Yorkie

And you a Geordie? It definitely does show ... Careful.

Maybe we just keep Given and Harper, and if we're desperate need for another, we loan one. Like all of the sane Premiership clubs do.

Aye, he was class against Bolton wasn't he. And, in regards to Gejon's statement - Pavel Srnicek teaching Shay Given how to be a goalkeeper makes me smile, tbh. Bored, sick, tired of this sentimental shite around the place. It does us no good.

Tbh, and i know we're holding out a lot of hope for Owen and i persoanlly believe that he'll come good for us, but anyone wanting to spend a significant amount of money on him at this time would be off their head. It's touch and go as to whether he's still got the world class ability, and the chances are that his injury record may not improve. Fred would accept nothing less than £10m for Owen. No one in their right mind would pay that at this moment in time. So no - i doubt there'll be many willing buyers.

NE5, why do you keep forgetting that Michael Owen - world class goalscorer in every way... and Shola Ameobi - one in two record under Roeder... are returning next season? There's no wonder we're not scoring many goals when we've only got one striker, who was always going to be touch and go this season, in the side.

Everyone here loves you, Juniatmoko so you have no need to worry.

Probably not many! League 1 and League 2 on the other hand...

Genuinely agast at some of the statements coming out recently.

Aye, but that was almost as soon as the transfer window opened.

Pooface.

Great input to the forum, Afternoonfix.

Why did Bobby Charlton wear number 9 for England? Wasn't he actually like an attacking midfielder for us back then?

Yeah, there is a rule. Initial squad numbers have to be submitted to the FA after a certain date. Once they're submitted, they can't be changed. "But Milner was number 11 at the start of this season, though." At the very start of this season - Milner was allocated number 11, but once Duff came, that number was transferred to him as he joined the squad before the submit date.

Alright then, i'll sum up my opinion of Luque. I think that the guy obviously has quality, but i don't feel that he has or ever had the attitude to utilise it in any games for us. Deep down, i really wish that he hadn't got injured in that game against Fulham. He didn't do anything in his debut against Man Utd, but in the Fulham game he was nudged out to the left, where he's always looked more comfortable, and he looked fairly decent. Even if he hadn't got that injury, he was probably never going to make it in England, simply because he wasn't a striker - he didn't have the right striker abilities, and if he was going to be a player at Newcastle, it was always going to be as a striker. I'd have liked to see more of him out on the wing, but then he probably doesn't have the pace to cope with that, either. Mad signing tbh, don't know what the hell Souness was looking for. Nor did he have the desire - which has filtered out completely this season - although i don't think that's all his fault. Aside to his lack of ability, i think the treatment of him has been shite. He hasn't been given a proper chance, even this season. He's played about three games this season as a lone striker, and played shit. And, even though the poor bastard managed to score, he got dropped afterwards - which was just senseless. So... He didn't have the abilities to make it - his fault. He didn't have the desire - partly his fault, largely the management's fault. And now, it'd be ABSOLTUELY POINTLESS keeping him on. He hasn't had a place here for the past two seasons, we'd have to have a pretty dire transfer window for him to have one next year.

Is that actually a genuine statement?

I reckon we'll beat Blackburn, and get a draw at Watford. Which is the first home game, Blackburn or Chelsea? Assuming that Dyer is still out, i really hope that Carroll gets to start a game. I listened on the radio and we seemed a better team when Carroll came on - and it seemed that he put in some nice touches. I'm desperate to see more of him, tbh - i've seen nowt other than a couple of substitute performances where he's unsurprisingly done nothing of note. Which you can't blame him for. More 20 minute, or whatever, performances here and there aren't going to do him any good, or us. Would love to see him start. Nowt wrong with that. Anyhow, four points. We'll lose at Reading and against Chelsea.

Maybe not, then. Firstly, a LW/F would be a luxury signing in the summer. And we don't really know how he'd pan out and £4m would be a gamble anyway.

Look, brothers! I can count to four.

To be honest - i liked Souness more as a bloke than i do Roeder!

Aye, Tomi's right. I'm equally as apathetic now than i was when we were finishing the season under Souness. The Souness era was just a joke tbh. Was madness. Roeder's been bad but i don't think he was as bad as Souness. He ain't even spent owt yet. If Roeder blows another £35m on shite like Souness did, we'll probably be off down without a doubt, because the managerial skills were probably more evident with the Scot than with Ratty. Which is unbelievable. We appointed someone worse than Souness.

Some bonny lads in the academy.

Christ... fingers crossed they're all alright!

Fair enough, Mick. Think that's a bit of a pants argument though. His knee injury was a freak accident - it would have happened to anyone.

I would rather he had all summer off and came back for the new season. It's not as if he's going to be rolling around in mud during July when he comes back for pre-season training. I can't see playing 90 minutes in a one off game doing him that much good because any fitness gained will be lost by the time he returns. But it will improve match fitness, surely? His overall fitness probably won't be altered, infact he'll probably be in optimum physical shape atleast by the end of the season. But there's a difference between that and match fitness/readiness. A friendly like that, against good opposition, on a good pitch, etc - can only be a good thing for him. And plus, just to render Stozo's nonsense even further - it's only one weekend and he'll be at Newcastle for the remainder of the summer, etc.