Mick

It's a pity the bloke who wrote the article is still writing, I've been going through some of his other articles and seeing how often he changes his mind about the same subject. bluebiggrin.gif

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcastleunited/news/tm_method=full%26objectid=14882207%26siteid=50081-name_page.html Look at the photo of O'Brien. In the meantime, United have fended off a "tentative" inquiry from Wigan boss Paul Jewell for their centre-half Andy O'Brien (pictured).

I thought we went in with a lower bid only to have it turned down before making a bid that was accepted.

gay.gif You're supposed to add content before your signature. bluebiggrin.gif

It is for these two. http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4725/ne5andbrotherno0.th.jpg

The bit in bold is about the only thing in that post that makes sense if you're referring to your own post. bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif You've lost it, where did any of that come from? If you're drinking then maybe you should slow down. bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif

Where in those two lines did I say I knew how long clubs scouted players? The important word you missed was "publicly," the person who complains about getting his posts clipped can't even quote a couple of lines correctly. bluebiggrin.gif Beardsley was, and I'll quote what I said, "well known enough for Man U to be interested in him." The rest, that's just what you've expanded it to so far, you exaggerate it more each time you use it. blueyes.gif

I've never known any club publicly scout an international player for 4 months, have you? As for your hypocrisy/double standards, no commented needed, admission accepted.

We've never conducted transfer business in public, those comments between " & " mean nothing. bluebiggrin.gif To be fair to Roeder, he did keep the Rossi, Sibierski and Bernard transfers under wraps until they had signed.

That's the one. bluebiggrin.gif

Olly's Back In Toon, 1st February 2007 Oliver Bernard sensationally rejoined Newcastle United late last night, just weeks after having his contract torn up due to fitness problems. Glenn Roeder is supposed to have made the u-turn on the Frenchman's future after discovering Wayne Bridge, who he'd been watching throughout the window, had already signed a new contract at Chelsea several months previously. Roeder stated: "We're delighted to have acquired the services of Bernard for the remainder of the season. He's a player of real quality and someone that will help propel us up the Premiership table" Bernard was unable to make a first team appearance during his last spell at the club, yet Glenn is confident he'll return to action in no time. Roeder said: "Unfortunately he's been wasting away since leaving the club and we'll have to fatten him up before he's ready to make an impact, but i'm optimistic he'll be in the squad to face Liverpool on the 10th" Link?

And how was he obviously foreign when I first had a go? When I originally commented it was supposed to be sarcasm at him asking for an insult where he had made a spelling mistake, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, I can't see the problem, some people need to get a life.

A persons name doesn't translate as far as I'm aware, it's the same everywhere.

:own: i will try,English is my thired language mind you How do you say Shepherd in your first and second language?

Reality being that we spent 4 months trying to work out if we wanted Kuyt, during that time, while we dithered, Liverpool made a decision that they did want him and they went for him and got him, in reality a fact, in your head, nobody knows. As for taking into account how our players played for previous clubs, it's you who seems to have problems with that and certain players, you take it into account with Duff but not with certain others, more hypocrisy on your part.

bluelaugh.gif Same old excuses, I thought you were investing in a new PC?

I'm not convinced that he's getting the best out of what he's got, at least not over the course of the season so far. It appears that this only happens when he doesn't have to make a decision and that's damning in my eyes because that tells me that he's a big problem as a manager and his decision making is flawed.

Well said. I understand the need for patience and realism but if we aim low we will not get anywhere. People overrating the likes of Moore and Ramage, people chuffed to bits scraping last-minute home wins against Watford and Reading, they are the ones who need a reality check in my view. If we want to climb the table we have to raise the bar. Other teams aren't going to sit around and wait for us. Bolton and Portsmouth are right up there challenging for the Champions League with very average squads, they're aiming high and deserve to be up there. Bolton and Portsmouth for christ sake. We should be taking a look at ourselves and saying that's where we ought to be. Not in two years or five years but this season. And here we are talking about the top half of the table like it's a dream. I have never seen the kind of knee-jerk reactions that we have witnessed this season. We win a couple of games with three academy lads and suddenly there are people out there who would rather see Edgar in the team than Babayaro. Totally over the top. Right now I think we're a club with an identity crisis. We have the finances to challenge top 6 comfortably but much of it was blown on a few players who haven't contributed (Boumsong, Luque, Owen). We've gone from 5th to 14th to 7th and now nobody knows where we stand in the Premiership's short-term future. My view is that outside the top four it is all there for the taking and all this talk of patience is just preparing for failure IMO. Roeder has made the best of a bad situation in my eyes. But he must take some responsibility for the bad situation in the first place. To steal a quote from nufc.com, it is an absolute joke that we have to watch 4 academy centre-backs protecting a keeper old enough to be their dad. You couldn't make it up. It's a testament to our catastrophic failure in the transfer market. However much involvement Freddy had, I find it incredible that some people try to completely absolve the manager from any blame for what happened in August. I have never seen a club so ill prepared for a transfer window, even by Newcastle United's standards it was shocking. I agree with most of that, Charlton have 1 point away from home, guess where they amassed that total? Our ground is the only one they've visited and came away with less than 2 goals against so far this season in the league. Sheffield United arrived with only 1 away point, they went away from Newcastle with 4, we were terrible and as bad as anything played under souness. Roeder has done better this season when the team has almost picked itself, when he's had decisions to make he's failed. It will be interesting when the injured players return and he has to either stick with the ones who have turned our season around, or will he automatically restore the players who failed earlier?

bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif The conclusion being that Martins wasn't first choice, Kuyt was. Roeder dithered for so long he missed the person that he chased from April and was still scouting in August when he eventually signed for Liverpool. As for Duff preferring Newcastle, so far that one hasn't gone in our favour, the fact that you are quite happy to have him here because of the way he played at Blackburn is laughable. It's a pity you didn't allow all of our incoming transfers the same amount of slack while adjusting at a new club, in some instances a new country.

I'll go with that. bluebiggrin.gif

"I doubt he did much research into the players we brought in during the last transfer window" You doubt but you don't know and neither do I. Most of what you have said about Roeder is based on heresay not fact. For example, there were rumours that Martins wasn't Roeder's first choice. There were also rumours that Martins was Shepherd's choice. Roeder has said Martins was his first choice. Who do we believe? 99% of what the media say is going to happen with transfers never happen. We only know for sure about the transfers that happened. We have no idea who else we were really after. Players could have been turned down due to what the research turned up. Just because the media say the manager is watching a certain player it doesn't mean for a fact they were. They could have been watching someone else. Roeder said he wanted Martins and the club was linked to him for a while before he signed. Don't expect thickmick to take that on board, or expect him to take a realistic view of how transfers are conducted in the real world. He still thinks we are no better than when we spent years in the old 2nd division and selling our best players when we did get promoted. bluelaugh.gif bluelaugh.gif The club wasn't linked to Martins until August of this year when he handed in a transfer request after Inter singed a couple of forwards, Shepherd and Roeder both started talking about Kuyt being on interest in April, work it out yourself if that's possible.

"I doubt he did much research into the players we brought in during the last transfer window" You doubt but you don't know and neither do I. Most of what you have said about Roeder is based on heresay not fact. For example, there were rumours that Martins wasn't Roeder's first choice. There were also rumours that Martins was Shepherd's choice. Roeder has said Martins was his first choice. Who do we believe? 99% of what the media say is going to happen with transfers never happen. We only know for sure about the transfers that happened. We have no idea who else we were really after. Players could have been turned down due to what the research turned up. Just because the media say the manager is watching a certain player it doesn't mean for a fact they were. They could have been watching someone else. Martins not being first choice is based on him (Roeder) scouting Kuyt for so long, we were supposedly watching Kuyt last April and sent David Mills to watch him. Both Roeder and Shepherd were talking about Kuyt from April onwards, they both said we were watching Kuyt and were interested in him, Roeder was supposedly on his way to see him the day Kuyt signed for Liverpool. I think it's fairly safe to say that Martins wasn't even on the radar at that time.

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