He signed some very good players for us. He should've we were the 2nd best team in the country, one of the richest in the world and in the Champion's League. and those players still took us from that position to mid-table. given time i'm sure he'd have done better but he did a poor job short-term. The football we played under Dalglish was atrocious. He did make some good signings in Given, Solano, Hamman (for that 1 season) but made some equally bad signings like the jobs for the boys (Rush, Barnes, his son etc), Des Hamilton, Andreas Andersson, Lionel Perez...... falling out with Ginola,selling Ferdinand and replacing them sub standard players. Everyone goes on about him taking us to 2nd place in the CL, but that was with Keegans team. The season after was his team......the one where we performed so miserably, playing largely boring negative football and finishing 13th. Hardly his fault Ferdinand was sold though. i'm no apologist for dalglish but to underestimate the effect losing shearer had is to do him a massive disservice - was the best striker in europe at the time and would have affected everything maassively agreed. The point about Dalglish is that, at the time, he had a winning record better than even Alex Ferguson, he appeared to be a top, top appointment, of the calibre of Fergie, Wenger, Mourhinho etc now. He had also taken a great team on at Liverpool and improved them, and with flair players too. Exactly what we wanted here at the time. Then won the title with another club, a feat few have equalled. Won 3 manager of the year awards, and 4 titles in all. Saying he was crap or anything like questioning why he got the job, well the reason he got the job is for the reasons above. These hindsight merchants really make me laugh. Dalglish was an excellent appointment at the time, which is why I've never slagged Fat Fred for it. You are right in highlighting just why he looked such an attractive option back then. But his limitations became pretty apparent the longer he was away from Anfield. I think the dissent only set in with the consecutive appointments of Souness and Roeder, both terrible decisions from any angle.

Really? Why is that? I just don't understand it. I mean, surely we're all following the same cause? Well before forums became popular, it was very much a case of 'their way or the highway' when it came to independent internet coverage of events at SJP. This place isn't independent though is it? Mort has N-O in his pocket blowing cool air over his ball sack. I'm surprised NE5 hasn't been banned then.

Must admit, these threads wind me up as well. Constructive criticism fair enough, but you have to wonder if people who write stuff like this actually want us to fail, just so they can be proven right.

It's not like Milner ever gets past the full back either, he always ends up crossing from deep as well. The big difference is Milner could get up and down the flank quicker, so defensively it might be an issue.