oldtype

one thing's for sure, in the extremely unlikely event that Smith is still a starting striker after Martins is fit again, Keegan has some serious explaining to do.

not to make any rash judgements about his capability (I do agree that he's a better player than the s*** he showed under Sam) but the adage "absence makes the heart grows fonder" seems to hold true for players in our squad. Geremi doesn't play for us for a couple months, and suddenly he's not s***. Martins hasn't played for a couple months so he's the answer to our problems. All ignoring that these were players that we were slagging off heavily before they left for the ANC. You know why Emre's lasted as long as he has? Because he's always out injured at just about the right time. Think Milner and Taylor could do very well with a two-month break right around now.

Norwich would be about his level. He won't be dropped though. For some reason every manager he works with falls in love with him. Credit to the guy, I suppose he works REALLY REALLY REALLY hard in training.

I just get madly depressed when I realize that players like Pato and the likes of Alan Smith are actually playing the same sport.

Absloutely. After the Man U game i deliberatly avoided this place because i couldn't be arsed to see the same nosensical contageous whinging. After a day or so people normally calm down and see the bigger picture. I am going to be happy on so many levels if we win Blackburn. Hopefully the Keegan good-feeling bandwagon that lasted about 30 minutes will get started again once we pick up a win. I remember being so happy when Owen scored against Boro and Villa because my heart was singing "FUCK YEAH, we win this, all the whinging is over and we can have fun supporting this club again." Didn't really work out in either case, of course.

As I was saying. You know where it leads though. First there's the honeymoon period, where everybody's hush-hush about saying anything bad about the manager. Then the criticism starts coming up (not that this is a bad thing mind.) Then you start having people who say that they "knew from the start that it was the wrong appointment" or "have been consistently saying that this will end in tears." (about where we are now) Then the obligatory "who if not Roeder/Allardyce/Keegan?" thread appears. People start getting excited over top-shelf managerial targets that we would never get in a million years. Before you know it "Taxi for Keegan!" is being sung at SJP and we've got ourselves a new manager again. And the merry-go-round continues.

The cycle is accelerating. Roeder got nearly a full season before people were screaming for his head. Sam got about a dozen games or so before Portsmouth, Derby, and Liverpool happened. KK? Out in six. Souness said in an interview that even Shearer would only get about six months more than any other manager. At the current rate of inflation, that means he'll get exactly six months and three games or so.

Why would he have to drop a decent player? Because he has to drop one of Duff, Milner, and Zog? Not the most difficult of decisions. seems pretty hard to me Put it this way: I'd give Duff away for nothing tomorrow if there was a club stupid enough to take him. Well, good job your name isn't Kevin Keegan then.

Why would he have to drop a decent player? Because he has to drop one of Duff, Milner, and Zog? Not the most difficult of decisions. seems pretty hard to me

Why would he have to drop a decent player? Because he has to drop one of Duff, Milner, and Zog?

I don't get it. He was a class player beyond a shadow of a doubt. What the fuck happened to the lad. Oh, now I remember. NUFC happened.

I think it's just a case of Keegan not being able to make up his mind picking between Zog, Duff, and Milner. So he just says to himself: "hey, I'm Kevin Keegan, I like attacking fullbacks. Fuck it I'll have Zog at LB. Problem solved." The sooner he takes a long hard look at things and realizes that unfortunately, he's going to have to drop one of the three decent players in our squad, the better. Enrique has looked good every time he's played and he's got bags of potential. But at this rate, he's going to fuck off back to Spain for less than half the money we payed for him.

Can " I " really be classed as a word ? If it's not a word, what is it then?

A million times more admirable than booing. No matter how s*** the preformance was. Foriegner? Windup?

A million times more admirable than booing. No matter how shit the preformance was.

The more I start thinking of this as us v. Reading the more I worry. Neither of us are playing like any semblance of a football club, but the vast majority of Reading's squad either came through the academy or has spent the best parts of their careers there. When push comes to shove and relegation draws near they will play their hearts out to save the club they love. As for us, I can't help but think the vast majority of our players are probably just thinking "oh f*** it, if we get relegated I'll just jump ship." The likes of N'Zogbia, Viduka, and Enrique probably already have one foot out the door. How many of our players do you think would be honestly devastated if we're relegated? I suppose Taylor, Milner, and some of the young lads may show some tears on the pitch, but would anyone else care? It's this sort of thing that disturbs me and makes me wonder if we can come on top when the do-or-die match vs Reading or whoever else ends up being our rivals for 17th place comes around. You lot better win! If you can't beat reading we want our points from two weeks ago back

Fulham will not go down this season imo. Say bye bye to Derby, Sunderland and Wigan. Fulham could concievably survive if their luck turns around in a big way, but Sunderland and Wigan? NUFC are more likely to go down than either of those two. Maybe Brimingham.

Carr, Butt, Smith, Ameobi, Emre should all be flogged. Hopefully the 5 combined will net us about 10m. N'Zogbia will probably leave. Enrique as well unless his treatment improves dramatically. Bare minimum to avoid relegation next season: 1 striker, 1 CM, 1 LB What we'll need in additoin to that to challenge for top 7: 1 GK, another CM, a LM, a CB, a 1 RM Every single one of those players is going to have to be decent quality. Oh, and this isn't even taking into account the fact that Owen, Duff, Beye, Faye, and Geremi will all be a year older next season. No telling when any one of those could break down physically. Basically looking at an expenditure of 4~8 players at about 6~10m a piece. Mike Ashley, I hope you're willing to spend some money.

hope we sell him abroad at least. Would be pissed if he comes good and starts scoring on us year after year after year.

Worse than Derby and Fulham? Fulham have been decent, just horribly unlucky. No worse than Birmingham or Bolton. Reading is playing a good deal worse than we are though, not that it's any consolation.

does anybody know what exactly is happening with Enrique? Thought somebody said he was back in Spain?

Jesus, why don't you put a quid on nuclear war to break out and the FUCKING WORLD TO END while you're at it. :rant:

Reading haven't played yet though. My panic level if they beat Villa tomorrow will be off the fucking charts.

possibly the worst game of his career today.

Carroll definitely deserves to be on the bench every game now. At the very least he should be yard ahead the pecking order over Ameobi since it looks like he basically does everything Ameobi does but better. As for Edgar and Kadar, throwing kids into the back line in the thick of a relegation battle is not a good idea, no matter how shit our current defenders are.