Ronaldo

I remember Souness saying he'd prepared a list of players for Shep, and that Shep nearly fell off his chair when he saw Owen on it.

City have been absolutely appalling tonight. Deserve everything they get.

Which fucking idiot asked that?

He was 22 or 23 and believed to be a real prospect. And let's not forget who his brother is.

I'd get rid in a heartbeat. No way any club would be stupid enough to pay £7m for him though.

Not again.

We're all entitled to speculate, and you've done plenty of that.

They seem to be completely unable to assess injuries to any real degree of accuracy.

He's also not the strongest. He's playing easily the best football of his career away from CM.

Magorific thinks the same, yet you've just given him a lovely round of applause. Time to develop some opinions of your own, mate.

Wasn't Ireland injured when he arrived? How on earth is that relevant? I didn't accuse the medical staff of injuring him themselves.

Except when we're away from home.

His father clearly doesn't know too much about his injury by the sounds of it.

It's pretty much emerged this season that Barton's main strengths are negated in CM. His weaknesses are also badly exposed in that position.

Is any of this relevant at all? There's not much between Williamson and Taylor at CB. This is Mike's first season at this level, in fairness. Taylor's had nearly 7 years to become a decent PL defender. Relevant to the fact that you insisted - repeatedly - that Taylor was clearly a better bet than MW less than a month ago. Relevant because you're now ridiculing Taylor's performances in games which were played before you claimed he hadn't been destroyed like MW was by Arsenal in ages. Deal with it. If you give it out, you have to be prepared to take it. Take what? You don't even seem to know what point you're trying to make. Taylor's always been a lower-level PL defender and i've never waived from the opinion that we should sell him the second we get a half-decent offer. You might remember this post, considering it was in response to your nonsense: So you're denying that there was significant dissent on this forum towards Taylor while the contract thing dragged on? You're denying that coloured people's opinions of him, despite him barely putting a foot wrong when fit last season? Yep, heard it all now... Got to be said, Taylor's had 6 seasons in the PL. The fact you're pointing to half a season in The Championship as proof of his quality says it all. Ultimately, both Taylor and Williamson are lower-end PL defenders. The players around them on the pitch have lots of quality and consistency, so replacing one or both is not a major priority at this moment. Dear me. Go back over your posts on Mike Williamson of just a few weeks ago. Not only did you say Taylor should rightly come back in for him, you said you'd rather have Taylor than Lescott alongside Colo. This is about the fourth time you've tried to rewrite recent history on here. Give it up. And where have I contradicted any of that?

even if Guthrie, smith and Barton left? Yes. Barton's not a CM anymore, and Guthrie and Smith can effectively be replaced/upgraded by Championship players.

Mate, I said it was an instinct - and I stand by it. We've both just established that throwaway monday - friday quotes from managers are generally worth less than the rags that put them in print.

Those quotes from Pardew mean nowt tbh. Megson said much of the same before selling him.

Just an instinct, but I don't think Pardew rates Nolan all that much.

Why the name-dropping then? Because you've never really been one to be unduly harsh about players (Colo an obvious exception), yet I remember you laying into Saylor on a few occasions a couple of years back. You were one of many - the lad's stock was close to zero after his horrible start to 08-09 and almost everyone on here wanted Bassong and Colo on the pitch and Tayls nowhere near.

God almighty.

So Barton was 50-50 for Everton but is now unlikely to play 2 weeks down the road? What the hell is going on, seriously?