Exiled in Texas

Wow....that was quick. It only took 15 minutes to negotiate with him and sign him. Now Ashley et al have no excuse

Or is it.... Someones Sack up the Crack of his Back(side)

Would love to see us interested in Baptista. Would add some great toughness to the team. Would love to see Evans here for two reasons.....first he is a good young player and second, well would be funny as fook to watch the Makems spitting feathers about it.

My ITK tells me that we are close to signing the young african MbNo Wantu and the promising Serbian Náè Fűkkř

In the US (High School soccer) uses the shootout rather than just Penalties. The ball is placed on a center mark 35 yards from goal, and the player has 5 seconds to dribble/shoot. The player must shoot within 5 seconds, keeper can come out and challenge or stay put and wait for the shot.

As already said.....YES would love him at the Toon, NO - doubt he comes to Newcastle. In fact I doubt he leaves Bayern....he seemed to have some issues with Hitzfeld but he played exceptionally well for Kilnsmann in WC06 and I reckon he stays at Bayern to work with Klinsman again. But....would love to see him in our 3 man midfield.

Gomis is doing just what we wanted him to. Played well in the last few games of the season and in the friendly, then tanked the tournament so that his price didn't go up. And now that he is keeping his price down....the concensus is that his is crap. He wasn't crap a few weeks ago, and this is the perfect time to grab him while his stock is a bit low, but he has to be good buy now that his price isn;t sky rocketing

Great name

Not sure about Schweinstager's standing at Bayern........during one of the UEFA Cup games (Bayern vs Getafe) the commentators were saying that Schweinstager hadn't played much, was out of favor and was having a poor spell. Since then, he seemed to play in all the remaining UEFA cup games, and much of the remaining Bundesliga games. I also think that Schweinstager will wait for Klinsmann to arrive, as he was a key player for Jurgen and Germany during the WC. All that said......would love to see him in out 3 man midfield next season.

Google for "adidas sizing guide" plenty to choose from

Supposedly he was called "Mad Dog" by the Chelsea players who didn;t like him. He was brought in to play the Bad Cop to Steve Clarke's Good Cop, but took it too far. I read that Ten Cate and John Terry ended up in a face-to-face screaming match after Ten Cate was spent a whole practice session in Moscow picking on Mikel. Jerry got pissed at the unfair treatment of Mikel and went after Ten Cate who he thought was being unfair. Don't think Terry Mac could handle Ten Cate

Interesting thought......College Football and Basketball is THE way to develop players. The coaching and development that they receive is vital to them making the transition to NFL/NBA. But I can see that in the US Soccer environment, the emphasis is more on the players getting a scholarship through College than making the jump to MLS or European leagues. The $$$$ involved in the college football and basketball programs forces the schools to hire the very best coaches, and implement the very best training/development programs. The lack of money in the College Soccer program will not promote the similar development in players. Also the Title 9 requirement (Equal number of athletic scholarships for men and women) forces many schools to avoid having a mens soccer team (need to balance out the 90+ footballs scholarships) so the level of competition is down for mens soccer. US mens soccer won't rocket up in standards, but they should be making slow steady improvements.

That's the key question....if Ashley doesn't like Keegans roadmap for the club, then why is he employing him as Manager. You don't hire someone who wants to go against the Corporate vision, it's a recipe for disaster. They may not be 100% aligned on individual players but I bet they share the same common vision of how best to move the club forward.

It can't be Hotel facilities as there are never more hotels in/near Sunderland than Newcastle.

No need to rush to judgement on this. This should be taken as a rational decision, primarily based on how the rest of our transfer season goes. If we can find suitable replacements then, by all means proceed with getting rid.....if not then hold on to him. I actually think this is a good thing for the Club (in a painful sort of way) in that they will be forced to bring in additional replacements to cover for him. Then if he gets out early we have an additional player, but if he stays in, then they will have had to find a replacement for him.

Aye, I heard about a liner or ferry being used as a hotel. That's quite a common process for events like the SuperBowl or the Olympics, as it's a great way to bring in high class temporary accomodation, although these are usually only offered through tour companies or private corporate events. When the Superbowl was in Jacksonville, FL a few years ago they had 6 or 7 cruise ships moored in the river.

An Ode to Stephen Carr....... I read that as .......Odious Stephen Carr

Finishing next season in 6-8th place, and playing attractive football would be very satisfactory., and the necessary foundation for more improvement the following season.

Zany Just... wrong. Exactly.....who thinks Sunderland will finish in 10th place.

Help me out here.....how did the Keane/Dog thing start? I know when he joined SUnderland there was a picture of him and his black lab, but how do you go from being a dog owner to a dog w**nker?

Exactly - they opted out of the Welsh League to play in the English League so they should be governed by the English FA

Childish......but WTF!!! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/pmrye/Stuff/chelseareaper2.jpg

Why do I have a vision of the Grim Reaper being surrounded by Chelsea players with Lamps and Terry yelling at him that he got the decision wrong??

Away goals are fine, and provide the right level of reward to draw out the visiting team. Anyone remember the Shut-Up-Shop approach to away games before they introduced the away goals rule. But, I would stop counting Away Goals once you get to Sudden Death Overtime, like in the Bayern-Getafe. Game ended tied (and tied on Away-Goals), so they went to ET and again the game ended tied, but Bayern went through on the OT Away goals. I don't think its fair to count the ET goals as Away goals (That was never the spirit of the rule). By the time you get to ET it should be enough to count goals only, and not have one teams goals worth more than the others.

Whenever you see KK quoted on the LB situation, all he says is that they have no cover for the position with Enrique being the only recognised LB. I think he is wanting to bring in a back up for Enrique, but isn't quite saying that incase he finds a deal he just can't turn down. Enrique is more than capable of making the LB position his own, and trying to bring in a better player might be more trouble than it's worth if it upsets Enrique. A young promising back up would be good to fill the back up role, and then the ££££ can be better spent getting in players for the Midfield/CD.