fredbob

Like who? bear in mind he's 22, has CL experience, and has played for one of the biggest teams in europe(not that that should have a baring on thier value) and 10m doesnt get you too much better in my opinion. I'd rather have potentially 10 years of MArtins for 10m then say 3 years of Klose.

errrr...not sure he's done anywhere near anough to warrant a loss on what we've paid, surely? 17 goals in a new league, first season poor team, you cat base his value on individual flaws or weakness, you base your value on his contribution to the team, and so far, he saved us from releagtion, and has made a decent contribution so far. Simple innit!

People seems to make Bent the benchmark for what everyone else is worth, which is a load of bollocks, Henry is worth 16.5m?? I'd say martin is worth 14-15m max, are there many players nowadays who are actually worth £20+?, in todays market i'd say no.

Bellamy

Bent cost more than Thierry Henry as well.....i think £15m is about adequete.

but if he stays fit till january ? Like i said, catch 22, i also rate Anelka as high, if not higher than Owen, he has at least had the potential and the main ingredient to be one of the best strikers in the world, i dont think we'd be losing out on goalscoring prowess if we signed Anelka, and to be honest his all round play is now much better than Owens, minus the life threatening injuries and fit him in a team manged by a manger he seems to respect and you have a ready made replacement with a tidy £5-6m(?) profit. Far more adaptable than owen in terms of formation and strike partners as well. Theres a whole can of worms to be opened on commitment issues by both players but i wont go so far. going off memory i don't think anelka has been anywhere near as proloific a goalscorer as owen since anelka left arsenal.even the better all round player bit is a bit misleading,he's abetter prospect playing wide than owen but through the middle i reckon owen is a better goalscorer and as good a player(for that position). as i've earlier said,for me, the decision should come down to owens fitness and how allardyce best sees the direction of the team(i'm not too keen on 4-3-3 at the moment even if anelka was brought in).if owen stays fit and plays well and we look like progressing it would be madness to sell,it's a decision that shouldn't be made now. Yeh, to be fair you make a fair point about being there respective goal scoring records. I still think that Anelka is more of a team player, better all round play, in the end, to get the Best out of owen i think you need to fit the team round him, he needs a strong partner, you cant play him as the wide man of 3 (which i neither like or want) you cant play him on his own, as was tried by Houllier at liverpool, his game is ALL about finishing which i suppose is fair enough, contrast that to Anelka and you have a far more rounded player, he can play on his own effectively, he's very strong, he doesnt need a contrasting partner to be effective, link up play is good, sets up a few as well, and he can finish well can also play anywhere in the front 3, for me, Anelka wuld be a more adaptable asset, where as Owen is a one mode goalscorer respectively. Its a difficult decision to make, and we would obvioulsy be selling one of the worlds most natural gifted goalscorers but i dont think it'd effect the team as muc has say losing Anelka would to Bolton (poor analogy as bolton are crap anyway)

but if he stays fit till january ? Like i said, catch 22, i also rate Anelka as high, if not higher than Owen, he has at least had the potential and the main ingredient to be one of the best strikers in the world, i dont think we'd be losing out on goalscoring prowess if we signed Anelka, and to be honest his all round play is now much better than Owens, minus the life threatening injuries and fit him in a team manged by a manger he seems to respect and you have a ready made replacement with a tidy £5-6m(?) profit. Far more adaptable than owen in terms of formation and strike partners as well. Theres a whole can of worms to be opened on commitment issues by both players but i wont go so far.

£15mill??? Catch 22, you either keep a player who's so injury prone, or sell him to one of your main rivals, hate to say it but i think i'd sell, i think Anelka is more than suitable and realistic option. I always though that Anelka is every bit as good as owen, Owen has his baggage with wages, injuries and commiment, but anelka has his massive commitment issues, although he seemed to have mellowed a bit. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Carragher in comparison to the (probably desrved) hype John Terry gets, also Agger, Paul Scharner, Laursen...

This for me absolutely confirm that we are 100% going in the right direction, i've never seen such a stable newcastle united! Its thse type of things which confirm my faith in SA, Big Mike and mr Mort, so far i am very very happy with everyhting thats happening, it jut show how much of a dinosaur we actually were when we're 10 years behind another football club. Goes to show that FINALLY we are being PROACTIVE rather than being historically REACTIVE.

i'd like to see a RW whos gonna get to the byline, to be honest id like to see Giles Barnes, its shame he's not been on show this season yet. SWP or lennon tyoe players, someone who'd b able to utilize both Viduka and Owen as a winger. Basically a right sided version of the Zog. Elano wold be nice as well!!

I dont think they'd work to be honest, i think Barton is an up and down midfileder which would hinder emre a little, just like parker did, put them 2 in a 3 man midfiled then maybe, but i think its important that Emre is given the attacking midfield/playmaker role in its entirety.

Yeh to be fair, i kinda agree that Smith is a decent buy, i know 6 mill is a fair bit of wonga, but would you rather we had two player one who is a 3 mill verstalie midfielder and one 3 mill 4th striker, or Smith who is a pretty good striker and a decent midfilder. I knw i'd prefer Smith.

Pace isnt significant in the slightest, its a merely an advantage, nothing more, nothing less, you can drag out a number of players who were affected by loss of pace due o injury etc, but then again you can dig up just as many who have been completely unaffected by loss of pass. The poorer technichal players are the ones who rely on their natural attributes, for example Martins, if he lost his places he would struggle in the first division, but players who's are able to utilise this attribute but not make it there primary weapon are the most dangerous player, for example Owen.

Doent bode well for Martins! I wish Owen and Martins were allowed to play together, ust a run of games to see if they would play well together, PLEASE SAM!

Water them? Not rocket science like... thanks mate but i kinda think thaat its not as simple as that, although obviously with the superb all year sun weather in the toon i can see how the training pitches dont get enough water in them anyway. LEt alone the practiality of watering the training pitch every day 5 days a week, i dont think so somehow.

I heard it was something to do with the hardness of the training pitches, which could make sense, although i remmeber Roeder having a dig at Souness saying that his injury problmes were caused in matches and not on the trainng pitch. Is there a way to soften up pitches???

it's worrying to be honest, a while back i was confident that he wouldn't start as i knew SA would intergrate him, but now it does seem he is fit, and from one of SA's quotes it seems to me that Zog is keeping him out the side, which if you ask me is even more worrying, as Zog is better employed elsewhere. It's worrying because i cant see how anyone could think that Zog is an asset at LB, its clear, when he so much more suited to the left of midfield.

Why not spend £6m on a left back - leave him on the bench while you play your most creative player in his place. Sam has indeed got it sussed. is Enrique 100% fit? If not it's be a disaster if he was to get injured because of that reason, same goes for emre, i rather have emre comin on for butt than butt coming on for an injured emre.

Can we not have a poll to see where people think we will finish this season? I think it will be interesting to see who votes for what and what there justufications could possibly be after 2 seasons of shit and 7 games of definitive improvement. I'd like to see people put there money where there mouth is.

I like Milner, i thijnk he does really really well with his limited ability (which dont get me wrong are still good) but i just dont htink he is penetrative enough, after watching arsenal the other day i dont think its really acceptable to say he's young and can only get better because nowadays at this age you looing for something that you can really progreess with, something like what martins has, i honestly dont see that with Milner, its been said before but his weakness is obvioulsy his pace, as he isnt the greatest technichal winger relying on his crossing isnt good enough, i would like to see a more Zog type player who can cross and also get to the byline, this is going to be the type of player who will bring both our strikers into the game as in my opinion OWen isnt great with the ball in the air. As for playing him in an advanced position in the 433 formation no thank you, i can see Zog fitting in ok, but not perfect as his natural game isnt getting into advanced positions beyond the last defender, i think that Smith could do well in the advanced role in the 433. But as it stands i cant see Milner being good enough, which is so ironic as he was our best player ast year.

All the discussion seems to be surrounded around 2 paradoxes, whether you want your team to be successful, or you want them to play beautiful football, in my opion, i would like my team to play beautiful football, its synonomous with being successful anyway although by no means guaratueed, i can understand ppls arguments about wanting to win something whether it be ugly or not, and i dont refute that opinion. For me when its all said and done football is entertainment, nothing more, nothing less, only recently has it turned into a business, but for me that takes a side step. When i watch a football match i come to be entertained, and some of my finest memories have been ones where we've achieved nothing cup wise but have played breathtaking football, these memories go ahead of 2 of the bggest days in recent nufc history in the fa cup finals. It such an impossible topic because nobody is right or wrong, when SA was appointed i wasnt for him, but i realised he was exactly what this club needed, stability and as it stands he's succeding, he may not be playing the most beautful football, but at this stage we have no right to belive that we should be, people are being nostalgic and thinking we have the right to be in the top 6 playing superb football, when we dont, in the end your only as good as your last season and i think its important that we have a good season posiiton wise, getting some stability on and off the field then going for our goals next season. I think its pretty clear that this club was well on the decline and i'm more than happy to sit through turgid times providing we do reasonably well. All these people who are after the elusive cup win? If we win the league cup next year would that memory eclipse the Keegan years or SBR years? In my opinion it wouldnt. *puts on tin hat*

Yeh, i think he did quite a good job, i think this was always gonna happen, once Mort found his feet the old guard was always gonna go. Did a good job this summer.

Like Dalglish who won it all? Or Bobby even? No manager guarantees success, not even the 'special one' Well, to be fair to them, they came f****** close with us, both of them with kinda goes to show how far ethigeordies comments stretch. I think to a degree SA is already a success, i cant remeber seeing so much positivety about the club in such a long time, now the FS considerable shadow has been replaced with Mr Ashleys, it gotta be onwards and upwards, it also depends on what you see as success, in my eyes at the moment, i think that estabilishing ourselves amongst the top4 is the ultimatess goal if am honest and i would happily sacrifice cup wins to get there although that is quite a contradictory statement to make.

It's horrible to see him not play, i cant help but think this is the beginning of the end, i just get the feeling that SA either doesnt rate him or has such a defniitve way of playing that Martins doesnt fit in, personnaly i think its the latter, Martins naturally drops deep which is not how SA wants him to operate, its clear SA likes the long ball, he wants his smaller strikers to play off the shoulder of the bigger striker, probably the best striker in the world who does this is Owen, which is not only unlucky for MArtins but pretty unfair because i think he has immense talent. Hopefully am completely wrong.