thenige

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Jansen Poor lad, shame about his crash else he still had a chance as a decent professional.

The only positive to take out of this is there is no way they'll be able to afford Modric and his wages unless Berbatov is off in the summer. mackems.gif

Perfectly valid question, James was just being like that to have a laugh because he knows her well from his Liverpool days. She knows a fair few of the players and generally is pretty knowledgeable of football. Yes the woman who did MOTD was pretty useless, but to categorises all women in football like that is pretty narrow-minded tbh. And aren't footballer interviews all about clichés anyway?

Out for two weeks according to official site due to injury in reserves, Kev said otherwise he'd have made the squad.

Dunno how realistic a target he is, but my one (along I'm sure with a lot of Premiership managers) is a player we've been linked with in the past, Arshavin of Zenit St. Petersberg. Anyone who's been watching the UEFA Cup this season, and in particular the game tonight against Leverkusen knows he is a lightning quick player with a lot about him. Also he's used to the cold so unlike a lot of our other foreign imports wouldn't need too much weather acclimatisation!

The question is how many players have played for Newcastle in the premier league. How many pre war players have lived long enough to play in the premier league? Doh.

Because the question was asked on the other forum with that stipulation - if you included Irish players I imagine you'd have to look up pre-war players. Those not from the British Isles makes it generally easier to get a rough idea of who have played for the club from abroad, and compare to other teams.

His technique when striking a football with his left can sometimes be staggering. The amount of times I've seen full backs who attempt to clear the ball as it runs out, slice it out means I almost consider it a given - it very rarely happens with Enrique. He really can hit a ball. He needs a lot of work mentally, but some aspects of his game do mean he's a player I would love to see get a proper run and some proper coaching to see what can be made of him.

Can look a quality player when he has someone class and experienced alongside him (Walker and King in the past spring to mind) but if it was him and Taylor or any of the other defenders we have at the club we'd be in serious trouble. Thanks but no thanks.

I can see why people are saying Shearer, but we'd have never been near the force of being able to sign Shearer (no matter how much he loved the club) if players before him hadn't put in the groundwork to get us into a challenging spot. That's why I voted Pedro, with closest others being Lee, Cole and Kilcline. How much would I give to have someone like Pedro now in the side.

Great stuff IMO, seems like a top man and a top chairman.

I haven't heard from him in a while as I'm working down in London and he's still living in the Oxford area. He was managing Banbury Utd in the Southern Premier, got them a couple of promotions and they were climbing the non-league ladder, but ended up leaving about six months ago because the owners weren't willing to invest in the club. Don't think he ever reproduced his goalkeeping heroics alas!

Kev's my cousin (and my reason for supporting Newcastle) and apparently after the game they were all on the bus having a laugh and he asked what had happened in the game that evening, all the lads thought he was joking - he wasn't!

That's how I'd sum it up to be fair. It's all about passion and the willingness to get behind your team no matter what.

Agree, have been saying this all season. Our defending doesn't start and end with the back four, if anything it's more about the midfield. Butt has looked shot for a while, and no-one alongside him has looked that impressive. I can understand why Keegan wants someone committed in there, but if they can't pass it more than five yards, it's just a shambles.

Hasn't got the pace for an Arsenal team. Very good on the ball, but by no means a world beater. Would still take him here absolutely, but you need players around him which suit his style of play. Combine the pace of Lennon, work-rate of Milner and pretty much everything else of Bentley you wouldn't be far off the perfect RM in my opinion.

The problem is if you compare a lot of teams with us, we play it back to the keeper for clearances far too often. It was most highlighted to me in the two Arsenal games. I'd say Given has to deal with as many 'clearence' backpasses in a game than Almunia (or Lehmann) probably have to deal with in a season. We just don't do him any favours.

FFS what's with the pessimism?! For once we're actually thinking of building for the future rather than blowing hideous amounts of cash on random players and we're unsure about this? A decent base of young players is something we've needed for years, even if only one or two of these players come good it'll be beneficial for the club, why can't we be more like Arsenal and sign these players and turn ourselves into something by training the kids to play a certain way, good football with results.

Total professional for us, got nothing but respect for him. If half our players had as much determination and work rate as him to go with their so-called 'quality' we'd be a much better side. Long live Le Sib!

Just got back, pretty gutted to be honest, Arsenal were there for the taking first half. Their right hand side was terrible so Duff and Zoggy were having a bit of joy, bit of luck and we could have been two up at half time, instead Owen and Taylor didn't score and we had one cleared off the line. Second half was terrible, Arsenal went more direct and our passing was just lost. Second goal was a stinker though, Eduardo blatantly blocked off Cacapa from making a challenge, pretty awful decision and from then on in heads had dropped too far. Carr and Milner were poor, Butt battled as always but as every single game so far this season he kept giving the ball away. Duff was ok first half but awful second, N'Zogbia isn't a central-mid, Owen again starved of service - you could tell he looked sharp first half, second he had a couple of bad touches but saying that he only got the ball about twice anyway. Smith won quite a few things in the air which was promising, but his link up play and touch were poor and he really does look like a footballer without a position now. Taylor and Cacapa were okay at best, the Brazilian looked shattered by about the 60th-70th min. By the time Lua Lua came on the whole team had stopped trying and it looked like it rubbed off on him because everything he did went wrong. Enrique played average but I was surprised he went off for Roz. Arsenal were poor and 3-0 certainly wasn't a fair reflection, but on the second half showing we certainly didn't deserve a win or draw. Just a shame really

Half the Arsenal supporters I know turned off the TV halfway through, so says something that he stood there with thousands of Spurs fans chanting around him. Fair play to lad.

Far too good for us, would be amazed if we got him. Class act.

The problem is, Butt is probably a worse passer of the ball than Roz, so having him alongside Zog in the middle would do very little to improve our style of play.

What was encouraging is that we tried to build from the back. Given was constantly playing it short. Unfortunately our defence and midfield are so used to playing the other way, it's going to take a while before they look as comfortable on the ball and have options to play the ball. I don't think Shola's lack of mobility particularly helped us further up the field, Zoggy doesn't get the space in the middle to run with the ball and honestly at the moment we have no-one available who can 'unlock' defences. We've just got to give them time, but certainly in my opinion, despite the result, the way we played with the players available does give me hope for the not too distant future.

Big Geordie isn't it?