Yorkie

£3m or even £4m wouldn't be silly money for Faye, given the prices gone for various other nationwide signings over the summer. If we're complaining about a £2m asking price then it's a bit odd.

Worth doing time for like.

I'm dancing, as I've said a few times elsewhere. Don't forget this 'keeper on loan as well... Could potentially be looking at 11 new players in since the end of last season, that must be a record? To think that this time 12 months ago, we'd signed... one player.

Watched the game on Italian TV with Italian commentary (was surreal) and i know, it's a few days on now, but i'd like to give my thoughts on the game. First of all, thoroughly naff match. To be honest, you can call me a kneejerker, and i suppose it isn't really fair to look into the crystal ball at this stage, but to me that was two 8th position teams, on par in several playing departments, slogging out an inevitable scrappy draw. There's a fair chance there'll be very little between us and Villa come May, in my opinion. It was a rubbish game but i think Allardyce will learn from that. I don't judge him for starting with the negative tactics, because we were always going to be susceptible to their pace on the counter-attacks. Agbonlahor and Young with lots of speed about them - we tried to counter that danger with the negative long-ball. Ultimately though, it was getting us nowhere from an attacking point of view (i thought Butt had a crap afternoon, personally), and it was becoming pretty damn pointless given that the two Villa players in question were both having shite days anyway. I'm not gonna have a go at Allardyce for starting with long-ball, but i really think he should have scrapped it sooner in the game (did he at all, infact?). Viduka should have gone off, not Martins; Martins actually had some whip about him. Which leads me onto another point: Viduka is absolutely wasted as an aerial targetman. That's simply wasting talent, when he's only average in the air - with his back to goal anyway - and yet he's so exceptionally good with the ball at his feet. That Laursen fella had a great game and the ref was kind to Villa, but Viduka shouldn't be used like that i don't reckon, certainly not at home anyhow. Milner and Martins ran their socks off - i really think they can work in those wider positions. Unfortunately, as i've said, we were playing long balls (that were pretty mehh-ish themselves) and they, Martins in-particular, couldn't get into the game. The same went for the likes of Smith, who's a player who's in there to grab us by the balls. I reckon he can be a really important player for us - he and Barton will rival that starting spot - but he can't get into the game and do what he does best, when the balls are flying over his head all the time. The whole of the centre-midfield was fruitless. Butt was having a bad afternoon: couldn't master the long ball and gave away possession needlessly, which meant Smith couldn't get onto the ball. And Geremi, who needs players around him to play well, was susceptible to the same contageous 'rubbish effect'. ... If that makes sense; a bit exaggerated, no doubt. Nevertheless, the two centre-backs were class aswell as Harper, and i though on the whole, that we were worth the clean sheet. We didn't deserve to win though, and we didn't. Allardyce will undoubtedly have got a lot from that though, it wasn't a hurrendous performance, and we'll fucking hammer Boro.

Seeing as the left-back played 40 games for them last season I'd say that you're talking shite son. Then there's Riggott as well, been first choice for how many years at the club now? Sorry Dad. Meh, you could argue that Woodgate, Huth, Pogatetz and Young could rival that entire backline.

Boro don't have one first choice defender on the pitch tbf.

You mean beyond what SBR wrote in his book: "I thought Nobby's legs were going and he weas getting fatigued too easily." Seemed SBR was pretty straight forward. He liked us to have younger players (even to his detriment) and for an old codger he was always looking for a way to get rid of the older players (SHearer included) and it would seem on the surface for purely football related reasons. for those reasons he should have been sold in the close season when we had time to find a replacement. Solano was never the fittest, just though there must have been a different catalyst. As for Robson's book, he also hinted at a problem with Solano's attitude as I remember. Leaving the Boro ground before the game was over after being sending off I think. Aye, he did say that - Nobby left so he could go to Peru again. But he never mentioned an attitude problem at all, Robson's words were: "I guess that's the modern day footballer for you."

"We had a surfeit of players who could play in that wide right position - Nobby, Ambrose, Bowyer and Dyer. Solano remained potent on free-kicks, corners and crosses, but had stopped penetrating the space behind defenders." "He was keeping young Darren Ambrose out of the side and i wanted to correct that anomoly." "A problem with Nobby was his international tie-up with Peru. We gave him a new contract on the assumption that he'd cut down on games for Peru, and he pledged to do so, but the temptation was too great for him." "I don't mean to be critical of him as a person. He was a smashing lad and i liked him very much. He used to bring his cornet in and play it in the dressing room, much to the delight of the other lads. I wish him nothing but the best." "He was happy to go to Villa Park because he could see the competition building up on that side of the pitch." Such as?

I was thinking of Montella.

Think he played against us didn't he, or am i barking completely up the wrong tree?

Aye maybe. Or maybe he wants to go down South to be with his family. There's so many avenues.

Don't worry, he'll always be a legend here so it's not a big mistake at all. Sarcasm? Whether you were being sarcastic or not - i've said that anyway. I'm not overly bothered. No, not sarcasm. Lighten up a bit, maybe? Wasn't being mardy - i just thought yours was maybe in tandom with Toon Taylor's complaint about the sentimental stuff.

Fucking loving the versatility in our squad. In so many positions, we can just make one sub and change the complexity of our approach to a game altogether.

Don't worry, he'll always be a legend here so it's not a big mistake at all. Sarcasm? Whether you were being sarcastic or not - i've said that anyway. I'm not overly bothered.

to be honest I've never been exactly blown away with Nobby's workrate Like i've said many times, too much sentiment gets in the way of NUFC funs judgment of Nobby. That's absolute nonsense that, and i've always been one for slamming the sentimental crap that goes on around the Newcastle set-up. Bringing back Pav, Clark and Terry Mac granted - but bringing Nobby back was one of the best things Souness did in his time here (there wasn't much, granted). Unfortunately, in the two years of his return - the shit that had been playing infront and around him, hadn't even half the footballing brain cells that Nobby had. And, in the end-of-season run in of 05/06, i'd say there was no player in the squad more influential than Nobby, in getting us back up to 7th. Shola and Bramble the only other competitors.

What a year to get his fucking name on my back. Goddamn.

He'll do a job.

Yep. Prime example - Blackburn away.

How much did Cacapa (best name in the squad now barr Teh Zog, btw) play last season? And i think you do taylor a diservice. Is he not as good as Cacapa on FM2007? No idea, never played FM. You seem well versed though. Taylor isnt bad by any means. The point is that neither you nor I have seen Cacapa play in the Premiership. We have both seen Steven Taylor fuck up on several occasions and his performances prior to Jan 2007 were mostly poor. Since then he has played well. One thing is certain, Cacapa has experience of playing at the top level. It would be foolish to put a comment like yours in there without seeing both in action. Aye, them few months at the start of the season where he was out of shape, recovering from potentially the most troublesome injury he'll have - that had kept him out for about six months. I'll be more than happy to see him cemented as THE centre-back this season. No qualms with that whatsoever. He's a damned good defender who'll get better, especially now there's bags of experience around him both on the pitch and in the coaching department.

He was half-decent for the first two or three months. Ultimately though, he was shit, we never needed him in the first place but since we had him - it meant we didn't get another centre-midfield 'replacement' that summer, and was shit. Our centre-mid options that 05/06 season were Parker/Emre, Faye/Clark.

Is that John 'Budgie' Burrdige, the keeper that played for us?

What a fantastic reason to base an opinion on.

I KNOW we need cover, etc, but i like the idea of Rozenhal and Taylor settling in the back 4 together. And i don't like the idea of Cacapa and Ramage being our only other alternatives.

Would i be wrong to say that our squad isn't a million miles behind Liverpool's? Meh, i suppose there's has got more potential than our's.

Owen will play when we play 4-4-2. In spite of our success at Bolton, i anticipate we'll start more games with a 4-4-2 than a 4-5-1*, and Owen will play then. Either way, it'll be a rather splendid situation to be able to bring on a Martins or a Milner or a Smith and switch the formation at the drop of a hat, depending on the state of play. *What's great is that we have a versatile enough squad that our players will fit nicely into either formation.