Andy

Bang on. Every last word. There's nothing that annoys me more than a player being labeled "not good enough" after only his second game for the club. It's even more annoying when his performance is no better or worse than most of the other players on the pitch. How are players supposed to succeed when they're being written off before they've had a chance to prove themselves?

Haha, of course he is. Well, he's about on par in terms of tackling and reading of the game etc. But he actually has pace. And a bit of ability. And a brain. Three things that Carr lacks drastically.

I thought we were poor today, but that was as much down to a very efficient Villa side as it was our own lack of ability. It's true that we need more creativity, but it's also true that creativity is obviously going to be stifled when (a) you're up against an excellent defence, and (b) you have a lot of new players who need time to gel together and accommodate themselves into a new system. There's possitives to be taken from the match - we defended very well and kept a cleansheet, and we looked more solid as a unit than we have done in years. And the negatives are not so drastic that they can't be sorted with a bit of time, a few tweaks here and there, and a new player or two. This isn't as bad a result, or even performance, as some are knee-jerking it to be.

Lads can we calm down, stop insulting each other and stick to discussion of the match please?

Now that's very true. And inevitable, unfortunately.

Better than Carr...

Jesus wept, I'm not "annoyed" with anyone. You're missing my point altogether. I merely stated that Owen could have prevented all of this by, when he was ACTUALLY BEING LINKED WITH A MOVE AWAY (which was long, long before July 11th), coming out and putting an end to it there and then with a simple statement either commiting himself, or the opposite. But he chose not to until much, much later, and that's why some fans have reacted badly towards him. Eh? Of course I had. That thread is basically one of the things I'm reffering to. If you read through it, you'll see that in the eyes of many it came too late. Which is exactly the point I'm making :-/

Have to agree with you on this like, Chris. That's one thing that really does grate on me about the Owen scenario - rather than all this club vs country bollocks. He could have put an end to all of this drivel by coming out and fully commiting to us ages ago. The fact that he chose not to is... interesting, but still not necessarily indicative of a lack of commitment or desire to play for us. So your opinion is that anytime some f**kface writes or speculate something about some NUFC player, he should step out and say that this story is bullshit and that story is bullshit? Erm... Nope, I didn't say that. My opinion is that if he'd came out EARLIER and given a statement one way or the other regarding his commitment to the club, it would have prevented this fan backlash. He DID come out OVER TWO MONTHS AGO ago committing himself to the club. You must have missed it. It's right here: http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=42546.0. Should he have held a daily press conference reconfirming his commitment? July 11th was OVER TWO MONTHS AGO? Have I suddenly travelled into the future? Look, my point is simple. I'm not saying I don't trust Owen, nor am I saying that I give a toss either way about whether he stays, goes, commits or doesn't commit. I'm just saying that there's a clear backlash from a large percentage of fans in his direction due to the fact that, for a large portion of the last YEAR, nobody has had a clue where he stood regarding his future. Then - and to clarify, this is just how it may look to some, not how I see it personally - when apparently nobody is interested in him, he finally breaks radio silence, so to speak, and commits. All I'm saying is, that whilst he obviously HAS commited himself to the club, it's pretty obvious - based on fan consensus - that he could have done it either sooner or more clearly, and that would have prevented much of the backlash towards him. That's all I'm saying.

I'm not saying I don't trust him. In fact, I've posted four or five times in this thread defending him. The fact is, however, that a lot of people on here obviously don't trust him, and he could have prevented that (or at least lessened it) quite easily.

Have to agree with you on this like, Chris. That's one thing that really does grate on me about the Owen scenario - rather than all this club vs country bollocks. He could have put an end to all of this drivel by coming out and fully commiting to us ages ago. The fact that he chose not to is... interesting, but still not necessarily indicative of a lack of commitment or desire to play for us. So your opinion is that anytime some f**kface writes or speculate something about some NUFC player, he should step out and say that this story is bullshit and that story is bullshit? Erm... Nope, I didn't say that. My opinion is that if he'd came out EARLIER and given a statement one way or the other regarding his commitment to the club, it would have prevented this fan backlash.

Seriously, stop posting.

Oh... Right. If that's the case can I post some race-hate and qualify it with a safety wink? What about an illegal download site? Some hardcore porn? No? Okay then.

If someone had tried to blackmail me into saying something the way Shepherd did with Owen, I would have kept my mouth shut too. You too must be a stupid little prick, like Owen Yeah, read the forum rules re: abuse please. Or just stop posting. One of the two.

Have to agree with you on this like, Chris. That's one thing that really does grate on me about the Owen scenario - rather than all this club vs country bollocks. He could have put an end to all of this drivel by coming out and fully commiting to us ages ago. The fact that he chose not to is... interesting, but still not necessarily indicative of a lack of commitment or desire to play for us.

Amazing how many pseudo-psychologists (or should that be pseudo-psychics?) inhabit internet messageboards nowadays like. Seriously, you're basing this dross on three things - his transfer fee, his wages and - most importantly - his name. If Alan Shearer had done what Owen did, would anybody have reacted the same way? Honestly? What about Nobby, if the same situation arose with him? Shay Given? My bet is that you wouldn't have battered a fucking eyelid. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think Owen is a saint. It's true that he could have done a hell of a lot more for us during his time at the club, and it's true that his injury problems are more than a little concerning. But to criticise or question his commitment because he wants to play for his country is - in short - absolute fucking drivel.

Haha, that basically summarised my reaction to the article.

Some of the posts in here are absolutely mental. I can understand opposition fans being against Taylor's call up, but for our own supporters to be so... unsupportive of one of our players (and not only one of our players, but one of our home grown players), just typifies our attitude over the last five/ten years, really, and it typifies why so many opposition fans see us as a massive fucking laughing stock.

Gosh? Is it? WOOOOOOOOAH! Big Sam and his Big Team of Big Medical expects would probably tell you that if you throw a player in at the deep end after doing so little, it probably makes you more vunerable to injuries such as that one. Jesus fucking christ, of course it does. But why should that have any bearing whatsoever on Owen's decision? If I'd done fuck-all all season and spent half of my time playing golf and sitting in a treatment room, and Sven came up to me and said "Vanna go to ze vorld cup sonny jim?" I'd snap his fucking hands off SO FAST then slap him with it SO HARD to make sure he wasn't out of his frigging head. Then I'd go, of course. And so would you.

Exactly. Put yourself in his boots for a minute ffs, there is NO WAY IN HELL any single one us would turn around to SVE and say "Yeah, sorry mate, I'd love to play in the world cup and that, but because I was injured all season and it might make me look bad infront of the newcastle fans, I better not. Thanks anyway though. I'll just hop back into the starting line-up whenever I'm ready, yeah? Ok, keep me a place. Cheers." FFS.

He has nice hair, that's for sure.

Elano, Bojinov or Alves.

Haha, such supreme arrogance. Anyway, you're bang-on. Right back and a centre half and I think we're looking alright. Certainly when compared to last years squad.

Yeah, that was the actual quote from the bbc website iirc.

Midds SO alert. Have a jaffa cake son. Son? Be quiet or I'll change your name to 'Lost is shit'. Listen mate, just try it you power hungry FUCKER. I remember the days before my admin powers were randomly disabled and this was all fields. No lip from us "moderators" back then. We respected our lower mortals and treated them as if they were almost even. Which they weren't. But we still let them think they were, unlike YOU LOT.

Midds SO alert. Have a jaffa cake son.