Shak

His exact height really isn't particularly important.

exactly what I thought! Who's the bad boy now? Quite looking forward to having the vicious little pair of fuckers in the middle actually. Get in a big, intimidating DM alongside them to back them up and we'll be a lot harder to play in the middle of the park.

Think his hair is lovely myself.

Good points. 1 & 2) Personally I feel that the basic 4-4-2 system is on its way out and that 4-3-3/4-5-1 is the way forward at this point. Barcelona and Chelsea both utilise it. Man United more or less abandoned the 4-4-2 last year in favour of something that generally looked like a 4-3-3, allowing Ronaldo in particular to benefit from a more advanced role, and the results were plain to see. 4-3-3 is a lot more flexible which is why I'd like to see us utilise it. It also suits pretty much every player in our squad a lot better than a 4-4-2 does, particularly in midfield. Think you're also being a shade unfair on Allardyce saying he played 4-5-1, as his "wingers" were generally Anelka and Diouf, who are both basically strikers to be fair. 3) This goes back to my point about Owen wanting to leave. I find it nearly impossible to envision him saying here beyond the next two seasons, though I may be wrong. Just believe we're better off getting rid now than keeping him around and then losing him for nowt. 6) If we sell him now we'll get £9m and save on roughly another 5m in wages in just the next year alone. The longer he stays the less we get back for him. I se your point about us potentially doing well and convincing him to stay, but I can't see us getting instant success. We're going to have to rebuild slowly, and Chapions League qualification in the next two years may be just out of reach. By then Owen's contract will be up, and as I'd imagine he'd leave for a CL club for nowt then. EDIT: I really, really don't share your confidence regrading Duff, but to each his own.

Would have been a good signing but it's nowt to be heartbroken about, plenty more players out there. Though having a player with the initials TBH would be nice tbh.

Bit long so the likes of Jon may struggle with it, but a few of my thoughts on the Michael Owen situation at the club. Any comments appreciated. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The last month at Newcastle United has seen the landscape of the club change almost inconceivably. While a month ago our fans were united in frustration at our clueless manager and much maligned chairman, we are now united in a sense of optimism not seen since the peak of Bobby Robson’s tenure. A new manager, Sam Allardyce, renowned for improving his clubs not only on the pitch but off of it as well. A new owner in Mike Ashley who seems intent on turning us into a major force, and is apparently willing to spend significant portions of his vast fortune to do so. Fans of The Toon could be forgiven for pinching themselves to make sure this last month hasn’t all been one cruel dream. Yet, despite all the positives that have come from the last month or so, there is still one major issue that hangs over us. Is Michael Owen happy to stay and be part of the revolution at Newcastle? Well, no, he’s not. Anyone who thinks that he is is kidding themselves quite frankly. The silence from Owen regarding the issue of whether he wants to stay says it all quite frankly. Especially given he’s been publicly challenged by our chairman, Freddy Shepherd, to commit to staying at the club and still hasn’t said anything on the matter, preferring to focus on his England future. Nothing new there of course, but would a few words be too much to ask for? Sam Allardyce publicly announcing that Owen’s rumoured release clause (believed to be £9m) means he’s powerless to stop him leaving is a pretty good indication that Sam has gotten his answer from Owen, and is now keen to peddle him as soon as possible. On the face of it, losing Owen would seem like a massive blow to the club, given that he’s unarguably our most proven player on a world stage. He’s scored goals in The Champions League, World Cup, European Championship, every big competition you can think of that he can feasibly appear in. One would think, based on that, we should be desperate to hold onto him. Personally, though, I’ll be glad to see the back of him. First of all, he doesn’t fit into any position in Allardyce’s preferred formation, namely the 4-3-3/4-5-1 system that he predominantly played in his time at Bolton. Much like Chelsea’s system, this requires a powerful center forward ala Drogba or Kevin Davies to be the focal point of the attack. You then have two pacey, skillful players either side of him that can both score goals and create them, players like Robben and Joe Cole at Chelsea or Diouf and Anelka at Bolton. Owen isn’t physically imposing enough to be our target man, while he’s not got the skill to really worry defenders in wide positions as a wide man. Trying to fit him into either of these positions would be just a waste of time really, and a waste of his talents i.e playing alongside a player who really gets involved in the game a lot, allowing Owen to pop up now and again to convert chances while generally contributing sparsely in the build up play. If he does stay, however, he will have to play. You can’t leave him on the bench, especially if the team is struggling. So Allardyce would have to find a way to accommodate him, almost certainly through finding a new system to the one he knows best. While this may help somewhat in the short-term, it would hinder the long-term development of the team. Especially when Owen leaves, which he doubtless ultimately will. While Shearer was one of the greatest servants our club has ever seen, there were times in his last season or two where the team would probably have benefited from him being excluded now and again, but due to his sheer stature no manager had the guts to do so. Same with Parker last year. His form was woeful at times, most of the time in fact, but as Roeder had made him club captain he couldn’t drop him. I’m sick of us accommodating players based on something other than their present usefulness to the team, and while Owen would doubtless be a lot more use to us than Parker was last year, I still believe he’d be hindering our long-term progress. Aside from any tactical mumbo-jumbo, however, he clearly doesn’t want to be here either. He’s not said a word in the public about wanting to stay here which, given the level interest in his situation, is all you need to know. Of course he won’t come out and say he wants to leave, just like he didn’t when he left Liverpool. That would go against his squeaky clean, model professional image that he’s built up for himself while really being little more than a snake in the grass who won’t look back as he leaves town, just like he didn’t after manipulating his way out of Liverpool to go to Madrid. The only problem is that we may struggle to find someone willing to take him off our hands, which I’m sure will bruise his ego. Liverpool clearly don’t want him back, and he’d not fit into the Chelsea system. Arsenal and Man U are possibilities as both could do with an out and out goalscorer to take advantage of the fabulous football the other members of the team play. But even they could be put off by his massive wages and questionable fitness. I’ll be very disappointed if he starts the season here at Newcastle, because all he’ll be doing is auditioning for the next transfer window, or the one after that or whenever he can get out of Toon. So get rid of him now, save ourselves shelling out massive wages to a guy who doesn’t want to be here just so he can put himself in the shop window. No doubt if the summer goes on long enough and it becomes evident that nobody is interested then that’ll be the time for Owen to reveal his plans for the future, saying that he’s always been happy at Newcastle and really wants to stay and be part of something special here. Lies which will be forgotten as soon as he gets half a chance to leave us. For me he represents everything that I hate about the outgoing regime at boardroom level at St. James’ Park. An expensive signing, one we payed spectacularly over the odds for, on massive wages with ridiculous clauses allowing him to leave for significantly less than what we paid for him. A signing we made while ignoring other pressing needs in our team in order to placate the fans, the ultimate trophy signing. With our new owner and new manager, it’s time for a fresh start. That means clearing out all the mistakes from our previous regimes, which Owen is the epitome of.

Depends. If Sam wants to eventually go with a 4-5-1 like he did at Bolton, Emre will be very useful in that system. tmonkey, I can't see Flamini leaving Arsenal for here unless he's gauranteed a first team spot regularly, which I wouldn't want him having here.

Will likely be something we're looking at very closely. Top class DM to play alongside Barton and Emre in the middle and we'll have a very nice balance.

Erm, is that not how we ended up with one our current strikers, who doesn't really want to be here?? I meant more in the general sense that wages on average are a lot higher in England than in Spain. Obviously, signing him to an Owen-esque contract would be daft.

Not all that unfeasible that Allardyce will be having a serious look at him if there's money to spend. Sam likes his tall, target man types who are good at playing with their back to goal and holding the ball up, which is where Torres excels. Get rid of Owen and bring in Torres. For those saying he'd never come here, money talks and right now the Premiership is the place to be if you want to make big money. Don't see any of the Big 4 being after him so we'd have a very good shot if we put our minds to it.

Aye, never went well for that Gargamel fellow.

Someone who doesn't have a clue about music probably wasn't the best choice for writing this article.

“He's pulling him off. The Spanish manager is pulling his Captain off!” "I might be tempting fate but I can't see the Poles Scoring...OH NOOOO they just have!!" Couple of gems from RTE's George Hamilton.

Kanu is obviously better.

As will Kanu.

Davor Suker will be thrilled if he sees this.

Random enough thread I suppose. One that I'll always remember as an Irishman is from Italia 90 when Ireland knocked out Romania to reach to Last 8 of the World Cup in our first ever appearance. David O'Leary, of all people, scored the decisive penalty. George Hamilton's commentary as O'Leary stepped up. "The nation holds its breath...... YES WE'RE THERE!!" Still sends a tingle down my spine typing it like. Sadly enough I can actaully reel off about three or four sentences of what he said before and after that bit, but that's the part that stands out. Another one is Albert's lob against Man U in the 5-0, always remembered that. Conversely, the words "Collymore closing in..." Still make me flinch a bit, it was part of an add on Sky there a while back, still causes me discomfort. Plenty of funny ones too. Clive Tidlsley (sp) on ITV during the World Cup last year when Crouch scored against Trinidad & Tobago, as Crouch, in the height of his robot dance craze, ran off to celebrate "GET READY TO DANCE!!" :lol: He wasn't even taking the piss.

What a loser. Fool. I'm not the one getting whooshed now am I?

Not sure our fans would take to him, he's shockingly lazy and generally does nothing in games apart from pop up and score goals. Great player in a top team that can afford to have a passenger type whose job is just to score goals, but I really don't think he's what we should be looking at right now. Not a fear of it happeneing anyway.

What a loser.

Hoping he'll be sold asap now. Think Owen is probably refusing to give Sam any assurances he wants to stay so Sam is blatantly advertising him to as many clubs as possible. Personally hope he's sold, wouldn't feel in the least bit bad for him if he does leave and then suffers another ACL tear. Disgraceful that he doesn't feel any sense of debt to us after the last two years, especially after coming out and saying that he did feel he owed us lasts season. How quickly things change, eh Michael? You little cunt.

Wish Barton would just waive it, I know it's a lot of money but does he really need it FFS? I've started a Master League at Pro Evo and put him on the team, I'll be annoyed if I've to start again.

top scoring midfielder in Portugal and most assists consecutively too. he has a brilliant end product his crosses are some the best in Europe and the flashiest. class player why wouldnt anyone want him here, just what we need a bit of spark. Despite my concerns, I'd still be more than willing to give him a chance, he could be a class player and perhaps the Premiership would suit him, he has the pace. Agree with James about the lack of ambition. No reason whatsoever we couldn't attract Quaresma, The Premiership is a massive step up from Portugal, and we're a club that have a buzz around us at the moment. With our new chairman, manager, ambition and apparently a lot of money I don't see how at all someone like Quaresma is out of our league. I think the fans will be pleasantly surprised at some of the players we try and get this summer.

Interesting thought regarding the atmosphere, nice to see tickets being made more affordable in any case.