Minhosa

So good they named him twice?

Didn't read it. I bet you would have been in the minority though. In fact, I bet if the whole ground was asked over 80% would've fancied a Chelsea win.

You don't accept that a Chelsea side with the title in their midst, in a must win game, against a poor mid table side with nothing to play for (excluding pride and they don't seem to have been too arsed about that this season) would be strong favorites to win? Hence most people's low expectation levels? I find that strange. Not having a dig by the way. I was expecting us to conceded at least 3 personally.

Don't understand why people were expecting a hammering? Not like we've been turned over at home this season is it? Not sure if thats sarcasm or not. If not then:- Birmingham 1-5 West Ham 2-2 Boro 0-0 Man City 0-1 Sheff Utd 0-1 Charlton 0-0 Fulham 1-2 May not have been gubbings but very poor performances against sides way inferior to Chelsea, hence the low levels of expectation.

Surely yesterdays reception was more to do with the fact everyone (if we're being honest) fully expected us to get raped off Chelsea. I would have bet the mortgage on them to win (glad I didn't!). The result and subsequent response from the fans was probably more about relief than jubilation. Relief and surprise that we didn't get gubbed and that the feckless home side didn't produce another Sheff Utd (h), Fulham (a), or Charlton (a). Rightly or wrongly, thats where out expectation levels are these days. Says it all really...............

Too true. If we had a half decent partner for Martins we'd have converted lots of Milners crosses and he's have one of the best assist rates in the league. Hope he doesn't leave in the summer.

My immediate thought too. Cheeky b******. I fully understand all footballers are greedy mercenaries but after all the money f****** pinhead has picked up for giving a return of precisely f*** all is disgraceful. I hope he leaves and picks up a career ending injury at his new club. t***. The money Dyer has picked up was offered to him, you can hardly blame him for taking it. The disgrace is that people within our club offered it to him in the first place. True but you can blame him for fucking off as soon as he looks fit - for the first time in about 5 years. Hows that for gratitude to the club for sticking by him and paying an arm and a leg getting him treatment.

Milner and Butt are the only two to have turned up this season IMO. Out of those two, I opted for Milner. Ironic how both could have been away in the Summer if Birmingham had of stayed up and the Villa deal gone through for Jimmy.

My immediate thought too. Cheeky bastard. I fully understand all footballers are greedy mercenaries but after all the money fucking pinhead has picked up for giving a return of precisely fuck all is disgraceful. I hope he leaves and picks up a career ending injury at his new club. TWAT.

Yes. am i right in thinking he left city after being caught up in some east german mafia car theft scam? He had already left us (He was only a loan player), but yeah he got done by der polizei...Got a suspended sentence for it I think, as he was only a minor player in the whole dealie and hardly made any money out of it. More famous nowadays for being butted in the groin by Boris Johnson. There was another old City player in the news not so long ago for being involved in some cocaine thing. Played for Everton as well I think. I cant remember his name either (Got the memory span of a goldfish sometimes). Mark Ward wasn't it?

Anyone pick up a veiled apology from Anal in that article, in response to his slating on the message boards? I reckon his Editor has told him to get his tongue out of the Clubs arse and try to be a bit more impartial.

I also thought, 'don't be daft - it'd all be covered under the Aston's warranty'. That didn't help the analogy either, so I thought I'd just leave it out

Great analogy richie boy. Never ditch the dream! Exactly! Halfway through writing that, I thought what the fuck am I on about? Then, in true Magnus Magnusson stylee, I thought fuck it I've started.....................

See your point but £12m isn't a massive amount of money when you think we're talking about a potentially brilliant player. It's like me buying an exquisite, one-off £170k Aston Martin last summer only for it to break down and need a new engine. I've worked like a ninja all winter, and had to drive the Mrs' Ford Focus ever since. I've finally got the new engine, just had it fitted, ran the car over a couple of times and I'm just about to take it for a nice long motorway drive. I'm just about to get the motor out the garage before my motorway trip and my mobile goes............my mate's calling me and saying he'll offer me £120k for it now. I could get a couple of good cars to replace the Aston that might still turn heads, even though they're a bit more common AND the Bastard has let me down when it was virtually brand new, nor should Astons break down for that long BUT I don't want to lose £50k on it even though the thing could break down again and the fact that it might be worthless in two years, especially if another important part like the engine goes. But, it really does turn heads, can't be beaten on the motorway and is supremely comfortable. The dilemma is whether to ditch the dream machine for something far more practical.

Thats the thing though. If those two came in, they would save us about 10k per week in salary costs over Owen. Thats half a million per season. You can't tell me we don't make more than £0.5m per season in relation to merchandise etc from having Owen at the club? So, if we can agree on that, we're basically breaking even salary wise when comparing having Owen Vs Zigic & Viduka. Therefore the question is really in relation to the capital loss on Owens market value between now and the end of his contract (thats assuming he doesn't sign another one) and all of their form/fitness. For me, even with his fitness issues (i.e: the niggly ones rather than the chance of another major injury) Owen is proven, comfortable playing the Premier League and a top performer. Viduka is good for two more seasons (max), does get a fair few niggly injuries himself and you've got to question his motivation in coming here. Zigic is unproven, not a natural goalscorer and will be 28 in two years time. If he doesn't hit the ground running, we could well be in another Luque scenario (forgive my comparison, as Luque is from the Spanish league) meaning his £6m fee would be lost. So, in two years time we could either lose Owen (after two decent years in terms of goals and commercial sales) or having spent best part of our £12m fee on Zigic and a signing on fee for Viduka, we could be getting ready for Viduka's retirement party and preparing to pack off Zigic to Serbia for a couple of quid. OR, you could be right and Zigic could be another Berbatov, whilst Owen is mucking out his horses after another shitty injury. For me, your idea of risk lowering is the opposite though and I'd rather stick with Owen and tell Man Utd they can keep their £12m.

The players I mentioned have failed because they could not adapt. Couldn't adapt to the style of football, the physical nature compared to the Spanish league or the pace of the game here. Not to mention all the shite Managers we've had inbetween times. I am not saying we should not sign players from Spain (be interested if you could find that quote?) but you have talked on here about losing Owen for £12m and 'Lowering the risk'. How exactly does signing a Zigic type player do that? If anything, it would increase the risk as he's not proven. He isn't even proven in Spain FFS. I can see what would happen now. We'd flog Owen, he'd bang the goals in elsewhere, we'd be playing shit football, Zigic would score 5 goals in his first season and the whole of the Ground would be on his back and saying to their mates "Why the fuck did we sell a proven, clinical England Forward for him and fat Mark who's retiring next season?" By the way, I would hardly say I've been 'banging on about Spanish players'. How many times have you seen Zigic?

Where did I say he was Spanish? I said he was an unproven La Liga striker. Can you tell me about all the great buys we've made from Spain that have hit the ground running like Owen did and will again? There's thousands of players who represent better value than most of our recent signings but that doesn't mean we should sign them all. Whats the matter Gejon, don't you like somebody providing constructive arguments against your points? Have I abused you in any way? Grow up FFS! Yes Owen is a very good player and a world class finisher but he is also a big risk and given the length of his contract I am not sure we could risk turning down an offer that would fund us improving our squad and possibly reducing the risk. No you haven't but your cocky 'didn't realise Zigic was Spanish' remark wasn't needed - maybe you think you're the font of all knowledge?

He's Serbian, used to play for Red Star Belgrade and has all the attributes to play in the Premiership..........apart from pace and heading ability. He's a big lad but his heading is not very good at all. I watch La Liga all the time and take in some live games in the Castilla La Mancha area a few times a year, cos I have a house there. My fear in signing him would be that it would make our play one dimensional. Even more than it is now. Also, Wenger had the chance to buy him and didn't. Neither did Harry or Rafa.

Where did I say he was Spanish? I said he was an unproven La Liga striker. Can you tell me about all the great buys we've made from Spain that have hit the ground running like Owen did and will again? There's thousands of players who represent better value than most of our recent signings but that doesn't mean we should sign them all. Whats the matter Gejon, don't you like somebody providing constructive arguments against your points?

£102k a week for Owen Vs Zigic on circa £40k, Viduka on £45k (he's a free remember?) = £95k so saving 7k. I'd rather have Owen than an unproven La Liga striker who makes Peter Crouch look like a better header of the ball than Jurgen Klinnsmann and a fat, lazy waster like Viduka. Oh, and remember we've got the Luque and Marcelinho experiences to help us sell the club to Zigic. Selling Owen now would be an damning indictment of the ambition of the club at this moment in time. Even more damning would be the signing of two wasters/risks.

Your kidding me right? We've got to sell the club to every fucker we're in for these days. GOOD or BAD. If a player has ANY self - confidence then he'll be expecting his potential employer to give him all the talk and schmooze. Some how their Agent saying "Well they are a middle of the road side, with a bent Chairman and shite Manager' will make them rush to sign up do you? If you think the Owen hype is finished just look out for the Evening Chronicle back pages in June/July & August. It might a shitefest of a newspaper but it's what most would be 'ticket buyers' will get. Every season we have the "we will never be able to attract x,y and z" and pretty much every season we do! What do you thnk the selling point to Owen was exactly? "well you can play under Souness and play with a knackered Shearer for a season". Would not say every season at all TBH. I would imagine the selling point to Owen would have been that he was the man to lead the charge to better times with a promise of signing further top players, along with the chance to play with Shearer at club level and be a God again. Not to mention the fact that we were the only club willing to pay him over the top wages. When we signed Owen, it should have been a symbol of our status and an example of our plans for the future. Selling the club to a world beater like Owen was at the time is different to selling our plans to Antoine Sibierski or to a Mark Viduka. Not going to get into yet another argument with you Gejon but my point of view is that we are better off with Michael Owen at the club than having the £12m in the bank because:- - He guarantees you goals - He'll help sell season tickets - He's not going to end up on the front page of the papers - He should have 5 good years in him - He's the best finisher in the league - His name being associated with the club helps maintain/build our global appeal. - His name will help attract other top quality players (a Zigic/Viduka) would not. - We need a talisman, a spearhead up top and Martins/Amoebi will never be that. Owen can relied upon.

Your kidding me right? We've got to sell the club to every fucker we're in for these days. GOOD or BAD. If a player has ANY self - confidence then he'll be expecting his potential employer to give him all the talk and schmooze. Some how their Agent saying "Well they are a middle of the road side, with a bent Chairman and shite Manager' will make them rush to sign up do you? If you think the Owen hype is finished just look out for the Evening Chronicle back pages in June/July & August. It might a shitefest of a newspaper but it's what most would be 'ticket buyers' will get.

Within a couple of years he will walk away on a bosman free! We wont get more than we paid for him, If Man United didn't want him for £16m they arent going to buy him for £20m after a couple of years out. We might get him to sign a new contract on the back of his shite service, given we've paid him two years wages for nowt. If Man Utd didn't want him , there would be others. Even if he was planning on leaving on a Bosman, we'd be better off taking the £12m hit over two seasons and letting him go on a free. He'll guarantee at least 30 goals over the next two years not to mention assist with season ticket sales. For £6m + wages per season I'd keep him rather than flog him for £12m. That said, he'll not leave imo and not fuck us off on the sly when we've looked after him properly. Don't think he's that kind of bloke. For £12m plus the huge wages he is on I am confident we could get a 15 goal a season striker in. We could sign Viduka and Zigic with that sort of money and have a little left over for a decent defender. Viduka and Zigic (who is shite btw) would not sell the merchandise or season tickets that Owen does, nor would they attract quality players from elsewhere. Can just see Roeder now:- Zigic/Potential Signing: Why should I come to Newcastle Glenn, what are your plans for the future and who are your targets this summer? Glenn: Well, I've just sold Englands best finisher, even though he's now fully fit after two years worth of injuries. I am about to make a bold, audacious bid for the fattest, laziest striker in the league though. The lads desperate for a final pay day and I reckon we're just the club to give it to him. Granted, he costs about £40k a week less than Owen but thats where you come in Lanky. Have I told you about my record with Forwards from La Liga by the way?

Within a couple of years he will walk away on a bosman free! We wont get more than we paid for him, If Man United didn't want him for £16m they arent going to buy him for £20m after a couple of years out. We might get him to sign a new contract on the back of his shite service, given we've paid him two years wages for nowt. If Man Utd didn't want him , there would be others. Even if he was planning on leaving on a Bosman, we'd be better off taking the £12m hit over two seasons and letting him go on a free. He'll guarantee at least 30 goals over the next two years not to mention assist with season ticket sales. For £6m + wages per season I'd keep him rather than flog him for £12m. That said, he'll not leave imo and not fuck us off on the sly when we've looked after him properly. Don't think he's that kind of bloke.

We should be looking for £20m for him. When you think we bought him for £17m, he's given us jack shit in the way of service AND we've had to shell out for his medical costs. To break even £17m outlay and £3m medical costs would be the minimum we'd need to achieve to sell him. Taking an £8m loss is madness, we might as well keep him, let his earn his reputation again with a couple of years worth of good goal returns and then take a lesser hit if we have to get rid. At least that way, it'd be on OUR terms. £12m - they can get to fuck.