KaKa

Sam might get the best out of him but he really was awful last year. I know a lot of Arsenal fans and they weren't too pleased with him at all last season.

Nevertheless the more we can pad our squad with free signings the better, at leat we know he has quality when he is fit and firing.

Wow!!!

So we will indeed be keeping all of our strikers!!!

That is phenomenal. What a strike force!

Allardyce has been talkign up Owen today and saying that he hopes he stays. In my opinion I think Martins is already gone to be honest, because if Owen is being persuaded to stay and anelka is on the backburner then Martins must be out.

I feel this is the case because I am pretty confident Sam will want to pair Owen with a target man in Viduka, and if Owen leaves he will most likely want to pair Anelka with Viduka. Therefore I cannot see a £10 million Martins being kept on the bench, which will only decrease his value, when we can potentially sell him this summer for a small profit due to his success last season.

We will most likely then bring in a cheaper up and coming striker who can offer pace when Owen is out (or when Anelka is out should Owen leave).

I need a new source of info ...

Any news from grandma Wullie?

So much for that then.

Don't be surprised if the likes of Arsenal & Liverpool bid yet mind.

 

But Arsenal can only offer him a one year contract which he'd throw in their faces. (i guess your talking about Giuly not Parker)

 

Not sure about Giuly, was mint 1st season at Barca, done next to nowt since.

Had no chance once Messi emerged. Messi is brilliant and is a cult hero to boot.

No way Giuly gets in the team with Messi and Ronaldinho in his position. Before messi came to the fore I thought he was brilliant for Barcelona.

Might be small but has a low centre of gravity and a strong base. Not easy to push of the ball and he is very direct and aggressive in the way he runs at players.

He's way too small. No thanks

On this premise you would turn away Messi & Tevez.

Please don't ever apply for the managers job. Cheers.

More important I think is worrying about the players desire to play for us rather than their costv (which should still be kept within reason obviously).

For example If Berbatov says he is desperate to join us this summer and he insists he must be allowed to do so and Tottenham are forced to put a fair valuation on him, let's say £18 million, then yeah we ought to consider it.

However, if Berbatov is happy to stay at Tottenham and we feel we must get him at all costs; and so we offer Tottenham £40 million and then give Berbatov £150,000 a week just to make it happen, then that would be awful!

It would be very dissapointing if we started carrying on the way West Ham have been this summer but fortunately for us our history of doing this should work in our favour, as we've been there done that to some extent.

I was ecstatic to hear Sam talk about bringing in players who really had a desire to play for Newcastle and to play for him. I am confident he will stick to this. It is the only way to do things. We can still get very good players who are on the rise without having to go for the likes of Nani and Anderson, whose values are stupidly high.

Sam targets so far have been spot on and I do not believe he will be changin them at this point.

Wow ... it looks like we are going to have a legitimate squad of players for once!

So here is the inevitable question, does this mean that we will have the likes of Charlie, Milner and maybe Taylor on the bench and bring them along slower?

I have always thought that these three were being thrown into things too quickly as they are only 20 years old. I think they are our future and not our present. They should play a good amount if games, but should not be guaranteed first teamers. I don't think they are quite ready and therefore they will always lack consistency.

It will be better if we brought in some more experienced players of the age of 27/28 who the likes of Milner. N'zogbia and Taylor could learn from and eventually take over from.

This would be a lot healthier and would really allow us to challenge the big boys.

Thoughts?

Love the way people think Parky is anymore ITK than, say, my grandma.

Your grandma is ITK?

runs out today for Hearts!

Parky, pray tell ... what is the latest on the situation?

I imagine he will end up with someone in the premiership. Is it still likely to be us though? Bearing in mind we have just signed Barton?

I heard from someone with French connections a while ago that Sam was in fact looking at their left back Jeremy Mathieu who apparently is highly rated in France. However I blew the guy off!

 

I think it is more likely that Jeremy Mathieu is indeed the player Sam is considering.

 

mackems.gif

Come on children ... let's not get too excited by that. There were no appendages involved, I repeat none whatsoever!

I heard from someone with French connections a while ago that Sam was in fact looking at their left back Jeremy Mathieu who apparently is highly rated in France. However I blew the guy off!

I think it is more likely that Jeremy Mathieu is indeed the player Sam is considering.

Calm down people ... the £70,000 a week offer was West Ham's desperate last ditch effort to sign Barton, who turned them down and took what appears to be £50,000 a week from us. Great start by Barton, he did talk about the importance of being in a winning situation, rather than having more money and a flash car and house, in his interview on Sky Sports. Apparently West Ham weren't listening.

Anyone else think Big Sam is up to something here and never in fact intended to let Parker leave? Or do you think Parker just doesn't want to go to West Ham and is instead looking at Tottenham or something?

West Hams desperation to land Barton might indicate that the parker move has fallen through.

Hmmm ... no news of Parker signing at West Ham though. Do you thinking they were stalling and trying to sign Barton first before us because they wanted both and thought we needed the Parker money first?

Would be hilarious if we got Barton and then sold Parker to Tottenham instead and West Ham were left with nought but a bitter Reo-Coker.

Eggy is so shady.

I disagree too.

In order to be great he has to step up and lead England to greatness by getting them to a world cup final and even better winning it. He has to be the instrumental player in the national team if and when this success is achieved. So far he has been pretty average internationally.

The same could be said for Henry. Although they reached the world cup finals, it was Zidane who carried them, whcih is why he is considered a great.

Gerrard has to do it on that stage in my opinion.

Get rid of both and get in Viduka and Anelka.

 

Play the 4-3-3 alternating between Anelka and Viduka as our lone striker, and sometimes play both together at times in 4-2-2.

 

Maybe buy one more youngish striker with pace and height as an alternative to Anelka should he be injured, while using Ameobi as an alternative to Viduka.

 

The first radical, thought provoking and intelligent post in this thread. blueyes.gif

 

Suggesting 4-2-2 is radical, but neither thought-provoking nor intelligent.

4-4-2 is what I meant.

Get rid of both and get in Viduka and Anelka.

Play the 4-3-3 alternating between Anelka and Viduka as our lone striker, and sometimes play both together in a 4-4-2.

Maybe buy one more youngish striker with pace and height as an alternative to Anelka should he be injured, while using Ameobi as an alternative to Viduka.

The beauty about all fo this is that I feel comfortable that Sam will have other targets as he does have such a good knowledge of players from all over the world. So I don't think it will be a huge problem if we don't get him.

Can anyone think of any other players from the continent we might go after as an alternative to Parker and Barton? Any players who have that drive and determination in midfield, who are legitimate box-to-box players. I'm not sure there are too many players like this outside of England. I can only think of Appiah and maybe Yaya Toure at the moment, but these players would cost more than what we sell Parker for, so it wouldn't be a good business move.

Any ideas of top box-to-box midfielders for around £7 million?

O ye of little faith ... how dare thee doubt the Allah'dyce.

 

Leave him be. This is the kind of thing I have been looking forward to. A manager who might actually have ideas that are even more far reaching than the fans ideas.

 

How anyone can whing about this without waiting to see how it works, should it even happen is beyond me. I know you are all just dying for Glenn's ingenious pick the most senior players irregardless of anything, tactical nous.

 

Yikes.

 

Or on the other hand, he's committing the cardinal sin of management - playing people out of position.

 

I'm an Allardyce fan, very much looking forward to the future under him, but bloody hell, don't go on like he's superhuman.

Look ... I'm sure Sam didn't just make this decision on a whim, but due to some analysis he has done on Kieron Dyer. Therefore, I see no harm in him trying this, especially if Dyer is enthusiastic about it. There is no way anyone can be certain it won't work. Sam has all of pre-season and some friendlies to give it a test run anyway.

You talk about Dyer being played out of position, the thing is though, he has no position! So how can you be played out of what you aren't in? You dig?

Lack of aggression? Hmmm ... hard to say, but he definitely didn't look like he lacked pace in Saturday's game!

Definitely looked very elegant and fluid too. He's a good athlete thats for sure. He also did play some nice passes forward from the back.

O ye of little faith ... how dare thee doubt the Allah'dyce.

 

Leave him be. This is the kind of thing I have been looking forward to. A manager who might actually have ideas that are even more far reaching than the fans ideas.

 

How anyone can whing about this without waiting to see how it works, should it even happen is beyond me. I know you are all just dying for Glenn's ingenious pick the most senior players irregardless of anything, tactical nous.

 

Yikes.

 

The miracle worker. I see you've been reading my posts. 

For sure.

O ye of little faith ... how dare thee doubt the Allah'dyce.

Leave him be. This is the kind of thing I have been looking forward to. A manager who might actually have ideas that are even more far reaching than the fans ideas.

How anyone can whing about this without waiting to see how it works, should it even happen is beyond me. I know you are all just dying for Glenn's ingenious pick the most senior players irregardless of anything, tactical nous.

Yikes.

From tomorrow's Times ...

To further swell the coffers, Benitez is moving closer to a deal to sell Craig Bellamy to West Ham United for £12m after owner Eggert Magnusson sanctioned a £70,000-a-week contract for the controversial Welsh international.

 

£12 million on Bellamy ... Wow. Words fail me.