Ronaldo

Nesta, blatantly

clearly not, I would have given my right nut for him to have done his job, keep us up and become a hero. But it didn't happen and after witnessing his lack of chances and lack of poise in front of goal against shoddy, shoddy defences before Shearer came arrived, it must have been apparent to a lot of us that it was never going to happen.

Somehow I don't think that would have been the right thing to do. Would have been a PR disaster, when quite frankly the club has had enough of those over the years. And relegation isn't? We all saw it coming, I said in March that Owen probably wouldn't score for us again this season, he should have been marginalized the second Shearer came through the door

Just like Beye and Faye Or Rozehnal, Cacapa, Geremi, Smith, Barton. We didn't lose any money on Rozenhal, Cacapa and Geremi were free and Barton remains our best midfielder, he's been robbed of this season mostly because of injury. Smith i'll give you, horrible signing

Shearer's been watching us all season, the first thing he should have done in April was take the armband from the little cunt

Hoddle's a fucking idiot, why even bother considering the opinion of that tosspiece

I know I can't really back up this following statement, but in my opinion ... If Owen isn't captain and say Beye or even Butt was I believe we stay up. We missed staying up by one point. I believe a more vocal and instructive leader would have at least got one more point for us this season in one of the many close calls we had when we just needed that extra push. How demoralising it must have been to see the club captain so quiet, sour faced and dejected when were struggling. well beye or even butt should have a long hard look at themselves if they feel they need an arm band to be vocal and lead. I really wonder what our captain was ike off the pitch you know ... Through all those tought imes, did he ever take it upon himself to get the guys together on an off day and just hang out and try and kick back and get the team morale up and bond a bit? Without the manager or any of the coaches around? It's these little things that sometimes make all the difference. Owen's more likely to have been straight into his helicopter and out of the city. People talk about the owner not living in the city. The captain of the team didn't! Crazy stuff. why couldn't anyone else do it. did tony adams become a shrinking violet cos shearer was his captain when playing for england. no. the captain wears the armband and calls heads or tails. you don't need the arm band to lead that's true, but if you aren't chosen for a position of power it can be difficult to exercise that power. Certain things are just a captain's perogative

Without doubt, the team lacked solid leadership on and off the pitch for the vast majority of the season and it hurt us, cost us more than that 1 point needed. Even young Danny Guthrie would have done a better job with the armband

Just like Beye and Faye

completely agree with this. More embarrassing was when Kinnear came in and declared 'Michael Owen is the best player at this club'

Kluivert was rejected by us, what the fuck does that do to a 28 year old's career when he's gets dumped by a team which retained Butt, Car and Ameobi at the end of that same season miracle the poor bloke didn't drive off the Tyne Bridge

One of the better outfield displays as well - post season 01/02 as well. We resembled a football team with the required passing/build-up play & movement that wasn't seen since. Definitely had the better of Villa in two thirds of the paddock. Our back four simply imploded that aftenoon. Kluivert's first touch and link-up play across the central corridor complimented Bellamy's movement & pace in the wide channels. And Bellamy was becoming more of a threat through the middle, becoming more adept at reading the play and knowing when to ghost into the box off-the-ball. You can spot the this improvement with the increased number of bread & butter opportunities presented to him now, and prior to his departure here. Kluivert-Bellamy should've been allowed to flourish, as opposed to the resulting emergence of the crack-strikeforce that was Shearer'Shola ie. nil movement, two statues simply occupying space/providing no outlets and a less than 50/50 receiving option further up the park. indeed, and with that we saw a team who'd peviously finished in 5th go to 13th i was there, kluiverts touches were canny but his movemnet was worse than shearers, there was nothing between kluivert and bellamy to make me think there was a future for them together.. our midfield performed well when it had the ball but done nothing without it....plus ca change. they were our best two strikers by considerable distance, they should have been given a chance together and we paid massively when they were denied it

Bramble is exactly what those wankers need at the back tbh Fingers crossed that Brown gets Nolan though

One of the better outfield displays as well - post season 01/02 as well. We resembled a football team with the required passing/build-up play & movement that wasn't seen since. Definitely had the better of Villa in two thirds of the paddock. Our back four simply imploded that aftenoon. Kluivert's first touch and link-up play across the central corridor complimented Bellamy's movement & pace in the wide channels. And Bellamy was becoming more of a threat through the middle, becoming more adept at reading the play and knowing when to ghost into the box off-the-ball. You can spot the this improvement with the increased number of bread & butter opportunities presented to him now, and prior to his departure here. Kluivert-Bellamy should've been allowed to flourish, as opposed to the resulting emergence of the crack-strikeforce that was Shearer'Shola ie. nil movement, two statues simply occupying space/providing no outlets and a less than 50/50 receiving option further up the park. indeed, and with that we saw a team who'd peviously finished in 5th go to 13th

apparently 38% of folk though Geremi was our player of the season, Bassong in 2nd place with 18%

Against Villa we scored twice through Kluivert and O'brien, Bellamy played well that day iirc

The defence is good, the rest of the team is pathetic and I hope this post is a wind-up

Similar thing happened before with Kluivert and Bellamy looking a pretty promising partnership, only for a legless Shearer to walk straight back into the team and ensure that partnership never saw daylight. Keep finding myself looking back and shaking my head in disbelief at just what we've done here in the past half decade or so. Players long past their best not only not being moved on, but actually gauranteed a first team spot with the team even being built around them in some cases. "Inferior" teammates not being given a fair run in the team even when they've earnt it, how pathetic is that? "Troublemakers" treated like garbage, pissed off, dropped or played out of position for the aforementioned has-beens, then sold without any hesitation when they've lashed out - even though these players were our only source of creativity, or pace, or flair. don't fall for it folks...the bellamy kluivert partnership looked good on paper. never worked on the pitch.. as for troublemakers etc i can name plenty who have played out of position when needed and it's strange that that troublemaker didn't whinge when played out of position at his previous clubs, his international club or at liverpool.....strange that ? never worked on the pitch? Everton at home, Palace away, to give 2 examples. We looked a far better team with Kluivert and Bellamy up front. Bellamy had 10 goals by December, Kluivert finished on 13 despite only starting about 25. Had they played together all season we'd have finished top 6 imo

As a side note, I always find it funny that the pundits who call Owen 'a world class goalscorer' these days are the same ones who in 2004 were calling a 34 year old Alan Shearer the best english striker by a mile

same story for Butt really. Souness didn't rate him, Roeder brought him back, Allardyce brough in replacments but then lost his job, Keegan tried to get replacments, but failed, then in came Joe 'fucking best of 1998' Kinnear who rated him as our best midfielder

5 chances to get a goal? That most certainly wasn't the Andy goal i watched on the gallowgate terraces when did Cole play in front of a Gallowgate terrace? from february 93 - may 94 a terrace? sober up man, what the hell are you going on about

5 chances to get a goal? That most certainly wasn't the Andy goal i watched on the gallowgate terraces when did Cole play in front of a Gallowgate terrace? from february 93 - may 94

5 chances to get a goal? That most certainly wasn't the Andy goal i watched on the gallowgate terraces

well that was obvious

They were all in a flurry though, that one at Sheffield United at the end of the season was his first in something like 11 games. it was his first in 4 games, and 8 in the premiership