pinkeye

Talk of about £500k as a loan fee. Good bit of business for 6 games!!

Shola is the only player that actually gets shorter when he jumps!

Gone to Stoke, official.

On the booing a substitution thing:- When Martins was being substituted (or any player for that matter) I think what seems to happen is that people in the ground maybe have a little sigh or maybe a little conflab with the bloke next to them in the ground and if you imagine 50k people all doing that you are going to get some sounds eminating out onto the field. There was no real boos like Allardyce used to get for his idiotic team changes, most of the groans on Saturday were probably because people were wondering why it was not Viduka coming off as he was clearly knackered and blowing a bit! Chelsea fans have been booing Grant's changes for the last couple of TV matches and particularly the last one against Liverpool when they were 1 - 0 down, very shortly afterwards they were 2 - 1 up and all the doom had changed to cheers. I guess what I am saying is that we should trust the managers decision, they are the ones who live and die by their choices and, in theory, be better qualified to make the decisions.

The only match I have ever left early from was the Birmingham FA Cup game, I left when the 5th went in!!

Didn't say that Taylor needs to be carried, I said that he plays better when he is with another central defender who is strong and vocal. Taylor is a very decent player and doesn't do too much wrong but, when his confidence is up as it often is when playing along side a more vociferous partner he is almost the complete package, more than good enough for a top half Premier League team anyway. PS - Cacapa has got decent pace, not electric by any standards but, he is pretty quick in a straight line.

I would say that Faye has not looked great all for a few weeks and last night was a shocker for him, his ability to clear the ball from danger is weak and for a big guy he is poor in the air. I never make knee jerk reactions to football, I am as emotional about Newcastle as the next man but, I have been around long enough to remain phylosophical, I feel that I am very forgiving to players having a "bad day" but, Faye has never looked comfortable on the ball to me and in recent weeks he has got worse. Confidence is a problem for him. Cacapa is great on the ball (most of the time) and has a decent turn of pace for an older player but, Diatta is captain of Senegal and has played with Beye numerous times meaning that it would make sense to look seriously at giving him a go with Taylor. Taylor needs a strong partner to lead him, if he is confident in his partner at the centre of defence Taylor seems to play a lot better himself.

I thought Butt had a great game last night, Geremi was generally ok although Barton was shocking (again!). Same midfield but, replace Barton with Zog on Saturday for me, it is about as good as we have got. Surely Diatta can't be any worse than Faye either............ Either him or give Cacapa another go!!

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2304/80155887wk7.jpg "Here we come, Walking down the street, Get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet, Hey, hey we're the monkey's...."

When I see that goal I still get a lump in my throat, it was one of the most emotional nights I have witnessed as a newcastle supporter, Dyer shot in the dying minutes of the game that was parried by the keeper and Bellamy stole in at the back post and crashed it against the stranded keeper and into the net. I cheered and screamed so much that I went dizzy and almost fainted............

It must be one hell of a bind though eh, training 6 half days a week in a top quality gym or in purpose built surroundings with an enthusiastic coach who wants you to be the best. Having to live in Darras Hall and getting paid £50,000 per week.......... I don't think I could cope with that and at the end of the week going to play football while being watch by tens of thousands of people who will talk about that goal you scored forever.......... I feel so sorry for the prick!

I'll have one as I am running out of bog roll at home!! Where do I apply?

Is there any truth in the rumour regarding Viduka and Keegan falling out over the fact that Viduka puts zero effort into training and Keegan uses more energy on the toilet etc. I heard that Keegan told Viduka that he would not play for Newcastle again as long as he was the manager of the club. Was that just hear say and rhetoric?

In the same interview he said that he didn't think Newcastle were in a relegation battle.............. Is he on the same planet as the rest of us? We are knacker deep in a relegation battle you fool!!

Maybe the reserves should play instead of the first team, we might just about survive!!

Joey Barton is so hard it takes 4 men to hold him back.

I would happily take a point from this game, sadly we will almost certainly be soundly beaten!! The run of MUST WIN GAMES start the week after at Birmingham. Still can't get over the result on Saturday, shellshocked!

Not wanting to get all knee jerk about things I have been quietly pondering our options and my conclusion is as follows: When Keegan was here the first time around Newcastle were probably 2nd or maybe 3rd most powerful team in the Premier League, based on finances / resources, stadium, crowd etc. In the intervening years the rest have caught up making us very much an also ran type of club in terms of attractiveness to potential new signings. Teams like Spurs, Portsmouth, Man City, Everton, Aston Villa and Blackburn are possibly more attractive to join that us at present. All the money in the world is not going to buy us a team to win us the league because all we would get would be a team of Vidukas who are here for the money and nothing else, we have nothing to offer the top top players. We need a team that has heart and desire, a team of Alan Shearers if you like. There is no point is quoting figures like £100m or £150m as a kitty for new players if you can't attract the right players who will come here for the right reasons. At best we can hope to take the core of our current team and bring in 5 or 6 players to compliment them on the field, in other words good solid premier league standard players who can take us into the top half of the table and keep us there for a couple of unremarkable seasons, no dramas, win the games we should win etc etc. Once we are stable we can then look to spend the £'s to bring in 2 or 3 more players of the highest quality we can attract so that we can push on for European qualification. Individually the majority of our players are bloody good players, some have played at the highest standard either here or abroad, we have Champions League players, Internationals in every position and at least one Premier League winner. There is something missing, that to me is the will to play at their best every week and the confidence to do something that might not come off but, if it did could change a game. I have faith in Keegan still, the league fixtures have been evil since he joined us and I doubt that many teams would have had a better record given the same run of games, I would have been delighted with 5 points, accepted 4, maybe even 3. As it is we have taken 1 point but, few would have done much better. We have a period of matches coming up where we can amass some points, who knows - maybe in a months time we will be all be saying what a good squad we have afterall, and wondering who will have to move aside when new players arrive......................... Funny game football!!

Realistically based on our current form we will be lucky to get a draw but, a defeat is far more the likely outcome. I will be really happy of we see some guts and a performance out of our players, surely they have some pride left and can still remember being dumped 6 - 0 at Old Trafford in December?? Come on boys, guts and hell!! Lets give Man Utd a game!!

I was having dinner in Hanahana on Saturday night and Titus Bramble came in with a group of people I didn't recognise as footballers. (Not sure I actually recognise Bramble as a footballer actually!)

Man Utd will be wearing a Retro strip for their match with Man City on Sunday in memory of the Munich deaths: http://cache2.gettyimages.com/xc/79641178.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1935121260197D6DE78B4252DB80F08C6AB I think that, while the sad event is worthy of rememberence, people from Manchester seem to expect the rest of the world to feel as passionately about it as they do. To be honest, in my opinion there has been far worse events occured before and since that are more worthy of rememberence that that one.

I didn't bother with correct scores or anything, just worked around 2 - 1 results or draws, basically which team would win, lose or draw to get a position in the final league. I sort of worked out that we would finish on 40 - 43 points and that is where we finished in my league.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/predictor/default.stm I got Newcastle in 12th with 43 points, Boro in 13th with 38 and the mackems 16th with 30.

That is where Niall and Biffa really score, they have a knack of putting into words exactly what most Newcastle fans are thinking but, do not really know how to express. I don't remember one thing I have read on their site that was not right on the button. True fans who dedicate an awful lot of time and money supporting NUFC.

And snowing in NE8 as well.