TRon

I am loathe to suggest any type of upheaval while the team is getting relatively good results, but if it gets to January and Ashley hasn't sold and we start selling players of any value rather than getting rid of players that no one wants, it might be the time for NUSC to start flexing their muscle. Until now, we have been given the impression Ashley is doing everything he can to sell the club - except drop the price to a reasonable figure. If he's not prepared to do that, or plough funds into the team then NUSC will have been proven right and for me it's open season on Mike Ashley after the New Year. He's got till the end of the Jan transfer window.

It's ok, we will get decent transfer fees for our young foreigners, Enrique and N'Zogbia who are obviously much worse than those two fossils. We should rename the ground to Jurassic Park.

Agreed he does have those drawbacks. On the plus side, you have pace, power, explosive shooting, dangerous crossing, ability to run past players and can tackle. What you have to weigh up is who will bring more to the team over a sustained period on the left wing, Duff or N'Zogbia. I think Dave said it best when he said Duff works hard for the team in the same way as Smith does. Fill your team with Duffs, Smiths and Nicky Butts and sooner or later you will have to come to the same conclusion as Keegan did last season; it will end in relegation unless changes are made.

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2008/11/25/frenchman-could-find-exit-door-opens-soon-61634-22330045/ In any case, we need to start giving more first team experience to Lua Lua, who I think will turn out to be a much better player. Is he a left winger?

of all the managers we've had I'd have liked to see Zog under SBR rather than anyone else. Anyone who could put up with Robert's laziness because of what he brought to the table would have loved someone like Zog.

Do you think Ronaldo would be the same player he is now if Fergie had binned him and replaced him with Damien Duff after his first season (where he showed little more than Charlie did bursting onto the scene here)? Why do you think he didn't? Why hasn't Wenger replaced Fabregas with Nicky Butt? Funnily enough I was just thinking that yesterday watching the Sunday Supplement when the journos were saying that Arsenal didn't have a defensive midfielder who could break up play. Nicky Butt's in the last year of his contract, if he's half as good as his reputation, why don't Arsenal snap him up for £1.5m in January? Answer: because they don't want their midfield to start developing rust.

It's laughable that we put out midfields that get totally over-run by every other side in the division yet left back is considered a major problem. He needs to overlap more at home, but other than that Enrique's a solid enough defender and we have other areas which need looking at more urgently if you ask me.

Maybe he should have another look at Xisco then. Someone must have seen something in the lad before spending £5m in the summer.

I reckon Xisco & Enrique will go out on Loan to Spanish sides, and we'll sign Warnock. While I know we'll be able to offload both Spaniards easily enough, I doubt we'll spend the money required to sign Warnock. It'll be Riise on loan more likely.

I don't think we'll sell Enrique as he's in the first team and we'd be pretty stupid to get rid of him on account of Riise coming in on loan for a few months. Xisco will be the scapegoat I reckon. He's not likely to get a chance to show what he can do with some decent players around him and Viduka looks like being back in a couple of weeks.

I know why Charlie doesn't get picked by a lot of managers, it's because he gets in a strop when he's not played first choice left wing. It's not even that he's such a fantastic player, he doesn't 'play for the team' as much as Duff does. But while we got a great result yesterday, we never looked like scoring and safe reliable (but shit) players like Duff are the reason why. That's why N'Zogbia will be head-hunted by decent teams while Damien Duff will stay here being a good lad and picking up wages for fannying around for 90 mins.

We don't need to sell Taylor, he's a useful member of the squad. We just need to pick the two best centre backs for each game and he's not necessarily one of them.

It'll be interesting to see what sort of fee we'll get for Zog if he signs for Paris or Bayern. The only thing I know for sure is there won't be any similar interest in Damien Puff no matter how long he keeps getting picked ahead of N'Zogbia.

Butt had one of his better games against Chelsea, but you can't get away from the fact that our midfield has been second best against some pretty mediocre teams this season, Sunderland, Fulham and West Brom to name a few. Geremi has the quality but he's too static, so I would go for Jonas and Zog on the wings like most here. Duff is the safe option, but he's also one of those who gets dominated because of his powder puff attacking threat.

It's been a pleasant change to read positive views about our defence whatever some people on here might think. To hold out against Chelsea with almost the entire game being played in our half takes courage, organsation and no little skill. Some of the better journos lavished praise on Colo, Bassong and Beye in particular and they earned it. Let's give them some credit for a change, it's not often the defence gets much after all.

Enrique doesn't offer enough going forward so that's a problem at home. He's still pretty good defensively though, and that's what we needed today.

Shearer wouldn't do the job under financial restraint though, maybe that's what Kinnear is getting at. The only way Shearer will manage Newcastle is with plenty of money to spend in my view and I wouldn't expect anything else. JK's being asked to do a fairly shitty job and he's getting on with it where a lot of people including Shearer wouldn't touch it with a barge pole in the current circumstances.

I don't really get this attitude towards Kinnear that some fans have. You would think he had been appointed permanently rather than given another month judging by some reactions. He's not the answer but how many temporary managers are? Every time there is a bad result (not today obviously) there's people popping up to throw abuse, despite the fact he's got us some half decent results. Some fans really need to wind their necks in as far as I'm concerned.

I think Kineear will have to sell to buy so I wouldn't hold your breath on that one.

Take some of your own advice. fuck off Would you prefer Chris Hughton for the next month then? I'm sure he'd keep his mouth shut about Americans and transfers.

This might be kneejerk but we actually do look as if we can start playing for a draw, I can't remember feeling we could do that for quite a long time. I made the same point in the match thread, Kinnear can overdo it but he does seem to have got us defending with discipline. As for the back five, I just feel there is a better understanding between Bassong and Colo and I have felt that since I first saw them together against Coventry.

I don't like it either, but the best teams are always able to batten down the hatches when necessary. It's a valuable tool in a circumstances like today, and while we don't want to see it too often, it makes me feel better that we can defend when we have to.

That back four is very impressive defensively when I've seen them start together this season. Mind it was more of a back eight today. Fair play though, well done lads.

Credit to the defenders so far, because all the play is in our half, they have coped admirably.

I know we haven't kicked off yet, but I'm amazed we aren't 1-0 down already. Fair play we are holding them at the moment