tmonkey

“He is not really playing at a top European club at the moment. Maybe Newcastle are a top club, but they have not had success in years.” Forget top European club, we arent even a top club at this point in time, we have the potential to be but we certainly arent, so if anything, hes given us more praise than were due.

Doesnt suit their style/formation. Hes too lightweight to be up front on his own, ie Eto'o's position.

Definately on a free. Only problem is he might be too similar to Owen/Martins, but he does seem to play better whenever hes dropping off into midfield, so he might provide an alternative.

Please God no. Ugly, long ball team is what we're 100% guaranteed to become with someone like Zigic in our side, because thats the easy thing for a poor manager and technically poor defenders/midfielders to revert to - when in doubt, pump it long.

I honestly wouldnt complain if we cashed in on Martins but only if replaced him with someone like Tevez or Huntelaar. Different type of player with different abilities, but same calibre and potential. Problem with selling Martins this time though is that I personally dont trust Shepherd with these decisions anymore - we're most likely going to go for someone like Bent, Crouch or Ashton because of our preference for England internationals first and foremost. Im betting those are the players we looked at first before looking abroad at Kuyt/Martins, and ending up with Martins (a decision which Kuyt forced upon us). Decent/Good players in their own right, but none of them will ever be world beaters nor have anything like the potential to be, and thats what our aim should be.

Never said we arent ever going to see the old Duff again, personally always maintained its a possibility, albeit an unlikely one. The problem we have is that we have a younger, more dynamic left winger who needs the experience, needs to be playing regularly in his best position (eg SWP). Which is more likely - the development of Zog into a top quality Premiership winger, or Duff turning the clock back and finding his old form, that of a top quality Premiership winger, again? Dont know whether you can be good one season and turn shiite the next, but regardless, thats not whats happened to Duff. He was as poor for Chelsea in at least his last full season there as he has been for us. He had Lampard picking him out every time he was in open space, he had a world class defence behind him and a quality fullback overlapping, both of what hes missing here and is supposedly behind his poor form for us, yet his form for Chelsea was no different to what it has been for us - shaping up to take the opposition on without doing so, running past players in the opposite direction to the goal, passing accurately but mostly to the fullback, etc etc. If the old Duff were to be ignored, and he were judged on what he is now, I think its safe to say that hed be considered by most as a hard working Premiership left winger with some decent ball control and the ability to occassionally beat his man and put in a half decent cross. But it needs to be remembered that were paying this guy 70k per week (from reports) and turning down 7mill bids for him, and at the same time we go back to the question of Zog vs Duff, and on top of all this you have good backup for that position in the form of Milner, who in only a handful of Premiership games on the left, has produced as much as Duff, if not more. The only reason for not cashing in our chips and using that money to better other areas of the team is the hope that Duff finds his 17mill form again and we end up with a top class winger on our books. I just hope that that is what happens and Glenn has called it right, otherwise theres the danger of us ending up with nothing - a shiite, one season wonder youngster and an over the hill, cautious, unproductive winger sitting on large wages.

What exactly are people thinking Duff would do if he were to get the ball? Skin defenders, create chances, drive his way to goal? Thats the old Duff. The most telling moment of Duff's game against AZ was for me when he unexpectedly picked the ball up in a right central position about 30 yards from goal, with nothing but space between him and the AZ keeper - the nearest AZ defenders were caught out of position having been sucked out to the right side of the pitch, and were desperately trying to come across the pitch to cover. The old Duff would have taken the ball with pace right up to the keeper before shooting with the outside of his boot, as soon as he got the ball hed have said "f*** this s***, im scoring" - it had "Goal" written all over it if it were the old Duff. The current Duff merely wondered towards the penalty area as though lost in the biscuit section of a supermarket and he didnt know what he wanted, hesitated whilst giving the defender the chance to get back into position, then slipped - the entire time looking like a fish out of water. He looks finished as a "top" player. Feck knows whats wrong with him - pace, hunger/desire, confidence - hes lost something, and its very significant. Hes like a magician whos lost his magic and now does kids parties and cheap tricks. What were left with is a decent Premiership winger, someone who works hard, has solid technique (remnants of his old self) and if given enough games will provide a decent cross, or produce a decent dribble, or maybe even flashes of what he used to do on a consistent basis, but ultimately is s*** compared to what he used to be. Were not going to cash in on him, so our only option is to hope he slowly gets some confidence and directness back into his play, and we start to see the old Duff coming back - unlikely as that is. Blaming teamates isnt the solution, its not helping him, but hes the biggest culprit in his own poor form.

Kaka. Best player in the world at present by a country mile for me, international and club level. Yet another great goal to knock Celtic out.

It was a good win, and I know whingers will only get whinged at after a win, but deep down im still not happy. The reason is that it was a typical English-club-in-Europe style win - get completely outplayed and dominated by a technically superior side, but individual ability, stronger finishing and taking chances on the day being the difference against an individually inferior team (their entire squad is probably worth two or three of our best players). Why cant we simply pass the ball like them? Alot of their players were pretty s*** individually imo, yet they kept possession like it was as easy for them as breathing. We, on the other hand, struggle to string together 3 passes, and thats when were not looking to instantly pump it forward to the striker. Its great when were winning, but the major problem is that if we cant keep the ball, we'll get knocked out by a side with a more organised defence. Its something we HAVE to improve if we're seriously looking to win this thing, and I hope this win today doesnt detract from it.

But then youre judging Ronaldinho on his international and CL performances, as opposed to Henry in the Premiership. Both at their best were immense in La Liga and the Premiership respectively, the difference is that Ronaldinho at his best also carried that into CL and international games, and especially the big crunch games, whereas Henry was regularly dissappointing at a higher level outside the Premiership, and within it regularly failed to play well in the big domestic games, hence the choker label that hes only really managed to shake off to an extent last season (decent CL and World Cup run).

Riijkaard for the toon? Maybe well get Gullitt to have a word...

S*** defender. Honestly, its a joke that this guy is considered "talented". He doesnt know the meaning of marking.

If we're looking to sign a forward for big money, which might be the case considering the rumoured Torres/Huntelaar interest, this guy needs to be our number one priority. He started slowly for West Ham, showed flashes of brilliance in his earlier games for them but was quiet for long periods of a game, but since returning to the side recently, hes looked an absolute class act. Today against Spurs in a s*** West Ham team surrounded by donkeys, he ran the show, and for me I can see him being the perfect partner for either of Martins or Owen as well as developing into one of the best forwards in this country. Both Martins and Owen can struggle in their general play at times, one can be inconsistent whilst the other invisible, whilst we badly need someone to pull the strings for us further up the pitch as weve never truly replaced Beardo, with Dyer simply not being a forward in any sense - Tevez is the answer to all these problems. Everything he does oozes ability and class, hes intelligent and creative on the ball, and his linkup play is bang on consistent and top draw. He can be the presence for us up front that the team works around, whilst Owen and/or Martins can concentrate on goals. Its a shame that hes basically showing everyone how good he is because if this form continues hell be off to Chelsea or someone as big pretty quickly, whereas a few months ago he would have been considered a flop. If he was interested in coming to us several years ago when we made inquiries, maybe he'll still feel that way. In terms of whether we need him or not, providing we bring in a left back and centreback, a top draw forward to cover for Owen's injury proneness, as well as cover for the possibility of one of Owen/Martins departing, would be ideal for us. Weve also seen that we have major problems with regards to creativity. We rely heavily on technical players like Emre, Nobby and Dyer to provide that for us, and they are indeed key and good players for us, but none of them are truly creative on a consistent basis. Tevez creates chances out of nothing, and its something we dont have and could certainly do with.

Theres simply no point judging a player by his media reputation, otherwise youd be ranking someone like David Beckham up there with Zidane. Could say the same thing about Jenas, who the majority in Newcastle considered s***, yet you would never find a commentator highlighting how hes playing poorly, or negatively, etc.

Theres been no improvement in the drilling or organisation of the side, no movement installed into the players. Hes shit in the transfer market, so its not as though hes going to be a good squad builder to compensate, and his tactics, team selections and use of substitutions when it comes to match days have been piss poor on many an occassion, whereas theyve been OK when "decisions" have been forced onto him. He clearly has no motivational skills, apart from the games against the big boys weve looked absolutely dreadful against everyone else - the Fulhams, the Birminghams, the Zulte Waregems. So what exactly is he supposed to be doing at the club? Hes doing nothing we require from a manager in order to take us back up to being top 6 as a minimum.

Most managers would have recovered the mess Souness made, because all that needed to be done was playing players in their real positions and playing a basic 4-4-2.

Hector Cuper.

Resigned.

He should return to the player we signed, or close to. If hes slightly slower, it will certainly affect his goalscoring chances/abilities since therell be passes or half chances that a slightly quicker Owen would bury that will now just get blocked or intercepted if he were to be any slower (have pointed this out before, but look at his goal against City at St James, hes very quickly off the mark to get that goal) - but hell still score frequently if the chances are there, and given the weakness of the Premiership outside the top 5/6, there are going to be alot of those for him if he plays enough games.

An absolute class act. I dont think anyone really knows whats up with him because hes a Woodgate calibre defender in my eyes, and should be at a big club by now - he was nailed on for a move to Real Madrid and Liveprool on seperate occassions, but both moves broke down. I remember the Madrid move, which was a 2-3 years ago iirc, broke down when it got to the fitness test stage, ie they declared him to be a crock after a deal was nearly done. Which is surely a bit worrying when they managed to declare Woodgate to be fit enough to spend 13 million on. Not sure why the Pool one broke down, probably down to them not willing to pay the asking price ala Simao. Definately someone we should get, but itd be very hard to attract him considering we have no other Argentinians at the club, with England still being less attractive to South Americans than Spain/Italy despite the money. But a classy, technically good centreback, a leader, to play alongside Taylor, would be ideal. Andrade, Milito and Chiuvu would be perfect, unfortunately Distin will probably be the best poor man's version/imitation of that class of defender we will possibly be after considering (from what Roeder has said in public) we're most likely to spend most of our budget on a left back and another forward.

Suprised noone has mentioned Mark Hughes. Dirty player of the highest order on the pitch, dished out but couldnt take any. Amusing how his Blackburn side have turned out to be the biggest hackers in the history of the Premiership.

I think that was the most despicable goal ive ever seen, the foul on Hughes. Knew exactly what he was doing when he twatted Hughes, knew hed get away with it because the ball was on the other side of the pitch. Still boils my piss remembering his smile after he scored.

I wouldn't be able 2 play against Newcastle like i don't think. I know you've got to be professional and all that but...nah. If someone were to give you £30k per week, youd change your tune fast enough. Every one of us on here would imo.

Shiite centreback riding off the reputation of his brother.

Can't imagine why anyone would think Zog is our best midfielder right now. He's had one good season and has potential but that's it. I WAS referrign to the Zog, yes. He may not have reached his full potential yet, but he has still shown that he has more than any of the others. For me, anyway. He 'potentially' has more than the others. Last season he was good, this season he's been s****. If that qualifies him as our best midfielder we are in more trouble than I thought. Finally, youre blaming Shepherd for getting us into trouble. Nice to have you on board.