AyeDubbleYoo

True Jon, Pardew is talking nonsense here - and at the end of the day he will have very little say over the price Bent is sold for, especially if they go down. Mental that only high transfers determine market forces, and not the many lower-priced ones you mention. If you can get Martins for 10m then I suppose that means Bent is only worth about 6?

The fullbacks are very important - it's fairly rare you see a good quality attacking side without proper fullbacks who can overlap and support their wide midfielders. I think if we get a couple of decent FBs, along with Owen back, we will see some major improvements. Keeping Emre would be nice, but looks unlikely at this stage.

The Meaning of Cantona, a very surreal but brilliant book. Quite hard to get hold of I think, I got mine in a charity shop.

How do you know that? Fair point, I don't. I just meant that we do have a tendency to make howlers that end up costing us goals, and I wouldn't be surprised if we got knocked out because of it. The spirit of the post was more about our lack of consistency.

I think it's likely the Parke/Emre dilemma will be solved in the summer, Emre might be off back to the continent. Hope not but it's a distinct possibility.

Did anyone really think he would manage a comeback?

I think you've got a point, I'm only worried about the fact that we have more potential to make a mistake that will cost us a game than any of the opposition do. It's only that inconsistency that might do us in I think. That or an injury to Martins!

Agreed, I always thought it was unnecessary to get rid of him at Chelsea - was doing a good job. With the extra budget he might well have won the league.

Quoted for truth. I don't see why he would want to leave football - he will be one of the most in-demand managers in the world when he becomes available.

Sounds about right to me!

I've always thought Zoggy would make a good wingback, nobody seems to use the 3-5-2 much though - it would take a brave manager to make that sort of change.

Don't want to sabotage the thread, but how about your best teams with our current squad and 3 realistic summer signings?

Well it depends, the median average is obviously 5, but the mean average would depend on the 'normal' score for players. So I can see how people could consider 6 'average' in that sense - they're not talking about literally the middle of the scale.

I know where you're coming from nufc_gearodie, and I partly agree, but I think we deserve credit for the likes of the Liverpool result. To come back from 1-0 against such a good side is a quality result, even if the performance wasn't great. I'd obviously like to see us playing better football and winning more convincingly, but in the meantime I think the lads should get some credit for the results they have acheived.

Agreed, the problem with their stlye of football is that it is so difficult to produce consistently - the level of difficulty is so high. The intricate passing and moving can easily collapse with one minor error. Still like to see them playing it though...

I don't really get this 'papering over the cracks' attitude that always crops up. I know we haven't been playing amazingly well recently, but it's funny that when the likes of Chelsea scrape a win they've 'got character' and 'done enought to win', but when we do the same thing it isn't positive. We can't change the squad now until the summer, so I for one would take another few 'papering over the cracks' wins.

Alan Green, I'm getting angry just thinking about his nasal whinging and complaining. Can't believe the license fee payer is funding that utter nob.

any mongs here? i know there are a couple...

Woody's the best centre half I've ever seen play, was so impressed with him in his time here. Good luck to him, if he has the loyalty to stay at Boro then fine - but I suspect he might find other offers hard to resist if he maintains his fitness.

Unluckily for Emre, England is an English-speaking society! Yep...agree....shouldn't have been so silly...Its such a shame as well because I'm sure the UEFA or FIFA bastards are gonna come in and "make an example of him" and ban him for like 10 games or something. Hmm, there is a genuine debate about cultural meanings of words. I mean my Granparents still won't be convinced that calling a black person 'black' is now acceptable. English is a fluid language and meanings do change. Let's just hope that Emre did really misunderstand and his aim wasn't to be racist. Although if I was asked for my gut feeling I fear the worst.

Unluckily for Emre, England is an English-speaking society!

I agree we have the core of a decent side, what I would add is, in order of priority: A FECKING LEFT BACK! - With the Cole injury it seems increasingly unlikely that we will ever see Bridge in the black and white, so some serious scouting will have to be done to come up with someone of real quality. Unless Heinze is available of course, in which case we should go all out for him. A Striker who can hold up the ball and link the play - I don't want to see us turn into a long ball team, but someone who can make the ball stick up front and bring others into play. Hopefully Martins and Owen will be our first choices, so I don't think we need to break the bank on this one. A right back - less of a priority than LB, but we still don't really have anyone to do this job well. Our lack of attacking threat from fullback positions has been a major problem this season. Beyond that I'm not sure

If we do then the situation is obviously different. My argument was about the pathetic non-injuries that are used by clubs to worm their players out of international duty.

Some might, not all. If he was out for the rest of the season because of an injury picked up in a friendly the majority would be pissed off. I would be pissed off, but I wouldn't say he shouldn't have gone. The principal is more important, same was true when Owen got injured playing for England (although I know that was a tournament).

Nudge nudge, wink wink