alexthegreat

Weren't we rumoured to have a sell-on fee of something like 25%? If they could get £20m for him that would be a tidy little fee for us. Can't see anyone paying 20m atm though.

Was tempted to say the same. We first heard he was offered a contract a few weeks ago then nothing has happened. Now the club have felt the need to leak details of their fantastic offer to the local press. If what Kevin Nolan said was true then what they say the offer is may have no resemblence to what it actually is. As far as I can remember making details of the offer public were a feature of Enrique, Barton, and Nolan's contract negotiations. On the other hand I don't recall hearing anything about a new deal for Tiote until he actually signed. Really really hope this deal gets done but you can't say there aren't reasons to be sceptical.

Marveaux in for Obertan, and Tiote in for Guthrie if fit - both obvious moves really. Last couple of home games we have needed some astute attacking substitutions from Pardew to get a result. I've got a feeling that will be the case again - think it will be very tight. If there is one slight criticism of the starting XI it is a bit lacking in flair and invention in attack. so I'm predicting 0-0 or 1-1 until the 70th minute, then HBA and Sammy Ameobi to come on and win the game.

Tiote and Cabaye V Colback and Vaughan -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just comparing these central midfield pairings....Would anyone swap Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=641421#ixzz1cdsz6BrV

from .COM Squad: Shola Ameobi is out with a hamstring pull while Cheick Tiote won't travel after suffering a knee injury against Wigan. Steven Taylor looks like missing out following the broken nose sustained on Saturday.

I hope Vuckic gets half an hour or so.

I wouldn't fancy playing centre back away at Stoke with a broken nose. Credit to him if he plays (and I suspect he will).

was surprised to see he was captain tonight.

Ludicrous comment. Gillespie had a terrific ability to cross the ball in at full pace. Obertan struggles to match that quality from a static position. I remember Gillespie as a dreadful crosser with the exception of one game v Barcelona. Obertan is also poor but seems to have better close control and more skill. Typical Mackem comment that, "came from Man utd so he must be good" is all I see there. Not following you here mate, I'm comparing one player who signed from Man U with another player who signed from Man U. And I do think that Obertan has loads of ability.

Don't understand this bloke, he is absolutely lightening fast he even kept up with Bale when he was on the break away. Thinking back to someone like Gillespie - he made a career out of just knocking the ball past the defender then pegging it after it. Obertan has the same pace and more ability, yet every time hes one on one with the full back he just slows the ball right down and shuffles up to the defender not seeming sure what to do. Just doesn't seem to have the confidence or the competitive edge to be a top player at the moment.

Selfish display from him, quite disappointing. Wasn't up for the physical side of things - expected that and not bothered about it really. But seemed far more interested in doing it all on his own. On the positive side he occupied the space between the striker and the midfield quite well - was always available as an option to pass to, which was better than the punts up to Best and Ba, who were both rather pedestrian. There was one through ball from Cabaye in the centre circle that Ben Arfa ran onto which I thought was absolute class - would love to see more moments like that. Definite potential (as we all knew) but gave the ball away far too often without producing much, didn't do enough to get a start next week imo

Somethings happened here like, he must have had a falling out with someone. If you asked me what our defence was missing at the moment I would have said a left footed player, cover at left back, and someone more comfortable on the ball than Williamson is to challenge him for 3rd centre back. In other words exactly the player I thought Kadar would be by now. Think hes about 21 now and in the last year of his deal, this was a make or break season and hes not even got a squad number. I ve seen enough of him in the championship to strongly suspect hes a better player than Perch but for whatever reason he is looking like a write-off.

At the moment its between him, Gosling and Abeid to be in the side if Tiote or Cabaye get injured. Didn't see the Forest game but from what I read Guthrie did well. As it stands I reckon Guthrie is ahead of the other 2 and I still think he can do a job against bottom 6 teams. Also, Tiote carried Nolan in quite a few games last season - I'm sure he could do the same for Guthrie if required. I'd like to see Abeid play the full 90 v Blackburn and if he does well I'd start giving him some time from the bench to see if theres any chance he can show himself to be a better option than Guthrie by the time Tiote goes to the ACN. As for Gosling he was simply appalling in that game v Scunthorpe. I actually thought the turning point for us was his removal from the pitch. By all accounts he wasn't much better v Forest. He needs to show some evidence that he is still a footballer and his injury hasn't had an Alan Smith - like effect on him. Should really go out on loan imo, hes been here a long time without now without doing anything (obviously not entirely his fault). So I'd hope we are in a position where we don't need Guthrie by the start of next season, but I still think hes still ahead of Abeid for now and Gosling might never get ahead of him in the pecking order.

Yeah, but look at the players he could pick for World Cup 98: 1 1GK David Seaman 19 September 1963 (aged 34) 40 Arsenal 2 2DF Sol Campbell 18 September 1974 (aged 23) 16 Tottenham Hotspur 3 2DF Graeme Le Saux 17 October 1968 (aged 29) 25 Chelsea 4 3MF Paul Ince 21 October 1967 (aged 30) 39 Liverpool 5 2DF Tony Adams 10 October 1966 (aged 31) 51 Arsenal 6 2DF Gareth Southgate 3 September 1970 (aged 27) 25 Aston Villa 7 3MF David Beckham 2 May 1975 (aged 23) 15 Manchester United 8 3MF David Batty 2 December 1968 (aged 29) 31 Newcastle United 9 4FW Alan Shearer © 13 August 1970 (aged 27) 39 Newcastle United 10 4FW Teddy Sheringham 2 April 1966 (aged 32) 33 Manchester United 11 3MF Steve McManaman 11 February 1972 (aged 26) 21 Liverpool 12 2DF Gary Neville 18 February 1975 (aged 23) 27 Manchester United 13 1GK Nigel Martyn 11 August 1966 (aged 31) 7 Leeds United 14 3MF Darren Anderton 3 March 1972 (aged 26) 18 Tottenham Hotspur 15 3MF Paul Merson 20 March 1968 (aged 30) 18 Middlesbrough 16 3MF Paul Scholes 16 November 1974 (aged 23) 7 Manchester United 17 3MF Rob Lee 1 February 1966 (aged 32) 17 Newcastle United 18 2DF Martin Keown 24 July 1966 (aged 31) 18 Arsenal 19 4FW Les Ferdinand 18 December 1966 (aged 31) 17 Tottenham Hotspur 20 4FW Michael Owen 14 December 1979 (aged 18) 5 Liverpool 21 2DF Rio Ferdinand 7 November 1978 (aged 19) 3 West Ham United 22 1GK Tim Flowers Some quality strikers left out there and he left Gascoigne at home as well. The current crop aren't good enough so it doesn't matter who the manager is, I don't think anyone could do anything special with this England side.

Capello considering an offer from Russian league according to talksport sources - someone at the FA seems to have leaked it to them. If he does go could Redknapp end up leaving Spurs mid season? If that situation did materialise I don't think Redknapp would hesitate tbh. Could end up leaving Spurs in a bit of a fix.

Why? Just as he could be brilliant he could turn out to be totally fucking useless for us. If there wasnt a risk he wouldn't have joined us in the first place.

Personally I prefer to see two strikers rather than one where ever possible. Best and Ba have both played very well so far, there is no reason to change. I think it would be daft to change a winning formation too much to fit in a bloke who, talented as he might be, has barely played for more than a year and before that was sat on the bench at Marseilles. Having said that I'm still hoping to see him get half an hour off the bench on Sunday, and its highly probable hes the most talented player at the club. As you said, a bit of a dilemna.

Doubtful according to .COM: THFC: to follow. Emmanuel Adebayor is doubtful with a hamstring problem, but Aaron Lennon should be available after recovering from a groin strain. Tom Huddlestone (ankle) is missing, while both William Gallas (calf) and Michael Dawson (Achilles) are rated very doubtful. There's no return to Tyneside for Jermaine Jenas, who is on loan at Aston Villa. David Bentley meanwhile has been farmed out to Championship side West Ham. Scott Parker is expected to feature at SJP though, having been on the end of a 0-5 howking when his West Ham side came here back in January. Would be a massive boost if he misses this.

Quite liked that comment in bold.

Aye, it has already started for them back in January, not that very many of them have realised it yet

Would love to see Tevez try and tell someone like Souness that he's refusing to come on. For all his bravado, wasn't it leaked that Souness was overawed by the swathes of fearless 20-somethings who wouldn't automatically show him respect and who he couldn't control? Relatedly, (altho not really anything to do with City, but relevant to Souness) I knew someone who was in the dressing room at NUFC and I remember being told that before a trip to Spurs away around New Years Stephen Carr was still recovering from an injury and Souness tried to pick him anyway. Carr refused to play and the medical staff backed him up - they were sick of being made to look inept in public when Souness blamed the massive number of injuries we had on everything that went wrong, and then pulled stunts like this. Carr still refused and Terry Mac then comes over shouting how he played European Cup matches with worse than that and Carr was a disgrace. Souness went public with it and gave the story to Alan Oliver - making Carr look a complete tit: As it turned out, Souness was gone in a month. John Beresford tells a similar story when he refused to play for us under Dalglish: Not hard to imagine Souness taking the hard line with Tevez when justified then, he does it when its totally unjustified. Personally I think the fabled 'Liverpool way' may play some part in Dalglish and Souness's thinking. Theres some ex Liverpool player on the after dinner circuit (I for get who) who for part of his act will ask the room "Who can remember the Liverpool physio's name when we won the cup in 1980 whenever it was?" Answer: "Nobody". I don't know if anyone remembers Phil Boersma? He was a mate of Souness' from Liverpool who ended up doing most of the physio work while someone very highly regarded (Paul Winsper, I think) stood around doing nothing. He got sacked suddenly and quietly at the FA Cup semi final farce because when everyone woke up on the day of the game Boersma was still up drinking from the night before! Possibly its the likes of Souness, Saunders, Boersma and McDermott who may explain the constant crippling injury crisies in the Souness days and not "Lady Luck". Heard alot of other stories of complete incompetence from that era as well. I strongly suspect that Dalglish is a similar sort of dinosaur to Souness and that Liverpool are heading into a mess with him in charge. I also still need to put the TV on mute whenever Souness appears. Nowt to do with City, but there you go.

my own fault for listening in the 1st place but just turned on the legends to hear malcolm macdonald say he'd never heard of mark hottiger and had never seen him play - was manager of fulham in the 80s so never watched NUFC then, therefore wouldnt have been able to see him play. None of the 'legends' recalled the free kick "Hottinger" scored (v Blackburn in 1994 (I think)) and the caller and the legends then wondered whether the Swiss Hottiger was Dutch or Swedish. How are they still on the radio.

Interesting to see Brown and OShea getting some stick. If they go the same way as Smith and Butt then I can't see much positive in that team at all. Larsson is technically quite good and Vaughan is neat and tidy, but that wasnt enough for Blackpool or Birmingham. Up front I don't think Bendtner will provide enough, and Sessegnon wont get many goals for them. The rest of their team looks utter shite - they havent even got a left side

post match comment from Pardew: "My forwards are rising to the challenge of proving that I don't need to sign another striker and this team's starting to excite me." Think we'll probably not make any serious effort to get him.

“I sat with his representatives over three days thrashing out a deal. I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest,” former Newcastle owner Sir John said in an interview with fanzine ToonTalk over the summer. “They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the club to help do this. To me it made sense to market the club globally. It was a win-win situation for Mike and the club. We hadn't done this. ” Never seen that quote before.