tmonkey

Quality passer of the ball, but hard to accomodate for the majority of sides, particularly ones who have wingers as well as forwards unable to play on their own. Was more than good enough for the Premiership, certainly looked decent in his first season, but never given a chance in his real position as playmaking attacking mid. When Viana was here, we were always a one man team, a side built around Alan Shearer, a slow but lethal target man, hence we always preferred to play a basic 4-4-2, meaning there was no space for a playmaker like Viana. He was awful in his second season for us because he was left to rot in the bench/reserves by an aging manager who, if im being brutally honest, had become too stubborn to change things even though we were going downhill - his confidence was shattered after his Euro 2004 dreams went down the pan as a result, and when called upon towards the end of the season in a struggling team, and drafted in as a defensive midfielder, he performed miserably. IMO majority of our fans only remember this version of Viana. I think his potential is finished now. Put simply, weve ruined him, and therell only be so much that he can recover. Hes lucky to be at Valencia, the next club he moves to will probably be a step or two down. Hell probably end up back in Portugal.

Exactly, Shevchenko has done **** all since coming to Chelsea while Bellamy and Kuyt are looking fairly average at the moment. The fella who scored for Arsenal today had a great game and he's a different player altogether compared to when he first played for Arsenal where he looked lazy, light weight and had a poor first touch - today he played perfect as a lone striker and won them the game. Players take time to adapt, even players we know who are good (Shevchenko) and those who have Premiership experience need time to adapt to new clubs (Bellamy) as well. It will take Martins time, but the signs are promosing. By all accounts he worked his socks off today, was involved in the two goals, scoring the winner and he linked up well with Ameobi. Zidane is the finest player ive personally ever seen (bar maybe Redondo), imo he was twice as good as anyone you can name currently playing the game - shits all over Riquelme, Rooney, Ronaldinho, Henry, all of them - yet even he took 5+ months of playing shiite at Madrid to settle in fully and adjust to a new team/system/teamates as well as the team to adjust to him and play to his strengths. I remember in his first few months there things looked so poor that he was being called a complete rip off at 48mill. By the end of the season, Juve were the ones considered to have been ripped off. Very few players settle in instantly, especially when theyre expected to. Its normally the ones who arent expected to do so well who hit the ground running.

Milner's first touch was dire at times, but its been ignored. How many times did Emre put him through on goal or put him in a good attacking position with a long ball? I remember counting at least 5. Practically every time his first touch either saw him completely miss the ball or miscontrol it. I like Milner, but for me it was disappointing to see him being unable to control balls that you would expect talented players to be able to control. At his age and stage in his career (ie hes not past it or lost everything ala Luque), he should be showing that he has the technical ability to handle balls like that blindfolded.

Hitzfeld, Lippi, Svenn all unemployed.

He's old enough to be Im your father. Thou shalt respect thy father ! Respect me, my son, or feel the wrath of my cane on your pink behind !

Didn't see that coming http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/3726/dragonparrothd9.jpg

Roeder: "Luque will shine shoes by the time im through with him"

Freddy fucking fat fucker Shepherd didn't fucking raise us to fucking operate at this level. Sir John Hall fucking raised us to fucking operate at fucking title challenging level then Freddy fat fucker actually TOOK US FUCKING BACKWARDS! Stupid or fucking what?! Sorry thompers, but weve finished top 5 3 seasons in a row under Shephard. Even though we were top 2 at the time Fat Fred took over, and even though weve finished in the bottom half more often than not under him, I dont quite see how going from 2nd best in the country to just above mid table, whilst winning nothing in the process and watching clubs that were below us win doubles and trebles, I dont see how that is taking us backwards.

Scholes is past it. Central midfield squad needs to be 2 from Hargreaves, Parker and Carrick. Gerrard needs to play as a second striker or right winger if hes playing, Lampard needs to be dropped and only played if England switch to a 3 man midfield.

Exactly. Not many people know that scientists have extracted a gene within Spaniards that we now know prevents them from playing physically rough, fast football, and eventually causes them to feign injuries to avoid playing. Using this evidence, these scientists have also established that Fabregas is in fact Scottish.

No. Fair few people on here wouldnt touch Anelka with a barge pole, I reckon Lua Lua is even more of a whinging, moody sulker who kicks up a fuss if things arent going his way. And hes not even that good.

Well, its a fact that under Shepherd/this board we have finished in the top 5 for 3 consecutive seasons for the first time in over 50 years. Correct or not ? If you think this a "subjective interpretation of everything that happens" then you must be a plank. The fact is correct, but again, youre only selecting the facts that suit your bias. For example, its also a fact that when Shephard took over, we had the 2nd best team in the country with the best attack and a side that had the potential to dominate for many years to come - and thanks to the previous management as well as the increase in TV and prize money, another fact is that Shephard has had far greater resources to work with than any of Newcastle's previous boards/chairmen. On top of all this, its also a fact that since Shephard has taken over, weve finished outside the top 10 more times than we have finished inside it. Within this fact which covers many seasons, you choose to select the most suitable set of seasons that suited your bias. Quite simply, thats the way it is, and theres about as much point arguing that youre not selectively choosing facts that suit your views as there is to arguing that youre not breathing air whilst at the same time doing just that.

Hes done nowt wrong.

Definately not. Championship player who at his best is Premiership relegation-candidate standard. Ameobi is seriously better than him, including all the retarded pushes, thinly sliced headers and diabolical touches.

Youre making Dyer blush.

Kezman is being mentioned because he is an indication of how an average forward can score very heavily in the Dutch League. Ive seen enough dutch games on telly to know that half the defences in that league would struggle in the Championship. Like Rod Wallace or Marco Negri scoring heavily in the SPL, a player scoring regularly in the SPL doesnt mean much at all on its own, you have to consider the abilities of the player in question. We're seeing that right now, with an average striker like Shota Arvaladze, worth 2 mill max and probably not good enough for the Premiership, topping the charts in Holland for a while this season. Doesnt mean to say hes not a top player, but that does mean that Kuyt is unproven outside what is a weak league. Hes different to the likes of Ronaldo, Romario, Bergkamp, Robben, etc, because they had immense talent/pace, skill, ie natural ability to die for. Others like RVN proved themselves in other competitions, RVN had something like 6 from 6 in the Group Stages of the CL iirc, a clear indication of his ability at the top level and that he was punching below his weight in Holland. Kuyt falls into neither of those categories, yet from his asking price you would think that he does. Not leaning this way or that with Kuyt, could be a great or could be a goalscoring flop at Premiership level, problem for us is theres little indication of him being the former at this point in time.

Owen - moves to a club he publicly declared didnt want to sign for, barely plays due to injuries, then when he gets fit he "saves" himself even though the club is paying him 100k per week and has a few crunch games with a top 6 spot at stake - all of that to be fit for the World Cup. Gets to the World Cup, plays shit (shitter than he did in Euro 2004 and WC2002 where he was "quite" shit), then gets seriously injured. Nice one.

#newcastle @ quakenet tbh :wink: That rooms sucks tongue.gif

BTW why is the chatroom on an obscure mirc server? Should be on Quakenet, much more popular.

We werent close to relegation though. We looked like heading into a relegation battle if the results and performances under Souness continued. We were merely at the bottom of that boat of about 7-8 teams who were stuck in mid table. The turnaround has been great and unexpected due to the tripe weve seen served under Souness, so thank you Roeder for taking us up the table, but lets not pretend that he performed miracles in taking us from "relegation" to "top 6". In previous seasons, there would have been a much bigger gap between those two poles. Like Everton finishing 4th last season, its just been that type of league this season.

Agreed, its pathetic that fans are expecting a 10mill player who scored in his last outing to be put on the bench at least ahead of players we know for a fact arent good enough for Premiership football in a must win game against mediocre opposition.

Were 1 point ahead of Blackburn, who have 2 games in hand, and 3 points ahead of Bolton, who also have 2 games in hand. Its still possible to finish 6th, Blackburn have Chelsea and Charlton today so could lose two, Bolton are away to Spurs so can see them losing there. Realistically though, were going to finish in between 7th and 9th.

They were absolutely awful. Shocking team, and the Premiership hasnt lost a thing with them going down.

Both were through on goal with the nearest Brum player about 5 yards behind, they broke from a Brum corner so had about 50 yards of space to run into. Bramble overran the ball.

Exactly. Was only a month or two ago that there were numerous people calling for Stuart Pearce to be appointed here - "he has great passion", "hes came top of FA Classes", etc. Now he wouldnt be touched with a barge pole by someone like us, and itll probably be the same next season for Pardew once the expectancy gets high and West Ham start to slip. Middlesbrough, Man City, Bolton, Blackburn (without their 1-man-team Bellamy), Norwich. An OK cup run, West Ham and Pardew have done well for a promoted team, but nothing to get excited over. Souness did better with newly promoted Blackburn, League Cup + top 6 back when the league was alot stronger. Do we have to mention that **** on here anymore? Yes - its important to remember that even one of the worst managers in the world can have a very good season or two and win a few cups along the way.