Chris_R

Still holding out hope that they're announcing the double signing of Smith and Shola for £20m plus Drogba. But then I'm a bit of an optimist.

WHS

Given Beye Coloccini Faye Enrique Guttierez Guthrie Barton Duff Martins Owen

Plus points are just awarded for being in a league, irrespective of finishing position (Bar 1st), so there's no differentiation between teams finishing 2nd and teams finishing 17th. Not terribly accurate then when you look at it closely.

If you click the link, they're only 3 points behind us as well! Though we're only 4 points behind Spurs.

Yeah, I don't think he's as skillful as the likes of Ginola but he's so willing to run at people, always wants the ball and is always looking to take his man on. I think Keegan will love him and will get the best from him and he'll do well in the Premiership.

4-4-2. Martins and Duff up front, Milner on the right and Guttierez on the left. Butt and Guthrie in the middle. --------------Martins--Duff Guttierez---Butt---Guthrie---Milner N'Zogbia--Taylor--Cacapa---Beye -----------------Given

Posted this in the Valencia match thread as well but did anyone else see Smith at the end of the game? He walked over on his own to the East Stand, the Gallowgate, then turned to the Milburn, and applauded the fans. This was after everyone else had gone off towards the tunnel. He then took his shirt off and I thought for a moment that he was going to throw it to the crowd, but then he just tucked it under his arm and walked off. Maybe I'm reading too much into it (Wishful thinking?) but it looked to me for all the world as if he was saying goodbye and knows that he's leaving.

Anyone else see Smith at the end of the game? He walked over on his own to the East Stand, the Gallowgate, then turned to the Milburn, and applauded the fans. This was after everyone else had gone off towards the tunnel. He then took his shirt off and I thought for a moment that he was going to throw it to the crowd, but then he just tucked it under his arm and walked off. Maybe I'm reading too much into it (Wishful thinking?) but it looked to me for all the world as if he was saying goodbye. Oh, and the booing was ridiculous. He's a Newcastle player, he tries his hardest and never says a bad word about the club. He's a Newcastle player and booing him is hardly likely to help his confidence one bit. Anyone booing him is frankly a moron.

Nearly didn't bother loading the PC up this morning. So glad I did now!

It's just getting laughable now.

What's Healy now, just gone 29? Although I think he'll be better than Smith, I don't see him as much of a step up (if any) from Shola. Healy has really failed to bang the goals in at all since he was at Preston in the Championship in 2003/04 when he got 15 from 38 league games which is still hardly spectacular. Overall he's got about a 1 in 4 strike rate at club level, and he's rarely played in the top flight. Sure, he could do a job as a squad player but I think we should be getting someone better or younger. There must be some 20-year-old in the Championship who would be willing to bench-warm here who can "boast" a 1 in 4 return in front of goal?

Fixed.

Going to Spurs. Sorry, but it's not been said for at least 5 pages now.

I don't want this one to slip us by - Anyone up for having a whip-round to help Everton raise the transfer fee? I've got £23.62 in my pocket that I can gladly send.

Surprised nobody has mentioned David Speedie. Don't you stick your fingers up at me you odious little pr*ck.

Well thank fuck it looks like it's moving towards completion. Might get to see him in action on Saturday.

Ronaldo is a world-class player playing in a team of other world-class players, something that we're nowhere near at the moment. I think comparing his role in the Man U team with Guttierez's role in ours is at best shaky. What we need is service from the flanks, and sticking Guthrie out there will not provide it. And the "Static 4-4-2" has not been bad because there's somthing inherently wrong with 4-4-2, but because we've been fielding inept players. For me it's: --------------------Given Beye Coloccini Bassong/Faye Enrique ---------------Faye/Guthrie Guttierez/Milner -------- Duff/Milner/Guttierez ------------------N'Zogbia --------------Owen Martins That's if we had to start the season tomorrow, but hopefully a couple more signings will change that around a bit. A creative mid is a must for me, then Charlie can play left wing if he gets his head screwed on correctly. And just because Ronaldo is world class he is allowed to move positions? mackems.gif Jonas an Argentinian international is not good enough to do that in your eyes? That's not what I said. In fact that's not even nearly what I said. What I said was this: "Ronaldo is a world-class player playing in a team of other world-class players, something that we're nowhere near at the moment. I think comparing his role in the Man U team with Guttierez's role in ours is at best shaky. What we need is service from the flanks, and sticking Guthrie out there will not provide it."

I didn't miss any of it. What I saw was an insipid, uncreative midfield that offered nothing at all, especially out wide. That's not because we didn't GO wide, we did. We just didn't have the personnel to do anything with the ball. The only reason we got any points at all in the last 10 games was because of the talent of the triumvirate of Martins, Owen and Viduka not because of the guille and creativity of our midfield.

Ronaldo is a world-class player playing in a team of other world-class players, something that we're nowhere near at the moment. I think comparing his role in the Man U team with Guttierez's role in ours is at best shaky. What we need is service from the flanks, and sticking Guthrie out there will not provide it. And the "Static 4-4-2" has not been bad because there's somthing inherently wrong with 4-4-2, but because we've been fielding inept players. For me it's: --------------------Given Beye Coloccini Bassong/Faye Enrique ---------------Faye/Guthrie Guttierez/Milner -------- Duff/Milner/Guttierez ------------------N'Zogbia --------------Owen Martins That's if we had to start the season tomorrow, but hopefully a couple more signings will change that around a bit. A creative mid is a must for me, then Charlie can play left wing if he gets his head screwed on correctly.

Not for me, don't want Jonas out of position as we need to be getting the best out of him from the wing, Harper in for Given and I wouldn't start Bassong just yet, lets wait and see how he copes in the Premiership first. How is that out of position? He can be darting either side of the strikers which will be much harder to double mark him. That would create so much more space for owen and martins It's out of position because he's a winger, and that position isn't on the wing. And Guthrie's not a winger, there's no way I'd want him on the right hand side. He'd be about as effective as other CMs have been there in recent years, witness the insipid performances of Bowyer and Barton on at right wing. Stick Spidey on the wing, and we need to buy a creative midfielder (Which we're all aware of). Failing that, I'd rather have Barton there or even Guthrie if it came to it, or else put Milner or Duff on one wing, Guttierez on the other and play N'Zogbia as an AM. If we've learnt anything from the last 3 or 4 years it should be that square pegs in round holes simply don't work.

Oh, and fingers crossed for the Everton move. £1.75m may not be a fortune compared to what we paid for him, but I'd take £1.75p to get rid of him and drive him to Liverpool myself if it helped push the deal through.

How do you know what Keegan says to Smith? What's said in private and what's said to the press are likely to be 2 entirely different things you know. Slagging one of your own players off in the press (Even subtly, like you suggest) is massively counter-productive, will damage team morale and will hardly inspire the player himself to better things or (MUCH more importantly in this instance) encourage other teams to come in and take him off our hands. You seem to want Keegan to slate Smith just to prove to you that he knows Smith is rubbish. That's not going to happen, but just because it doesn't happen, doesn't mean that Keegan is blind. Keegan will know Smith's deficeincies, and I'm sure he's made Smith aware of them. In private.

How? Try and answer it if you like lad. Unless you think he would have still broke his leg if he was here? Of course he wouldn't, but I doubt he'd be a picture of health either. We're well shot of him and his injuries, whatever they may be or however he sustains them.

wont have much of a squad left We'll not be playing 4-4-2, it'll be more like 2-1-2