tmonkey

Harper, Beye, Bassong, Enrique, Barton, Guthrie, Jonas, Martins. I think we should cash in on Steven Taylor as he's probably still got an unwarranted reputation of being a potential England international, ala James Milner. I wouldn't be suprised if someone paid over £10m for him. The most important players to keep imo would be Martins, Jonas and Bassong. I can see Jonas ripping Championship fullbacks apart at St James', Martins scoring heavily when he's not injured, and Bassong dominating at the back. Unfortunately, those three will be the most in-demand players on our books. Jonas will probably be desperate for a move to keep his place in the Argentina squad, and I can't see Bassong hanging around with World Cup 2010 coming up at the end of the season. Both players will be desperate to make their respective squads for that tournament.

As a pundit said recently, if you're 1-0 down in the World Cup 1st knockout round against Argentina, 20 minutes left on the clock, Heskey/Crouch/whoever has been useless and you need to change things up by bringing someone one - would you rather Darren Bent on your bench, or Michael Owen, someone who's scored against the Brazils and Argentina's of this world in and outside of major competitions? For all Owen's faults (again, I'll be happy to see the back of him in the summer, even if he keeps us up single handedly in the remaining games), he still does have that instinct of being in the right place at the right time that at higher levels sets him apart from run-of-the-mill strikers who are better than him at club level. He'll probably get that one chance in those remaining 20 minutes you desperately want/need. Whether he converts it is another matter, but with all due respect to Darren Bent, he's not international calibre at all, and I wouldn't trust him to do anything against top class defenders who specialise in back pocketing strikers like him in their sleep. Bent, Defoe, Ashton, Crouch, Davies - they're the sort of strikers who'll not do anything at international level, just number fillers and nothing more. I'd certainly not start with Owen in the England first eleven, but I'd definately have him as a sub because of his experience and the composure he's shown in some of the big games when he's had his chances.

8 goals in 8 games will have Capello under pressure to include him in the squad. Some journalists on yesterday's SS1 talk-in on the subject stated that it might not be Owen's form or injury problems that are keeping him out of the squad, but something dismissive he said to the media after his last appearance for England under Capello, a game which had people questioning Capello's tactics and use of substitutions.

Some of the flak Owen takes is certainly unreasonable - he's still a decent to good calibre forward who is struggling in the wrong team. But at the same time, some of it is deserved. For me personally, there's two sticking points: 1) First and foremost, as a player for us and us alone, performance wise he's been s*** up front imo. The only spell he's had where he's looked a good player on a consistent basis is the spell in midfield under Keegan, which was three or four months in total. Up front, most of the time he's either been useless or he's managed to convert the odd sitter that's come his way, with absolutely nothing in between except for missing other sitters that he's spent all game hoping to get. No assists, no creativity, no flank play, no creating chances for himself, no harrying defenders, no presence, nothing. Hardly the sort of striker worthy of comments like "he's still one of the best in the league" or "he'll keep us up". I'd be willing to bet that had Keegan not moved him into midfield, we'd probably have been relegated with Owen up front, because the team simply isn't good enough to provide the service that Owen would want to score regularly (in fact, few teams at any level are, which is probably why Capello wants nothing to do with Owen). Maybe Owen will suddenly start tucking away those sitters, certainly he's capable of doing so, but based on his performances for us up front over the past year or two, but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation of him finding a new lease of life. So if he's not scoring, and he's quite often not, I'd rather he took his £100k+ weekly wage elsewhere, and forget that we ever signed him. Even if he does keep us up by scoring 4 or 5 goals in the remaining fixtures and earning a good deal of praise from us before he leaves, I still hope he goes, because the team is never going to improve with such an injury prone, difficult-to-service, difficult-to-partner forward hogging both a slot on the team's "star player" allocation as well as a sizeable chunk of the club's wage budget. When mediocre players like Ameobi and Lovenkrands form (on the face of it) better or more effective partnerships with Martins, I can't help but think that with a bit of investment, scouting and luck, we'll get a decent striker with good attributes that the team can work with and rely on over the course of a season, a striker who will contribute to the team regularly and not leave us in this position of sweating over the fitness of Mr Glass come the end of the season because we need his goals to keep us up. 2) He's as much a mercenary as some of those who get stick and vitriol from us, based on what he's done with us as opposed to what he's said in the media. First of course, stating he had no interest in signing for us - fair enough, his circumstances changed, and after downing a few pints, the ugly cow with a boil boil on her nose (that's us) turned into a fair maiden with big jugs who would help him as he skipped down the road to worldwide fame and glory before he left for pastures anew. But then, after two years of being constantly injured with us, the first thing he did wasn't to get fit and repay his employers for the year or two of lost wages and the massive fee spent on him, but to contrive with his agents the best way to get a half-priced move away from the club (as confirmed by our former enlightened chairman when telling a few scousers in an adjacent vehicle what the situation was). He kept schtum for nearly two/three months of fervent speculation whilst this was happening - quite obviously he said nothing because his agents were trying to flog him to whoever could have him, and he didn't want to lie in case a move materialised a few days after him denying such a thing was possible, with the result being that the nation's former golden boy and consumate professional who sponsors adore would be turned into a lying toerag in the eyes of many supporters overnight. N'Zogbia has been lambasted by many of our fans because he openly said he wanted away - I believe Owen to be a bigger c*** in a slightly different way, in that he didn't even have the decency to say what he truly wanted just in case he had to run back to us. Both players were unsavoury in their behaivour and I can understand the thinking that it's more professional to keep things private and avoid dragging the club through the mud via the press, but as an analogy, here we had this useless, ungrateful girlfriend who had done nothing in the relationship ever since it began whilst we had done re-mortgaged the house to buy her a mountain of gifts, going behind our backs trying her best to seduce other blokes in an attempt to get something better, all the while not saying anything to us in case she failed in her attempts to woo someone and had to settle with us temporarily until she was in a position to leave without it hitting her pocket. In my book, that's far worse than an admittedly moody/arrogant but ultimately underappreciated girlfriend who had constantly been overlooked and mistreated for years despite good service, someone we had taken for granted because we had "found" her and made her what she is, frequently undermined in the presence of other less well equipped girls who we were obsessed with due to reputation, and when our latest cuntish behaivour also included calling her by an amusing yet insulting homonym, she shouted out in front of everyone in the restaurant that she no longer wanted anything to do with us and wanted to end the relationship ASAP. One's honest although embarassing us in public, but most importantly being justified about their actions, the other is slimy, ungrateful, and sticking the knife in the back whilst smiling to our face and empyting our pockets. http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/837/837504/simpsons_FuneralForAFiend_v2f_1196109717.jpg Owen's approach to NUFC and all related contractual negotiations.

First six months before his major injury, he was a smashing winger. Extremely direct, good technique on the ball, fast runner and quick off the mark, very good crossing ability. Had he stayed fit, we'd have won the 95-96 title without a shadow of a doubt.

Saying he's been appointed as temporary manager till the end of the season !!!!

I don't think Coloccini is truly going to make it at centreback for anyone. The reason being, despite possessing some of the skills required to be a good defender, he's a centreback who simply cannot perform an adequate slide tackle or last ditch lunge. He's shown that all season long. If a defender can't do that, then he needs to be bang on with his positioning and reading of the game, and obviously he isn't. Nevertheless, I'd like to see him pushed up into anchor midfield for the remainder of the season, for three reasons: 1) Despite his poor defensive blunders, he does have some good defensive attributes that are being overshadowed by his mistakes. 2) It's getting absolutely ridiculous how easy our midfield is to simply jog past. Both our central midfielders yesterday couldn't give a shit about Arsenal midfielders bursting forward, it's as though as soon as the opposition midfielders were about five yards ahead of our midfielders they think it's fair to stop running whilst they ball watch at a standstill and just let the defenders deal with the opposition midfielders. 3) He's got a decent first touch and has decent passing, on top of supposedly having played in anchor midfield before. If he can't pass the ball for shit, then that's hardly too different to what we currently have in midfield.

Although the goals weren't there, the football on display was excellent to watch, in particular Messi skipping past players for fun.

Do you not think he already has adapted? He seems to still have the ability to pop up in the right spots, although he can't score the 20 yard run and shots anymore. Problem is we don't see it very much because he plays so little. Up front he hasn't adapted his game. Still someone who poses the threat of scoring goals, but on average delivers absolutely nothing to the team and will miss the odd chance that drops to his feet. Pretty much the type of striker who could get a team relegated, not through any direct fault of his own, but because a team that isn't equipped to supply him is a team that is playing with 10 men every time he fails to score. Even Ameobi, one of the worst strikers in the league, is quite possibly a better option in the team next to Martins if Owen doesn't suddenly start tucking them away. His spell in midfield is where he did adapt his game. Keegan knew what he was doing when he effectively removed Owen from the frontline - given his lack of clear pace, Owen was far more dangerous running into the box off the ball unmarked. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, we weren't ever going to see him play in that role this season.

I would've thought the opposite - i.e. he's only signed the contract on the promise of adequate transfer funds. Wouldn't be suprised if he makes a few big signings from the Valencia end-of-season sales.

Reads like he's filling in part of a person specification section on a job application. "I'm not injury prone because yadda yadda yadda, I've adapted my game, I'm a clever player, I would love to play for your CL club and I am certainly good enough for it." Dyer, Woodgate, Bellamy, Emre, anyone recognised as being injury prone could say the same thing and peddle the same excuses. Fact is that in Owen's four years of being with us, his longest uninjured playing spell will have been the five or six months that he played in midfield towards the end of last season, a spell which many injury prone players tend to manage at some point or another (Woodgate was fit for nearly a whole season after 2.5 years of "freak injuries" with Madrid). Even then, with some of Owen's fanboys saying how he was no longer injury prone after half a season, what did he do? He went and got himself injured so that he missed both preseason and the start of the new season. Even if you discount the major injuries (which supposedly don't count as injuries because there's "reasons" for them happening), he's still picked up a large number of minor injuries, ones that have seen him out for a couple of weeks to a month or two. In his first five or six months with us before his first major injury, i.e. the collision with Paul Robinson, Owen was constantly picking up little injuries. He was injured practically every other game, usually for a period of two weeks for us, somehow fully fit for England matches, and then its back to playing a game or two for us before getting injured again. Note how he now seems to be less injury-prone than previously (but still injury prone) now that he's no longer in the England squad - clearly he's not capable of playing too many games in the tough tackling Premiership on top of international games, something which his spell at Madrid proves (less physical league, less games). Even so, if you add to the numerous minor injuries the fact that he's picked up long term injuries after colliding with a goalkeeper, walking backwards on the pitch, landing on a defender's foot, etc etc, how can he be anything other than injury prone? How "unlucky" can someone get before they're recognised as being players who will regularly be attracting that "bad luck" every so often?

That might be true but it's always a puzzle to me why players earning what they earn need to be "motivated", who motivates the fans? Certainly not this team. It's high time they took collective responsibility, overpaid and the "so what" attitude if we go down? They'll all have clauses in their contracts letting them go to wherever will have them. Puddins the lot of them with a handful of honourable exceptions. What a footballer gets paid is irrelevant. To us it's a fortune, to them it's just something that is a standard. I'm sure there's kids working in sweatshops in war-torn, third world countries who if they're lucky will be feasting on a handful of boiled rice tonight who'll look at many of us and the salary or education we are receiving and the lifestyle that goes with it, and fail to understand why we aren't bending over backwards for our employers/teachers/etc. It's all comparative, and when a salary level becomes the standard, then it's not going to motivate unless it's excessive. Hence, you have to take money out of the equation, and when you do, you see that it boils down to being just another team sport. And like most team sports, players at a certain standard need to be motivated by their manager in order to compete at a high level. They need to be told what the gameplan is, what they're meant to be doing, how they're meant to do it, they need to be told the right things that will put them in the right frame of mind for the match ahead, they need to go out there pumped up ready to annihilate the opposition, and most importantly, they need to believe in all of that themselves. A few players might not need that, you'll have your Stuart Pearce's of this world who'll smash lockers before going out on the pitch, but for others they need that motivation from their manager. Without the right sort of leadership, you'll probably have footballers going onto the pitch having no understanding or faith in their role, the team selection, the tactics, etc, and thinking about anything from what supermodel babe they're going to hit on at the afterparty or what supercar they're going to get next, to what gourmet meal they're going to have for supper. In fact, I'd say that earning the amount of money they do would be even more reason for them not to be motivated for a game of football to the extent that they're willing to bust a gut for the team and the fans. If I was earning what they were earning and wasn't a fan of the club paying my wages, unless my manager grabbed me by my balls and told me wonderful I was with my 12 incher and how I needed to prove just how big I was compared to my teammates by being Zidane reincarnated on the pitch, I'd do enough to just get by, i.e. put in a shift that wont have the fans, the media, and those within the game singling me out. More than enough to make sure im not labelled the new Luque, Babayaro, Marcelino, etc, but if I see an opportunity to run 80 yards on the counter and tire myself out to do so, or a 50-50 that might risk a collision, then I'll sit that round out. Or, if I had a crap manager in charge and saw that the team was going nowhere, with or without my efforts, I'd probably feign injury and bang a different hot chick every night because I'm a Premiership footballer and I can do that, or if I'm settled with the wife, probably focus on going nuts on a hobby that I love whilst im "injured".

Given the choice, I'd rather have a winger with pace, dribbling ability and a cracking cross on him playing in the side rather than another very average player who's only real achievement is scoring three or four free kicks past us (and only us) in recent seasons. However, as with Zog's French left wing compatriots before him, i.e. Ginola and Robert, a good manager will bring out the dazzling French winger in them, a rubbish one will turn them into lazy, selfish, non-performing French whingers. So I'd only want him if we had a manager capable of, well, managing him, something which obviously is beyond Kinnear's comprehension. If Zog goes back to the form he showed during his breakthrough season, then £6m + Taylor will have been a poor deal for a player who in a single cross can do more than what his "superior" senior Duffers struggles to do in a dozen matches. I've decided to stop reading any posts that mention Ginola, Robert, and N'Zogbia in the same breath. I mean seriously might as well say that Carroll is going to be the next Shearer because he's a striker and a Geordie. I like how you take a genuine point about talented French wingers being consistently frozen out at our club by shit, failed managers unable to deal with their playing style and personalities into "Zog is as good as Ginola and Robert". On that note, Zog is what, 22, and has shown a good deal of both ability and potential as a left winger at times on the pitch. I'd find it difficult that anyone would not be willing to acknowledge that, although admittedly he has put in his fair share of poor performances (but again, something which was kicked off by the signing of "one of the best wingers in the world!!!"). The point being that Robert and Ginola were around 26 when we signed them. I wouldn't be suprised if at 20-22 years of age both Robert and Ginola were nothing like as consistently good as they were at 26 under Keegan and Sir Bobby respectively. That's not me saying Zog is going to turn into a superstar - just that it's still early to make a call on a youngish winger with pace and ability who's been pissed about for the past few years by successive managers, a situation which hasn't been helped by the player himself having the wrong attitude for that sort of treatment.

Milner has been even worse.

Given the choice, I'd rather have a winger with pace, dribbling ability and a cracking cross on him playing in the side rather than another very average player who's only real achievement is scoring three or four free kicks past us (and only us) in recent seasons. However, as with Zog's French left wing compatriots before him, i.e. Ginola and Robert, a good manager will bring out the dazzling French winger in them, a rubbish one will turn them into lazy, selfish, non-performing French whingers. So I'd only want him if we had a manager capable of, well, managing him, something which obviously is beyond Kinnear's comprehension. If Zog goes back to the form he showed during his breakthrough season, then £6m + Taylor will have been a poor deal for a player who in a single cross can do more than what his "superior" senior Duffers struggles to do in a dozen matches.

Would be awesome if Liverpool can do what ManU did to us in 95/96, and pip them to a title they think is already wrapped up. Then they get knocked out in the CL, lose to Everton in the FA Cup, and win nothing at all. Ferguson retires, Ronaldo leaves, Rooney packs it in to become a Hollywood actor ala Vinnie Jones, then within a year or two ManU fans worldwide jump ship to the now dominating Man City, Old Trafford has an average attendance of 40k, their debts become unsustainable with the Glazers having lost most of their fortunes...........

Dossena loops the ball over Van der Sar - reminiscent of Phillipe Albert, albeit through on goal. 4-1. Fantastic game.

Shola Ronaldobi at the back post, tees up an easy shot for a ball rolling towards his feet, but oh noes, the ball goes through his legs!!

Gerrard skies the ball from 6 yards out. :-[

What a nice free kick ManU 3-1 down at home and Vidic given a straight red. This is a fantastic.

Vidic

Ibrahimovic - touch of a [footballing God, shooting of a] rapist.

Berbatov misses from 6 yards out. Terrible.

So unlucky Adriano. That's the third or fourth smashing ball from Cambiasso tonight.

Crosses everything for it to stay the same. I would love it, just love it, if we stay up and Fat Sam goes down.