Lotus

Yep.

What a ridiculous topic to pretend to be incensed over.

And do you think he is the only one in our midfield who can defend? Parker gets pulled out of position too much for me, chasing the ball everywhere like a park dog. Parker's good at tackling but he should think about what he's doing more. Emre harries but can't tackle. Zog is good at tracking back and intercepting a ball going to his opposite FB. Essentially, Butt is the only one of the CM's who defends effectively imo.

Butt's positional play and anticipation is very, very good imo.

It's not lost on me mate, don't worry. I thought the same..

Everton did it the season after a relegation battle (and getting thumped by Arsenal on the opening day). We did it from mid-table. Take SPurs out of it and the league bar the top 4 is crap. Anyone can make top 5-6 with a half decent run. If wenger leaves or Rafa buys a shedload of new players with the yankee dollar and they take time to bed in then a place in the top four is up from grabs next season. It may be unlikely from watching last season, but ther's definitely a chance that someone like us or Spuds could fluke CL next year There is always a chance. I'm just trying to see it from Owen's perspective rather than as an optimistic Toon fan. But, you never know. A few good signings who hit the floor running and a few other clubs having an injury nightmare or some bad form and we could be there. I'd f**king love it.

I would imagine Owen would want to see exactly why he should commit to a year extension before he signed one. So far NUFC hasn't looked a good club to further his career. He's on his 3rd manager already, hopefully this one will put the club in a position that he might change his mind. I would be surprised (but delighted) if Owen signed an extension. If he stays another year and we do well then he might. He wants to playing in the CL though and based on our last 3 seasons we're a long way off that.

Eto'o vs Barca dispute continues. Chelsea baulk at the £40 mil price tag. We get him on a 12 month loan deal. Pukka.

I think he knows you need both battlers and creative players tbh.

I think Allardyce likes a flair player in the middle, Dyorkaeff, Okacha and to a lesser extent Nakata. I reckon Bolton have suffered this season for not having that kind of player at the moment. Even if he does sign Barton it doesn't mean that he's gonna be the playmaker. He might think he can get that out of Emre or maybe he'll sign someone else. There's plenty of time.

I had a dream i found a massive rabbit in my kitchen.

Astute mackems.gif mackems.gif Sorry one of those days Well, you were right though....

Astute

Wenger knows what he's doing but tbh, Arsenal have a few more problems than that. They could sort it through the summer i'm sure. Another star unearthed from the Dog & Duck Sunday team in Lagos, Nigeria.

I think Henry is past his prime. Van Persie has alot more to come though. Liverpool have a pretty decent squad imo. Could improve alot with the CL money from this year. Man U & Chelsea are miles away. We could be in with a shout for the top 6 but it does depend on who the manager is and if he's allowed to do it his own way. Big variables tbh. Given Taylor Butt Milner N'Zogbia (Souness form) Martins They're the only players who are worth a toss out of our squad. Lot of work to be done for the new guy.

I'm sure that a deal of that size would have been under the noses of the club owners so if they ratified at the time it wouldn't be fair of them to blame FS solely for it.

The more i think about this deal the more i'm puzzled: It was always likely he would leave with 2 seasons to go on his deal imo. He'd be wanting to play CL football at that stage of his career and not even a blind optimist would think we'd be at that level. Especially considering Souness was in charge when he signed. Ignoring the injury for a minute. So we buy him for £16M His wages are £5M per year An outlay of £26M An escape clause (allegedll) of £9M A net loss of £17M At £500K per place in the table, just what was Owen supposed to do to repay our outlay and how exactly was this in anyway a good deal. I must have missed something (i'm serious), can someone enlighten me?

Anyone who puts an escape clause for that amount activating only if we fail to qualify for Europe and while they were currently employing Souness and then compounding that later by hiring Roeder has made 3 very bad judgements. Had it coming unfortunatley.

Players on a free: Joey O'Brien (i think), injured most/all of last season. Apparently a CM, when i saw him at RB i thought he had a good reading of the game and good athleticism. Distin, Dr. Spec thinks he's much improved. I've barely watched him but thought he was average at best when here. Ben Haim, haven't seen too much, some good games and one bad. Sidwell, done nowt for me but others who (i hope) have watched min more reckon he's good. Tuncay, raved about. Haven't seen him. Viduka, I guess i see the logic. Just speculating. If the above are actually any good and would come (and be wanted by the new manager) i reckon we'd only have to buy a LB and a goal scoring midfielder. People mention Baines but i dunno how many have seen him consistently, cause what i have seen hasn't grabbed my attention.

Never seen anything from either of those two to make me sit up and take notice.

I've heard from someone connected to a bookies that it's Allardyce. Can't qualify it anymore than that. Confuses me though because i've heard that we are actively pursuing a signing, don't know who at the club is pushing it through if GR is about to be tin tacked.

He doesn't have the qualifications - or the bottle! CG, i pm'd you. Hope to find out more today.

I did qualify it with 'from what i remember.' I haven't watched him much since he left us so i can't judge him properly now, which is what i said. I'm sure he's a big improvement on Ramage/Bramble/Huntington if your opinion of him is only half right ;-)

If we are gonna sign a central defender we need to sign an experienced one to partner Taylor and help bring the massive potential out of him, not one to replace him in the team. Um, my point was that i don't remember Distin being the player who could bring the potential out of anybody. Rather i remember him as a player who needs a smart defender alongside him. IMO Taylor is not good enough to cover another eejit's lapses of concentration. Also dispute the notion the Taylor has 'Massive potetial' tbh.

I think SA looks at how best to win a game given the players available. Simple really.