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btw, I'm sorry but the Iraqis are the most fucking dirty team I've ever seen. They make some cringe-worthy fouls and fall all over the pitch trying to waste time. my God, their keeper just called on the Physio for the FIFTH time today. Christ, get a room.

Well, we don't look like scoring and our defenders can barely stand now. Just hope we don't give away an embarassing goal before the shootout. If there's any sort of justice in the world, we won't be winning it.

Well, we're shit again. No teeth on the attack whatsoever as usual. If Iraq could actually play football we'd be getting slaughtered. Looks like another match going to pens...

I remember reading somewhere about Owen that he didn't really like taking penalites. I'd just give them to Nobby. On a side note, who do you think will be taking corners and free kicks now? I was always puzzled why Roeder was giving them to Milner instead of Nobby.

I know there are lots of players who contribute without scoring, but, but... I mean seriously, are we watching the same games? He does NOTHING. And Viduka scores quite a bit for the Aussies

S.J. Park. If ever a player had to be signed purely for the name alone, it must be him. Actually he's J.S, so we're a bit off there. Seriously wouldn't mind him though. I think he'd be absolutely fantastic for any team in the league other than ManU.

He can play pretty much anywhere on the pitch, so he'd be ideal for cover. Not a bad signing on the cheap. As for Asian strikers, I think I can categorically say that none of them at the moment are anywhere near good enough for us. Maybe Hashemian?

I echo the sentiment. If Fergie's willing to give this guy regular playing time, he's got to be doing something right. 6m isn't that outrageous a fee considering what the average transfer is looking like in this window with all the TV money flying left and right. I would say a good buy. There's a chance that he could fail to adapt outside ManU, but there's no such thing as a signing without risk, so that's fine. ...If we're out to snag ManU squad players, would rather have us go for Park though. (No bias there, of course )

My God... How? He hasn't scored (which in itself is pretty damning considering his position), and he hasn't made an assist or contributed to overall play in any meaningful way. Once defenders realize how simplistic his play style is they can completely wrap him up by just bullying him when he tries to get into position. He's been absolutely destroyed by some veryweak defenders this tournament, and I find that unacceptable. As for the two full backs, they did well, but we should remember that we're watching the Asian Cup here. I'd be surprised if either was better than Ramage.

Nakamura I'd sign, i havent seen Takahara, and Aloisi is no where near good enough for us. My only memory of Takahara is watching him miss an open goal against Croatia in the world cup. Takahara is prolly better than all the Korean strikers tbh. Cho Jae Jin is the best/only target-man in Asia tbh,(bar Australia) but in terms of a 'striker' perhaps. But I doubt you've seen many korean strikers. That's biased judgement because you are a Korean, and i am not a Japanese. So if I say all chinese players are crap, then it's not biased because I'm not Chinese? You haven't even seen Cho Jae Jin play, and while it is true that there are many strikers who are more lethal than Cho Jae Jin, it is also true that most Asian strikers are shadow strikers, not target men. I'm just appalled how if I judge a striker from my own country, then it's biased, yet you can judge and write off a whole nation without even watching their players and not be considered bias. Yes you are right, all chinese players are crap. What about lethal Man U striker Dong Fangzhou? To be fair, it doesn't take a lot to be better than all the Korean strikers. Striking quality in this country is at a shameful all time low. Cho Jae-Jin is one of those Inzahgi-style poachers who doesn't influence the game at all until he scores. Problem being he couldn't finish to save his life either. Totally incorrect. Cho Jae Jin is NOT a poacher, have you even watched him play? He's a target-man, he's Korea's version of Viduka for Australia. He totally influences Korea's play, winning headers, holding the ball up, and Korea's formation would break down without him. The Korean media slates him but why do you think he has almost a guaranteed start in the Korean line-up? It's because he's the only target man the team has. He's the only player in the Korean squad who can mark the defence and win headers. Calling Cho Jae Jin a poacher is seriously far-fetched. He doesn't score many goals and often flops many of his shots because he is under too much pressure by himself (you honestly think a target-man who plays for a crap team can score?). It's one of the reasons why Shearer had so much trouble finding the back of the net in his last two seasons, he changed his game into a target-man, but we weren't controlling play, and he no-longer had the ablility to be a 'complete' striker and score out of nothing. In the 06 world cup, cho was horrible against Togo, but he put in two stunning performances against France and Switzerland, notably against Switzerland he was the only Korean player who I thought could hold his head in pride. He won almost every header against the physically bigger Swiss defence. The problem was that, when he won the headers, there was never anyone playing off him to collect the headers that he won. He is a class target man in a crap team, that's why he looks bad. A target man can't impress in a crap team like a shadow striker or a winger can. EDIT: And NO Exilim, you were being full of s*** so I decided to join in . Any attempt to use him as a link-up style target man role has failed miserably. He was utterly exposed at the World Cup in my opinion. Got completely handled by the likes of Thuram, Gallas, Senderos, and the nameless Togolese dudes. He rarely got to send up flick-ons, and when they did, they usually flew aimlessly into opposing defenders. (To be fair, I think it was a flick-on from him that lead to the Park goal against France though) At the end of the day, he can't jump, he's not THAT tall, and his upper body strength is good but pales in comparison to that of European center halfs. He will never be an effective target man outside of the J-League. (In which he wouldn't be playing if he knew what was good for his career)

Nakamura I'd sign, i havent seen Takahara, and Aloisi is no where near good enough for us. My only memory of Takahara is watching him miss an open goal against Croatia in the world cup. Takahara is prolly better than all the Korean strikers tbh. Cho Jae Jin is the best/only target-man in Asia tbh,(bar Australia) but in terms of a 'striker' perhaps. But I doubt you've seen many korean strikers. That's biased judgement because you are a Korean, and i am not a Japanese. So if I say all chinese players are crap, then it's not biased because I'm not Chinese? You haven't even seen Cho Jae Jin play, and while it is true that there are many strikers who are more lethal than Cho Jae Jin, it is also true that most Asian strikers are shadow strikers, not target men. I'm just appalled how if I judge a striker from my own country, then it's biased, yet you can judge and write off a whole nation without even watching their players and not be considered bias. Yes you are right, all chinese players are crap. What about lethal Man U striker Dong Fangzhou? To be fair, it doesn't take a lot to be better than all the Korean strikers. Striking quality in this country is at a shameful all time low. Cho Jae-Jin is one of those Inzahgi-style poachers who doesn't influence the game at all until he scores. Problem being he couldn't finish to save his life either.

well, we're through. We don't deserve it, but we're through. Now we just have to wait until we can have our quad-annual Iranian spanking delivered in the quarters. Fuck, we're bad. Almost dropped points against Indonesia.

I may not have said all that specific detail Jai, but that is what I meant by the company being all his (meaning, off the LSE and without all the fuss associated with a PLC). you so did not mean it that way Oooh - but I am not biting tonight! The whole concept of him criticizing OTHER people for being repetetive is actually kind of ironic...

don't see anything wrong with this one don't see anything wrong with this one aye, although thinking of the disembodied ghost of Shearer wandering the halls of St. James on matchday does frighten me a bit.

I think the most likely explanation is that he forgot about the transfer overnight and thought he was still playing for Man U. Lovely player, brilliant club. The Mackems and him are a match born in heaven I tell you!

You're from Bahrain I take it? Run Oh well, credit to your team. We were absolutely woeful today. We were obviously missing Park's creativity on the attack (well, him and Seol... And YP Lee, and NI Kim, and about half a dozen others), but we shouldn't need him to cruise past the group stages in the Asian Cup for ****'s sake.

Heads will roll for this stupidity. Losing to Bahrain and crashing out of the group stages. Madness.

Should be fun with Viduka involved. Not holding out much hope for us (Korea) actually winning it though, what with us losing our 4 best players to injury. I hope Lee Chun-Soo can turn some heads and get himself back into Europe, at least. Canny player, personally thinking he'd be at least as good as Nakamura given the chance.

Can we just ban him already? WUM who tries to prolong his life on this board by occasionally pretending to be reasonable tbh.

HAHA. South Africa may have more ''wealth'' than Netherlands, Belgium or Sweden. But it is by no means as developed, and the standard of living and quality of living cannot compare to Western European nations. Please do not say s*** like this to a Global Economics Degree student. When did I say that quality of living was better there than in N/B/S? I was just making the point that the place is really not the shithole that you're making it out to be. Don't need to be a "Global Economics Degree student " to figure that out. Really sir, being a random undergrad who's just happened to take a couple ec courses does not give you any more authority than anyone else on this board.

lol, seriously, this is friggin South Africa not Uganda or something. In the larger metropolitan centers it's really closer to Europe. This is NOT some lawless war-torn shambles like some other African countries are. According to IMF, the place is wealthier than the Netherlands, Belgium, or Sweden. The less developed areas certainly have crime problems, but from what I can tell they don't really seem to be any worse than say, southern Italy. As long as the organizing committee does their job (admittedly not a sure thing), the tournament will be just fine.

Newcastle isn't exactly the best place for somebody with his confidence. (or lack of it) Then again, it's probably a good thing that he can't speak English. Very good player. Can be just as influential as Ronaldinho if he gets a team built around him.

The general mood on this board seems to be Dyer = Dogshit Lampard = Dogshit so I suppose Dyer=Lampard is plausible.

Good player, but 30, out for 4 months, and asking for 80k a week. Sam must secretly be in love with him or something. There is no other explanation.

Thing is, we almost got into the top six with a Souness/Roeder tag team in 2005/2006. It's really not that hard. Heck, even last season I think we were likely to make it if the fallout at Akmaar (nope, can't spell that) didn't happen. Just bringing out the abilities of our current squad 100% (with no injuries) should be enough for a top 6~7 finish. Granted, the league should end up being a bit tougher than it was two years ago, but still, I think Sam should be setting his goals at top 7 at least.