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Anelka is probably the best shout of a realistic player who can attack the six yard line, which is what I feel we need. He'd be a good partner for Martins too. Basically we should have got Nico before he went to Bolton. Souness wanted him but Freddy refused to pay the £8 million and splurged £16 million on Owen instead. Brilliant ...

Fair enough. We'll just have to wait to see what happens with Martins. I bet he surprises a few people though.

Yes, lets ignore what the the professional player says. Lets ignore the decent manager who picks the team. After all, you really know more than they do. So what´s your take on that goal? Was it a shot, in which case what´s Owen got to do with it? Was it a pass, in which case it was either a bad pass or Owen didn´t have the pace to get to it? I agree Gordon probably positioned himself for the way our strikers were set up, but you could argue that everybody inside the box at the time of the pass/shot had an effect on the goal. The only noteworty thing Owen did in the Sunderland match was make a good run on a Harper long ball and miss a chance he could/should (?) have scored for a player of his stature.. In regards to that Owen chance once he had to shift it onto his left foot the chance was gone ... because our world class striker has no left foot! Martins would have hammered it ... might have ended up in row Z but he would have hit it and not passed it to their goalie and it would have had a better chance of going in. That is assuming Martins has the same brilliant first touch control that Owen has, which is extremely debatable. Please refer to his Manchester City goal please ... I could refer to many other occasions in a match when his first touch is dreadful, only such things are unlikely to be shown in highlights packages. My point is that he has that ability so who are you to say he wouldn't have brought it down? I could point to occassions where Owens touch has been poor too.

Yes, lets ignore what the the professional player says. Lets ignore the decent manager who picks the team. After all, you really know more than they do. So what´s your take on that goal? Was it a shot, in which case what´s Owen got to do with it? Was it a pass, in which case it was either a bad pass or Owen didn´t have the pace to get to it? I agree Gordon probably positioned himself for the way our strikers were set up, but you could argue that everybody inside the box at the time of the pass/shot had an effect on the goal. The only noteworty thing Owen did in the Sunderland match was make a good run on a Harper long ball and miss a chance he could/should (?) have scored for a player of his stature.. In regards to that Owen chance once he had to shift it onto his left foot the chance was gone ... because our world class striker has no left foot! Martins would have hammered it ... might have ended up in row Z but he would have hit it and not passed it to their goalie and it would have had a better chance of going in. That is assuming Martins has the same brilliant first touch control that Owen has, which is extremely debatable. Please refer to his Manchester City goal please ...

Yes, lets ignore what the the professional player says. Lets ignore the decent manager who picks the team. After all, you really know more than they do. So what´s your take on that goal? Was it a shot, in which case what´s Owen got to do with it? Was it a pass, in which case it was either a bad pass or Owen didn´t have the pace to get to it? I agree Gordon probably positioned himself for the way our strikers were set up, but you could argue that everybody inside the box at the time of the pass/shot had an effect on the goal. The only noteworty thing Owen did in the Sunderland match was make a good run on a Harper long ball and miss a chance he could/should (?) have scored for a player of his stature.. In regards to that Owen chance once he had to shift it onto his left foot the chance was gone ... because our world class striker has no left foot! Martins would have hammered it ... might have ended up in row Z but he would have hit it and not passed it to their goalie and it would have had a better chance of going in.

My point exactly.. Besides, if a player would `only` contribute by scoring, he would have to score a hell of a lot more than Owen ever did. Van Nistelrooij is a good example. He will not create too much himself, but over the course of his career has consistently scored almost twice as many goals as Owen. We are playing Rolls Royce wages for a very untrustworthy Jaguar (sorry NE5 ).. Matter of fact Owen is only a great finisher inside the box. Outside of it he isn't a threat as his shots from outside the box are rather pathetic. I'm really not sure he would score more goals than martins at themoment at all. I think you'll find that most good teams score most of their goals from inside the box. Long range finishing is a useful ability but should never ever be put ahead of finishing from inside the area. I'd rather have someone who could do both as Martins does.

My point exactly.. Besides, if a player would `only` contribute by scoring, he would have to score a hell of a lot more than Owen ever did. Van Nistelrooij is a good example. He will not create too much himself, but over the course of his career has consistently scored almost twice as many goals as Owen. We are playing Rolls Royce wages for a very untrustworthy Jaguar (sorry NE5 ).. Matter of fact Owen is only a great finisher inside the box. Outside of it he isn't a threat as his shots from outside the box are rather pathetic. I'm really not sure he would score more goals than martins at themoment at all.

Where would Arshavin play? How would your mid/attacking formation look? Given Beye Rozehnal Faye Enrique Edmilson Riquelme Barton Arshavin N'Zogbia Viduka I think I just jizzed my pants Replace Zoggy with Martins and I too will jizz ...

Well considering Martins scored goals last season in what was a far worse team, I would argue that he would score even more in a better team. If Owen only scores given perfect opportunities and martins scores some of these as well as from nothing I could argue Martins scores more out of the two at the moment. Your argument stinks ...

Hasn't it occured to you that if Martins had played instead of Owen he might just of scored himself? Or got a hat-trick? Or set up numerous goals? Or been sent off? Glad someone pointed this out ... James get a grip dude.

Arshavin looked quality today.

Tell you what realy dissapoints me, when he's fit he will expect to be straight back into the first team regardless of how well we might be doing without him and how well Martins might be doing having stepped in for him. This is freakin' tragic as absolutely no one will want anything to do with him now. We are stuck with him till his contract runs out. You couldn't flog him for £5 million right now even.

The last time he had a thigh strain in training he was out for about 4 weeks!!! It's never a simple injury with this guy ...

The saga continues ... Owen was a freakin' catastrophe of a purchase. This will now mean we can't even sell him. We're going to have to let him run out his contract and move on. This is the problem. You just can't make any serious plans with him as a major component of the team. The situation is beyond ridiculous. Time to move forward without him. He should be used as an impact sub period. That is about all his body can handle it seems. Why should he be keeping out a fitter, stronger, quicker player exactly?

Another thing is the simple fact that Owen is unreliable as far as fitness goes, so deciding to build the whole team around him with players that suit him wouldn't be the smartest thing I don't think. It would make more sense to build a more versatile and multifunctional team which clearly won't accomodate Owen.

By all accounts he seems like a good player who isn't so high profile that he might get nicked by a Chelsea or Madrid type so it could be possible. Also not likely to see a move to Newcastle as strictly a financial opportunity, as it will clearly be a step up for him and one he ought to relish.

It really is a sad situation ... I mean why can't we pass the ball? Forget the likes of Blackburn and Portsmouth who are well ahead of us at the moment, even West Ham and Middlesborough pass the ball around better than we do, and generally play better football. This really is unacceptable. Sam's position for now shouldn't be in danger and we should give him time to adjust and come to terms with the new position he is in. However, if things are still as they are now by the end of the season then his time might be up. I am sincerely hoping that his plans were severely hindered byt he summer of upheaval and so he focused on securing the basic necessities first i.e. squad depth and players who could keep things tight and tide us over till January. Come January I am hoping for a higher class of player who can then allow us to begin to establish a more balanced and better brand of football which should get us better results. I live in hope ...

I can't help but feel he was only given so much initially as he wasn't exactly their guy, and they probably wanted to see how he would go about things before backing him fully with funds.

3 match ban for Joey according to the Times today ... just great.

Curbishley had the sense to play him in the middle as part of a three and he is thriving.

Funny but I think Taylor might have better potential as a right back. He's a bit of a showmanshipsort and getting forward allows him to express this side of himself. At centre back it's way too dangerous.

Spot on. As long as Owen is in the team we will continue to struggle and it's as simple as that.

Emre is absolutely worthless ...

No Faye on the corner. Kenwyne Jones is a huge danger!

Is Harper retarded? Seriously? Such bad body language and effort with the kicks?! Why?