TRon

I'm sure he'll get a new contract, but he's a bit young to be talking about not getting messed about. 'The geordie Bramble' might be a bit harsh, but there is a bit of truth to it. He's still very rash and has a lot to learn. Great prospect without a doubt but that doesn't make him John Terry overnight (or Bramble for that matter). Let's keep some perspective.

Not sure Owen was too smart in leaking the £9m clause. I doubt any of the top 4 will pay that for such a fragile player any more. If they did, I suspect Sam would fancy making use of that sort of money to buy a replacement. Top marksman without a doubt, but injury prone and un-committed that he is, hardly makes him indispensable.

Bearing in mind we are talking about the Premier league I should add.

Not sure about that. He's quite small, and managers like Wenger, Mourinho and Allardyce have usually gone for the Viera type in the holding MF role. The thing about having a player like Butt (who appears to have got his s*** together very nicely after his spell at Birmingham, when he was utterly awful) in the squad is that he might not be the star performer, and he might not be the kind of player other clubs will covet, but if you get rid of him, you find it really, really hard to find a suitable replacement, and they invariably cost a lot of money. I can't really think of a small defensive MF player who costs a lot of money.

Not sure about that. He's quite small, and managers like Wenger, Mourinho and Allardyce have usually gone for the Viera type in the holding MF role.

Who cares what FF/Pearson/Butt/Oliver/Roeder/etc... think? their opinion is worthless as the current shambles of a club they have run clearly shows. N'Zogbia is clearly a wayward lad but then so was Anelka before Sam took him on. I'd be amazed if Allardyce let Zoggy go without putting up a real fight to keep him here unless the young lad's mind is already made up to leave.

Why does it surprise anyone that Zog was texting on his phone during the team talk? This is exactly the sort of contempt and disrespect that Roeder's spineless management invited. Brown-nosing Alan Oliver might have won him a few friends at the Chronicle but it counts for fuck all in the dressing room. The fact that Olly could trumpet publicly how Roeder had phoned him 3 times since being sacked says everything tbh. I am more than happy to let Big Sam decide who stays and who goes. If he can handle Anelka - Martins, N'Zogbia and the rest will be a walk in the park.

Why doesn't The Fat One do the team talks at half time while he's at it? Because by barging Roeder aside to lambast the players, he's effectively admitting that Roeder isn't capable of doing it to any effect himself.

Luque isn't a CF but he held off a defender and rose to head in a fantastic cross against Palermo. If we are going to play with two wingers then we should appreciate the fact that someone got on the end of one of their crosses rather than muse on what's going wrong when two titchy forwards watch cross after cross sail tantalisingly over their heads as Duff and Rossi were forced to yesterday.

His sick wife's in Majorca? I never realised medical treatment in Spain was so far advanced than ours.

Point after point struck unerringly home.

Actually Shepherd left yesterday morning for Majorca. Important club business no doubt, nothing to do with Spanish brothels I would imagine.

What a superb analysis. The problem with Roeder is he isn't a leader of any description. He's keeping the seat warm for Alan Shearer, so it's hardly surprising fewer and fewer are willing to bust a gut for him.

To be fair, Wwen can look crap for 89 mins, but he's a lethal finisher who can punish a team for one lapse. Martins will need to be judged after a dozen games or so, but he does need to start getting into goalscoring positions more often from the little I've seen. In his defence, Bergkamp and Crouch were shite for their respective clubs for a long while before they came good. Let's give him a chance to find his feet at least. This is a million miles from Serie A.

I doubt Martins is a bad player, it probably just needs a manager who can set a team up right to get the best of the players at his disposal. Does anyone doubt that O'Neill will get more from Villa's squad than that prick O'Nearly?

An understudy for Ameobi?

I bet he'll cost just as much as Nugent would. Is Nugent a big target man though? Nugent is being quoted at £5m and I wouldn't expect to pay more than £2m for Viduka as he's in his final year of his contract.

Viduka is still a quality striker in comparison to the rest of our current squad. As long as the money involved isn't daft it's not a bad option, if only short term.

Maybe if we offer them stupid money.

Fair enough. By extension though, the blame for bringing a recognisably shit manager to the club rests with the Chairman. I know you won't agree.

No, in fact we are miles apart. While you and FOOTSOLDIER are intent on looking at the negative qualities of said players, I am prepared to look at the positive, i.e, Shola's local links, recent goals record, running ability, etc... Luque's undoubted class, finishing ability, and the rest. You and Footsoldier are in agreement also, correct? Earlier you said.... We do agree, unless you want to retract the bits I've put in bold. You just have a 'more gentle' way of writing it, especially the bit about the heartless Spaniard. Well I've bolded the bits you seem to have missed just to show another perspective, pretty much different from yours with all respect. bluebiggrin.gif I read all of your post the first time, I didn't miss anything. :winking: The fact is, everything has a bottom line, which is the crux of it all and is the really IMPORTANT bit. We agree that Ameobi isn't good enough for our ambitions and we agree Luque is unlikely to do the business for Newcastle because "he doesn't fancy it". Wrong. Ameobi might not be good enough for our ambitions, but he's a useful squad player as he has proved recently. Robbie Elliott wasn't good enough for our ambitions either last season yet no one is pointing out his lack of quality are they? And if Luque doesn't "fancy it", why did Fat Fred bring him here?

No, in fact we are miles apart. While you and FOOTSOLDIER are intent on looking at the negative qualities of said players, I am prepared to look at the positive, i.e, Shola's local links, recent goals record, running ability, etc... Luque's undoubted class, finishing ability, and the rest. You and Footsoldier are in agreement also, correct? Earlier you said.... We do agree, unless you want to retract the bits I've put in bold. You just have a 'more gentle' way of writing it, especially the bit about the heartless Spaniard. Well I've bolded the bits you seem to have missed just to show another perspective, pretty much different from yours with all respect.

No, in fact we are miles apart. While you and FOOTSOLDIER are intent on looking at the negative qualities of said players, I am prepared to look at the positive, i.e, Shola's local links, recent goals record, running ability, etc... Luque's undoubted class, finishing ability, and the rest. You and Footsoldier are in agreement also, correct?

HTL wants response to footsoldiers comments so let me oblige. Ameobi has played 200 matches, true - but quite a few of those have been from the subs bench or out wide. I would argue that his contribution is anything but poor in matches. He has won us a fair few pens and free kicks running at defenders and his recent goalscoring record has been ok. He's not a top class striker by any means but a useful squad player IMO. Luque on the other hand is clearly a high class player, anyone who saw his goal will appreciate that except for the most blinkered. looks to me like he doesn't fancy English football though which makes him an expensive luxury.

I could definitely see him doing a job in the Intertoto, and with our injury list we might still get some return from his signing. I think we'll end up selling at a big loss though.