tmonkey

Noticed a potentially telling difference today though - Smith and Parker are similar players, but Smith moves the ball on pretty much instantly, and as a result his linkup play is moderately decent. Parker on the other hand dwells on the ball. That was the biggest source of frustration regarding Parker imo, and hence I dont see fans turning on Smith like they did Parker. Smith's graft will remain an asset to us because he wont drag an entire team down with a poor style of play, whereas with Parker his graft became a burden because it was accompanied by poor teamplay and a lack of confidence.

£6mill is worth it to avoid having a player with first name Dickson.

Load of crap. He is neither a poor right winger nor a suspect right back. He's shown in pre season how much we've missed his eye for a pass and creativity and he was at times outstanding at full back last year. He did have some outstanding games last season at fullback, but he also showed some glaring weaknesses in my eyes. His defensive game is all about positioning because his mobility has waned considerably, and sometimes his positioning is poor, which has lead to attackers getting in behind him. But its been overlooked because hes a crowd favourite and of course, still has plenty of class on the ball. And I stand by the notion that hes a poor winger now. Last season, practically every game that he played at right wing in the Premiership, he looked finished. A move to right back rejuvenated him, and in that abysmal team with its abysmal manager, having a fullback with some ability on the ball and moderately decent defensive ability (plus said weaknesses being papered over by on-the-day performances) was a breath of fresh air compared to watching shiite like Ramage or Carr "marauding" down the flank. But for this team, for this defence, under this manager, with so many things looking to have improved considerably, I dont think hes good enough to be a guaranteed starter - which he would be by default if we failed to bring someone in.

and thats the difference between watching it on the TV and being there, because Smith was excellent today, particularly defensively In your opinion

Its time to move both of them on, we dont truly need them (other than numbers) and its a good time to replace them with players who may provide more to us, especially over the longer term. Solano has aged, hes a poor right winger now and a suspect right back. We dont need him for the right wing since we probably wont even have an orthodox right winger in the formation, and wed do better to get a defensively sound fullback rather than a "defensive liability but with good distribution". Dyer wants out, and has been here for far too long without delivering (nearly 8 seasons now?). Best for both parties to part, even if on his day hes a very good footballer.

Geremi has been the most composed player on the park in my eyes.

Hes been very average, barely noticeable. But hes MOTM because hes Alan Smith and he works hard. Decent/good signing for games like this in all honesty, ie the Evertons, Boltons and Blackburns. Hes solid and a good option for central midfield if we want solidity, something which i admit to have overlooked in the rage at the price. Not as good a player as Geremi though.

....the art of which you have painfully learnt no doubt. Did you notice the thread where I posted a link from last year? The one where you said something like you thought Berbatov will be a waste of money....? He looked woeful against Sunderland to be fair. Hope he flops. Dont know why, I suppose its because he seems to have turned into the world's best striker after a few good cup performances.

Diego would be a dream signing. We could really build the team around him, unlike Riquelme, Deco, etc, even if they may be better players at this point in time, because hell be at the top of his game in 5 years time. Shame itll never happen.

Watch it without knowing the result, much better that way For anyone who doesnt know, its 8.25pm for the full featured game, 10.15 for the extended highlights, SS1. Hope we are the featured game, certainly should be given that this is Big Sam's first return to the club/team he built up.

Feeling optimistic. 4-1 suprise win. Martins 2, Smith and Geremi free kick.

Our interest in Gudjohnsen must be dead with the purchase of Smith.

Appiah is being a tad overrated on here surely? Hes good, but nothing special. Geremi may well be the better midfielder.

Would have Riquelme too. Hed fit perfectly into a 4-3-3, Geremi and Barton doing the donkey work whilst he pulls the strings.

Play him at right back.

If Owen had had his own way, he'd have played 80 games the last two years, scored 50 goals, and earned himself a move to one of the big four. I bet he's as p*ssed off and frustrated as anyone with what's happened since he came here. But as we all know, it hasnt been that way. Hes done absolutely fuck all except happily take home his huge wages for doing nothing, and although he cant be blamed for that entire, he still wanted to screw us over when the very first opportunity arose. And without knowing the facts, which we'll never know, we wont know the extent to which he sacrificed the needs of the club for his own ambitions in situations specifically where it would have been better for all concerned for him to put the club first. For example, when we finished 7th under Roeder and missed out on a real challenge for 6th spot due to some poor results at the very end of the season - was Owen holding himself back from playing for us so that he wouldnt risk an injury just before the World Cup? IIRC, he was fit the entire time, yet didnt play. And if he wasnt fit, why go to the World Cup unfit and knowingly risk yourself? Personal ambition? Thats fine, but not if youve just been the main reason for your handsomly rewarding club having an utterly miserable season because youve been knackered the entire time, whilst its also common knowledge that youre injury prone and you arent fit at all. At least more globally recognised mercernaries like Anelka actually give you something in return before putting the knife into the back of those supporting them. This one will happily dig it in behind the scenes after doing absolutely nothing in return except taking. We thought Liverpool fans were being bitter when they were warning us, but they were spot on. Anyway, I still admire Owen as a player, when hes fully fit and on form, hes our best, and unless were going to buy someone in the same bracket as him, I dont see any point in selling now that we should be well off financially. Hope it works out for him and us, but im not going to forget how ungrateful he has been after all that has happened with him.

Lucky to be at NUFC, sitting on huge wages whilst giving nothing back except empty words. Wont stop the ungrateful little bastard wanting a move away as soon as he gets the chance.

Baines = the next Gary Neville imo. On the left. Maybe not as good in the air, but reminds me off him when Neville was a youngster. Would be great to sign him and have him develop with us over the next 10 years.

More Brazilians please.

West Ham will probably lose at St James' so a double for them would be unlikely, but they could easily finish higher than us in the table if they manage to keep their key players fit, whilst naturally ours all end up on the treatment table or in jail. Bellamy showed at Blackburn that hes good enough to drag a mid table team up to being top 6. One wasted season at Liverpool wont have changed that.

Definitely, with Alan "the goal machine" Smith why would we need Owen now? Because we have Viduka, Martins and Ameobi to go with it? You tell me which of those players are going to be content with hanging around on the bench. Owen is a liability - His wages far outstretch his usefulness. Too big a gap in class to be letting Owen go for Smith, even if Owen's an utter crock.

Coming round to the prospect of Smith slowly, not much other choice though since its going to be made. Decent player to have as backup/on rotation for a side looking at a top 6 finish, since its at the higher levels where hes out of his depth. And although its been repeated a hundred times, I still cant get over the price. Eg, weve picked up Geremi on a free, yet were paying £6mill for a player considerably inferior. I acknowledge that Smith is a striker as well, but then the same still applies - Viduka on a free, £6mill for someone who isnt anywhere near as good. If were spending relatively big money on these positions, it should be someone who is at a similar level, or has the potential to be. Price aside, I hope he turns out to be a useful asset, and helps us in fighting back against teams that try to kick us off the pitch, particularly away from home, eg Blackburn, Everton, etc.

Definately. Smith, Barton, Emre, Milner instantly onto the transfer list, raising 20mill or so to spend on wonderkids.

His finishing is decent, good even, no arguements there. But hes got the same attributes as a 34 year old Shearer, minus the strength. As a striker, hes always going to find it very hard to come by chances because hes so easy to mark out of a game as someone who has little movement, pace or flair/dribbling in his game. As for the Parker comparisons, surely you can see the similarities if were talking about Smith as a midfielder? The only thing Smith did for ManU in central midfield was getting stuck in and winning the ball often, along with very basic passing, whilst playing centrally (ie not an attacking midfielder). Parker does the same things, but to a much better standard. It wont if Smith turns out to be a success here - and I dont mean with the crowd, because its going to be very easy for him to get their backing given the type of player he is, but on the pitch, if his attributes are used well and are effective for the team. But still, its quite clear that a fair few of us see him as an average player at best with a bit of bite, and to be selling Dyer and purchasing that calibre of player for a pretty big fee is obviously going to see some relucatance/criticism from those fans. Make no mistake though, im sure we'll all be backing him when he arrives and when hes putting in crunching tackle after crunching tackle and scoring the odd goal to boot.

How's that? Both graft, both work hard, both put themselves about a bit, but Heskey is the more powerful, and even a better goalscorer. Heskey is basically the worst finisher we could find, let alone the fact that he's going to cost us at least 4-6m, and can play in only one position wich is a striker.. Smith used to be, and i believe he still can be an amazing player, last season for him was all about recovering from that nasty injurey he picked up, and since SAF was using him as a DMC most of the time his striking mentallty was a bit down, but he's strong, he can finish and is good in the air, and i really admire the fact that he can fight for every ball thats there to win.. An amazing player? What the hell is it with those Leeds "youngsters" from their brief golden age? Utterly, utterly overrated in a team full of cloggers and hackers, bar of course the two extremely good centrebacks they had at the time. It took a few years for Danny Mills to be found out for the utter garbage that he is (God knows how he played in a World Cup for England), it took more years of Bowyer doing f*** all for him to be considered a poor footballer (and there are still plenty of fans wholl swear that hes a good player since he gets "stuck in") - now all there remains is for the dire Smith to prove thats hes the mediocre player hes proven to be over the past few years - somehow. Its perfectly acceptable to have Smith as a backup player, but not for £6mill. Even if he does provide something slightly different, theres no hiding that hes pretty poor at several aspects of the game that will hinder him in any position that he plays in. Hes s*** compared to Parker for example, a commmited, hard tackling player who plenty of our fans wanted to see the back of because his style of play was holding the team back. Were going to spend practically the same amount on getting a poor man's replica who has the ability to also play s*** up front. I really hope Big Sam knows what hes doing with this one, and yes, I know hes a smart/professional success of a coach. No manager is perfect, they all make mistakes even the best ones, and im sure plenty of them buy players without having seen them as much as they should have - Wenger for example was heavily interested in Jenas at a time when 95% of the Geordie population considered Jenas utter s***. Sam seems to be under alot of pressure to bring players in - this could be a signing that hes making out of desperation, and it could be one that holds us back in the same way the Duff signing made a negative impact on Roeder's tenure here - ie couldnt drop him because he was "his" signing, poor form from an overrated player, relatively large amount of money spent when there wasnt much in the kitty (probably didnt even know how much was available), etc etc. I'll back Smith as soon as he dots the i's and crosses the t's. But until then, im going to pray heavily that were not spending £6mill on him.