Lloydie

I know I've said he's good before, but anyone watching Babel on Saturday would have been disappointed, he had a shocker. (at least in the first half, I turned off after that) Mindyou, the whole Dutch team were poor on Saturday.

Am I the only one who's enjoyed the absence of scandal and bad behaviour from our players this season? He's a mentalist, and we don't need him.

First, I don't think the hole is this deep. So I'd like to suggest scenario 5. 5. Relatively little is spent on new signings, but free from European football and an injury crisis the league campaign goes well ensuring decent gates. A settled squad turns out to be more use than trophy signings, Martins, Ameobi and Owen terrorise premiership defences and a couple of well researched defensive reinforcements plus more encouraging performances from Taylor, Edgar and Huntingdon ensure that losing at home to Sheffield is a thing of the past. Still not enough to unseat the top four from their lofty positions, but more than enough to see us next year occupying the slots Bolton, Reading and Everton and Spurs are currently fighting over. With the club doing well again someone finally convinces the Chairman to sell...

Martins is about as good as Crouch, but has much more potential. Thing about Crouch is he practically forces you to build a style of play around him as if you're not playing to his strengths he's not much use. That can work, Keegan built a team around Cole, and thinking of players of similar build Sunderland built one around Quinn and Everton built one around Ferguson, but it's taking a big gamble on one players' form and fitness. Personally I think he'd be overpriced. Martins, Owen, Shola and Dyer is fine as a front four assuming they're all fit. If we were to sign someone I'd be after someone with pace, muscle and finishing ability like Bent now or Hasslebaink a few years back, and the player I'd move on is probably Dyer who just doesn't look right up front to me, but seems to have a problem with playing on the wing.

Yup. Sevilla spent no money, rebuilt their whole side and are challenging for the title in Spain, so it can be done. AZ are another example, came up through the Dutch league with good coaching and very little else.

He'd have to own less than 10% of NUFC PLC to be allowed to bid on another club

He's right, our forward line isn't too shabby. In fact our first XI isn't too shabby compared to most of the league. The problem is lack of depth throughout squad. If Man U win the league this year (and I think they will) a lot of it will be down to having had four fit forwards for most of the season. Ferguson has always tried to have that available to him, and he's always had a good mix of different types. What we might miss in our front line is the Rooney / Sheringham type player who sits off the front and makes things happen. Since I don't believe Dyer is a striker I'd say that if we buy for the forward line it should be for someone in that kind of mould, although who that would be I have no idea.

At no stage was Chopra a better player than Shola. But he should have been given more of a crack at the first team at some stage, because I don't think he did have a chance to prove himself properly. Still, if he keeps going as he is he'll find himself back in the premiership sooner or later and we can find out then... One thing that is certain is that he's getting more games now at Cardiff than he would here.

Don't think he'll go - at least this close season - and if he does we'll get very good money for him. Of course next season we'll have Owen as well (if fit) so it's not like we'd be completely stuffed in the international quality striker department...

Don't know why but I used to think he was an idiot - must have been the hairdo as I can't remember him saying anything I thought was daft - that, and some of the other stuff he's written for the Guardian has really changed my mind though. Think I'd agree with all of it. Especially this bit...

Could be alright, but not at 2mio. Would only make sense if that's one of those deals where its a small amount up front, then more in exchange for appearances, u18 / u21 call ups, a percentage of the fee if he's sold on inside the first contract and that kind of thing...

It's bollocks isn't it? Hargreaves is not remotely similar to Emre. With Butt, Parker and Hargreaves in midfield we could recreate Jo Royale's 'Dogs of War' Everton side, but we wouldn't win much. Quality player but we've got better things to do with the money.

I wanted us to get Kuyt, and still think he's a quality player (work rate, strength, team work...), but Martins is looking more and more like he could be something very special. Really looking forward to seeing how things go with Owen or Shola next to him. Shame he missed that one on one though - something for Owen to help him with.

Thought he played well last night, and you have to say he's looked good since his most recent comeback. Still haven't seen anything other than highlights of him playing alongside Gooch though. For their first goal there wasn't enough pressure when they cleared the ball down the middle of the park, and my first thought was 'where the hell was Bramble', which on later reflection I realised should have been 'where the hell was one of Bramble, Butt, Parker or Taylor'. I wonder if we've now reached the stage where when anything goes wrong people's first thought is to look at the pitch and think either a) Bramble wasn't anywhere near that - he was out of position b) Bramble was right there - must have been his fault Just saying it's getting a little hard to be objective about him after so much sustained criticism.

good answer We even play them theme music every game - but do they come.... I'm going home now.

I wouldn't have him, for two big reasons. First West Ham's season has been awful, the dressing rooms gone to pieces and I don't recall a single bit of commentary along the lines of 'You've got to feel sorry for Ferdinand, he's put in a big performance but come out on the losing side again'. I think that when things got tough he started thinking about his next club, not the next game. I wouldn't want that in a Newcastle player. If he's as good as he's supposed to be he should be standing out amid the mess that is West Ham, not blending in nicely. Secondly if we bring in a new centre back it should be someone with proven leadership skills. Maybe Taylor or Gooch will step up to that role, but right now we'd get the most from someone vocal who will lead the back 4. Ideally in the 24-28 sort of age range, where we know we can build the defence around them without worrying about their knees going or them losing their pace or whatever.

What would it take to get the spark back? This season? A few good wins - starting with AZ, and Emre back and playing well. We've lacked creativity the last few games and it's starting to become clear that after a left back the player we need is a creative central midfielder to cover for him. Next season? Well the left back and creative midfielder would help, a good start to the season should see us putting pressure on for a champions league spot rather than avoiding a relegation scrap and trying to 'push for Europe'. We've got the front players to do well, and if the defence gets settled I think we'd be surprised at how well those players could do. But that's all temporary. If you read the accounts, look at the structure of the board and some of the decision making that goes on it's clear that the board aren't up to their job. I don't mean in the 'did they get the right manager' kind of way, but in the 'are they cut out to run a business this size' kind of way. We're not well run, we're insulated from our mismanagement by high season ticket prices and loyal fans. We don't want a spark, we want a fire; and that means a new board.

I rate Shola, glad to see him on the way back. If he'd been fit he'd have got 15 goals this season and made Martins better. He started the season with five in ten games, that's not bad going...

AZ are exactly the kind of team we don't like playing. No superstars, but disciplined, well organised, well coached and fit. They were nowhere a few years ago, came up, nearly won the league and have cemented themselves as a top flight first division team over here since then. Parallels might be Leicester under Martin O Neill, or Bolton... Give me Fenerbace any day. update : those parallels are more in terms of style / cost / small club doing well than nearly winning the league...

The numbers are a bit odd because (for instance) he's been able to rack up a lot of easy wins in the UEFA cup, while Robson had to play Champions League group games. However the number I'm interested in is the one someone posted a couple of weeks back, which was the number of league points he'd picked up in his first full year. I think it was 65 or 63, which is really rather good. Not sure we'll make that this season, although it's possible. But I'd see over 60 as a realistic target for next season.

I'm happy with this kind of thing as a general policy. Alec Ferguson has some kind of age limit at Man U and while he breaks it occasionally he's generally signed young players and it's worked out well for him. It fits with the idea Glenn talked about sometime last year where he explained that if you assume a club needs to sign 3-4 players a year and has a £20 million budget you end up with 4 £5m players, but if you can bring a few young players through you get two for free and two £10m players. I think he really does believe that players are something you invest in, both as individuals and in the financial sense. If you look at our squad now we can expect more next year from a lot of players, Martins, Taylor, N'Zogbia, the assorted lads in defence, Krul, Milner. It's a nice position to be in.

Beckham should be in the squad. Hard worker, cool head, good at keeping the ball and a threat from set pieces and corners. There are games where you're going to want that. Whether he should start games or be used as a sub depends on the opposition and the tactics, but not to have him along is just daft. Of course right now he's playing in La Liga and presumably fit enough for top level international games. If he can maintain that level of fitness in the Major League fair enough, if he can't then drop him.

Results, satisfactory sounds about right. I've given him a good because I think he's got a lot of the off field stuff and longer term things running well. Plus the number of young players he's blooded is a great thing.

OK, those are uncannily similar posts. I'm going to stop now.

I was going to start a thread like this.... Anyway I reckon 7th to 10th. We've got Boro, City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Blackburn at home and Watford, Reading, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Charlton and Wigan away. If they were the other way round I'd be really confident of picking up a lot of points at home. As it is we're going to have to learn how to beat average teams on their own grounds. Still, I can imagine we might win six of those games which would give us 54 points. Not great, but not terrible either given the injuries. Of course we also have to win the UEFA cup between now and the end of the season (does the holder qualify?) Martin