Shak

Makelele. Can't think of a single thing he was better at than Roy Keane. (Apart from not being a complete tit, though that doesn't factor in I would imagine.)

Confident enough at this point, if we get lucky with injuries and Tiote and Ben Arfa can both play well I think we'll be fine.

Taunting the opposition with the ball while they charge around hopelessly trying to get it? If anything it was a piece of commentary genius. Fuck this, I'm not having it. Clive is just a more eloquent man than you, there's no shame in admitting that.

Taunting the opposition with the ball while they charge around hopelessly trying to get it?

James is such a great WUM when he wants to be. It's mostly down to the fact that he spouts absolute shit when he's serious as well, but still.

A couple of young Chelsea fans I know have posted the you tube clip of it. The comments were along the lines of "loooooool valencia got his leg snapped like a twig" and other nonsense of that ilk. Some people really can be complete and utter cunts. I remember going to a game between my local side Hampton & Richmond at our rivals AFC Wimbledon. Our left back got his leg broken in a 50-50 and the reaction of the womble fans, saying our lad deserved it because he went in to 'do' their lad, nearly caused a riot to break out. I don't care if you can't stand the oppo or the player but nobody wants to see people suffer really bad injuries. I've played in games where people have suffered breaks, and it aint pretty. This post combined with his username leads me to believe that MKSC just called his kids cunts.

He'll surely have to retire before he's 32, must be the most physically spent 28 year old footballer I've ever seen.

Heard this a few times but I'm not sure where it comes from? Shearer wasn't like a Van Nistelrooy goal poacher type, he was a very well-rounded player who could and did score every type of goal. Granted I don't think he was the intimidating physical force that Drogba is, but I'm not sure how exactly you'd classify Drogba as having "much more to his overall game"? What exactly did Shearer lack in your view?

Both had/have the absolute lot. Pace, power, good in the air, fabulous strikers of the ball, great workrate. Just a nightmare to play against. Have to give it to Shearer though, he was just a better goalscorer. Compare him in those years to what Drogba has done at Chelsea in a similar period of time. Drogba in his first 6 years at Chelsea scored 84 league goals, Shearer in the 5 seasons you've mentioned got 137. I'm sure there were a lot of penalties in there, but it's still a pretty wide margin you're talking about.

http://teenymanolo.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Link.jpg

It's basically a front 3 with Henry and Ronaldo playing very advanced, he's hardly being asked to play in a traditional LW role. As for Rio being a perma crock, I was assuming that we were picking players at the height of their powers. I'd probably pick Drogba over Shearer if we're going on current ability like.

He's only fucking 28?! Jesus Christ, would have guessed he was 32 and thought there was no way he could still be in his 20's. How many years doeshe have left on his deal? Got to be at least until the end of next season. Depressing stuff.

----------------- Schmeichel Neville --- Adams --- Ferdinand --- Cole ------------- Vieira --- Keane Ronaldo ------- Bergkamp---------- Henry ------------------ Shearer

No, his best attribute is his dribbling and that would be negated in the middle. You want your CM's to be able to go and get on the ball and attempt to dictate the tempo of the game, generally a lad who can't hid the side of a barn door isn't going to do well in that role.

Jesus man, I was just about to start the same exact thread. He's a massive, massive problem in our team right now, frankly. Until he's dropped we're not going to progress as a team. Waste of fucking space.

Left it a bit late to make changes today, but he was always going to start with the same 11 that did so well the last 2 games. The big test comes against Everton.

Amazing that Ben Arfa hasn't been thrown on yet.

I'll be very disappointed if we see Nolan playing as a CM again. Must be Tiote/Smith alongside Barton. The last two games we've really seen the benefit of having two CM's who actually get involved in the game in the middle of the park. Nolan would be a step backwards in terms of how we play because he doesn't do this. Happy enough with him being in the squad, he's a goal threat in that second striker role, but I'd play Smith ahead of him in CM in all honesty.

Ha, April Fools.

This in a nutshell really It's essentially down to the fact that we have awful CM's. There's nobody who makes us tick, who goes looking for the ball to start attacks and has the quality to do it well. The last few years our options in CM have made Newcastle look like Spain, until a CM comes through who is at least somewhat decent we're always going to look bad against the poor sides. It's grand against better sides, as we're looking to play on the break for the most part. Anyway, really good 3 points that. Shitty pitch, playing in heat that our lads aren't really used to and we've got the win. Never expected much better than a scrappy, tight win tbh. Also, I would love it if someone could point me in the direction of any evidence they've ever witnessed that suggests Aiden McGeady is a good footballer. He's absolutely piss, can't believe he's fetched almost £10m.

Four o'clock on a Friday... fucking bizarre time for a game of football if you ask me.

Encouraging to hear, looks like he's learned his lesson from the signing of Best. Trying to find buyers for the likes of Best, Shola and Xisco is going to be a bit of a task for us I'm afraid. Shola has two years left and the other two have three, I hope we don't get stuck with their wages on our books for that long, could really hinder our attempts to improve the squad in future.

I think the squad is coming together quite nicely, we still lack enough players with quality in the final third to really scare teams but we look like we're developing quite a solid team, and we're quite young as well which is encouraging. The situation at Goalkeeper isn't ideal, but it's not too bad though either. We have a below average PL keeper in Harper, and a raw but talented understudy in Krul. The way I see it, Harper will be passable until we figure out if Krul is going to be a long term solution or not. He's 22 now, we should know soon enough. Enrique is looking like a quality LB more with every game he plays. His ongoing weakness is that he gives the ball away in clumsy spots, generally through lack of concentration. He's quality though when players are running at him, I never expect anyone to go by him and they very rarely do. At RB we'll have to get by this year with a mixture of the various players we have who can play RB, I reckon between the two Taylors, Simpson and Perch we'll find someone who can do a job. CB we have good depth. Colo, Williamson, Taylor and Campbell is good competition for two places. Central midfield I really like what Hughton has done. I expect it'll be a case of one of Smith or Tiote to partner one of Barton or Guthrie. (Probably) Barton will be expected to get on the ball, make things happen going forward and get into goalscoring positions, while (hopefully) Tiote will be more inclined to sit back and anchor the midfield. Gosling signing seems weird now looking back, I'm not sure how he'll fit into everything. Jonas and Routledge are good starting wingers, but those two avoiding long-term injuries could be quite important as I don't think we've much depth after them. Disappointing that Lua Lua is gone on loan again, the coaches obviously don't seem to think he's able to play with the first team yet. Ben Arfa should be class signing, obviously. Hopefully he'll give us that bit of flair in the final third we've been missing for so long. Sounds like he's expecting to play in the role Nolan has played so far, excited to see that. As for Nolan, I'll never like him because I hate the type of player he is. The epitome of Sam Allardyce football. That said, he seems a great presence in the dressing room and you can't deny his knack for getting on the end of and taking chances more than most of the players in our squad. As long as he is deployed in the role he's played so far, and never again as a genuine central midfielder, I'm happy to suffer him for another year. Could actually be a quality weapon to throw on late in games when you're chasing a goal. Lovenkrands will be another option to play just off the striker, and he can play on the wing too (albeit quite porrly, generally). Andy Carroll is probably the most exciting thing we have at the club right now. A big, strong bastard of a center-forward who is a born and bred Geordie. He looks like he's developed massively in the last couple of years, and the first three games this year he's looked a real handful. Immense in the air, and quick enough as well as decent enough with the ball at his feet to be more than just a big battering ram. Typically enough though, he seems a bit of a lunatic. We need him to stay out of trouble and also hope that the expectation that will be heaped upon him now doesn't get in his head. After him we have passable depth at the center-forward spot with Shola and eventually Best being back-up options. Next summer will be interesting if things go well this year.

Some close stuff. I'd take it, yeah.