LooneyToonArmy

And your reason for saying all this is...? Still yet to see a decent counter arguement that doesnt involve "ROFL YOURE A MACKEM" or "omg shearer mistake? wtf??", other than "Ferdinand was getting old and getting injury prone". To which ive replied about getting quality in that didnt require us to break the bank - Stoichkov was desperate to come to us, at a time when the Premiership was shiite and easy pickings for forwards with great technique, eg Zola who moved to Chelsea in the same summer and prolonged his playing career purely because of technique and intelligence on the ball. On top of this, I think the "Ferdinand became injury prone" arguements are purely ones made in hindsight - he scored more goals than Shearer the season they played together iirc, at the time we signed Shearer these problems hadnt surfaced at all. Easy to look back now and say "yeah, Ferdinand's career was nearing an end", but that wasnt the case when we splashed out a world record 15mill - we signed Shearer irrespective of Ferdinand. To win trophies and stay at the top, we had the firepower, we had the midfield, but not the defence or the keeper. Whats the logical thing to do? Blow EVERYTHING on one centreforward? Call me what you want out of your own ignorance and blind faith, not only do the facts speak for themselves - no trophies, plummiting down the table, squad torn apart, following summer spent 7mill sold 16mill, etc etc - but so do "silly" things like common sense and logic. We signed Shearer to partner Ferdinand, and they were unreal playing together. Ferdinand's performance was increased tenfold by Shearer's signing. Shearer's workrate when he was 26ish when we signed him, running the flanks, holding up play, and generally dominating the field as a model centre forward created masses of space and I would guess a fair few of Ferdinand's goals were from Shearer's crossing running onto balls down the flank. I'm trying to remove myself from the model response you think is along the lines of "lol WTF Shearer is the best".... However, if you think 15million pounds is not worth the years of service and goals, you're either 12 or you need you heed looking at. Just remember we signed shearer on the back of Euro 96 golden boot winner, and was wideley regarded as the best centre forward in the world. 15 millions was a snip. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I have to say I (and the majority of supporters old enough to remember) would have to completely disagree with everything you're saying. I don't think people are saying he was not worth it, he was well and truly worth every penny as has been proven......but another attacker I don't think was a top priority that was needed at the time, at least IMO

And your reason for saying all this is...? Still yet to see a decent counter arguement that doesnt involve "ROFL YOURE A MACKEM" or "omg shearer mistake? wtf??", other than "Ferdinand was getting old and getting injury prone". To which ive replied about getting quality in that didnt require us to break the bank - Stoichkov was desperate to come to us, at a time when the Premiership was shiite and easy pickings for forwards with great technique, eg Zola who moved to Chelsea in the same summer and prolonged his playing career purely because of technique and intelligence on the ball. To win trophies and stay at the top, we had the firepower, we had the midfield, but not the defence or the keeper. Whats the logical thing to do? Blow EVERYTHING on one centreforward? Call me what you want out of your own ignorance and blind faith, not only do the facts speak for themselves - no trophies, plummiting down the table, squad torn apart, following summer spent 7mill sold 16mill, etc etc - but so do "silly" things like common sense and logic. Do agree with many points said on here. Not saying Shearer was a mistake at all but we didn't really need him desparately at the time and should have strenghthened in other areas such as the obvious defence. Looking at players at the time of Euro 96 there were some top class players who I'm sure would have cost less than the 15m we spent on one player. Who would you like to have seen? Stoichkov was hot headed but class(already mentioned),Boksic (wasn't injury prone at that age like at Boro),Couto,Chiesa (Sampdoria),Torricelli, Babbel (disappointed Dogliseh didn't follow up his interest), ,Thuram (Monaco), Blanc (Auxerre), Angloma (Torino), Chapuisat (perfect for EPL), Henchoz..... it's ok in hindsight I suppose but at the time we could attract the best and they would not have cost fortunes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_UEFA_European_Football_Championship_squads

Eh? Sounds like one of those spam emails you get that make absolutely no sense This is what FIFA said re Mascherano "Yet the single judge made it clear that such permission can be granted under very restrictive preconditions,such as they exist in the case at stake,yet never ocurred in a case that was submitted to the attention of the competent deciding bodies at an earlier stage. In particular he emphasised that a series of elements related, on the one hand ,to the duration and positioning of the relevant sports seasons as well as to the respect of the registration periods,and on the other hand to the repect of the employment contracts concerned,need to be cumulativevely met." http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=445171&CPID=8&clid=14&lid=2&title=Reds+cleared+to+sign+Mascherano&channel=football_home&

hardly given a chance though, 1 goal in 4 games and he was sub in most of them

Its probably Piquionne although i prefer Babel same here, he just doesn't want to be here or leave the French league for that matter. Would prefer someone with a bit more enthusiasm than Mr Piquionne

Cue , interview with Phillipe Albert tomorrow by Anal regarding our new signing

his goal record was very good though and his partnership with Bellamy was good. To be controversial he shouldn't have been automatically dropped when Shearer came back from the 1 or 2 injuries he had as he was playing well early on. Yes, a couple pies too many perhaps though:D

hopefully if work permit arrives in time. No idea how long it normally takes?

Good little player, better player than our current captain in all honesty. agreed, underrated player, never let us down ,didn't complain when left out the side and chipped in with some goals. An excellent squad player and a bargain for 700k IMO Should not be on that list wor Clarence

we were linked with Johan Djorou and Armand Traore.

17 for Owen maybe so to an extent but at the very least Owen is a proven world class player on every stage (apart from injury obviously)......Carrick, Bent are average IMO and Walcott and Bale are just potential

ridiculous, but that's what yu have to pay for an english player, overinflated prices 18m Carrick? 12m Bale? 18m Darren Bent? 12m Walcott?

All Dalglish needed to do was to buy a decent centre back or two, not fall out with Ginola, sell Ferdinand, Beardsley (yes he was 34 but for 500k there was no point), Lee Clark and Elliot (who believe it or not was one of our better players in that season) and replace them with $hite and bring back jobs for the boys like Rush and Barnes ffs....,Dogliesh seemed to want his own team, not 'Keegans team' which is fair enough but a radical overhaul was not necessary Still gets to me, all that team needed was the addition of a decent defender!!

like when he cocked up against Mexico and let Borgetti in to score that goal just before the World Cup. tbf not seen that much of him though, looks built like a brick $hithouse

he denied it a few days ago though United States international Onyewu was another centre-half to have been linked with a January move to The Magpies. Roeder, though, confirmed he is not pursuing the Standard Liege stopper, who has been interesting Chelsea and Fulham. He added: "I am aware of this player, but he is not a player I am trying to sign." http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=443967&plid=23557&clid=4&cpid=8

I remember reading that Roeder ws straight on the phone to Chopra just after Owen had his injury in the World Cup. Apparently he had yet to sign for Cardiff but had gave them his word. Probably did the right thing to tell him to fk off, as when the big guns would have came back he would have been left out again. Good to see him back among the goals again here's a link http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=25223

not that we could afford them. English players usually are ridiculously over priced

supposed to have been quite impressive for PSG in their first season despite their team not performing, but don't know a great deal about him tbh

Because Viana's a centre midfielder and at the time was rated as one of the hottest prospects of continental football. He won European Young Player of the Year ,the season before he joined us and we beat alot of big clubs to his siganture I seem to remember, such as Juventus at the time. I think his game is suited to the slow pace of Italian football rather than Spanish and especially the EPL. And as already mentioned, he was never supposed to compete with Robert for the left wing spot. He was not a left winger in the slightest even though we shunted him out there. His best position was in the hole behind the striker(s) with a proper defensive midfieler doing all the donkey work (which we didnt have) ......and most EPL teams including ours don't play with that formation

I think most of us were dreading it when Bambi signed for us, and for 5m, it was one of those wtf signings. He got mauled on the last day of the season by Liverpool (when playing for Ipswich) I seem to remember and we all saw the horrendous errors he committed for Ipswich. I don't think he's been the most disappointing player. I was always expecting him to make blunders since he joined us just like he did for Ipswich

perhaps a one (or half) season wonder, he didn't do anything noteworthy until recently besides it's from the Journal, probably load of bollox

27 caps for Argentina as well. Maric? after he tore us apart in the CL qualifiers.....and was supposed to be the new Prosinecki, obviously didnt turn out that way

Alves looks a very good player but I dont think any club in England could sign him because of work permit issues as he's not an international and does not have a EU passport. I suspect he will go to Ajax or PSV when either team sells their star strikers like Farfan or Huntelaar in the summer

Really he'll be 'just like a new signing' that we've been after

are you all there?? the defender was the kid from kiev, and the whole world found out yesterday that he wasnt coming!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nonsense. Roeder wouldn't tell the supporters that he was looking to sign a bloke in the next 48 hours without even knowing how good he is. It's all smoke and mirrors. I bet we have actually signed this unknown defender and have simply not released a statement just to make the end of the transfer window a bit more fun and exciting for the rest of us. /guuuurr Right, we just need to find out who is he? Cannavaro? Terry? Rio Ferdinand? Miracles happen, don't they? It's Thuram as he can't get a game for Barca