Thorpinho

The views on Taylor on this board are hilarious - one half saying he's the next John Terry the other saying hes not fit to lace titus bramble's boots! Why does everything with Newcastle have to be so black and white? When we win we are 'gonna win the league' then when we lose we "are going down with the mackems", it gets ridiculous at times!

The only spurs players who would get in the team are Berbatov and Keane really. The rest are pretty average, with a defence thats actually now worse than Newcastle. Maybe Bale in a year or two.

I can see us beating Derby and West Ham, maybe sneaking it at the Emirates. Then I think we will get a reality check with losses to Man city and Everton.

It will be interesting to see how Allardyce fits in N'Zogbia once Enrique comes into the team. I can't really see him dropping any of the current first eleven midfield for N'Zogbia.

If you think N'Zogbia is better at this moment in time than Milner, or as somebody said above even Anderson then frankly you need your head examined. N'Zogbia has that raw turn of pace and dribble that could one day make him a star, but right now the lad has had a few good games and scored a couple - following on from absolutely shocking performances last season. And before anyone says "oh he had a crap manager last year" - Milner had the same manager and showed himself to be a class above N'Zogbia.

I would expect a reaction from them following a hammering against liverpool. Their gameplan may well be to frustrate us and play for a draw. With our lack of creativity this could well happen. As usual I imagine there will be massive build up and expectation of us to destroy them, then when it doesn't happen some peoples heads will explode on here saying oh my god we didnt beat derby allardyce out - just the way things go with following newcastle!

Milner had a bad game only because Melchiot had a brilliant game and didn't give him any space or time on the ball. How he had no assist attempts is strange though as i remember at least 2 times him making crosses into the box - surely thats an assist attempt??

I think somebody mentioned it above...would love for them to cut the music 10 minutes before start of all Prem home games. Not for carling cup though when ground is half empty. It would be so much better for players to be running out to a full st james' park with flags/banners etc and all the fans chanting, rather than some rubbish rock band playing when they are coming down the tunnel.

Fair enough my opinion of the lad may seem a bit ridiculous, but I genuinely look at him and can't help seeing a lot of the Jenas/Dyer attitude in him. Its true you can't blame him for being so arrogant but the point I was making is that it could well be his downfall and mean that one of the most amazingly talented ENGLISH teenagers of recent years fails to fulfil his potential. p.s back on the topic of the thread Krul is better than Schmeichel.

Its based on him turning up on football focus a while back with his cap on sideways or something and his trousers half way down his legs as well as the millions of eyebrow shavings, which is why I made the 50 cent comparison. He was incredibly arrogant in his post match interview, which is what I have based my opinion on. I would be happy to be wrong about him because he is a brilliant player.

Its such a shame Richards seems like a complete tosser and some kind of 50 cent wannabe. He's got the physical ability to be one the best centre backs of his generation, but I would not be at all surprised if he manages to surpass Bellamy by some distance in being a total W*nker throughout his career.

If we were going to spend a lot of money on one world class player we should be looking for a midfielder with pace and creativity to burn, someone who gets the crowd on their feet and can make something out of nothing. Basically buy Messi lol

It seems that some of the newspapers like the express, which was supportive of shepherd, are continuing to back their mate. Saying that fat freddy would have given 50 million to big sam is just trying to paint the new owners in a bad light.

I think he could do better than Leeds, would be better off at a Championship club or even a premiership side. The only advantage of Leeds would be if they still have the top coaches from recent years, particularly for young players. Krul will be arguably the best goalkeeper in the world eventually and needs good coaching to help him fulfil his potential.

As usual things at Newcastle are the wrong way round. It should be experienced freebies in centre midfield and money spent on the back line. But instead its spend 5.8 million on Barton for CM and peanuts on the defence. We never ever learn.

It sounds quite similar to the sort of thing they do at Real Madrid with their sporting directors and whatever else they have. I think its currently their old player Predrag Mijatovic, and he seems to do a lot more of the press stuff/commenting on performances etc. The president Calderon (could have his name wrong) seems to be a little bit more back seat but has the final say. Maybe Keegan could take this Mijatovic role, which would then give us a structure of Ashley financing it and hiding in his castle, Mort running business side of things and for example work on the stadium developments etc, then further down its Keegan as a sort of front man for the board, then allardyce concentrating solely on the players, their training and matches. I get the impression that Mort didn't quite realise how many questions he would have to answer on a day to day basis and would prefer a more low profile behind the scenes role. So from the boards perspective Keegan works, but Allardyce in all likelihood would hate having so many people above him and it would all end in tears.

I wonder if allardyce is regretting letting those few players go at the end of the season now? Our squad is tiny, and the defensive options a complete and utter joke. People are saying here about not wanting to get in players who we dont really want and not wanting to be lumbered with these players a year down the line. Fact is that in 2 weeks time we will HAVE to be doing this, because the alternative of facing the season with this group of defenders is unbearable.

I agree that managers make mistakes in the transfer market, but if sam doesn't get a left back in my opinion it will be one of the biggest managerial failings i have ever seen. Good full backs would revolutionise this teams attacking play, as well as hopefully organising the back four a bit more. Damien Duff for example would be a different player with someone decent behind him.

Its a shame we missed out on these players as they would have been good additions, so unlucky for Sam - he just better have some alternatives. CoachHTT after all your recent praise of him how would you feel about Big Sam if he fails to sign a recognised left back in the transfer window?

its all well and good saying 'give it time trust sam', but if we come out of this transfer window and have not signed at the very very minimium 3 more defenders then I will question allardyces ability to take the club any further than the previous managers. All who have gone before him in recent years have said the same thing when they walk in the door "we need a better defence" and then it turns into 'oh we will just buy this striker first....then this midfielder....then a winger we dont need...then a few utility players' and our biggest failing continues to go unresolved. Also, I personally don't want to see players coming in for the defence and we say oh its ok he can play at fullback, used to do it for the under 12s but hes a centre back now. I want someone who is proven to play at left back and for them to be bought for this purpose, not someone who one week will play centre back and then next week fill in for babayaro who has gone and sprained a finger nail breakdancing in blu bambu.

What on earth is going on with our transfers??? A blind monkey could have told you we needed a left back 6 months ago!! Why have we still not got one? We are not going to be able to magically create a left back out of thin air and so when one is on the market why are we letting the mackems have him? Im not saying he is the ideal player but we are getting towards a position of utter desperation in the full back areas. It doesnt matter one bit if you have good centre backs if the full backs are as retarded as babayaro and carr.

I couldnt care less whether he stays or goes. When he plays well i like him as a player, but when you look back at his time here that good game is basically once a month when hes "fit". I think the majority of fans would agree in saying that hes absolutely nothing to us - if hes there fine he plays pretty well, if hes not do you really notice/care? What is important though is increasing the size of our squad rather than decreasing it, and if he goes then its just another body out the door with a sudden flurry of transfer activity becoming less and less likely before the window slams shut.

I don't really care what it is, who did it, whether its money laundering or murder. All i want to know is will it affect the team, allardyce, chris mort or mike ashley. If one of you supposed 'ITK' people could just clarify this simple point then that would be much appreciated. All it requires is one sentence to do this, no names of sources or whatever other stuff you feel you cant say.

It is a really poor decision in terms of setting a precedent as well, as the premier league could never be able to justify docking points for a lot of other things in the future. Any club faced with a points deduction would simply say 'u didnt dock west ham points so u can't do it to us'. It gives up one of the premier leagues main trump cards in disciplinary matters and gives even more power to the clubs.

A question for Martin Jol, if spurs went to play at wembley whilst renovations at White Hart Lane were going on, what do you think the average attendance would be ie how much of it could you fill? And in the inevitable event that its a low number, would it not be a total waste of time/space/money etc?