ikri

-------------------Harper------------------- --R Taylor----S Taylor----Colo----Duff-- ---------------Butt-----Nolan-------------- --Oba------------------------------Loven-- -----------Carroll-----Viduka-------------- May as well admit that we default to playing hoofball most of the time and try to make it work, plus the midfield has alternated between abysmal and non-existent all season so playing without much of one probably won't make too much of a difference.

Duff is the perfect example of why we're in the shit. Overpaid and unproductive. Jonas has looked poor in the last few games with Duff behind him, Enrique looks poor when Duff is ahead of him yet when Jonas is played ahead of Enrique they both look like decent players. Coincidence? Maybe, but Duff's lack of work, his shocking passing and lack of movement would stop him getting a game in the Championship if it weren't for his history. The last assist he got was from a deflection, fuck knows where it would have ended up without it. Guthrie and Jonas are the only midfielders I would try to keep hold of next season, regardless of what division we're in, they're the only two who aren't living off past glories.

This is my worry for Barton more than his off the field behaviour. He is seen by referees as being as nasty player so a foul that might earn anyone else a talking to gets him a yellow card, anything harder becomes a straight red. This isn't all Barton's fault, but we cannot afford to have a player in midfield who can't tackle in case the referee sends him off because of who he is.

We need to buy a midfield before we even start to look at keepers. We cannot go another season with any combination of Butt/Duff/Smith/Barton/Nolan as first choice midfielders. If Shearer can get Viduka fit and interested and keep him that way then he'll be worth another season.

Don't know of any Boro fans who don't believe he should be starting every possible game, he's really highly rated by their fans it's just Southgate who doesn't seem to think he's up to it.

Was there a case for it?

Guiseppe Signori at Bologna was initially on a pay-as-you-play contract as I remember, he'd suffered from a few injuries and other Serie A didn't want to take the risk on him. He got a basic wage plus a huge appearance and scoring bonus.

It's a team game & Owen simply doesn't offer enough to the team's overall play to warrant a place in the side. Every one of our strikers offers something to the way the team plays, whether it's pace, strength, heading ability, etc. Owen offers none of these. He's in the side because he's supposed to be our best finisher, but he's not scored in months nor has he even looked like scoring. We're relying on his timing to get himself into positions to score, but even if his reading of the game is perfect he lacks the physical ability to get into scoring positions by either outpacing or out-muscling defenders. Add that he's the club captain despite having all the leadership abilities of a dead rabbit.

Why would he do that? He's dropped him and subbed him off when we needed a goal. I think Shearer knows that Owen's not the same player anymore. The same reasons that will get Owen a contract wherever he ends up next season. The manager will believe that he's the man who can either get Owen playing at something like his best again or they can help him adapt his game so that he's still a goalscoring threat. I hope Shearer isn't the manager to take that task on because I believe that Owen is all but finished as a top flight footballer.

My only real worry with Shearer is that he might persuade Owen to stay.

This Might be worth offering him a pay-per-play contract for a season.

Great win. Rode our luck on more than one occasion tonight but we were the better team and we were finally able to make those chances count. Viduka was fantastic and had he been fit for longer this season the whole team would have performed better. Guthrie was magnificent, his crossing tonight was better than we've seen most of the season. All that said, no one is better than us at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is imperative that we continue this into the Fulham game. We cannot afford to rest yet.

Get in!

MARTINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How did they not score there? Catastrophic defending.

Get in Taylor!

With the possible exception of Keegan, considering the various managers we've had in charge since Robson it doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

I don't think Nicky Butt will let us down, it's the strikers and attacking midfielders I'll be watching closely. We have attacking midfielders? When did this happen? Has anyone told Shearer? I'm sure he'd like to know their names so he can add then to the team ahead of the cloggers currently playing there.

If you only ever watch the highlights on Match of the Day or Goals on Sunday it'd be pretty easy to only see the best or worst of each player. Bassong has been lucky a few times with penalty decisions that people have later highlighted and if those highlights were your only frame of reference then you'd think he was a pretty clumsy player. Add to that our traditionally leaky defence and idiots will assume that he's one of the reasons for us conceding goals never seeing that he's probably responsible for our defence not being any worse. Same goes for most of the players on the list, if you only ever see the best parts of their game you're going to believe that they're far better than they are, they see neat 5 minute highlight packages, they don't see the other 85 minutes where those players may do bugger all.

Talk Sport can't offer objective journalism on the airwaves since no one would bother listening. They need people calling and texting to generate revenue and the best way to do this is to hire presenters who will say controversial (patently untrue most of the time) things on air. It winds up a set of supporters who will call in to debate the point. Talk Sport is the closest thing we have in this country to the right-wing lunatic radio shows over in the US.

What do you mean? Selling players when we're in the Premiership is bound to get us more money than if we sold the same players when we're in League 1 because we won't be seen as a team who's desperate to sell. And with regards to replacing the players, if we're planning to replace them with Championship players then it'll cost the same amount either way. And if we eventually make it back up, we're going to have to buy better players and hence be stuck with some CC players that aren't of use to us anymore. This bs (not at you, Dave) about it being easier to rebuild and clear out the shite if we're relegated has to stop. I mean in terms of being able to actually get players out. If we're demanding more money because we're in the Premier League I think less clubs will be interested. There's also no reason for the likes of Smith, Duff etc to actually want to give up their cushy contracts. Considering how little most of our players are worth, I believe freeing up their wages will be much more of an issue than fees received. There were rumours of bids for Smith & Barton last summer. It's conceivable that there are managers out there who believe that they can get players back to their best or who are looking at an established international name for their squad. There are already rumours about Allardyce being interested in Barton. Smith & Duff still have their fans amongst other fans of other teams who haven't watched them serve up utter dross week after week. Plenty of people thought Carr was still a good player even after 90% of Newcastle fans had realised that he was a poor substitute for a tub of lard. They see the highlights on Match of the Day where they'll see a decent pass or tackle and think they're doing it all the time, not realising that was probably the only time during the whole game they didn't screw up. There are enough people out there who will believe that the lack of ability and work in a player is due to poor management not due to the player being overrated, overpaid and lazy.

so you are saying if we score we could win... however if they score, then they might win? Nearly. If we score early they'll collapse. If we struggle to create chances and score again like we did against Portsmouth then Boro will probably win, scoring from a dodgy free kick in the 80th minute.

How about Oliver Kay stumps up Barton's wages between this incident and his next inevitable incident? After all it might have just been a momentary relapse. Surely he's willing to take that risk? No? How many players and managers have come out in Barton's defence? Who the hell is going to take the risk on having Barton in their team, he's a walking PR disaster. If he has any sense he'll fuck off to play for a team in Russia or the Middle East where he can try to prove himself without the British press attention.

Hopefully Shearer has the strikers practising striking the ball at goal from every conceivable angle during training this week. I can see us creating a few chances, but I can't see us scoring at the moment. Boro think it's a massive derby game and will be really fired up for the game, if we score early they'll collapse, the longer we go without scoring the more I can see someone like Downing scoring from a 40-yard free kick.

Same as Bowyer when he was here, his reputation precedes him. Whilst his card today was probably a straight red he gets yellow cards for offences that for most other players would earn a talking to at best. If he was earning a pittance it could be overlooked but he's earning a fortune here in addition to his transfer fee and "loyalty" payment.