KaKa

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?

Taylor is such an awful defender.

Taylor has so many bad habits as a defender it is worrying ... We're going to have to have Rozehnal mark Jones. Taylor is bound to do something very silly.

Two promising players that should be brought along a lot slower in my opinion. They are playing way too many games right now and they really aren't quite good enough yet to be doing so. Their lack of experience and nous really costs them and us in so any games. Just not quite their yet. Imagine if we had Duff at his best and Wright-philips at his best on each wing just as an example. We would be twice the team we are right now. We need that level of experience and performance on the wings in my opinion.

I think they should both be brought through a bit slower and I agree they shouldn't be first team players at all for me. When Duff returns and Sam has decked him into shape he should start on the left ahead of Zoggy. We should get a decent experienced right winger to start ahead of Milner on the right. They should be brought along the way Nani at Man U is or the likes of Diaby and Theo at Arsenal. They definitely shouldn't be in the first team right now. They are just way too inconsisent and naive.

Hmmmm. Oops meant Smith there! Sorted now. Good spot.

This is going to be a tricky call for Sam this weekend and it should be interesting to see what he goes with. With Kenwyne Jones playing upfront for Sunderland we absolutely have to have Faye in defence to challenge Jones in the air, so Faye in my opinion is not an option to step into the defensive midfield slot. I would like to see Rozehnal in this role but I'm not sure if Sam would play him there in such an important gamw which is sure to have a fiery atmosphere, especially as he hasn't played this position for us yet. I think we might see a 4-3-3/4-5-1 to compensate for Butt's abscence. Geremi, Barton and Smith in midfield perhaps? Who do you think Sam will go for and who should he go for?

Newcastle and Tottenham have spent twice as much as Arsenal have over the last few years and look at what they have achieved. We should be emulating the likes of Arsenal and not Chelsea. Get a real manager with a vision and don't just throw money at the situation. I'm surprised so many people would be happy to have the club in the financial state Chelsea are currently in if it meant winning something.

Drogba would have dealt with those long balls quite handily actually ... Maybe we're after him.

Or even move Faye into midfield.

Please, please, please do not take offence to this, but you have completely lost your mind if you honestly think that.

In my opinion what City did this summer is a perfect example of how we ought to go about things as they didn't overspend on a single one of their new players. They did an excellent job of scouting and got top players without forking out £20 million for each of them. This is why their success has been much more legit. Most people didn't know a single one of the players they brought in. Imagine if they had brought in Robinho for £18 million rather than Petrov for £3.5 million, and Van der Vaart for £20 million rather than Elano for £8 million, along with the massive wages these guys would command. Even if they were in the exact same position as they are now, I'm not sure it would have been as enjoyable.

I have to say I'm with Dave on this one. I would rather we spent money a little more sensibly over a few seasons and aimed to win it or at least challenge in about three years. I would absolutely hate to do a Chelsea and be burdened with the huge salaries that come with buying a ton of the very best players all of who would be guaranteed to be coming here for the money alone. We ought to be a little more shrewd and go for the likes of Elano who wasn't quite recognised as being in the top tier of players yet, rather than chase players who are likely being eyed up by the likes of Madrid, Chelsea etc and therefore who would look to screw us over. For example, instead of spending a fortune on maybe a Ronaldhino who might be made available this summer. We ought to be looking at the likes of Diego at Bremen or Carvalho at Shakthar.