thenige

I was a late 80's kid, was only a young 'un during the Jim Smith days. Was quite unusual too as a Newcastle supporter near Oxford, because of my cousin playing for them. Remember when my parents tried to find me a Newcastle shirt locally for my birthday, couldn't find one anywhere. Then Keegan took over after Ossie's stint and you couldn't go into any sports shop without seeing one. How the times changed!

Pretty much what he said! HOWAY!!!

Totally spot on. We'll blame anyone and any 'omen' on us losing games and performing badly. He was there during the Keegan years and he's been there during the not-so-great years...ever thought that he isn't the direct cause for all the good or the bad?

Best thing I can say about Smith, Carr and Butt is that I hope they all die slow and painful deaths.

Beye, Faye and Enrique as everyone else has said, he's got a scouting network properly started at the club which is something we've been severely lacking the last few years, a better team of fitness coaches and doctors, less injuries so far - we were heading in the right direction off the field, it's just on the pitch we weren't entertaining or getting results.

Well of all the managers available right now Marcello Lippi would be my 101% pick. Never going to happen though, would be far too good to be true.

To be honest I'm pretty sure the FA Cup doesn't think very much of Dave Kitson either.

On last years Football Manager Darren Anderton had a better first touch than Thierry Henry

I don't understand two defensive mids at home and don't think I ever will. Butt is committed, but he gives away the ball too much, doesn't have the pace or height to be a class modern day footballer. He just doesn't read the game as well as he used to. So many times the defence had the ball and just had no one to give it to. Zoggy was probably our best player but as soon as he moved to LM he drifted out of the game, as again, we just can't get the ball from back to front. Owen showed neat touches, but just didn't get enough of the ball. Just so lacking that creativity and that player willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck it's embarrassing.

I personally think Krul is having a great learning experience up in Scotland and I hope Falkirk have a decent second half to season, by all means I've heard his done pretty well although of course he still is an inexperienced keeper. The only thing that's bothered me was I read something the other day where Tim Krul said he hadn't even met Sam yet, and he hasn't been up to watch any of the games yet. Now I'm not one of these knee-jerking type people, and I'm sure Sam's got people checking his progress and he's seen tapes, it's just surely you'd go up and meet the lad if he's such a prospect?

I love the way I checked this right now and that is exactly right!

Watched that. Amazing how many goals Domi made as well. Agreed with the Domi statement, really surprised me when I first watched the DVD.

I'd struggle to place Almunia in the top 10 goalkeepers in the Premiership and to be honest I find it laughable that his name has even been mentioned. I'd rather have Harper, Green, Carson, James or Foster - I'd even prefer Robinson to be honest.

I honestly think he's playing Milner on the left because he's going to sign Andrey Arshavin in January to play on the right. Okay that may just be wishful thinking, but it's Christmas ffs!

Fantastic player, one of the guys in my office who watches a fair bit of European football claims him to be his favourite player in the world. Really has scored some amazing goals in his career, if you can find his website, when it loads up it shows an amazing goal. He's an all-round striker which is something we have been missing and if we signed him I wouldn't be half as bothered to see either Owen or Martins leave. As said though, wouldn't be cheap and he may need time to adapt and we know how good we are at giving players time for that...

Bit of an Amdy Faye mkII. Would have much preferred Papa Bouba Diop if we were going to sign a strong battling midfielder at any point.

No, born in Oxford and lived near there most of my life. Now living in London. Started supporting Newcastle when a young 'un because my cousin was playing for them at the time...if only I knew more about geography at that age, but no regrets. Been a supporter since Jim Smith was in charge, so seen the ups and downs, and although haven't been often, have been to St. James.

He'd be totally mental to start Carr today, no way he's going to be fit enough to handle people running at him, especially if they put someone with pace like Babel on to him. Wouldn't mind if we lost this if we just put in a decent performance, likewise wouldn't mind sneaking some points if we don't play brilliant...just don't play fecking useless and lose please!

Donaldson has been getting rave reviews for youths and reserves, perhaps the next Michael Chopra...oh wait...

Fucking scum fans leaving early.

And boo for the second Citeh goal!

Fair play for Greg for keeping us updated!

As much as I hate jumping on bandwagons, Butt just gives it away far far too many times and to say that's frustrating is a bit of an understatement. >

When I got home from the game last night I can't believe how negative everyone was. Now I note it's still going on. The problem was yes the tactics weren't ideal (Shola and Smith were shocking where they were playing) but you have to bear in mind 75% of our team played two days ago, whilst Arsenal's youth were totally fresh and they really really looked it. We were outpassed in midfield and every single one of their players had very decent pace so we were constantly stretched but you could see our players were knackered after about half an hour. How on earth were they supposed to chase down every single pass when they could barely muster the strength to start their own attacks? We've heard how 'unconditioned' our players were when Fat Sam first took over and that doesn't change overnight. We picked the wrong line-up yes, but what else could we have done? We don't have as many options as people think, especially in midfield - and Sam has had success against them before when packing the midfield and frustrating them. They were just too tired. It makes perfect sense Faye was our strongest midfield performer last night, he didn't play 90mins two days ago! All in all I was disappointed (especially as I had to sit in the bloody Arsenal end!) but against a team like that which plays with so much freedom and pace I wasn't expecting us to tear them to pieces much like some people on here were. Diarra looked an absolute class act, Walcott gave us problems all night (despite his final ball/decision being poor) and their full-backs constantly kept us on our toes. It isn't as much of an embarrassment to lose this game as people think, I just find it absolutely mental how only in September in a non-European season for us we're playing three games in six days. The FA has some serious issues.

I'd rather he was playing left or right wing than Smith, that's for sure! Or we could just do the unthinkable and actually play midfielders in midfield and strikers up front...