afar

Is Baptista all that good ?

Well I never like to be pedantic but I think you need to register a player on the Friday to play in the weekedn games so that's only 10 days left, well probably 9 days since the business day is almost over. Yeah stacks of time, all these people panicking really need a reality check This will be the team I believe will line up on Sunday. Given Beye Colocini Taylor Enrique Jonas Gerimi Butt Guthrie Duff Martins Subs: Harper Zog Bassong Faye Milner Smith Shola DUFF? reeeeeallly? aw, f*** hope your drunk afar 'cause i'm off on my holidays and i'm as depressed as f*** now...duff, jesus christ i mean how bad can zogs attitude be? what is he a pot head or summat? Not saying it's the team I would pick, but I don't think it'll be far off the side that lines up against Manure. It's a great time to play them IMO, you never know we could get something out of it, if we defend well enough, if we do I doubt there will be a huge effort made to strengthen the squad further.

Well I never like to be pedantic but I think you need to register a player on the Friday to play in the weekedn games so that's only 10 days left, well probably 9 days since the business day is almost over. Yeah stacks of time, all these people panicking really need a reality check This will be the team I believe will line up on Sunday. Given Beye Colocini Taylor Enrique Jonas Gerimi Butt Guthrie Duff Martins Subs: Harper Zog Bassong Faye Milner Smith Shola

Wtf? First of all, it was well documented that several clubs have had offers for Shola accepted, but he simply won't budge - how's that our fault? As for Smith... erm, who the f*** has made an offer for him then? So it's the board's fault for: 1, not being able to change free will of a human being. and 2, not making other clubs bid for our players. being on first name terms with Shola for a while I know that if the guy knew he wasn't wanted he'd f*** off, no question. No way he'd drag his heels unless convinced he had a job to do here. As for Smith, he's ex Man U, played for England as recently as last season, you dont think if we made him available teams wouldn't bite? I'm really confused about the Shola situation, why hasn't he moved ? Is it him or the club. I agree with Ronaldo, if we put Shola on the transfer list, I'm sure he would go. Got the feeling though that he has been told he still has a chance here. Where I disagree with Ronaldo here is the amount, I would puthim out there for 1 million I would even accept half of that if we didn't get anyone to bite, the likes of Hull, Fulham, Stoke, Norwich and Ipswich I think would take him. And he would go if we placed him on the transfer list. I made a point earlier in the close season about the need to be pretty agressive at getting rid of the dead wood. I argued that we should make players available for bargain prices to generate interest and get rid. I would put Smith out there for 1 - 1.5 mill, if we did and made it clear to him that he had no future with us, then he would go in a shot, some foolish team would write us a cheque. OK so we loose 5 million on our initial investment but we save 10 million on his wages. Bottom line is, if we were really serious about getting rid of either or both, I think we could. I tend to agree with Ronaldo, someone either Ashley, Jimenez/Wise or Keegan has made the decision that our striking options are adequate.

My fears over this summer is not having a ready squad for the 1st game of the season. The lack of transfer activity in the early stages is as much to blame as the injuries. Instead of hitting the ground running, we will be playing catchup, again, as per fuking usual, but its no surprise, it really isn't. Absolutely TT, you and I and a few others we're banging on about this early close season, but we were shouted down as being impatient

I have no idea, but what ever reason it is makes very little sense to me.

No-one is saying that. The rest of the above is true but more or less common sense. TBF I think a few were implying that.

Phil may be a negative bastard but I think he has a point to a certain degree, if Colo signs, then the defence is indeed pretty strong, best we've had in a while. But the rest of the squad has huge question marks about it. First the midfield, lack of numbers and even when fully fit a lack of quality. Up front when fully fit we've not got a problem, but how often are all 3 going to be fully fit ? and if they aren't and we have to dip into our back ups, then this pre-season must surely have proved that we are absolutely fucked. His words may have been strong and have provoked the usual responses you get on here but if you think everything in the garden is rosey and we'll be find when everyone is fit, then take you're freakin head out of the sand cos I'll bet anything you like that we'll be in a full fit squad position extremely infrequently this season and currently our backups are nowhere near the required standard. They've really fucked up this pre-season IMO, 13 days to go now and the squad is nowhere near where it should be at. And of course when (and I still believe it is when and not if, which is probably a bit of this blind faith) we fill out the squad and add a bit of quality, we'll have everyone posting that "the squad needs time to bed in", ofcorse it does if you leave everything to the last minute.

I have no problem with our first choice defence should this be actually confirmed. But don't get me started on the squad as a whole and the first choice midfield

But these are our back ups. Thank good our first choice forwards hardly ever visit the training room.

Don't think so, Woody cost 9 mill pounds, Iirc. Don't knwo what the latest exchange rate is but 11million euros if that is right does not equal more than 9 mill punds I would imagine.

How did you manage to get an interview with him, out of interest? A friend of mine had his MSN and asked if he wouldnt mind speaking to me. I got the MSN but after talking to him for 10 minutesfound that a Dorito would be more interesting. Which flavour ?

So any post match interviews ??

That probably happens every freakin night though and it's got nothing to do with NUFC

This is why I can't stand hearing about the effort he puts in. The amount of times last season where a winger would be looking to put a cross in while his "striker" was stood in the centre circle scratching his arse was disgusting. He's a lazy useless arsehole who likes kicking people. Comfortably one of the worst players I've seen play for NUFC. Paul Kitson, Andreas Andersson, Albert Luque, all had ten times the goalscoring threat of this waster. So... you don't rate him then ?

There's one camp saying Moutinho is coming, M'Bia is coming, we bid for the Mexico keeper and everything is rosy There's another camp saying the money has been pulled by Philip Green after a fall out with Kenwright, Moyes is considering quitting because he's got 20 pence to spend, the world is going to implode etc f*** knows what's going on. Probably the latter knowing Everton. Well 20p would buy you Alan Smith and we'll even throw in set of strips to sweeten the deal. How about it ?

Backline of course, not confident about the forwards though, Owen will have done very well to get match fit in time, Martins apparently has an injury also so no gaurentee it wouldn't be Smith and Shola on Aug 17

which it is Absolutely

Damn I had high hopes for that one.

Rent a quote after this one: "The result wasn't important, it's all about getting match fit" "It's all about getting fit for that first game of the season against Manure"

But football is all about opions. Personally this is the best game I've seen from Smith for us. Admittedly I have no access to any visuals of the game or even audio commentary. But my point stands, this is the best performance I've seen from him in a long while.

Usual points for a draw/win, but a point for each goal scored. It's only pens at the end if teams are level, I think. What if the two teams top of the table aren't playing each in the next game ? Seems a little bit silly to me.

So what's the format for this compo then, if Dave is right, and lets face it how often is he wrong ? No penalites so who will play in the final, do we have scores for artistic merit ?

I'd play Dot Cotton up front ahead of them two tbh, if we could get her registration push through in time.

Remember we've got two games in a short space of time. The liklihood is that we'll have 2 very different teams out. So the scope for replacements is limited.