GM

He could be the plague for all I care. We should still sign him.

Good to see further evidence of just why signing Benzema would be a godsend for NUFC. Will it happen? Like fuck it will. Expect to see that young lad sign for Serie A, or one of the top 4. Hate to say it, I could even see him signing for Spurs before us.

Another thread bites the dust

This is exactly what started the conversation in the first place. Seems nonsensical to have defenders wearing 7,8,9,10,11 etc and midfielders with 5.

You live him really, marra! [/rocker]

He wouldn't be able to help himself, as soon as he sees the egg, he'd just wop it in his mouth, shell and all. None of this cooking shite. He'd be risking salmonella if he did that though.

Who is the Ultimate Warrior anyway? Blair?

You have no idea what forum I'm on about yet.

I agree. Ages since we had a worthwhile board invasion, it doesn't even have to be a football board. I keep meaning to find a good board to do it in, but I'm too lazy. Oh I dunno...I can think of one particular board. Random, but it could be fun like...

To be fair, you were a tad slow.

Irony-bypass-tastic!

Also, meant to ask - is there some sort of rule that dictates once a number has been allocated to a player he has to keep that number for the whole season, but that there's nothing to stop the manager changing the number for the next season?

So basically, nobody else knows the rules about squad numbering either then. Cheers.

Excuse my ignorance, but maybe someone here with proper football knowledge can set me right on this. I was discussing the issue of how each player is allocated a squad number the other day with a mate of mine who knows even less about footie than I do...he asked me how squad numbers are allocated, i.e. whether strikers are always given #7,9,10 etc and whether defenders are given lower numbers - and I couldn't answer definitively. Told him that as far as I knew it was all down to a mixture of tradition within the club, within the history of football, and what number the player asked for in contract negotiations...in other words, I told him I didn't have a clue. Anyone able to answer this one for me? Cheers!

Yes we did. We nicked Souness from Blackburn. He was top class. [/takingthebait]

This theory should be confirmed when we sign Anthony Le Tallec, Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Djibril Cisse, and Djimi Traore during the summer. Wrong. It will be confirmed when we sign Karim Benzema, Anthony Reveillere and Eric Abidal this summer.

prototypical - great word my friend, i think i'll try to use that more in conversation (i work on an oil rig mind so they might hang me for being a smartarse, but i'll take my chances) Or alternatively you could try using the word "stereotypical" which is what Racunteur was actually looking for. Or even archetypal - all three fit, and are good Queen's English... Just out of curiosity, was the manner in which you spelt my user name a typo, or do you have something to say? Shit!! Sorry mate!

Sack Roeder. Keep Luque (as player-manager).

prototypical - great word my friend, i think i'll try to use that more in conversation (i work on an oil rig mind so they might hang me for being a smartarse, but i'll take my chances) Or alternatively you could try using the word "stereotypical" which is what Racunteur was actually looking for.

Lotus - You do have a point about our persistent injury problem. However, I would say that your second major point goes a very long way to explaining the first major point you make. If we had the strength in depth a top team should have to make progress in the Premiership, AND if we had a manager who instilled confidence in his playing staff, then we'd surely be further up the Table than we are at the moment. Roeder can't give us that rubbish about losing Given for a long period because Chelsea lost Cech AND Cudicini. The point being, that other "lesser" teams have also had injury problems, but they've been able to scramble their way through it, and come out ahead of us. Roeder's failure in the transfer market is either purely down to incompetence, or possibly (since FFS has form on this matter, allegedly) because the Chairman was holding the purse strings and making buying/selling decisions according to his own personal whim. He lacks credibility in the transfer market, he hasn't got a proper scouting network (and openly admits this, which in my view only increases the shame) and he hasn't been very smart about using the resources he's had available to him.

I'd have liked someone with more dedication. Someone who concentrated more on attaining the highest possible fitness levels. Someone who, for instance, went to an all night gym.

You want a bet? The club has been turned into a joke. Other fans find it hilarious how bad Newcastle have gotten, and how high our fans keep their expectations. If another clubs manager continuesly pissed out interviews like this, I would laugh my head off, cos it's getting ridiculous. It's nowhere near as bad now as it has been in the recent past though (think tea-ladies at post-match press conferences for example) - then we were a laughing stock. I think most "other fans" pity us more than laugh at us, if truth be told. The upside (if there is one at all) to our being a ragged-arsed mid-table outfit at the moment, is that we've probably slipped down the scale in terms of media attention/importance.

"National laughing stock"? Get over yourself man. Nobody else really gives a toss about NUFC.

Wouldn't bat an eyelid if any of them left, so long as I had confidence (a) that the manager had got improved replacements lined up or already signed and (b) that the manager wasn't a tactical void such as Roeder.

I'd sell him to England for £20M. It's the only team he really wants to play for anyway.