Ronaldo

WOW was going to start a new topic on Bassong but this will do, absolutely phenomenal again today, i'd happily shake hands with whoever found him. If Colo is living up to his £10m price tag, Basssong is playing like a £15m central defender tbh. Has it all. Plays like a 30 year old who's spent his entire career in the premiership

Under Roeder (whilst under caretaker charge) we were fantastic though. When we started losing under him when he permanent manager he got a dog's abuse, including some shameful shite from yours truly.

passing ability and pace through the middle of the park. We presently have none.

aye I hope they sort it out. Especially when godawful, abominations of clubs like Stoke are 2 leagues higher

My best pal is a Leeds fan and informs me that Huntington is their best defender, says it all. Real shame for them like.

playing against farmers probably doesn't count

Back end of the 96-97 season. of course, the run that started with the 1-0 win at Highbury thanks to a Robbie Elliott header

Kinnear reported in tomorrow's papers as applying for the vacant job with the unwashed. Bollocks? Probably.

Good point, people seem to forget just how young Taylor is, i think he'll be class, hopefully now he'll work harder to get his place back in the first team. he's older than bassong. you can use age, settling in, learning the language etc... as an excuse up to a point, but you cant use it indefinately. taylor has some good aspects as a defender, but he has some real weaknesses in his game that were present during his debut and are still present now. its not impossible that he turns out to be a good defender, he does have ability, but at the moment he is a bottom 3 premiership/top6 championship defender in my opinion. if he doesn't improve he'll stay that way and i've seen little from him so far to suggest he's capable of changing. bramble could have been a really good defender if he'd manage to improve on his attributes at 19 into his mid twenties but he didn't. taylor is the same. His age was no concern for me he could be 28 for all it matters, but while he's been n the team he's had no competition so has slumped it happens to some familiarity breeds contempt as they say. In theory this will make or break Steven Taylor at Newcastle. no competition, are you pissed tonight or what mate? Souness - Bramble and Boumsong first choice Roeder - Bramble and Moore then Bramble and Onyewu first choice till last month of the season Allardyce - Faye and Cacapa first choice Keegan - first choice Kinnear - now Bassong and Coloccini first choice since SBR left and Taylor established himself as a first team player, only one of 5 managers has had him as first choice despite the generally woeful options for central defence. He's had s**** competition and still failed to rise to the required level. And still people see him as a good defender Taylor played more games than anyone else in Roeders full season IIRC, but don't let facts stop you talking s**** Taylor was constantly bypassed by Roeder for the CB slots. When fit, Moore and Bramble played ahead of him and when Onyewu arrived he and Bramble played together until Alkmaar (Onyewu was cup tied for the Uefa cup also) please, feel free to argue these facts. Taylor played more games in 06/7 than Bramble, Moore and Onyewu did. Your move Why bother. When the others we're fit and available he didn't though, that's the main consideration. He was either benched or played at full-back. Why you still defending him man? even the imcompetents like Allardyce and Kinnear have his number

aye, so they said. None we're particularly keen to play him ahead of Given, even when he was out of form

Explain to me again how Moore and Onyewu are relevant to the back five in the thread title petty as fuck, sometimes like arguing with a 16 year old. TBF I was arguing Nixon's point that he's not had adequate compeition in the past. No more arguing about Taylor, it's a waste of time when so many blinkard fuckers still think he's a future captain. It speaks volumes that even Kinnear, picks an unknown non-english speaking young lad with no premiership experience ahead of the local hero.

Is there any confirmation of Obas's absence or is it still going down to the pre-match fitness test

f*** me.. u21 captain for englands ffs. youre too harsh imo There's an arguement involving James Milner somewhere in there

Good point, people seem to forget just how young Taylor is, i think he'll be class, hopefully now he'll work harder to get his place back in the first team. he's older than bassong. you can use age, settling in, learning the language etc... as an excuse up to a point, but you cant use it indefinately. taylor has some good aspects as a defender, but he has some real weaknesses in his game that were present during his debut and are still present now. its not impossible that he turns out to be a good defender, he does have ability, but at the moment he is a bottom 3 premiership/top6 championship defender in my opinion. if he doesn't improve he'll stay that way and i've seen little from him so far to suggest he's capable of changing. bramble could have been a really good defender if he'd manage to improve on his attributes at 19 into his mid twenties but he didn't. taylor is the same. His age was no concern for me he could be 28 for all it matters, but while he's been n the team he's had no competition so has slumped it happens to some familiarity breeds contempt as they say. In theory this will make or break Steven Taylor at Newcastle. no competition, are you pissed tonight or what mate? Souness - Bramble and Boumsong first choice Roeder - Bramble and Moore then Bramble and Onyewu first choice till last month of the season Allardyce - Faye and Cacapa first choice Keegan - first choice Kinnear - now Bassong and Coloccini first choice since SBR left and Taylor established himself as a first team player, only one of 5 managers has had him as first choice despite the generally woeful options for central defence. He's had s**** competition and still failed to rise to the required level. And still people see him as a good defender Taylor played more games than anyone else in Roeders full season IIRC, but don't let facts stop you talking s**** Taylor was constantly bypassed by Roeder for the CB slots. When fit, Moore and Bramble played ahead of him and when Onyewu arrived he and Bramble played together until Alkmaar (Onyewu was cup tied for the Uefa cup also) please, feel free to argue these facts.

well no, i dont. Taylor's had (going by most opinions) shite competition in the last 4 years yet has only briefly been first choice CB, it's laughable how he's still here. it's a fact to be honest. The only thing you can argue is the ability of his competition. Or do you consider Moore and Onyewu to be good defenders?

a good centre back who's been at fault for no less than 7 goals this season? madness. He's absolutely diabolical and it's funny how people forget it the second he's benched for a few games Every time you post in this thread you mention Taylor. You need to just shag him & get it over with tbh. the thread is about Taylor

Good point, people seem to forget just how young Taylor is, i think he'll be class, hopefully now he'll work harder to get his place back in the first team. he's older than bassong. you can use age, settling in, learning the language etc... as an excuse up to a point, but you cant use it indefinately. taylor has some good aspects as a defender, but he has some real weaknesses in his game that were present during his debut and are still present now. its not impossible that he turns out to be a good defender, he does have ability, but at the moment he is a bottom 3 premiership/top6 championship defender in my opinion. if he doesn't improve he'll stay that way and i've seen little from him so far to suggest he's capable of changing. bramble could have been a really good defender if he'd manage to improve on his attributes at 19 into his mid twenties but he didn't. taylor is the same. His age was no concern for me he could be 28 for all it matters, but while he's been n the team he's had no competition so has slumped it happens to some familiarity breeds contempt as they say. In theory this will make or break Steven Taylor at Newcastle. no competition, are you pissed tonight or what mate? Souness - Bramble and Boumsong first choice Roeder - Bramble and Moore then Bramble and Onyewu first choice till last month of the season Allardyce - Faye and Cacapa first choice Keegan - first choice Kinnear - now Bassong and Coloccini first choice since SBR left and Taylor established himself as a first team player, only one of 5 managers has had him as first choice despite the generally woeful options for central defence. He's had s**** competition and still failed to rise to the required level. And still people see him as a good defender

a good centre back who's been at fault for no less than 7 goals this season? madness. He's absolutely diabolical and it's funny how people forget it the second he's benched for a few games

Bassong is a very good player on his own merits though, as could Bramble be at times. O'brien and Taylor are just plain shit

Same. People seem to forget that we've had a poor season with all the things that have gone on. Confidence isn't high and so when the players make mistakes, its affects them even more. Imagine how they'd be playing without the threat of relegation hanging over them, with a run of wins, with a larger squad - then you can see the potential. with another 5 players in various positions in our team we'd be a lot better off for it. Our defence is one of the positives we have I feel, its never going to be perfect (and you can't say that about any team in the league) but we're a lot better off than we've been in the past! All of which is what worries me about Kinnear going for Upson and a replacement for Enrique. Competition for places is all well and good, but Upson and the likes of Riise would be coming here as starters. Why change it? I wouldn't. But in all honesty I never want to see Taylor in the team again, especially not with Colo and Upson certainly knocks him down the pecking order. Upson has played LB before hasn't he?

Redknapp's a deluded fool

If that was the case then he wouldn't have appointed Joe Kinnear. He'll make more money in the Premiership than in the Championship. well Kinnear was his 5th choice tbh. As useless as you or I think Kinnear is, they'll always be armchair pundits out there believing him to a top manager after he won premiership manager of the year in 97 or 98

no intention of selling

We'll see I suppose. I'm not a massive fan of Sidwell like some but he seems to be the type of player who quietly but consistently gets better and better, kinda like Barry and to a degree, Lampard.

he blatantly will in 5 years when Gerrard, Carrick, Hargreaves and Lampard are gone though He will be about 30 himself then won't he? yes, but getting a game I suspect