Mick

Maybe you know something different?

Allardyce on the backing he's had. “We’ve invested well, I’ve spent more than I’ve ever spent this summer and I’m grateful for that,” explained a manager who has so far signed seven players. “I’m fortunate to have that, I’ve been able to invest more on transfer fees and more on wages and I’ve got bigger and better players. When you do that you have more quality, you can play better football. When you don’t, it’s about upsetting bigger and better teams, it’s about embarrassing them and it’s something you don’t get credit for. You’re doing it with lesser players and that makes you better than them. But it also means people start saying you’re something you’re not.” http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcastleunited/journalsport/tm_method=full%26objectid=19618467%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

I've been told that we've done nothing wrong by somebody I trust so I'll accept that we haven't done anything wrong until somebody else can prove the opposite.

I like your style.

Carr is liable to try and attack and be left stranded out of position, I expect that to happen every game, it doesn't always happen but it's still too often when it does. I would prefer him to become less adventurous but that would weaken us down that side so that's probably not going to happen.

The booing I heard was on MOTD.

And if Carr doesn't play?

I think we'll win by two goals, anything less and Shak should never be allowed on English soil within 24 hours of us playing, fact.

This is my main concern. They will surely look to exploit our full back positions, where we'll probably have N'Zogbia, a makeshift left back, and Carr, who can be a liability at times and isn't the quickest. Hopefully Rozenhal can deal with Carew whose aeriel threat caused us problems here last time. If N'Zogbia is having trouble I expect Enrique will be on the bench to replace him at left back, while Geremi can always go to right back if Carr is getting murdered down that side, so we do have options. Enrique is said to be very quick and handled Messi no problem according to the Villarreal fans, so he might be the man for this game if Allardyce feels he's ready. Can we afford to use two sub's to try and sort out our defence? I'm more worried about Carr than N'Zogbia, N'Zogbia can at least use a bit of pace if he gets into trouble, Carr might as well just give up. If Nobby is still a Newcastle player at the weekend I'd stick him in place of Carr and not take any chances with him, Carr is still an accident waiting to happen.

The reason was enough to make him say no in the first place, he could change his mind, if he does that then the original knock-back is a bit suspicious.

It seemed important enough for him to turn us down.

Do you think Silvestre is a no then?

Mort might not be only watching the teams, he could also be taking in a match at Old Trafford so that he can compare it with ours next weekend to see how two clubs with big grounds treat fans. I wouldn't be surprised if he's looking at facilities so that he can get ideas for improving ours.

The thought of playing for the mackems wouldn't be as bad as the thought of pulling on that shirt, I don't know why. I would think that pulling the mackem shirt on would feel like wearing a tramps vest, not something I'd like to do. I don't blame Chopra for signing for them, he'd have been mad not to considering what he'll earn from them. He did look as if he was going to kiss the badge then realised which badge he had on his shirt. Did I hear booing when he came on?

I thought the same, he looked terrible.

The players that we've signed have been players we've needed and so far I can't see anything to complain about. We haven't splashed more than we've needed to and that's good management, too often we've brought in players who have cost more than they were worth, with a bit of luck those times are over and we'll buy players for what we think they'll bring to the team, if they cost over £10 million then that's what they'll cost. It's not what you pay, it's what you get. Spending over £10 million on a player or players doesn't make you more ambitious.

You're right, if we have bumped up the price for the sake of it then we would have been out of order, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Sam Allardyce and Chris Mort have both said in the media that West Ham tried something, that's why we upped the price, it had nothing to do with gloating if you're on about the rumour about somebody talking in a London Casino. Allardyce said: "If Curbs started it, then we are more upset than they are, that is a fact. Why? That is confidential. He is not as upset as we are about West Ham. In the end, we decided he was undervalued. We escalated the valuation to what we thought was realistic and West Ham did not want to roll with it." Mort said: "It got uncomfortable the way West Ham went about trying to do the transfer. Therefore we felt we'd be happy for Kieron to stay and they would have to pay more to acquire him. I'm not going to elaborate. But they went about their business the wrong way, to my mind."

I doubt it, if they knew that West Ham were after Nobby and they wanted £2 million for him then I would have thought they would have just quoted the figure rather than tying it in with another player.

She was actually a student or something in London originally, I couldn't remember what she was doing. I've posted a link to what he was up to just before and after his move to Villa.

Does anybody remember this: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20050731/ai_n14829240

I'm sure Nobby mentioned months ago that his wife was working in London as a translator or something like that, I don't think things have just changed for him. It might have been even around the time he returned from Villa that I read something.

I would give him the move to any club but them, not that I want him to go.

Normally I'd prefer them to go down, if I had a choice of them or West Ham going then I'd prefer the mackems to be playing Premiership football next season.

The only people who come out of this looking bad are once again West Ham. Dyer has done nothing wrong by the looks of it and we look to be just as innocent. I didn't think it would be Newcastle because I was sure that the club would understand that if we pumped up players prices at the last minute then others would do the same to us. I wouldn't have been surprised if Dyer had of asked for a loyalty bonus but I don't think that's the case so I hope nobody is going to hold anything against him because it looks as if everything has been out of his control. I didn't want West Ham to go down over the Tevez affair because I felt everybody knew what the deal was with him, somebody should have asked questions when he was signed, not months later. Now, I'd love to see this lot get relegated, they really are a poor club and appear capable of trying anything on.