tmonkey

Anyone else watching Braveheart (C4) and thinking it somewhat reflects the current state of affairs at NUFC? William Wallace = Kevin Keegan - passionate, a true leader, motivational, real enthusiasm, wants whats best for his people. Scottish nobles = Newcastle Directors. Heartless, backstabbing, ruthless but successful folk only interested in lining their own pockets. Robert the Bruce = Mike Ashley? Needs to wake up and stop listening to shit advice from his cronies, and will unfortunately only do so once Wallace/King Kev has gone? Counting down the days till a mounted Keegan storms a London penthouse and kills Wise in his bed with a flail.

Ashley's main criteria for next manager: Must have been successful in London in the past.

Beckham especially. When he first made a big name for himself, he was an excellent winger, he'd stick next to the opposition fullback and ping in 5 excellent, undefendable crosses per game. Then the fame got to his head and he turned into a Zidane wannabe overnight, floating around and punting long balls all game, much of it from practically a right back position. I say the fame got to him because there was a specific time in his ManU career where fullbacks had sussed him out, and his form had dropped, and quite a few pundits were saying at the time how him coming over this problem would define whether he would be a great player or not. Of course, he failed to overcome that problem, and turned into a ball hogging Hollywood passing liability, because that's what he felt he needed to do since he was such a "star" player - a star player like him cant be seen to be working hard to try to overcome the difficulties he's starting to face. Wasn't a suprise at all when Ferguson dropped him for Solskjaer and ManU started to get considerably more output from the right wing, a fact that was masked by Beckham's eventually dummy spitting from pram act. But what does Ferguson know eh? IMO he played a big part in Madrid's instant downfall as a championship winning side to one with no hope of winning anything, alongside the exit of Makelele. They lost a top class player, probably the best team player in the game at the time, and in return got someone who had great dead ball ability, but was ultimately a waste of a position and negatively impacted on the team's playing style. Instead of 11 good players working as a team and producing slick, fluid football where players moved and interchanged with skill, they had 10 plus a long ball merchant who they had to accomodate either in central midfield or on the right - in both cases providing severe deficiencies to the fluidity of the team overall. Talented player, started off excellently as a top class winger, turned into a media whore of a footballer by the time he eventually won a pretty uninspiring La Liga with Madrid (given how bad all of the teams were that season). Granted, Beckham was and always will be a player capable of producing a devilishly good cross or pass, but the way that he played towards the end of his ManU career and onwards, combined with his other limitations (no pace, cant dribble unless its running backwards, doesnt have pass-n-move in his repoirtoire only "killer pass, you can do it!" passes, etc etc) ensured that he always completely dissappeared in big games, particularly for England, and the great assists that he did provide came at a cost to the functionality and fluidity of the team as a whole. /rant

If only Shepherd had been a bit patient and moved Sir Bobby upstairs slowly and respectfully, we'd have had both a wonderful wise head at the top alongside the decision makers and a manager who wasn't Graeme Souness.

Absolutely gutted for the second time this week. Read the thread title as KK re-signs - new club statement. Texted a few people with the shockingly delightful news.

Guthrie, Lennon and Warnock have all been named in the papers. Who else was on that list? They would have been good signings too if we were to play "the Keegan way".

Robinho is a top talent no doubt, but thus far in his career he's not shown himself to be a good goalscorer (scorer of good goals though), doesn't create much for others, and has frequently gone missing for Real when the opposition side have gone a tad physical. Similar to Tino in terms of being a flash player. Makes me wonder whether Asprilla would have gone for a similar amount in today's market were he Brazilian.

Owen to City must have died as soon as Svenn was sacked.

Malouda is pretty shit though, tarted up version of Zog.

Why would Owen move to a club like City (no disrespect) when he can pick and choose his clubs next summer whilst probably getting far more money in the process (e.g. Sol Campbell reported to have picked up £6-7m in signing on fees plus mammoth wages when he joined Arsenal on a Bosman).

Happens in football. Still hard to believe the falls from grace some of the other top players have seen. Rivaldo voted the world's best player at 27/28 years old, then within two to three seasons hes washed up and on the verge of signing for Spurs on a freebie.

Villa 1-0. Milner beats two players and puts in a fantastic cross for Carew. Looks like we were wrong about him

Boring game to watch. Xabi Alonso's passing is nice to watch though.

Milner has alot of pace according to Jamie Redknapp.

He's looked poor.

Surely Joe Cole cant continue hiding his shit form like this? Loses the ball constantly trying things he's simply not talented enough to pull off. Still a good player overall, but he's pretty much getting carried by a top side at present.

Its because hardly anyone knows what bananaman's powers were. I can only recall him grinning whilst swimming through the air.

Takes practically everyone out of the equation bar Given and Gutierrez based on the last two games.

Own goal? Looked like it was sliced in. Chelsea 1 Spurs 0.

Smashing play by Essien.

To think that Arsenal bought Nasri for a reported £12million...

Same attributes as Distin certainly. If he is as good, I hope we keep this one this time.

Was decent in the second half, but that was when we were 2-0 up and Arsenal were just sitting back looking to counter. Prior to that, he was up there with Ameobi as being a serious weakness in the team. He'd still be handy as backup, but its shocking how by the time his current contract runs out, he'll probably have been a first team player with us for the last 2 years.

Should've scored and made it 1-1 with that sitter, failed to control an excellent ball by Guthrie which was apparently difficult to control but was essentially the type of pass the true world class stikers would control comfortably (and would therefore have been another strong chance to score had he controlled it), failed to hold the ball up adequately in numerous situations, and generally cannot do much with it at feet other than pass it sideways or backwards, i.e. he's unable to drive forward, down the wings, or just run at defenders. As an attacking midfielder, he's a different animal altogether for the reasons you've mentioned, added to which tactically he's extremely difficult to pick up when hes running into the box from deep, but as a striker in the Premiership I think he's finished with respect to being "top class" or even "good", unless he's playing for a side that can effectively play with 10 men and still manage to create enough chances for him to bag once in a while.

Sami Nasri has been awesome, hasnt lost the ball all game and none of our players can get it off him.