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Smith is worse. Ameobi -> free, local lad, good attitude, doesn't get booked as often, has actually scored in the past two years.

which of the goals should Given have stopped yesterday, Adebayor's super-close range header? Flamini's goal of the season? or the one that was offside?

I would. 4th bottom or 5th~8th bottom(where we're most likely to end up), what's the difference?

Nigerian left backs bring back bad memories

Juan Sebastian Veron 1998 - £15m 1999 - £18m 2001 - £28m 2003 - £14m Rio Ferdinand 2000 - £18m 2002 - £29m Nicolas Anelka 1999 - £23m 2000 - £20m 2002 - £12m (Keegan) 2005 - £7m 2006 - £8m 2008 - £14m OK, only 3 players, but transfer fees have been ridiculous for years. I'm sure Keegan is aware of it, worst thing now is we'll have a reputation as being money-bags and teams will look to screw an extra few million out of us. Prices for world class players have always been bonkers. It's the price of upper-middle tier talent that has been inflated so much in recent years. cf) Darren Bent - 16m, Ashley Young - 9.75m, Michael Carrick - 18m, Yakubu - 11.25m, Craig Gordon - 9m etc. etc. It's not that Keegan wouldnt' be completely unaware of this, it's just that the reality of how completely ridiculous things have become will only hit home when he has clubs asking for 10m+ for anyone with decent premiership talent.

Aye, if only they had internet and TV up in Scotland, cos prices were cheap until 3 years ago. You can't deny that prices have skyrocketed in the last year or two. Reckon we would have gotten 10m+ for Jenas if we were selling him today.

Think we'll probably end up getting Van Bueyten on loan and nobody else. (EDIT: Maybe that Barry Robson fella on the cheap as well) In a week or so Keegan will realize how ridiculous prices for established premiership players has become and will just end up saying "f*** it. "20m for Bentley! That's more than I payed for Shearer! "

I'm not necessarily sure it's the best of ideas to give a 17 year old his first first-team start in an away game in front of 70,000 rabid opposition fans playing agianst one of the best teams in the world. 70k? 60. Was thinking about Old Trafford for a moment there.

I'm not necessarily sure it's the best of ideas to give a 17 year old his first first-team start in an away game in front of 70,000 rabid opposition fans playing agianst one of the best teams in the world.

Would be near impossible Bentley. If Blackburn sold him they'd have to completely rework the way they play and I don't see any amount of money being worth it for them. Some sort of crazy insane sum (20m+) would be the only way to make them flinch. They might not even want that since money is not an object for most Premiership clubs right now. Carrick seems mildly more realistic since Man U would let him go if they could turn a profit. Don't know if the player himself would fancy coming home rather than fighting for a spot at Man U though. Similar logic applies for Wright-Phillips (minus the "turn a profit" part, of course.) A potential plus factor could be that Anelka would push him further out of the first team. (They still play a 4-3-3, right?) Berbatov seems the most likely option providing we're willing to match Tottenham's undoubtfully ridiculous asking price. I don't think either party has ever been happy in the Tottenham-Berbatov relationship and I'd think Spurs would be willing to let go for ridiculous money and he'd be willing to take a sideways step to the club he supported as a boy. In any case, none of these names are coming to us in any scenario for anything under 20 million imo.

ah, the striker that can finish but can't make chances, or the striker that can make chances but can't finish. Choices, choices.

Just don't bite. Obviously ignored on his own board so has taken a little trip down here to get some attention. Must be wanking at all these people quoting his posts.

spot on tbh, although id give enrique another point cos he looks good going forward albert syle Agree generally, except I'd give Roz 6 and Duff 3 Roz played very well, especially in the second half. I stand by my opinion that Shola was decent.

By the way, Owen can apparently no longer score unless its absolutely layed onto him in a plate. Can't create chances, can't be a poacher who scores a dozen tap-ins a season. He could be the best finisher in the universe for all I care, that doesn't matter untill he can figure out something he can do on the pitch.

The fact that he's not good enough for the top 6 has absolutely no bearing at the moment because 1. He's ours right now, like it or not. 2. Nobody will have him. 3. We're not going to be sitting anywhere near the top six for a while. So as long as he's ours and non-saleable, why not use him when we have to and give him credit when he preforms to the best of his (limited) abilities. I certainly wouldn't rather stick in a 19 year old who wasn't good enough for a Championship bottom side, much less the top six. 1/ What a reference. 2/ Norwich 3/ The only way to improve is to get players in who are better than the ones who have let us down in the last 3 years (at least) Your nitpicking is so pointless that it doesn't even properly pick the nits. Again, everyone knows Ameobi isn't good enough for the top six. But he's ours right now and we didn't have anyone else to use today except a nineteen year old striker who was warming the bench for a championship side. Selling him for nowt accomplishes absolutely nothing but further decreasing our squad depth. (Assuming he'd even agree to join a Championsihp side. HIGHLY doubtful.) You can sell him when we have five strikers who are clearly far and away better than he is. We have him, so use him when we have to, and acknowledge him when he plays to the best of his limited abilities. That's all I'm saying.

What?? There was no one else to play up front, who else should he have played? Carroll. Or a wandering stray dog. Because Carroll has been brilliant when he's played? The lads no better then Ameobi at the moment. I haven't seen much of Carroll therefore will give him a chance before I decide whether he's good. I don't need to see Ameobi play one second more to know he is nowhere near good enough. Seriously, if you think Carroll would have done any better than Ameobi today, you're just not watching the game. The lad had a decent shift. If you can accept that Stephen Carr can have non-cringeworthy games from time to time, why can't you give Ameobi the same benefit. How many times did he hit the target? None. But nobody else did either. How many chances did he create for others ? Several. I'd argue that every chance we had this game was either an Ameobi layoff or off a set piece. How many good passes? See above How many pointless free kicks did he give away? none. I don't recall any of his fouls being particularly bad. If thats a decent shift we will never get anywhere near the top 6. completely immaterial. See my above reply.

The fact that he's not good enough for the top 6 has absolutely no bearing at the moment because 1. He's ours right now, like it or not. 2. Nobody will have him. 3. We're not going to be sitting anywhere near the top six for a while. So as long as he's ours and non-saleable, why not use him when we have to and give him credit when he preforms to the best of his (limited) abilities. I certainly wouldn't rather stick in a 19 year old who wasn't good enough for a Championship bottom side, much less the top six.

What?? There was no one else to play up front, who else should he have played? Carroll. Or a wandering stray dog. Because Carroll has been brilliant when he's played? The lads no better then Ameobi at the moment. I haven't seen much of Carroll therefore will give him a chance before I decide whether he's good. I don't need to see Ameobi play one second more to know he is nowhere near good enough. Seriously, if you think Carroll would have done any better than Ameobi today, you're just not watching the game. The lad had a decent shift. If you can accept that Stephen Carr can have non-cringeworthy games from time to time, why can't you give Ameobi the same benefit.

Ugh... This is honestly the best you're ever going to see Ameobi play. Ever. Deserves a 7

We tried to play Keegan-style football without the required organization, and that obviously wasn't going to go very well. Bolton played very well organized anti-football. First half, they nearly played us off the pitch. Thankfully, 10-behind-the-ball tactics have their weakness in that it's very, very difficult to concentrate with that plan for 90 minutes, and it showed as Bolton started breaking down at the sixty minute mark. Unfortunately, we lacked the quality up front to take advantage of their collapse. Ultimately, this just goes to show that if we want Keegan-style football we're going to have to buy some Keegan-style players, and more importantly, get some organization going. Like Keegan said, every player on the ball should have three options for passes, and we won't get that until the players have a good understanding. <Ratings> Given - 7 Not much to do. Thank God for the wondersave. Again. Enrique - 7 Improving rapidly. Solid on the defense, strong going forward. A bit worried about his man marking in set pieces though. Carr - 6 Not much defensive action but very decent going forward. Seems to be regaining his old form, a couple of years too late though. Cacapa - 7 Used his class to overcome Davies' bullying and put him in his back pocket. Taylor - 7 Fullbacks were pushing up a lot, so Taylor had a lot to do stopping Bolton's advance on the wings. Positive effort. Rozhenal - 7 Very active, started out shaky but was dominant in the last thirty minutes. Somehow turns out to be our best passer. Duff - 6 Started out bright but tired quickly. Seems to be regaining a lot of his old form, hope he gets there quickly. Milner - 5 Erased off the pitch by Gardner in the first half, was very active in our second half surge but all his crosses/shots somehow magnetically attatched to Bolton defenders. Not his best game. N'Zogbia - 6 Has the potential to be a good central midfielder but has to learn how to play there first. Dallies too much on the ball and tries to do it all himself instead of distributing it. Ameobi - 7 Eight years into his senior career he's finally learned how to hold up the ball. Impressive link up play against a physical Bolton side, hope he can keep it up. Honestly think he did better than Viduka would have. Owen - 5 Not there. Part of it has to with the service but I'm beginning to question whether Owen can survive without his pace. Yes, he was decent without blinding pace at Real, and his first season with us, but post World Cup injury he's gotten even slower and it seems to have been one blow too much. If he doesn't have the pace to create his own chances and doesn't have the instinct to be a good poacher, I'm not sure what exactly he's supposed to be doing. LuaLua - 6 decent cameo. Wish we had actual impact subs though.

Megson came knowing exactly what he had to do. Cram ten players into the defence, slow us down, gum things up, kill our momentum. Wait till we make a bad pass (inevitable due to our lack of organization) and go on the counter attack. So far he's succeeded, keeping us completely quiet till half time. Fans are subdued, players lose their belief, and it's no longer a forgone conclusion that we'll win. It's up to Keegan now to instill some belief back into the players at halftime. Steinsson and Gardner in particular are having monster games, completely shutting down our flanks. Thank God they're all absolutely horrible on the attack or I'd be worried that they'd nick a goal before FT.

...The fact that people aren't foaming at the mouth at the thought of having to start Shola is a testament to the good feeling the Keegan appointment has caused

Think we need to hire some new designers for the club shop... Couldn't help but admire some of the tasteful club apparel Liverpool had when I was last at Anfield. Thought our stuff might get better with Ashley in charge, but so far that hasn't been the case

Is he really? Well, hope Shola is ready to prove a point...

Really hope we win comfortably so we can extend the feelgood atmosphere another week. Although, mind you Bolton just signed a decentish player who has a bad habit of scoring wondergoals against us...