LoveItIfWeBeatU

I didn't mean he was always crap, but he was by the time he got to us for the reasons you mentioned.

Kluivert was crap at the clubs he went to after us. He was also crap at Barcelona in the season before he came to us and their fans hated him. Conclusion? He was crap.

I can't believe that is true. I'd like to see the bank board justify to the shareholders why £16 million had been given to Newcastle United to buy a 'special' player. It wouldn't matter to the bank what Newcastle wanted the money for, banks don't give £16 million away. If it was lent it still wouldn't matter to the bank what Newcastle wanted the money for. All the bank would be interested in is when they would be paid back and what the interest rate was. Northern Rock is the shirt sponsor but Barclays bank are NUFC's bankers.

Pretty sure he has returned to Partizan Belgrade after about 2 weeks on trial. Taken from ICNewcastle: - "Cameroon striker Pierre Boya has been on trial with the club this week and Roeder has not closed the door on the 22-year-old joining in the January transfer window. Boya has been playing for Partizan Belgrade since 2004 but is currently out of favour. He played just two of the club's eight Uefa Cup games this season, failing to score in either. "He's done alright," is as much as Roeder was prepared to say on the matter. "I'm not saying we're going to sign him but we're definitely not going to kill it either. We'll make a few discreet enquiries." "The club have also had Cameroon striker Pierre Boya on trial and could sell Emre to Bayern Munich to help fund their winter rebuilding."

Nothing wrong with talking about rumours but a lot of people seem to go "£12m for Crouch? NUFC are a disgrace for offering that!" instead of "£12m for Crouch? Media bullshit!".

I can't wait until Luque is gone (but apparently there are no takers for him at the moment from Spain) so you can pick a new Newcastle 'hero'.

Ramage went off with a hamstring injury so I doubt he will play. We usually lose to Man U so anything other than a loss would be good. It's as close to a guaranteed defeat as you can get. It's on SKY Sports and we usually lose when they show us. Also, I'm back to work the next day and Newcastle always seem to send me back to work on a downer by losing on my last day off. By the way, we will be the 'baddies' for the Sky commentators even though Man U have a 6 point lead over Chelsea and they don't need the points as much as us.

No, £12m for Crouch = figure made up by the media.

Their point is invalid because they have no idea how well the teams who did buy would have done if they had not bought players.

I never understand this "don't count penalties" argument. A goal is a goal. Has anyone wondered why some strikers don't take penalties? The reason is usually because they don't have a good record of scoring them. For example, I'm sure Owen missed a few for Liverpool and stopped taking them for them. With Shearer we were 95% sure he'd score when he took a penalty. The same can be said for only a few others. It's usually opposition fans who go on about Shearer 'only' scoring penalties.

Media in made up transfer story shocker! It would be very interesting if someone recorded all the stories newspapers print about transfers and see how many actually happen. I would guess less than 1 in a 100 (and then newspapers have the cheek to print a "we told you so" when one actually happens, disregarding the other 99 they said would happen that didn't). Look at NUFC.com's Rumours section: - http://www.nufc.com/2006-07html/2006-12robrum.html

If there was ever any doubt that Craig Moore was leaving at the end of the season there isn't now. When he gets hamstring injuries he is out for months. No chance he'd get offered a new contract.

I'm not saying Roeder is a world beater or anything but I do think the job he is doing isn't bad considering the situation NUFC are in (recovering from the Souness damage and a massive injury problem). Like the thread title says Roeder is right for the current Newcastle (which isn't the old one that used to challenge for the title or Champions League qualification). Just because we were watching Kuyt didn't mean that he would have wanted to sign for us anyway. Liverpool were supposedly his dream club. Maybe Kuyt was the back up plan if the Martins deal didn't come off? As I said before, unless you are high up at NUFC you have no idea when they first started making enquiries about certain players. Who are we after in the next transfer window? I bet we sign a couple of players no one (including the press) know we are after until just before the deal is completed. Using words like "supposedly" and saying the club weren't 'linked' to players doesn't make a good argument. Being linked to players in the media is no measure of fact.

"I doubt he did much research into the players we brought in during the last transfer window" You doubt but you don't know and neither do I. Most of what you have said about Roeder is based on heresay not fact. For example, there were rumours that Martins wasn't Roeder's first choice. There were also rumours that Martins was Shepherd's choice. Roeder has said Martins was his first choice. Who do we believe? 99% of what the media say is going to happen with transfers never happen. We only know for sure about the transfers that happened. We have no idea who else we were really after. Players could have been turned down due to what the research turned up. Just because the media say the manager is watching a certain player it doesn't mean for a fact they were. They could have been watching someone else.

I think some fans still live in a world where they expect us to go from the state Souness left us in to straight back to the top five. There's nothing wrong with ambition but we shouldn't try to run before we can walk. Roeder is still steadying the ship as far as I'm concerned. Gone (for the moment) are the days of expecting us to beat all the teams bar Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal. Even when we were at our best we'd often lose a game we were expected to win. Roeder seems to have the right ideas for the club e.g. sort out the academy, stop wasting fortunes on signing unresearched players (and giving them long contracts), get the scouting network sorted out, etc. In the past NUFC have always seemed to be about the quick, short term fix rather than the long term approach. Roeder may not be the best tactician in the world but he wants to do his best for the club. The injuries we have had this season have been unbelievable. I think the difference a fit Owen would have made this season would have been massive. As for the dealings in the Summer transfer window, unless you work high up at NUFC you can never really know what went on.

Calling Man U "United"? You should be ashamed of yourself.

Investors, fans, merchandise sales, etc. Don't get me wrong, I hate Man U and Chelsea.

Of course they bought them. They were the richest club. That's what made their complaining about Chelsea's money all the funnier. They were knocked off the top and they didn't like it. It used to be Man U would buy all the good players up.

Apart from Chelsea and Man U the majority of teams will drop a fair few points. Half the season still to go so anything can happen. Look at last year when we climbed to 7th against all the odds.

I can see your side of the argument, Bramble has cost us points with his mistakes but than so have others. My point is that our squad is tiny and if it's relatively cheap to keep Bramble then I'd keep him.

Same players but they could play in different positions. I'd player Dyer behind Martins and Emre on the left wing. Edit - I agree.

Bramble scored the goal against Chelsea in the last game of the season that got us into Europe. Pressley is 33 years old. Moore is injury prone and has pretty much said he's off at the end of the season. Bramble has a lot of critics but I'd have no problem keeping him as a squad player. If he really wants to stay at Newcastle maybe the club could get away with paying him less. Offer him a 1 year contract.

Milner and SWP can both play on the right and the left wing. N'Zogbia and Duff haven't been great this season so it would be cover and competition for both wings. SWP did well as a striker against us for Man City in that game we won 4-3 so he could be back up for Martins. I don't agree that Milner can play up front. Having said all that, we are overloaded with midfielders. I'd say Solano is now a right wing back rather than a midfielder. He's played much better from that position. SWP isn't doing well at Chelsea at the moment. At least a loan would mean we didn't end up blowing a fortune on another potential lemon. I'll believe this story when it happens.

It's too early to say really (for Roeder and O'Neill). Our bad start will have turned many against Roeder but our recent improvement in results and our good results in the UEFA cup will have won some back. I would say our squad is better than Aston Villa's but we have coped well with our injuries. Martin O'Neill has turned Aston Villa into draw specialists. He's got some good performances out of Angel but Roeder has done the same with Sibierski who most of us thought would be rotten. We'll see how both managers do in the transfer window. Also, were only 3 points behind Aston Villa after their reasonable start and our poor start to the season.

I take your point but Bobby's got one at Ipswich and he's not dead. I'm not desperate for the statue, it's just that a big deal was made out of it and then nothing has happened. Maybe Alan didn't want the statue but he seemed to think it was an honor when it was first mentioned. There may be a perfectly innocent and reasonable reason why it hasn't been made yet but I just wondered.