AyeDubbleYoo

If we get decent crosses into him, he'll put them away against anyone, I don't care if it's Blackpool or Chelsea. Just hope we have enough in midfield to supply the balls. Also, that we aren't defending all the time because we give the ball away so much.

I'd still rather have him fit than not, like. I'll wager Capello wishes he had given Dawson a run out against Japan or Mexico now...not that he'll get near the team.Upson/King/Carragher will step in.I'd rather Upson or Carragher as King's lack of mobility will be horribly found out at this level. King is way more mobile than Terry, Upson and Dawson. Yep, once every couple of weeks.

Good point. You could sell some players or maybe a training ground, but you'd end up with a club that was less valuable than the one you bought, so you'd be no further on. The only equivelent to the business model of asset stripping would be closing the company down and selling off the land. However, no local authority is going to give planning permission for the stadium to be torn down and the land used for other purposes. So the land without the club is likely to be worthless. I guess it's just a term people use for 'making a profit at the expensive of the club's health'... using debt to buy it etc. Obviously not what asset stripping really means.

I really hope he gets a decent go, although obviously the Premier League is a difficult place to start.

Has any decent level football club ever been 'asset-stipped'? People throw that word about all the time, but I can't think of an example.

If that was aimed at me I still think he'd come good. He was a ball-playing cb much in the same vein as Colo. With a brute next to him he would've been good. Not in a Big Sam team though, but in a team where the tactics consists of more than soaking up pressure from the opponents and then kicking long punts forward. I think you've got a point, he never looked that bad to me.

Could you have written that without seeing the photo or knowing his name?

To read about the news?

Don't worry about the keeper, don't look at the keeper or the goal. Just get your head over it, pick a direction and hit it as hard as possible!

Was just about to post something similar to that. Every club so far has "got away with it" in the long terms, while shitting on it's employees in the process. Football probably needs a few higher profile failed administrations before anything will be done about it. I kind of agree with this sentiment, the only problem is that the people least to blame (the fans) are the people who are punished in the worst way, by the disappearance of their football club.

I tend to agree, but we didn't compete with them last time, did we? The players acted like individuals back then, now they act like a team. Will make a massive difference, imo. Yeah, I hope you're right, I think you are. A tiny part of me still wonders whether it was just the weakness of the opposition that helped us out last season, but on balance I don't think so.

I tend to agree, but we didn't compete with them last time, did we?

So it's not a story then?

So were they banned over the Triesman thing, or were they already banned?

FFS, it's going to be black and white stripes, just get it on the shelves already.

Wake me up when it's announced.

If Puma do ours anything like that it's over for my purchasing of toon shirts.

That's mental, but if I got offered massive amounts of money to do a low-profile job abroad, I'd be off in a shot.

Great guy, but no evidence he's any good as a manager yet... that's the problem with jumping straight into Premiership jobs.

Cambiasso not being at the World Cup is a travesty.

McClaren could make himself into the new Roy Hodgson in a few years, fair play to him for carving out a career abroad - not many English managers or players have the balls to try.

Their players are nowhere near as good as some people seem to think, even Parker isn't that great. Don't really have a problem with the sacking, but most of the mistakes (signing crocks etc) were made before he arrived.

Also, Bobby Zamora is massively overrated - he's just trendy at the moment.

Jose Enrique

Have we had loads of kids that were good enough that we've let go like? Of course we'd all prefer academy kids to make the grade, Like every club would. We're all over the moon with Taylor, Carroll and Ameobi. That's the sum total of what's come out of the academy in a decade though. Not enough to keep us in the top flight. Well we don't really know do we, and we've never managed youth well. Jenas went to London because he didn't feel at home here, we signed Duff to replace N'Zogbia, Lua Lua has never had a chance, we sold the other Lua Lua too soon. I'm not saying we've had loads of world-beaters, but if you don't sign many players then you have to allow the youth a chance... the likes of Kadar are the first example of that.