stozo

As our last 5 games show, he hasn't got out striking department sorted. Take Drogba and Shevchenko away from Chelsea and I don't think they would be scoring that many either. We have spent nearly the whole season without Owen and Amoebi and I'm just amazed it's taken us this long to hit a dry patch. With Owen and Shola back we will have a very solid set of strikers for next season. Which one is Shola then? Drogba or Shevchenko? To be fair to him he scored 8 league goals last season and had already managed 3 league goals while playing injured tihs season. Still nowhere near either of them. We are missing ONE of our main strikers but to include shola when comparing them missing Sheva and Drogba is mental Okay, maybe Drogba and Sheva may have not been the best comparison but the piont stands that we are still missing two of our best 3 strikers.

If we're relying on Shola next season as our main man, we are absoloutley f*****. The bloke is utter gash and should have been peddled a few seasons back. I didn't say we'd be relying on him but he would have contributed significantly if he had been fit this season.

As our last 5 games show, he hasn't got out striking department sorted. Take Drogba and Shevchenko away from Chelsea and I don't think they would be scoring that many either. We have spent nearly the whole season without Owen and Amoebi and I'm just amazed it's taken us this long to hit a dry patch. With Owen and Shola back we will have a very solid set of strikers for next season. Which one is Shola then? Drogba or Shevchenko? To be fair to him he scored 8 league goals last season and had already managed 3 league goals while playing injured tihs season.

As our last 5 games show, he hasn't got out striking department sorted. Take Drogba and Shevchenko away from Chelsea and I don't think they would be scoring that many either. We have spent nearly the whole season without Owen and Amoebi and I'm just amazed it's taken us this long to hit a dry patch. With Owen and Shola back we will have a very solid set of strikers for next season.

I'm truly happy with Roeder. His only problem is the majority of Newcastle fans are living in cuckoo land at the moment. They think that after the Souness fiasco we should just be able to go back to being a top 6 team. Sure we probobly could have squeezed out a couple more pionts this season but overall he is rebuilding the team well. He's got our striking and midfield departments sorted relatively well and the only thing that needs to be overhauled is the defence, which can be done this summer.

That's pretty tough - isn't the boy only 16? But as others have said, at that age it's more about coaching and development, and it no one would say we have the setup to groom young talent... It IS very early, although soem real, genuine talents are already knocking on the door at 16 - look at Vaughan at Everton. Vaughan is 18 I believe.

Link Looks like someone forgot to mention to him that Alex McCleish was now the Scotland manager. Next we will hear his sources have told him Liverpool boss Roy Evans is keen on bringing Michael Owen back to Liverpool.

No he said he'd not be signing ANYONE over 25. His words, not mine. I'd like to see the quote to back up what you have said. I know he said he'd focus on people under under 25 but I don't think he said he wouldn't sign anyone over 25. http://www.football.co.uk/newcastle_united/roeder_eyes_young_recruits_241927.shtml "We will be looking at a lot of players between now and the start of next season and they will be young players aged 25 and under. "I do not want to bring in big names who are past their shelf-life, but players who have their best days in front of them." The thread i remember it from: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=36428.0 He does not say there he does not want anyone over 25. He says he will be looking at players aged 25 and under and doesn't want big names who are past their shelf life. Says nothing about not buying ANYONE over 25.

Don't see the problem with having a look. If we don't like him we just don't buy him.

No he said he'd not be signing ANYONE over 25. His words, not mine. I'd like to see the quote to back up what you have said. I know he said he'd focus on people under under 25 but I don't think he said he wouldn't sign anyone over 25.

At the end of the day if Owen regains his pre-injury form he will be the number 1 striker and if Oba can't play with him it means he is basically useless to us as we are not going to change system to accomadate him.

To be honest I'd probobly agree. Nobody has really stood out in the last 2 games and Duff has been as solid as anybody.

Unsure what to think. If Duff can regain his form I'd be delighted but when he has been playing like he has played this season there is no piont in keeping him.

Should get shot of him. Don't care where he goes just don't want him here anymore.

Any updated score? Hopefully Carroll will play some part on Saturday.

Shearer, Asprilla and Ferdinand.

Thought Pompey wanted the Intertoto this year.

If you think we are going to sign more than 5 or 6 your kidding yourself.

Why do we need to spend big? It's been shown by teams like Bolton, Blackburn and Reading that you don't need to spend big to get success. Why can't we bring in a couple of free's like Sidwell and Ben Haim. Then all we need is 2 or 3 more palyers who we could probobly obtain for £10-15 million.

Think it was a mistake selling him to be honest. Looks far more creative than the likes of Parker, Butt, Emre and Solano have this year. If we hadn't sold Jenas and Bellamy I don't think we would be having the sort of problems we are now.

I'm sure that him coming back "stronger than before," isn't going to happen, unless he's operated on his hamstrings while inside his knee. No operation took place on his hamstrings but he has spent a lot of his rehab with the guy who fixed Dyer's hamstring and he has stated before he has refined his running style to help his hamstrings. Not going to make him "stronger" though is it? Sounds like the sort of thing Roeder would say...."Michael will come back better and stronger, i know that"...... To me if he has rid himself of his hamstring problems then that will make him a stronger player, maybe not performance wise but it will help in terms of he wont have to miss 6-7 games a season because of it.

DO IT AGAIN: This is the time for action March 30th 2006: having lost at Charlton in our last outing we were 13th, with 39 points and 7 games still to play. After 6 wins and 1 draw, we finished the season on 58 points in 7th position. March 30th 2007: having lost at Charlton in our last outing we are 11th, with 37 points and 8 games still to play: H: Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Blackburn A: Sheffield Utd, Pompey, Reading, Watford Forget about the injury list, forget about the points tossed away against Wigan, Fulham, Charlton etc.etc. Start again -only this time let's show some pride, concentration and responsibility on and off the the pitch eh? And if do we turn out to be a team of wide- mouthed defenceless sitting ducks, let's start the cull right away and get the youngsters in.

I'm sure that him coming back "stronger than before," isn't going to happen, unless he's operated on his hamstrings while inside his knee. No operation took place on his hamstrings but he has spent a lot of his rehab with the guy who fixed Dyer's hamstring and he has stated before he has refined his running style to help his hamstrings.

TBF the likes of Hunty,Patty and Krul aint 1st team players. The only reason they have played this season is because we have had a few injuries and have a very small squad. Exactly, without counting those players there would have been just 10 aoppearances made by true first team players.

To criticize the job Clarkie is doing is insane and totally idiotic. Lets have a look who played under the reserves for Tommy Craig last year: Shola Amoebi - 5 Lee Bowyer - 1 Titus Bramble - 1 Michale Chopra - 16 Lee Clark - 8 Robbie Elliot - 8 Amdy Faye - 2 Steve Harper - 5 Albert Luque - 1 Craig Moore - 3 Charles N'Zogbia - 2 Peter Ramage - 7 Total = 59 appearances Now lets look at people who have started for the first team playing in the reserves this year: Oliver Bernard - 6 (And i'm being generous by calling him a first teamer) David Edgar - 7 Paul Huntington - 9 Tim Krul - 1 Albert Luque - 3 Matty Pattison - 14 Alan O'Brien - 4 Peter Ramage - 1 Pavel Srnicek - 2 Total = 47 appearances So not only more appearances but you could only consider 2 or 3 of this years performers to be first teamers, the rest are promising peospects at best. Furthermore the average age of the players playing for the reserves has been greatly reduced, Roeder and Clarkie have got rid of the players who were never going to make it such as Finnigan and Atkin and replaced them with 16 and 17 year olds from the youth squad, and 2 of those youth players scored our goals against Sheffield united the other night. For me Clarkie and Roeder have got the reserves going in the right direction.