Ashley17

Could you Twitter gents do me a favour and give this a share please? http://www.planetfootball.com/nostalgia/michael-owen-beacon-hope-newcastle-not-seen-since/ Here’s the tweet if you don’t mind just hitting RT please. Would be much appreciated!

It’s the best we can hope for. A proven PL striker who is miles better than what we have. Obviously there are fitness question marks but beggars can’t be choosers

Iheanacho is not coming here in a million years

If that was us, you'd be moaning about buying one of our relegation rivals' second, third or fourth choice striker. Fair comment tbh. We already did that with Joselu

Few random observations from today's game: There isn't an ounce of leadership in the team if you take Lascelles out. Clark is probably the closest we have to a leader from the remainder as shown by him bollocking half the team for not getting back quick enough after we nearly gave Luton a goal on the counter. Perez had a pretty poor game but scored two tap-ins. Mind you, I wish Gayle would score some tap-ins because he doesn't look like scoring at all at the minute. How they got away with only one booking I have no idea. There were 3 or 4 cynical fouls where an advantage was played and their player should have been booked in the aftermath. Oh and the one where their striker gave Manqullio a shove into the hoardings. Ritchie was pretty anonymous until the final 20 where Luton started to commit more men forward. He's quickly becoming our least effective winger, as Murphy has come on leaps and bounds now he gets regular minutes. For all Woodman got caught with a couple of slow clearances, some of the passes he pinged 30 or 40 yards to spread the ball out to the wing were light years ahead of anything Elliot or Darlow can do. Not the finished article but he looks every bit your "modern" goalkeeper and made a couple of decent saves too. Second half was a struggle, not sure if it was complacency or whether Luton getting the early goal put the shits up us but I wouldn't be in a rush to see Hayden at centre half again any time soon. Has he ever played a game without getting booked? It was a much stronger team than expected, which is welcomed, I wonder how much of it is down to the supposed "huge bonus" Ashley put up? If it is even real. If there's big bucks up for grabs I don't imagine the senior players would be too delighted if it went up in smoke by playing a weakened team. Anyway, none of that matters. We're in round 4, relatively easily, let's just see where it goes. We have about 18 average players and 1 or 2 worth protecting so I'd expect us to be able to field fairly strong sides in future rounds without really damaging our survival hopes. The likes of Swansea and Bournemouth have replays to contend with, so not a bad weekend all in all.

How the fuck did they get a 0-0 draw at Wolves?

Saivet better than Shelvey Get Ronny Deila in as gaffer. Assisted by Bob Bradley naturally

It’s Wullie’s list plus Beardsley and Albert

Plays lots of positions, presumably very cheap for a 6 month loan, can be done quickly - already looking forward to his man of the match display vs Luton tbh

I know Murphy is only young but bloody hell, his decision making is awful. At least he’s shown some talent on the ball so far though I guess.

Has Pulis taken over? Allll the defensive midfielders

Atsu hasn't gone away with Ghana though has he?

I think they try and do that with boxing day where possible, but of course any derby requires extra policing. It's why we're usually in the North West somewhere on Boxing Day

What you're saying is, Rafa has found us a buyer. What a guy!

I know he dived but had it been Rooney or whoever flavour of the month is right now he would have been "trying to get out the way of a tackle" or some other bollocks

Sky always have their hands tied at this time of year. They can't put any Champions League club in the Sunday or Monday slot as they pick the TV games before the Champions League draw, so it's quota fillers all round

Colback to Harry on loan, apparently

Colback's off at least

Nah we're after Jorge Campos, Goalkeeper/Striker

Jovetic linked again. Would be nice Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We were miles better in the second half when Diame and Saivet switched. Saivet and Barlaser offered no protection at all but Diame was pretty good when they switched, but he missed two decent headed chances. Darlow - Awful for the second goal, they had an identical chance about 5 minutes earlier that he just about got away with. Made a few decent saves in the first half Sterry - Looked well off the pace, couldn't complain at being subbed. Gamez - He's alright, a very average full back. Good communicator on the pitch Hanley - Shite. Even when he did something right he then took it out of Darlow's hands for some awful reason. Likes a 70 yard ping into the stands Mbemba - Better than Hanley but pretty unremarkable Barlaser - Too timid first half, actually tried to tackle players in the second half but pretty ineffective. Saivet - Better second half playing in the 10 role but nothing to get excited about Diame - Drove us forward second half but unfortunately can't head a football. Tried to lob the keeper from about 45 yards Aarons - Great goal, a box of tricks and he did well to get to the byline a few times. Far less effective on the right before being subbed, though he tired badly before going off anyway. Murphy - Glides past players when he's at full speed but showed a lack of composure on 2 or 3 occasions. Promising though. Mitrovic - Took his goal well, was a nuisance but a few times there were great balls served on a plate where you'd expect your striker to be. Lazaar - He's definitely not a left back as he can't tackle for shit. Won't be missed. Ritchie - Inventive as ever but nobody ever seems to be on his wavelength. Hayden - Meh, didn't really have an impact Disappointed with the team we played, if we win on Saturday it'll be forgotten but if we lose then it's a disaster. On the other hand, if this is the second eleven then at least now everybody knows how poor the squad is. Yes we deserved to win in 90 minutes but there's just no cutting edge in this squad, and that's always going to be a problem.

Thought Merino was very handy when he came on, spraying the ball about. By that point Spurs had dropped off and I'm not sure he'll get anywhere like as much time in normal circumstances. Probably also helped we'd switched to 3-5-1 by that point. Atsu looked to have picked up where he left off at the end of last season. He's a much better player now than he was when we first loaned him, hopefully he continues to improve. By contrast I thought Perez was awful in the number 10 role first half but was surprisingly combative when he dropped in for Shelvey. Not convinced by him at this level at all.

Wanted to play football at this stage of his career, also Pulis wouldn't offer him the deal he wanted. We were in for him but his family are still in Manchester and he wanted to be closer to them

Injured, but due to play for the U23s in midweek

Been meaning to post this for a while as it's the worst piece of football tat I own. I think it came from a Prague market, NUFC Russian doll from around the 2005/6 season. Shearer is obviously the big one, but it's Steve Carr inside him...