Yorkie

Who?

Slouched infront of a keyboard, poking daily, constant, boring little jibes against someone 15 years younger than him. Bless.

How long before someone says N'Zogbia?

Yawn.

Sorry, Triglett... not trying to come across ignorant or anything - but are you a Newcastle fan?

I can understand the Dawson and Taylor comparisons, they're probably on par - although i can imagine Newcastle's defensive reputation is keeping Taylor out of such games, rather than the player's individual ability. It's the Lennon >>>>>>>>> Milner argument that i just can't understand. Lennon's done nothing to demand a place in England squad's over Milner. The only time i've seen Lennon actually make a proper impact for England, was against Portugal in the World Cup. Never seen him play particularly well other than that. Seems to me that a bit of pace is enough to build you up, and rest all the nation's future hopes on. Because he's certainly not there on merit. Looking forward to seeing Bentley feature.

Is that Ben Arfa (wouldn't know).

Brian Pinas.

Mine.

OK, thanks guys.

I thought the Dutch league had finished!

When did you get it - the day it first came out?

For the record, it was the home game with Alkmaar when i first heard my dad genuinely praise Martins and say he thought he was "alright". He's a stubborn bugger.

Was talking about the game last night. And it kind of helped me understand why people such as my dad don't take to the likes of Martins instantly. Alright, my dad doesn't know a colossal amount about modern football nowadays, and i think he has trouble contemplating that the game has changed quite a bit - even over the past decade or so, but when you think of the Leicester game and people like Andy Cole - like i say, it's easier to understand. How long must we have had Cole before we played that Leicester game? I don't know the exact dates, i was only just born, but was surely only a few weeks or something? Fairly sure we got him towards the end of the season. The scenario was the same - my dad had never heard of Cole, just like he'd never heard of Martins. But when Andy Cole scores a brilliant hat-trick in his first television appearance, and Martins took mountains-worth of games to hit the spot semi-properly (for my pap atleast)... i suppose i can see why it takes quite a lot to get, someone like, my dad excited about a Newcastle player. Really wish i'd seen more of the Keegan era.

Different - i like it! Looks more greeny than Barca's onld one...

Dave, i have the utmost respect for you. Until next Monday - good luck my friend, good luck.

He said the same thing.

Who was in goal when we beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-2, when Mathie scored that cracking fluke? Was it Tommy Wright?

Aye, dirty Scouse. Thanks, and welcome! We've got a decent little clan of Liverpool fans on here...

Really...? Thought i'd be wrong! Thanks, Madras.

Who was in goal? Was it Pav?

Great value at £80,000 a week. We paid him £80,000 a week to do absolutely nothing, except lie on an injury table, for about 18 months. I reckon we'd probably be able to cope... i feel he is worth one more chance. By the way, where has this figure actually come from? It seems to be the standard number whenever the Dyer wage issue is brought up; when did it come about - is there a statistical analysis of the wages or is it just guesswork...? I wouldn't know.

All true. The midfield myth comes from the incorrect view that Dyer, Parker, Duff etc are top class. It comes from the fact that they all could, and probably should, perform to a much higher level. That's where my squad argument with you comes in, Northern Monkey. All these players do have the quality, a high ability, it's case of finding a way for all of them to utilise it. Underneath it all, we don't have a bad squad at all, in my opinion. Obviously we need four or five quality incomings, but we've got the foetus of a decent team here at Newcastle.

I personally feel that Dyer is the sort of player that we ought to hold onto if we want to have a strong squad. Not necassarily first team, because i don't think he is good enough for that and he shouldn't fit in anyway next season, but with inevitable injury troubles and a lack of particularly brilliant attacking midfielders - i think Dyer is probably worth hanging onto, as he can be so valuable at times. Plus, should Big Sam - man manager - be appointed, i think he would know how to get the best out of him. With Dyer, the ability is there: his link up play is good, his finishing has come on this season, and (when he does it), he is dangerous when penetrating. The thing is at the moment, he's lost the impetus and it's in his nature to merely falter and landslide. Someone like Allardyce would know how to drill that out of him, and get the best out of Dyer with every game that he plays. We need a squad at Newcastle - we can't be getting rid of decent squad players. The same applies for Babayaro, there. I crave for us to bring in a good left-back, because Carr will probably go and there's no alternative to left-back, and Babayaro isn't good enough week-in week-out. But, again, we need a squad here, we need to build a squad - so getting rid of Babayaro would mean we'd need two left-backs, which would be an un-needed task forced upon ourselves. I'm not even going to go into Ameobi. If you can't settle for Shola Ameobi as third choice/fourth choice, at a club like Newcastle, you need to sort yourself out and get a reality check. There's my reasoning behind it anyway. Me, like everybody else, would ideally ship out ten or eleven players in the squad; but we have to be realistic. We've only got a couple of months to work in, the transfer market is tough, and we're not going to have colossal sums of cash to blow away. The world's not going to stop for us. Plus - there's a new manager coming in who will want to assess the squad himself. The likes of Dyer and Baba are sorts we should look to hang onto, atleast for now.