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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.

I actually haven't seen that one before. Funny stuff. I actually spent a few minutes this afternoon watching youtube clips of Ronaldinho. How this player could ever become "bad" is beyond me. Surely he's still class, just getting turned into a scapegoat at Barca because of the politics. Not that he'll ever come to us, or City for that matter but.... Great player.

I just recalled that after Luque's debut I was genuinely in love with him. For some reason he was really passionate and getting stuck in that day. Thought he had bags of skill with a great attitude to boot. Turned out I was wrong on both counts, of course.

There's something that doesn't quite add up here...... I mean Ferdinand should be on the list but there is obviously one man who deserves to win I find it amusing how we can be consistently spanked by Gerrard every time we play Liverpool, yet our fans still severely underrate him. He doesn't deserve an England place, I know that much. Going by his form at international level btw, not for club. Maybe if we put a Liver Bird on the England shirt he'd perform? Well yes, the man either cares less about international football, or works less well with the national teams tactics, just like several other excellent players across the world do. (cf) Henry, although a lot of that may be down to England as a whole having been shit for a while now. Still one of the best at club level though.

There's something that doesn't quite add up here...... I mean Ferdinand should be on the list but there is obviously one man who deserves to win I find it amusing how we can be consistently spanked by Gerrard every time we play Liverpool, yet our fans still severely underrate him.

That's why I feel Kaka is a better player than Cristiano, simply due to the fact he can control and dominate a game. Something which Cristiano doesn't have in his locker, despite being one of the best players in the world. Ronaldo doesn't need to control games. Man U could be at 30% posession and playing horribly: he's still liable to pop out of nowhere and score a hat trick. Yes, he's an individualist that doesn't bring out the best in his teammate like Zidane was, and to a lesser extent, Kaka is capable of. But he's the best f****** individualist alive. And in that sense he's absolutely irreplacable.

Drogba. I always love those "shut up and get out of the way: I don't care what you're doing, I'm just gonna score." strikers.

Ashley's got 100m, right?

Yeah maybe, but no other striker did, Oba did. Put it this way, if Roeder had actually gotten Kuyt instead of Oba...

Aye, good point. I'd say a small non-alcoholic "family" section is a good idea in general, not just for practicing Muslims et al.

I suppose whether you hate Man U/Liverpool/Chelsea more really depends on the people around you. I don't know a lot of Liverpool fans and my best mate just happens to be one so I don't particularly mind them, but Man U fans... Jesus... I can't stand being around them.

This thread is tempting fate WAY too much. Just reading through it gave me the chills.

I think it's exactly the opposite for him. He's a very, very good player who's not getting as much credit as he could because he's only playing a bit part and is playing alongside the greatest player in the world at the moment. I've seen him playing for the national team countless amount of times, and seeing him play with shit players actually makes me realize how much depth he has in his game that doesn't shine when he's at Man U because he's surrounded by players like Ronaldo and Rooney. Aside from his obvious advantages (versatility, work ethic, pace) he's got excellent technique and surprising creativity and vision. I honestly think the SWP comparison is apt and that he'd walk into any side outside of the top 3 right now. He's very underrated right now because of the players around them and the fact that Man United's formation doesn't really play to his strengths, but this is the lad who almost single handedly dismantled AC Milan three years ago. Unfortunately he's convinced himself that he's happy warming the bench for Ronaldo and Nani at ManU. Would love to see him move in the summer to a side like us or Villa and really show the world what he can do.

I think this thread has gotten to the point where lists of names don't even register in people's brains.