Mick

Not everyone is having a go at Allardyce, I've seen very few really have a go at him. As for us not being the best fans in the world, we're almost certainly not. I would say we're one of the best in this country, give Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal our lack of success and I doubt they'd have 52,000 people turning up, give us the success they've had and we'd have many 1,000's more at every game if we had a ground big enough to take them.

Things have changed so much since last season, we don't look as if anything will be the same so a lot of the changes will or should have an immediate impact. I expect that the crowd will be more positive and will make more noise and by doing so will lift the players more than we did last season, that's got to be worth something during home games. The manager has changed for the better, Allardyce should be worth some points. We have a better forward line just by having Owen fit and we have Viduka who I expect will score more than the often used Sibierski, again, more points. Parker has been replaced with Barton, I didn't think Parker was shite like some people but I didn't think he really fitted in very well for a lot of games, Barton will probably have more of a positive influence on the team, I expect he will drive us forwards more than Parker did, more points. Our defence will not include Bramble, and we'll not be relying on an unfit Moore. I hope we have a settled back 4, if that's the system we use, a settled back 4 should do better than the one we had last season which changed as often as the weather, we just need them playing week in and week out. I'd still like to see a leader drafted into our defence because we've been missing that type of player for a long time. Sort a settled back 4 out and give them a leader to organise them and again, more points. That's without anything which might be improved away from the team that's picked. That's without the current players possibly having more stamina during a game, being prepared better and actually working with tactics and a plan. That's without the players who didn't appear to be working for Roeder starting to work for Allardyce, that's without our current players playing better than they did last season because they are trained better, I'm assuming that they will be trained better because I'm assuming that Allardyce has better training methods than Roeder even though a lot of our training staff are still the same, I expect they'll be given different orders under a different manager, one who actually knows what he's doing.

I think unpredictability is a fair comment, I never know where the ball is going to go when it bounces off him.

That comment is just about as funny as it gets.

You could always e-mail Mick Martin and ask about it but I'd guess that he'd have an issue with security unless it was possible to e-mail people with a password that only worked from a single PC.

I'm not really into betting but if you want to bet on last season I'd consider it as long as I get first attempt.

Last season Given played 33 games, Nobby played 39 of which 5 were as a sub, he (Nobby) was 5th when it comes to most games played. Milner played the most at 46, Martins & Taylor both played 43, Nicky Butt was next with 40. I would agree that Given is probably the first choice keeper and that we'll be stronger in midfield and defence but you never know what will happen.

Carr, and by a mile.

Is that not a bit of a contradiction? First you dismiss somebody because he'll not play every game then you say that the person you think should get it would suffer because of his "apparent lack of communication skills" but he'd be respected in the dressing room. I would have thought that in that case he's got nothing going for him that Nobby hasn't got, a second language could also be a bonus.

Wanna bet? Is that comment about the first point or second?

It doesn't have to be an automatic starter to be the club captain. It needs to be somebody who others can look up to and take on some extra responsibility.

Good call, it wouldn't bother him in the slightest.

Rating Duff far too early after a injury hit first season if you ask me! He rarely has a good game while fit, he wouldn't have started many games if it wasn't for Roeder trying to justify his signing. One of my main hopes for Allardyce is that he'll pick his teams on merit and not because he's got blue eyed boys.

I'd agree under normal circumstances but not when the soon to be 32 year old is injured for up to 4 months, has a poor injury record, has never played in this country and probably thinks 20'C is cold, he could regain his fitness when our daily temperature is averaging 6-7'C. Add to that, his use of English seems to be close to zero.

I've just had a quick look at his stat's and he seems to have averaged less than 20 games a season over 14 years. Edit He's averaged almost 26 games per season for the last 6.

An injured player who is two weeks away from his 31st Birthday and is out for possibly 4 months shouldn't even be mentioned as a possible target, this is madness. He's had at least two serious knee injuries so far, I doubt he's going to get stronger with age, if anything, he'll go the other way. Could he pass a medical? I suppose he could if we've got the same people carrying them out.

I sort of agree to a certain extent, we're already stronger up front with Viduka coming in and Owen and Ameobi being fit. The only area where we are weaker is at the back and that is open to debate as we haven't lost any good defenders and our new addition could improve on what has gone. We're down on squad numbers which makes us weaker but we have plenty of time to address that. I don't think we should aim too low as that is accepting a poor season and we should never be doing that, we shouldn't have a comfort zone of finishing low as a target, we should aim for Europe and see how it goes. We need to at least beat the teams coming up when playing them at home, that alone would give us extra points. We were beaten by Sheff Utd at home, drew against Charlton, were beaten by Blackburn and Man City drew with Boro and West Ham. They are all games which Newcastle and Allardyce should be looking to improve on. I know some of them were relegated but we should be looking to do better against the teams who replace them. That adds up to 15 points on top of what we achieved, if you can call it an achievement.

I agree that we need to keep our feet on the ground but I wouldn't see finishing 12th as progress but looking at things realisticly we ended up so far behind other clubs that we could be 10 points better off than last and still wouldn't qualify for the UEFA. 10 points would have had us finishing in 10th, we would probably need to pick up an extra 5 wins to qualify, it's possible but we'll know better once we have the players in place, I think we need 5 or 6 more in if we don't get rid of any more.

We've had plans for a Gallowgate extension for years, it is possible.

We were all over them at home for 45 minutes but didn't turn up after the break and lost 1-2, I wasn't impressed at all because I felt we lost it rather than them winning it.

I'd prefer both, a good stadium and team, I think we have a good stadium already but would like to see it evened up a bit, getting level 7 on the Gallowgate would help a lot.

If Roeder can gain 7th then Allardyce should be expected to do better.

I can't remember that and seem to remember his saying that he'd never promised it, again, like you I could be wrong.

I probably agee with every bit of that.

Technically, I think it must have been 1985, when McFaul was appointed after Jackie Charlton stomped off in a huff during pre-season. The one and only time I've ever sat in the east stand to watch Newcastle apart from when we had the benches.