oldtype

sounds so easy....if as has happened the keeper comes and doesn't reach it just once he is called a mug and any flick has the keeper out of the goal. watch the way stoke do it,there'll be at least one player in there who has no intenetion of going for the ball who just wants to stand in the way of the advancing keeper. Spot on. Keepers have tried to come out and command their box against stoke and have failed miserably because a. There are a bunch of huge lads are standing in front of them and b. any touch on anyone in the box while the ball flys in could flick the ball into the open goal, and c. The ball flies in low and fast so having extra reach isn't much of an advantage. If it was that easy teams would have figured it out by now. Personally I don't think having the keeper come out is a good solution. Think it's better for them to stand their ground and try their luck at saving it. (Especially for Shay)

We desperately need a quality CM. If they're not going to get us at least that they might as well not bother. After that its' probably LB, RW (neither Duff nor Zog look to be good enough. Flog the Zog, grab an RW, and move Jonas back to the left,) and another CM in order of importance. Long term we'll also need a striker (since we're losing Owen and Viduka) and a RB (since Beye will need replacing in 1~2 seasons. Those can hopefully be dealt with in the summer. Overall, we've got a lot of shopping to do.

We could always do what Windass did last Saturday I suppose.

It's not the first time he's done it though. He stormed off down the tunnel under Keegan one match too. EDIT - It was Birmingham away. Nowt wrong with it imo. But then i'm a Martins fanboy. Serioulsy though, i like his passion. When he kicks and stomps his feet and whatnot during the game, countless times i've seen him go on to score. Makes him want it even more. Villa is a good example. Don't people slag Duff off for doing the same thing? Dunno, don't think i ever have done. The thing is, Duff never scores.

For basically nothing over the summer, we acquired Jonas, Colo, and Bassong, all key parts of the squad now, Guthrie, who's playing decently with a lot of potential, Xisco, who came in with a great reputation and will hopefully be given a chance at some point, and , who looks to be the most promising youngster to come through the ranks in ages. Yes Ashley deserves the stick for not investing in the squad (how brilliant we'd be right now had he spent the cash for a central midfielder and a left back), but damn, we must have some amazing scouts. Certainly looking better than the fellas Keane got for 30m+ down the road...

The result against Stoke will probably move everyone's numbers around +-2 points. I said 3. If we lose, I'll probably be up to a 5 at least.

To be fair to Ashley, (assuming that he's back for good) if we finish this season without being relegated, I'm 90% sure that Kinnear will get a declaration of "utmost gratitude" and "best wishes for the future," and be shown the door when his contract runs out with a better manager to come in. Sacking Kinnear right now would have been a colossally bad move imo. You don't sack managers mid-season unless they're failing abysmally. Kinnear has proven that he's just about adequate.

I'd warn you but you're probably already dead, so no point I suppose.

At the rate this thread is building up it's going to be one of the best atmosphere's in NUFC history when he makes his first-team debut at SJP.

I say we take the all of the above approach. Move the hoardings inward, try to give away corners instead of throws, have Oba jumping up and down in front of him as high as he can.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sunday-mirror/2008/11/30/ashley-back-in-toon-115875-20935873/ It's probably just Sunday gossip, but could he be getting ready to give it another go?

We have no attacking impetus through the center because Butt/Guthrie aren't really capable of pushing forward and being dangerous like Barton. Therefore, when our wing players have a bad game, our offense suffers. cf) Jonas and Zog today.

All I know is that Wise+Jimenez+Vertre gave us some of the best summer signings we've had in a long while. Let's hope it was good 'ol Jeff doing all the work then.

Bassong was the best player on the pitch today and it was plain for everyone to see. No way Taylor gets back in after this.

One positive to his "Fat Aussie" playing style is that he probably won't decline that much with age. As he was never very fast/fit to begin with, there isn't much speed/stamina for him to lose, and his skill set is tailor-made to his physical strengths and limitations. I think he'll be very important for us this year. let's sit back and wait a bit before we start talking about a new contract though.

Don't know about a North East XI, but I would be more than happy to have any of Downing, Digard and Tuncay in our first team.

All this means is that there won't be any magical takeover+new manager+megabucks to save us from relegation. We just have to do it the hard way now. Relegation is possible, yes but still not probable.

As far as I can tell something like half his players are middle-aged, yet they're running around like spring chickens. Could he make Nicky Butt do that too? EDIT: FUCKFUCKFUCK

come on inter, put your shit together.

If they do qualify, and probably even if they don't, I'd consider him one of the top candidates for the job here. Just looking at them their organization is extremely impressive, and they play with so much spirit and energy, he's obviously a very good motivator. Ketsbaia making the knockout stage with Anorthosis would be a bigger achievement than Mourinho winning it all with Porto.

Damn, Bremen get one back.

Holy shit... 2-0. At a loss for words now.

Ketsbaia's boys 1-0 up!!!!

Doing excellently against a very good Werder Bremen side. I think I'd have Ketsbaia here now, they look extremely well organized.

Do you think Ronaldo would be the same player he is now if Fergie had binned him and replaced him with Damien Duff after his first season (where he showed little more than Charlie did bursting onto the scene here)? Why do you think he didn't? Why hasn't Wenger replaced Fabregas with Nicky Butt? Ronaldo had competition for places from players a million times better than Damien Duff. Fergie didn't just let him waltz into the first team every weekend on account of his "potential." Are you implying that the Zog had his development stunted because he had to compete with one other recognized left winger in the squad? Dear me Fact is the Zog was given plenty of time in 2006/2007. If he had proven himself to have anywhere near Ronaldo or Fabregas' potential by delivering performances significantly better than those of Duff (which isn't even that hard,) he'd have gotten the place. Four managers, one of them Kevin Keegan, thought that he didn't. In response, instead of meeting the challenge head-on and bringing up his performance levels, He threw a fit and stagnated. Which is why his career is now going nowhere. If Ronaldo flipped and asked for a transfer when Park was picked ahead of him for a while in 2005/2006, where would he be now?