Mick

I'd be amazed if anybody at the club could do better than a fit Owen.

You couldn't get into the Gallowgate without having to almost swim through the piss.

I heard that on the radio, possibly one of your local stations, I couldn't get my head around what he meant by that comment.

Big strong and aggressive performances havn't brought much reward away from home so far.

I wouldn't disagree with that, I was trying to think of his name but couldn't.

Jimmy Greaves would have been the best of them all if he'd settled in Italy, he scored almost a goal a game.

That team could have so easily dominated Europe with some of the players they had, shame about the fans letting them down, although that's a debate I don't want to bring up in this discussion. I mean Rush and Aldridge, both prolific and would be worth how much now? We all know the genius of Pedro. Barnes on his club form was one of the best players on the planet before that injury robbed him of his pace. Hansen we all know was fantastic, Stevie Nicol, criminally underrated by fans now etc. Before any makes a remark I'm not a Liverpool fan, just a fan of good football. A few things spring to mind here. One is that Dalglish improved an already top quality side into one which had more flair and became even better. Just what was needed when he came to Newcastle. Which makes it even more difficult to understand why he did what he did. Two is that John Barnes in a way mirrors what Irving Nattrass maybe could have been. Barnes was a talented player playing within himself at Watford, but moving to a club with real winners in it rubbed off on him and he stepped up a gear. Totally. Dalglish was a phenomenal player, some of the play between him and Rushy had to be seen to be believed. I remember one pass he played, was close to genius. He was on the right wing, ball comes out of defence into opposition half. He had his back to goal but flicks the ball first time with the outside of his right boot so the ball curls into the inside right channel inch-perfect for Rush to run onto in between two defenders and slot it from outisde the box. Jan Molby's passing was great but his scouse-danish accent was better EDIT - was Dalglish better than Keegan? (who he replaced) I meant as a manager mate, but yes you are right he probably improved them as a player too. In fact, if my memory is correct, the 3 players who played for Liverpool in 1978 that didn't play in 1977 were Dalglish, Hansen and Souness. Keegan, Dalglish and Beardsley were all great players on merit though. Food for thought though, is who has been the most successful British player who played overseas ? The best export for me is Keegan out of those mentioned.

I doubt many rate John Barnes the England player, he was shite.

I'd go for Kennedy on merit, if only for the injury record of the two.

Martin Jol has been shit on by his directors, I'd love to see them go down.

I'm sure he did support the mackems, he came from Penshaw so he lived a couple of miles from mackemland, I knew his sister and she looked exactly the same as him, she had the same bent nose. I thought Kennedy was as good as Nattrass if that's who you're on about as being better. David Craig was better than them both, pity about his injury.

Mick and Leazes are two that spring to mind. I couldn't care less about him, he's gone.

None of that makes him reclusive, it means no more than he had no interest in his local pub and he was concerned about his security.

I'm sure Mort said that Ashley was unlikely to be seen in the directors box, he'd be more likely to sit in the middle of the Gallowgate wearing a black & white shirt.

PR isn't a dirty word so I don't understand people getting too bothered when it's mentioned. Of course what Ashley and Mort are doing is PR, that doesn't mean that they are not acting natural in what they are doing. Ashley not going mad about Sports Direct has no bearing on how he reacts to being our owner as football is a game which is based around passion. I'm not surprised that Ashley has been taken in by owning the club and sampling the atmosphere which is associated with the club, city and area in general. As for Mort, he's also doing some good PR but again that should be natural to somebody if they are good in business, it's a part of the job but doesn't make it any less genuine. They are both doing very good jobs and I think we're lucky to have them, enjoy the ride as everything looks set to bring back the good times. Everybody within the club seems to be fighting for the same cause, once again we are looking as if we all want the same thing, a bit of success. If I had to mark the change that we've seen so far out of 10 I'd probably go for 8.5.

Another thread changes direction for no obvious reason, NE5 can't help himself.

Duff has done less for us than Michael Owen, I don't see him changing too much.

I'm not saying that he should come back but the same was said when he returned as manager and I'm not sure it would be true now. I wouldn't want him to come back as manager although I'm sure he could do a brilliant PR job for the club and area.

I like half of that idea, why not use it as part of our pre-season and play them against the team we are getting ready for next season?

I can't remeber but I would be able to work it out as my uncle took me for my birthday, I sat on a floodlight in the Gallowgate and it rained all match.

2 years of Owen means 20 games and 9 goals if the last two are anything to go by, to be fair to him the last two years shouldn't be repeated but you never know.

You're right, he's a great player when fit and nobody would consider letting him go if he played even 75% of games, less than 1 game in 4 makes him virtually useless to us, not a player you could consider relying on. I like him as a person and I like him as a footballer, he just doesn't play enough football for us.

A player who scores 1 every 4 games is of more use to us than a player who scores almost a goal every other game if the player isn't playing enough games. Owen has played less than 10 games per season for us so a player who plays every game and only scores 1 in 4 will get twice as many goals. Selling Owen would be the same as selling Woodgate, selling Woodgate was the right decision, replacing him with Boumsong was the mistake.

£15 million for a player with an injury record like the one Owen has got isn't rubbish at all, I can't remember any player as injury prone as Owen going for more.