Thorpinho

As Goalkeeper is obviously not even close to being a priority and is a frankly ridiculous suggestion, what position do people think should be the main priority? I would probably go for attacking midfield.

Italian police are an utter disgrace. Italian football in general is an utter disgrace. The reaction to this and related incidents in the past? 2 game stadium bans, 30k fines. Put this in England = football banned forever!

it looks as the moment that Sam has absolutely no idea what he wants his midfield to be. Seems to be a lot of random combinations at the moment hoping for something to work.

If thats what he wants to do and its all part of his grand total points plan that he allegedly has (and had at Bolton) then I guess we will just have to wait and see at the end of the season where he gets us. The biggest problem I have with it is that he is limiting himself and the team. They are capable of winning these games, but the mentality he sends them out with is almost the equivalent of tying their bootlaces together at times.

If it wasn't for the Gallowgate there wouldn't be an atmosphere this season. Yes the i know the 'Ultras' sing, as i sit in the North West Corner of the Leazes but the songs that go around the ground are nearly always started from the Gallowgate Thats a load of bollocks. I sit behind the goal in the leazes and never hear the gallowgate. Theres a little corner that seems to sing, but any of the atmosphere in the leazes comes from level 7. All interaction with the away fans is from the leazes which creates some good atmosphere occassionally. On the subject of foreign stadium atmospheres, those Turkish fans sound awesome (albeit probably dangerously insane). When Fenerbahce were hear last time in the UEFA cup they were mental as well, constantly jumping up and down in unison despite their team doing absolutely nothing.

The fact that I have barely seen the lads play a pass along the deck in the midfield for about 3 years now suggests that Riquelme would not exactly work in our team! Would obviously improve the set pieces beyond measure. He is however very lazy and pretty slow. Once he has the ball great things would happen - its just getting it to him in the first place with our current tactics thats the problem. There will also be better offers for him. That Arshavin guy looked a good player for Russia, good creativity and pace.

Man U fans are the best away fans for variety and quality of songs, not necessarily for constant singing/support. I would love to hear similar levels of imagination when i go to newcastle away games - singing "newcastle newcastle newcastle" over and over and over again (with occasional we are the geordies) is certainly loud enough but isnt exactly imaginative. We need more songs.

These days most title wins are due to money - chelsea most definitely, and Man U spend millions upon millions to make sure they stay up there. I would love to see Arsenal win it this year having not spent so much and for the style they would win it in. If we were to buy loads of world class players and "buy" the title I would be ok with it. If we bought it AND played awesome attacking football I would love it and would not care at all about the money spent. It must be depressing for Chelsea fans to have had the chance of unlimited resources at one stage and to now be regarded as one of the more boring teams in the league.

If the tactics are going to continue the way they currently are (ie long balls from full backs up to the forwards and only using the midfield as a second set of defenders) then Crouch would not be a bad signing at a low price. I would however much rather Sam got his act together and told the players to look for a pass first and then only when playing poorly/chasing games resorting to long balls. At the moment it seems as though he has no faith in the teams ability to play any kind of decent football.

I think you have to understand scepticism about these things though. There are so many people with supposed rumours etc all the time that are rarely true. Also I could have told you Allardyce wants Crouch playing for him ages ago. Doesn't exactly take a genius to put together the pieces of Sam liking big target men and having raved about Crouch as one of England's most effective players.

Well before I get all interested in Emre's supposed move away from the club I am still waiting for Darren Fletcher and Wes Brown to turn up at the club.....oh wait that that didn't happen either did it Dazza

His negative attitude about away games and fear of getting beat must translate to the players so much. If he had an attitude of it being just the same as a home game then this would give the players much more confidence. The mentality for away games at the moment is resulting in us being beaten before we turn up. The only thing keeping the critics off sam's back is the home form.

Considering the fact that Allardyce absolutely loves Crouch I would not be surprised to see it happen eventually.

Well he wont be England manager as the only national team he wants to manage is Portugal, and he wont be back in the EPL managing in the next year or two due to the restrictions on his severance deal from Chelsea. Good manager and despite being a bit of a twat a lot of the time he has a great winning mentality.

Does anyone know who Ramos signed for Sevilla? Was Dani Alves already there? I have never really followed them and was just wondering to what extent Ramos built their team, or if it was largely already there.

Im not that bothered about having a female footy commentator, but only if they are actually good. This woman is rubbish, and if she was a man she would still be rubbish. Its got nothing to do with the fact its a woman. Martin Tyler is the king of commentary and needs to be cloned ASAP.

Van Basten might come across as a prick, but Dutch fans i have spoken to like him for getting rid of all those old wasters from the team.

A good example of an international manager not going on reputation and egos etc is Van Basten at Holland. He came in and told all those arrogant twats like Kluivert to do one, and brought in the players that he felt would work in the system and do what he wanted them to. That took some balls to do, and is exactly what England need.

One of the most frustrating things about watching England is that its really hard to put your finger on exactly what goes wrong/is missing, and also who is actually responsible - is it the players not performing or have all the managers since Euro 96 just been playing the wrong tactics etc? In midfield/attack there really are very few options apart from the ones that already play (and who at club level are world class a lot of the time). Our back 4 is actually one of the best around in international football, and does keep a lot of clean sheets. Paul Robinson is another matter entirely. I would like to ask those people who boo Frank Lampard a question - do you applaud Paul Robinson? If anyone needs dropping its him, and by some distance.

It would be more embarrassing for him to have been such a ridiculous waste of money. Throughout his career he has tried to do the 'financially correct' things but his efforts have backfired spectacularly on the pitch, at both Madrid and Newcastle. He could well go down as England's all time top goalscorer but he will in effect have wasted what...6/7 years of his club career??

If he doesn't play the next 2 games for newcastle then realistically its over for him in terms of any kind of relationship with the club or its supporters. If he wants to put his money where his mouth is then he simply has to stay fit for the next couple of games. Even if he gets a genuine injury I sadly don't think a lot of NUFC fans will ever believe he wants to play for us which is a shame. I think the next 2 games are crucial for Owen's NUFC career.

There is absolutely no way the majority of newcastle fans are going to walk round with 'virgin' in big letters on their shirts.

No one is booing Owen. There have been doubts raised in the media about his committment but no one is actually booing him.

£15 million would be a great deal, because lets be honest he is never going to sign a new contract with us and so to get back most of the fee we paid Madrid for him would be excellent business. Selling him in January or beginning of summer would also avoid all of the Owen paper speculation about his contract which will inevitably start soon, and would annoy the hell out of me!

I think a lot of the 'he only cares about england' stuff comes from the media and the way they ask questions. I saw a post west ham tv interview with big sam, and the reporter asked "how is michael owen"..Big Sam: "hes done his groin having scan etc" then Sam moved onto the team performance for a while. Reporters next question "so will michael owen be having an operation?" or along those lines. My opinion of Owen though is that until he is putting in top drawer performances for 4 or 5 weeks in a row, he should not be automatically starting. Sam has shown with the goalkeepers that it is play well and keep the shirt - he should do the same with strikers and Martins should be keeping Owen out of the team until Owen earns his place.