oldtype

Hope Kazenga gets a go. Still worrying. I hate to say this but Damien Duff was one of our best players. We are significantly weakened without him.

No Duff in the side so I guess Simpson comes in and Ryan Taylor is moved up? Worrying.

I'm immensely happy at this news, but that happiness is tempered by the expectation that there will inevitably be some horrible news later today to cancel this out. There has to be. This is NUFC.

There seems to be a horrifying sense of inevitability to a Kinnear return.

It frustrates me so much that our squad right now is absolutely BEGGING for a striker, there are something like a dozen strikers available out there who could pull off 20 goals in the Championship... ...And you just know that the idiots running the club will make sure we don't get one of them before September.

He'll be gone eventually, there's no stopping that... I don't mind except for the fact that we'd be down to two wingers and we're not buying anyone.

I think Jonas will be off by the weekend, so Lua Lua will have to do for the season I suppose... (backup? what's that?) IMO Reading aren't that good at the moment, and we're at home so we have to be seen as favorites. Hopefully Shola will show that he can do a job in the Championship because like it or not, Shola-Carroll seems like our front two for the rest of the season.

I've honestly never seen him play, but every morning I wake up in fear that he'll sign for another club. I just feel that one striker + one manager indeed would open up the possibility of a lucky promotion for us.

I've got a bad feeling we won't be able to keep him.

Fuck it, I guess this isn't happening either. (And I'm not basing that on just Oliver's drivel) I guess the best remaining option now is to give up hope for a savior and see what we can do with Ashley staying and no incoming transfers. If we're stunningly lucky he may at least appoint a manager.

Boro, Sheffield, and West Brom are arguably the three strongest teams in the division. We're not going down just because we can't beat them. The Championship is "level" in the sense that there are a dozen teams or so that could be in the mix for promotion, but the gap between top table and bottom table is fucking huge.

Exactly what I've been saying. The league is s***. Caldwell and Carr were first choice in promoted sides last year FFS. Sunderland came up with a load of Irish rejects after losing their first 4 games and appointing Keane on August 28th. Not only did they come up, they romped it. I don't believe it when anyone says this league is competitive. West Brom seem to make a good go of coming and going back down consistently. Smith and Barton will be the best partnership in the league. Enrique will be the best left back in the league. Harper will be the best keeper in the league. Steven Taylor will be in the top 3 centre halves in the league. If we can supplement the above with 2 or 3 good signings and then pad the squad out a bit, we could win the league. Could is the operative word of course as we'll need a fuckin manager and owner! I agree with most of what you're saying, but the words "Smith" and "best" should not be allowed anywhere near the same sentence.

I have wet dreams about us passing Phil Brown and his shit team on our way up.

Premiership Top 4 (in order): Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City Relegation (in order): Pompey, Hull, Wolves Dark horses: Sunderland Top Scorer: Wayne Rooney Championship Promotion: Middlesbrough, WBA, Cardiff Relegation: Plymouth, Leicester, Scunthorpe Dark horses: Notts Forest Top Scorer: Simon Cox League One Promotion: I don't know enough about this league to make an educated guess. League Two Promotion: Ditto League Cup: Everton FA Cup: Liverpool Europe La Liga: Real Madrid Serie A: Inter Bundesliga: Stuttgart Europa League: Valencia Champions League: Real Madrid Other World Player of the Year: Messi Who'll be NUFC's top scorer?: Andy Carroll How many will Nile Ranger score?: 2 First Premiership Managerial casualty: Roberto Martinez. I have this odd feeling that he'll fail miserably. Where will Man City finish?: 4th Will Gareth Bale win a match?: No

We're in the Championship, average is the new world class.

The China captain? Good shout. He's very good... Although admittedly I've got no idea how he's been doing for the past two seasons. Other than Weaver and Le Sib, I'd probably take anyone on that list.

I've been utterly disinterested with football for the past two months so... ...did Downing move? Tuncay?

28, 3 year deal. 28? Dear me. that honestly shocked me.

He was 30 or so when we signed him right? So I'm guessing we gave him 5 years?

Have you seen how many defenders we have left? Have you seen how many prolific goal scorers we have in our squad? Have you seen the dazzling pace we have in our team? Unless replacements are brought in quick sharpish, we have an excellent chance of being relegated again. Have you seen what the teamsheet for a relegated Championship club looks like?

Wish I could have seen the look on his face when he heard about Dzeko's new contract.

At an utter, uttter minimum, we need a striker. I'm honestly not even hoping for anything more than that.

He was a good player, and will probably finally get the plaudits he deserves at Villa. (Albeit only for a year or two with his age) It pains me to think that we could have kept him if the club was in any sort of normal state, but given the reality we face right now selling him and Bassong was inevitable. Time to move on. And lads, please, we're not going to get relegated to League One just because we've sold those among our squad who are too good to be playing in the second division . Have you seen what the teams that usually occupy the bottom of the table look like? Granted, it's probably more likely than promotion, but still... Not going to happen.

We can't afford to keep them, i'd probably be more worried if everyone stayed. That's an understandable comment but the one flaw is that we also can't afford not to replace them, and there is zero sign of us looking to do that. From a fans perspective I'd much rather we hung on to the players we can't afford than not have any players left at all, which at the current rate is looking increasingly likely. Lost: Owen Viduka Cacapa Loven Martins Bassong Beye Brought in: No fucker We've gone down to a level where many of our formerly useless fuckers and some of the reserves can do a job, so it evens itself out. I figure we're about as good in the Championship as we were in the Premiership. ...oh, wait...

To be fair, it's significantly easier for a player to "love" his club when it's Real Madrid as opposed to Newcastle United.