Unbelievable

Hasn't he admitted since he didn't exactly mean it to turn out like it did? no idea, he also had an absolutely top class goal VS the argies i think in 2002. Yeah in France in 98 vs the argies. It's worth searching for that on youtube for the insane dutch commentator alone. Aye, he´s called Jack van Gelder. He´s the Dutch equivalent of the BBC´s radio presenter. His commentary is brilliant and because it´s radio he describes play an awful lot better than your average tele commentator. Worth turning down the volume on your television and listening to the radio. Hope we will get some more excitement of this type in the upcoming Euros!

Why, it´s possible to prefer a goal not scored by ones favourite team because of its aesthetic value surely? Anyway, there are many players I would have loved, absolutely loved to have seen play for the Toon and that I admire (the likes of Zidane and Bergkamp) so I don´t see any harm in naming their best goal as a personal favourite. Now, where it concerns goals scored AGAINST the team you support (i.e. Bergkamp vs Dabizas) it´s a slightly different matter of course..

For Holland, Babel is out of the tournament with an injury and Van Persie hasn´t played a minute in the friendlies. Luckily Robben seems to be fit and on form.

isn't he something like 26? Seems like you´re right. In that case I´m all for it depending on the price.

Can´t wait.. Just 6 days until it starts! Getting a bit nervous already. Have to say I feel for you English football fans. Felt horrible when Holland wasn´t there in 2002.

http://www.wldcup.com/pictures/wld2006/0606/pic618.jpg Second best ever goal behind this one http://www.voetbaltactieken.nl/Pictures/vanbasten.jpg I like my volleys me.

How old is Arteta now? Good player no doubt, but not sure if he fits the new board´s criteria.

Crouch for 8 million would be an astute buy. Expect him to be snapped up by Harry shortly..

Euro 88, Van Basten volley in the final.

Neither did Diarra..

Per month? How about per week?

A lot of people would be very happy with this. Personally, I haven´t completely given up on Duff, but if we can get 5 million from him even I would say that is pretty good business. I can´t see it happening though..

How about the man in your avatar then Raconteur. Another case of a quality player accused of being lazy, not caring enough and with a dubious fitness record. Would you be happy to see him leave to? I´d say the same as I do with Emre, not before we have contracted a better replacement.

Dave, would you have complimented the club if they had identified their top targets early on and got them in pronto? Just imagine we´d have signed Modric and Gomis (or any two scouted players we considered to be absolute improvements on our current lot and probably attainable to a club of our standing) for a combined 30 million as opposed to now, would you have been happy we had done our scouting, identified our targets and pulled out all the stops to get them in? I know I would have, and I fail to see how wondering what went wrong (again, remember January or the last summer window?) is whinging for f*** all. You and others can trot this line every transfer window as long as you want, but I don´t think you can claim we have been overly succesful in finding and contracting our targets these past few windows, and so far there is no reason to assume this one will be any different, besides blind faith in a new setup that is already a little shakey by the look of things that went on after the Chelsea match.. Meanwhile, clubs like Spurs and Portsmouth who are already pulling away from us have both signed two players that would have considerably improved our squad as it does their in the past six months.

To be fair, if the new owner was being asked to stump up £6m urgently for Alan Smith it would probably have been better to keep the purse strings closed. Very true.. Hard to see how he could even be on a shortlist of a self respecting Premiership manager..

No he f***ing isn't. see how would you know? judging on past comments I'd pretty much put my life on you never watching an epl game we cant keep losing out on players like this. Campbell, Distin, Santa Cruz, Ben haim, Carrick, Dunne, these are players that should be playing for us but we missed the boat through indecision, bad negotiating or ridiculous overrating of our current squad and a lack of hindsight. same old story, f***ing sick of it. FYP. where does hindsight come in though, all very good players when we had the chance to sign them and all well within reach The point is, we were/are going for targets which we believed would work out better than those you mentioned. Not really, we lose out on our first choice targets and end up with second or third choice. It´s happening all over again. It´s all good and well saying the window is long and wait till the end of the window to see who we´ve signed, but if we are losing out to our first choice transfer targets at this moment in time (and it does make sense to go for your first choice targets first, doesn´t it, like we did with Modric) it will mean we fall further behind other teams, especially if it´s them picking up our first choice candidates, such as seems the case with Spurs and Portsmouth at the moment.. I think Allardyce commented on it frequently in the last summer window with the new owner keeping their purse closed, a slow or bad start to the recruitment process means you have to set your sights lower continuously and doesn´t benefit the club at all.

Good call. Emre and Butt looked a fairly balanced central midfield, but with Parker transformed to box to box and Emre to the more defensive midfielder of the two it didn´t benefit either player, and it´s no surprise they are now both gone even though they are both more talented than our current remaining bunch of talentless grafters..

`Obviously the lad in question has no concept of modern, civilised society - so he shouldn't have any trouble adjusting to conditions in North London.` Excellent!

We have a squad that´s lacking in quantity and quality.. No need for a semi scientific approach for that observation sadly.

That´s right, but in the case of all 3 players I think it´s fair to say it´s sometimes better to have a crock capable of doing something when he´s fit than to have a super fit player raring to go every match but who doesn´t have the required quality. Anyway, if we get good money I will feel this is a good deal, providing we replace him with someone better. Just about like, but i'd rather have neither and that's what i hope this summer is about. Good start getting him off our books, now for the super fit one (Smith). I think we all agree there!

That´s right, but in the case of all 3 players I think it´s fair to say it´s sometimes better to have a crock capable of doing something when he´s fit than to have a super fit player raring to go every match but who doesn´t have the required quality. Anyway, if we get good money I will feel this is a good deal, providing we replace him with someone better.

20 full games for every player would mean we needed more than 2 full first teams just to get through the league games, add possible cup runs and we'd need something like 60 players. Isn´t it common knowledge that a self respecting club needs two full squads (2 players for every position) to realistically compete in all competitions? He wasn´t always picked to play either (benched, subs), so to figure in over 25 games a season as a supposed crock doesn´t sound so bad to me. Certainly not worse than the likes of Dyer and Owen.

I don't think Emre has played 75 games for us and he's been here for 3 seasons. You´re right. It was 76. Another myth disspelled.. Aye, but he didn't play an average of 25 games a season and technically Parker scored more goals than him over the two seasons he was here, so it's swings and roundabouts I'm afraid. How does 76 appearances in 3 seasons not compute to `over 25 games a season on average`? Fair enough about the goals I guess, although it must be close. At least with Emre there was a chance of a central midfielder scoring, which is more than can be said of the likes of Smith. I prefer to use the total minutes played rather than just the "20 games, 5 sub appearances" method, personally, as it gives a more accurate reflection. With that, he managed just under 20 games a season on average. I like the bloke as well and appreciate his talent in the same way that you do, to be honest, I don't think you can be accused of not supporting the club for being sad to see him go and for wanting to see an accurate portrayal of his time here rather than the "he was crap and always injured!!!" rubbish some have posted. I just hope we replace him effectively, 'cos as you say the creativity levels in our midfield are dangerously low now. Ok, I appreciate you dug up the figures to prove that the `always injured´ line doesn´t really hold. He has been injured quite (to) frequently though, especially the last season, and I think that may have distorted peoples´ views somewhat (short memories). Personally, I don´t think his total minutes per season average will be much lower than other first team players though. 20 full 90 minute games a season isn´t that bad surely? 20 is dreadful u expect your best players to play in every game they are available for how many did ronaldo play this season 60+ Our first team doesn´t even play that many. You can only play in games that your team plays in you know.

I don't think Emre has played 75 games for us and he's been here for 3 seasons. You´re right. It was 76. Another myth disspelled.. Aye, but he didn't play an average of 25 games a season and technically Parker scored more goals than him over the two seasons he was here, so it's swings and roundabouts I'm afraid. How does 76 appearances in 3 seasons not compute to `over 25 games a season on average`? Fair enough about the goals I guess, although it must be close. At least with Emre there was a chance of a central midfielder scoring, which is more than can be said of the likes of Smith. can you get it he played 57 games for the club, not ur made up figure of 76 games, like every fucker on this thread is saying He? Strange definition. So would you say Kazenga Lua Lua has never played a game for Newcastle because he´s never started for us?

I don't think Emre has played 75 games for us and he's been here for 3 seasons. You´re right. It was 76. Another myth disspelled.. Aye, but he didn't play an average of 25 games a season and technically Parker scored more goals than him over the two seasons he was here, so it's swings and roundabouts I'm afraid. How does 76 appearances in 3 seasons not compute to `over 25 games a season on average`? Fair enough about the goals I guess, although it must be close. At least with Emre there was a chance of a central midfielder scoring, which is more than can be said of the likes of Smith. I prefer to use the total minutes played rather than just the "20 games, 5 sub appearances" method, personally, as it gives a more accurate reflection. With that, he managed just under 20 games a season on average. I like the bloke as well and appreciate his talent in the same way that you do, to be honest, I don't think you can be accused of not supporting the club for being sad to see him go and for wanting to see an accurate portrayal of his time here rather than the "he was crap and always injured!!!" rubbish some have posted. I just hope we replace him effectively, 'cos as you say the creativity levels in our midfield are dangerously low now. Ok, I appreciate you dug up the figures to prove that the `always injured´ line doesn´t really hold. He has been injured quite (to) frequently though, especially the last season, and I think that may have distorted peoples´ views somewhat (short memories). Personally, I don´t think his total minutes per season average will be much lower than other first team players though. 20 full 90 minute games a season isn´t that bad surely?