Yorkie

How more undeserved can you get?

Hate Bolton. Fucking Hate Arsenal.

Cracking game.

8th March is the first leg i believe.

Tel-Aviv beat Rangers. Espanyol 2-0 up... dangerous side. Werder Bremen 3-0 up against Ajax. Ajax had a man sent off early, making it all the more difficult for them. We'll be saying goodbye to them.

Fully agree with him on the starting line-up. Absolutely no reason not to go with the strongest side possible. Harper Solano --- Taylor --- Bramble --- Babayaro Milner --- Butt --- Dyer --- Duff Martins --- Sibierski Subs: Srnicek, Edgar, Huntington, Pattison, O'Brien, Luque, Carroll I say best team - Bramble wouldn't be in mine. Edgar would be in there on merit. He's has looked very assured and very dominant whenever i've seen him. Confident at both left-back and at centre-back, and both times that he has been introduced from the bench, he has appeared to have tightened up the current defense. I won't go into Bramble - with him it really is pointless dropping him from my favoured team, because there's not a cat in hell's chance that Roeder will. Same sort of situation with Duff. I might have O'Brien in there on merit or give Luque a chance to play, simply because Damien Duff does not deserve a place in our starting line-up nowadays. However, i'm realistic. This is poor opposition and Duff is going to be really gunning for it, having been rubbish so far this season and getting a wake-up call from being dropped. This is a big opportunity to make a point. No available centre-midfielders other than Butt and Dyer so Sibierski has to be asked to continue his great European form. It won't be a mammoth victory but it will be a comfortable one. Zulte Waregem 0-2 Newcastle United Martins, Sibierski ---------- In the return leg, with that result, i'd like to see some different people included. One of those being Emre. Where is he? We need him. Dyer would definitely benefit from a rest, aswell. Harper Solano --- Taylor --- Edgar --- Babayaro Milner --- Butt --- Emre --- O'Brien Martins --- Luque Subs: Srnicek, Bramble, Huntington, Parker, Lua Lua, Sibierski, Carroll Optimistic and doubtful, i know. But it would be a good opportunity.

Couple of nice looking results so far. Bordeaux 0-0 Osasuna CSKA Moscow 0-0 Maccabi Haifa I rate Moscow very highly - they're one of my favourites to win it actually, behind Werder, Benfica, Sevilla and AZ. They won it a couple of years back and no one was a scratch on them after they dropped out of the Champions League - they beat Sporting in the final, in Lisbon. Certainly held their own in Arsenal's group earlier this season - not even conceding a goal against them. Haifa are stuttering in the Israeli league so it would certainly be a scalp if they were to do em in the second leg. I think Bordeaux could be dangerous aswell and i don't really rate Osasuna, so likewise - would be nice to see Osasuna triumph in the return leg. Espanyol currently leading away to Livorno; no surprise. Watch out for Espanyol...

AZ are fecking awesome. Three goals at Fener's stadium. They're just deadly infront of goal. Glad we significantly boosted our defense in the transfer window. Phew!

I'm embarrassed. Never knew that!

Why would we be at home in the first leg against Alkmaar? We're top seeds, and they're lower seeded than us, which would see us away first. I think.

Nah, there's a bit about Alkmaar - stating basically the same thing that you just said. Goals from midfield - they're immense at that.

Read my article...

Yup.

3-1. Howay Blackburn.

AZ beating Fenerbahce... No great surprise. Superb team. Arveladze isn't playing though, he must be injured. He's their top scorer; having a really good season. 16 so far.

Aye - Blackburn/Leverkusen tonight.

Aye he did in the first half, yeah.

Aye, we bottled it against Marseille. The amount of chances we had over two legs - unbelievable. Gary Speed missing an open goal at the Gallowgate End sticks in my mind. Michael Bridges shaved the post in the home leg, aswell. We were doomed as soon as we didn't win at St James'.

Dave, they were good teams - Fenerbahce and Palermo especially. Fenerbahce are Champions League regulars and top of the Turkish league above Galatasaray, and Palermo were top of Serie A at the time; they weakened their side, granted, but so did we. We weren't playing shit in that group stage like we normally do in the earlier rounds. Or like Boro. You look at the ties we've been faced with and you look at the muck they were dealt with, and how they very nearly ended up throwing it away, it's sickening and i'm very bitter. By God i hope we win it. On the whole - i'm rather bitter about the UEFA Cup in general. I've lived a short life so far so i don't have proper experiences of many United 'catasrophes', and we were simply shit in the FA Cup finals, so nothing hurt me more than when Sporting Lisbon knocked us out. That killed like nothing else. On my birthday aswell. I crave for us to win this competition, now. We'll beat Zulte. Fenerbahce/Alkmaar (probably AZ) will be a majorly difficult hurdle.

It's a fantastic gesture, obviously, and it'll look fantastic - but he's JUST stopped playing for us. And it's hardly as if his Newcastle career is over...

Zulte Waregem were officially only founded in 2001, or something daft, so it's not a great surprise that their wages are low.

Firstly, this is nonsense: The four teams that we have played in the group stages are probably in the top 6 or 7 teams we have played in our entire UEFA Cup campaign since 2003/04 (when we returned to it for the first time in a few years). And secondly - yes. I do think we've got a chance, without a doubt. But the standard of opponents is far stronger this year. If we beat ALkmaar in the last sixteen, i'll be very, very optimistic.

Only one fit striker in a team that has managed a miniscule 25 goals in the league this season, from 21 games that is. And with a defense that conceded 6 goals against Espanyol. Howay Oba - go wild mate. Would love to see Martins help his goals tally significantly here. What better chance has he got than now to boost his chances of reaching 20 goals? Is Matthys injured? He's the only one with the potential to cause us an upset, i feel.

The more i think about it, i'd certainly take Gera on a free. Nobby should officially be a right-back, which will lead us into finding cover for Milner. Gera would be very good cover, imo.

I know mate, it's not very good. Love the bloke to bits and he is a cult hero - but a two year contract smacks of desperation and a major lack of ambition. If he were to be here for this season only, he would be remembered as a bit of a legend and a real fans favourites. Two more years of inevitable mediocrity, with poor, ageing displays and few goals - people probably won't look back so favourably. Which is a real shame.