oldtype

Captain America with his trusty shield is a CB in the Rio mold.You have also got the Punisher who is a old skool fullback mixed up with Superman who is an out & out left winger. Dead, no?

Henry's not just fast though. He's also a big, strong fucker with amazing technical ability. As long as he adapts his game to suit his advancing age I can see him playing well into his thirties. ...Not that he'd ever sign for us of course

Don't you get the impression that the money is there, but we're not willing to pay over our own evaluation for players? They're not like Shepherd, who would probably say something like "Sod it, offer him £120k per week!" :S 5,4,3,2.... Oh sweet lord...see you all in about 20 pages when this gets resolved then...

I guess he was never interested in coming to us and just came over to sample the lovely weather.

When you think about it Anal's policy of just dismissing everything is smart really. The odds of a transfer rumor being false is much higher than the odds of it being true, so just dismiss everything and you'll end up with a fairly high accuracy rate. Much more effective than actually trying to start your own rumors. Less time-consuming too!

I'm scared that I recognize all the names of the Blyth players being mentioned because of FM

In all likelihood, even if the deal is done and dusted right now, wouldn't we be unlikely to hear anything until Euros are over and he actually joins up with the squad? I wouldn't be holding my breath.

Bramble is just such a confusing player because when he manages to go 90 minutes without a fuckup he is just absolutely brilliant. I remember more than one game where he kept the likes of Henry or Drogba in his back pocket. But the sheer frequency of his errors far exceeds any reasonable standard, which is why he can never be trusted at any decent club to hold down a regular first time place. Until now I was a bit confused as to why he fucked up so much. Now I know: poor bloke hasn't got a brain.

A bit more than 50 seems likely to me. That's not even that much money, considering that even Sunderland spent 45 million pound last season. 50m doesn't go as far as a lot of people seem to think. Two~three class players along with another two or three squad members and the way prices are these days, it's gone. We barely touched our TV windfall last season, and I know KK is going to be pushing furiously for as much money as he can get. I think this is a big window for us.

Stick a tenner on. Imaging winning £350 on the day the mackems went down Amazing. They could easily lose all three of those games, the problem is what others do around them. Really, you are betting on the other teams rather than them. Fuck me, just imagining that.... I'm relatively sure I'd just die of happiness. Screw it, I'm going and placing a bet right now.

Personally, much as I rate Martins, I think that the change in system had more effect than the return of any one player. Put Martins up top in the same 4-4-2 Owen had been in (with Smith) and I think the dire results would have continued -- same with Viduka (playing Viduka-Smith. Putting Martins on with Owen might've done some good, but not enough because of the problems in midfield. Same with Viduka-Owen, or Viduka-Martins. The whole change has done a world of good, in my opinion. Yes, Martins is part of that, but he's hardly the entirety. Honestly, wasn't impressed with Martins v. Sunderland. He's a good player who had a less-than-impressive match. It happens to every player but some fans seem unable to admit that good players have off matches, and poorer players sometimes have good matches (Smith v. Arsenal, anyone?). Which frustrates me, because it makes me react negatively to Martins -- it seems he can do no wrong with some fans, which makes me reflexively point out his flaws (and I LIKE the player, generally). For instance, on the BBC player rater, Martins was rated third highest, just .01 behind Beye who was second. That's not an accurate reflection of his play, and on another site there were votes for Martins as MotM v. Sunderland. Come off it, that's not right and anyone with eyes can see that (the shouts for Beye, especially, and even Butt were far more reasonable, imo). It's not unlike the people who refused to admit that Owen played poorly v. Blackburn -- it frustrates the f*** out of people who aren't wearing blinders and makes them quicker to criticise the player, even when he doesn't deserve it. Yes, he's a good player, but even the best have bad/weak matches. In this case, Martins didn't play particularly well against Sunderland (he was hardly alone for Newcastle in that). His vision was poor, he played with his head down and the team lost a few good opportunities because of that. His first touch wasn't great, either, and he missed a one-on-one that Owen would be slaughtered for missing (and has done, to be fair). He still caused problems because of his pace and the fact that the defenders had to mark him because he looks a threat. He's still a competent striker with good potential, just had a not-so-great match. To be perfectly honest, I still struggle to fairly assess Martins' performances, because I know his ratings will be inflated by those fans who refuse to hear a word of criticism against him. I have the inverse situation with some other players (including Carr when he was playing some weeks back, as I never thought he was that bad this go-round but he got slaughtered online nonetheless). People on here thought Carr was doing just fine for a few games. Then the Villa comedy happened.

A CC CH maybe hes not that good in the air and contains his attacker instead of cutting him off i dont think he would be good there. However he is class on the side !!!! A good left back is much rarer than a good centre half. We have no incentive to try to convert him.

He'd be off like a shot if one of the big four came in for him and I genuinly believe that's what he's ideally hoping for despite his obvious happiness, hence his reluctance to commit himself publicly for the time being. He'll see what's what in the summer before signing, i.e. who shows an interest in him if any and what we do ourselves in the transfer market. I think he'll sign btw. With his new found role as a withdrawn striker, may Liverpool possibly look at bringing him back and pairing him with Torres? Sure hope not.

now that owen is playing so well I'm starting to fear that he's off in the summer Mark of a true toon supporter: always be ready for the worst

Don't know where I'd be without Setanta broadband here. I am very excited as I just got a new laptop with an HDMI connection. Now I can hook up to my TV to watch the game instead of watching it on a 15 inch screen computer screen. I'm somewhat less excited because my laptop broke down and I sent it for repairs... And UPS LOST IT! Fucking morons Seriously, what are the odds of my laptop breaking down AND getting lost in transit. What an amazing week for me.

moreover, if he does want to leave, why are you worried about losing him to us?

Why is Babayaro not getting the love(hate) he deserves? Contributed nothing, absolutely nothing to the team. Ever. Not only was he s*** but he was always injured so he wasn't even available to make up the numbers. Bousmong was good for a short period, and at least Pattison wasn't on senior wages. Moreover, we actually sold Boumsong and Faye for money. We had to hand Babayaro a huge payoff just to make him walk away. The fact that he's on the same number of votes as Titus Bramble, who despite his utter shitness actually had two or three games a season where he earned points for us, is an utter disgrace. FFS, he's gotten rejected by a MLS club. How is he not completely walking this poll heads and shoulders above the rest?

There's just something wrong about winding up NE5.

He did in the cup game against Sunderland on my FIFA 08 Manager carreer, nailed on to happen for real on Sunday! If he manages to do it, I promise not to say anything bad about him for a week. Once the week has past...

Souness taking us on to our first trophy in years and being rewarded with a new 10 year contract would have followed. You've got to wonder. If Souness or Roeder had lead us to UEFA cup glory, which they both had fairly good chances of doing, would one of them still be here?

Whatever I said about us being a step up from Blackburn certainly doesn't apply to Everton like. There's no way we're signing their best players.

Gattuso and Deco in the midfield with Henry and Owen up front? Sounds like a Worldwide XI circa 2006. Bring 'em in (I know I know, it's never gonna happen.)

Actually think Santa Cruz is spot on as the level of player we should be looking at. He's very good, but (unlike Bentley) he's not quite good enough to have ManU/Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool sniffing. The only hope he has of getting to a top 4 club in a top league is joining a club who has the potential to get there at some point and try to go up with them. Surely with a loaded owner, larger fanbase, more consistent revenue stream, and higher name value, we piss all over Blackburn in terms of potentially ever getting near the top 4 or even the top 6 (note that I'm not implying that either is sure to happen in the near future, just that it's a lot more likely with us than with Blackburn). It might be a lateral move right now, but in the long run surely it feels a lot better to be a Newcastle player than a Blackburn one. Couple that with the fact that Hughes needs the cash and he's got a ready made replacement up front in Derbyshire, and I say he's biting our hands off for around 10m.

I think I'd honestly be tempted if he wasn't almost the same age as Shearer

Hopefully you'll be posting in the own up thread on Sunday.