fredbob

geremi maybe when barton's fit yeh i though that when he signed, but having seen him play in midfield it changed my mind. Plus i think he's too small and not as defensively sound as SA would like. not sure bout that behrmi, just read the thread, seems like crap, it just seems strange that the intensity surrounding our pursuit of a LB has been immesnse compared to the RB position which is arguably just as poorly covered. I have a sneaky feeling that Carr may be getting a good run in. I think the amount of weight he has lost is either SA fintess methods kicking in, or Carr's response to being told he is overwieght and needs to slim down to become considered or both. Hence the belief he will play more often

have we actually been linked with any RB?? By the looks of it SA wants big versatille defenders and none of our RB's (carr, Solano, Ron....i think taylor will stay in the centre) fit the bill?? Maybe we will have another secret transfer a la Enrigeu

not sure i agree with that, dont get me worng but i have always thought that the spine of the team was the area which needed to be stuffed with quality, quality specialised players (ie players who play down the flanks) are pretty rare, so to beef up one side without even cosidering the other seems a bit iffy

wheres this £2m payoff thing come from?? Curbishleys quotes about everything being agreed seems and nufc pulling out doesnt really suggest that Dyer has done anything Curbishleys strikes me as a straight talking guy who'd say what was goin on, he seems genuinely clueless by what gone on.

I haven't seen any single reputable quote bout any 3 of the transfers, the only one that i have seen is the "the financial oppurtunity is too great for me to turn down" but i think thats still wishy washy, it was the only quote on the entire story and nufc werent mentioned by name once. I'm still reeling from the enrique news, it just isnt sitting right with me its happeed way too quick and again with it being "confirmed" on the Villareal site it seems strange that nothing official from Sam or nufc has been said. Baines again isn't sittin very pretty with me either, i think its common knowledge that he's been available for a while, hes been in talks with the Scum and nufc didint attempt to intervene once, the timing doesnt seem right with what seems to be the apparent stone cold signing of enrique. Why would we plunge £6m on a young enlgish lb if we're already paying £4m on a young spanish lb??? Somethings not right

Do it man, run free child

Woodgate- and Luque-deal were done the same way..!? Woodgate maybe but Luque was plasetered all over the newspapers a good month before he signed

I've never seen a transfer window like this ever, maybe a tad exaggeration but this has probably been the best transfer window since Shearer came home. Not necessarily because of the personnel brought in but because the way its all happened. Chuffed if all true, wont believe a single word till its confirmed by a reputable source though, (i dont even trust Villareal site) not just yet anyway

Yeh, i agree, i dont think he'll be signing for us, if Allardyce wanted him am sure he'd have gone for him along time ago, its common knowledge that Baines has been available, from the looks of it, SA is after an imposing LB, hence the reason we are being linked with imposing physical left backs like Silvestre, Drago Heinze etc...Baines doesn't really fit into that category.

I like the look of that, almost a completely new team. zero creativity in that team and no width As nufc's only decent PL experienced CB i think Taylor will defeinelty play Centre half all season with an accompanying centre half, my guess is that it will be Rozy, i also dont think Smith should be given a starting birth, there doesn't seem to be any balance in that side (4 forwards and at least 1 combative up and down midfielder)

Gemmill's going to start the body count soon, like. I like how he even put DEFENDERS in capitals at the end. I went through it all last night, but for those that weren't listening: Allardyce has identified the targets he needs to get in for the defence, and he has the money to purchase them. With the sale of Dyer he feels he is now a player short in that area, so uses those funds to replace him. There has been no change to his targets for defenders, because the ones he's identified are still the ones he wants, and there is therefore no reason for him to suddenly think "Wow I've got some extra money. I'll buy some defenders I didn't previously think I needed." That's the last time I'm giving this talk. Still a s*** replacement for Dyer. Must be better about than Alan Smith, specially for 6m ffs. Yeh, they're not like for like, but he's a decent(not great) replacement for, OWen, Barton AND Dyer (injuries and sales), i was completely against him being bought but thinking deeper its like purchasing 2/3 new players. £6m too steep but from Morts interview i get the feeling that money hasn't been the major issue, rather the personnel not wanting to come being the issue.

Shola in the wings??? Get to f***. :lol: What a crock of s***. If we are talking about LEAGUE goals, which is the only real barometer, and what people always meant when they spoke about "20-a-season strikers", we have none. read it differently mate, it makes sense somehow, dint mean shola waiting in the wings, mentioned shola seperately from the 3, 20 goal a seaon strikers AND caroll in the wings, yeh but we're not, we're talking bout strikers who can score 20 goals in a season. By your criteria is there many teams who have 20 LEAGUE goal scorers, Drogba? Rnaldo? Emile Heskey??? There's been between 1 and 4 a season for the past 8 or 9 years. I'm not saying we haven't got enough up front, because for a team like us, who should be aiming for the top 10, maybe have a stab at 7th or even 6th with a fair wind behind us, the 3 we have, and Caroll, is probably enough. But lets not pretend we are going to set the world alight. Dint say there wasn't any, just said that its a pretty narrow criteria, like you say, only 1-4 for the past 8 season, how many of them have been the same strikers, (Henry, Shearer, van Horseface etc..,) just seems like a too exclusive a criteria to call it "the only real Barometer. Whenever people talked in the past about great strikers, thats what they meant. Not some soft shie who scores in the intertoto. Lets not kid ourselves that we're going to have anyone troubling the Premiership golden boot, any more than we'll be needing to buy any brasso for a while. Ya see, i disagree with you there, and am probably going to have to agree to disagree with you there in general, Owen world class striker, its all fair and well sayin he'll not stay fit but thats unnaccountable when your predicting who will be "troubling Premiership golden Boot" Viduka has consistently scored goals and has only really played a couple of season with a great striker by his side, Yakubu and...(?) MArtins is an unknown quantity, pretty pessitmistic to rule out any of our strikers, they seems pretty potent to me, add that to the fact that in recent years defences have been tightened up and you look for about 15-20 goals ebing the number of goals scored to "trouble the premiership golden boot"...then again i could be wrong......

Shola in the wings??? Get to f***. :lol: What a crock of s***. If we are talking about LEAGUE goals, which is the only real barometer, and what people always meant when they spoke about "20-a-season strikers", we have none. read it differently mate, it makes sense somehow, dint mean shola waiting in the wings, mentioned shola seperately from the 3, 20 goal a seaon strikers AND caroll in the wings, yeh but we're not, we're talking bout strikers who can score 20 goals in a season. By your criteria is there many teams who have 20 LEAGUE goal scorers, Drogba? Rnaldo? Emile Heskey??? There's been between 1 and 4 a season for the past 8 or 9 years. I'm not saying we haven't got enough up front, because for a team like us, who should be aiming for the top 10, maybe have a stab at 7th or even 6th with a fair wind behind us, the 3 we have, and Caroll, is probably enough. But lets not pretend we are going to set the world alight. Dint say there wasn't any, just said that its a pretty narrow criteria, like you say, only 1-4 for the past 8 season, how many of them have been the same strikers, (Henry, Shearer, van Horseface etc..,) just seems like a too exclusive a criteria to call it "the only real Barometer.

with goal on this one, i have no idea what people see in Smith, i dont remeber seeing anythink even slighlty potent about him, i mean, what posisiton is his strongest position nowadays??? We're absolutley fine in the strikers department, and our midfield looks tidy, not that he would add anything.

If its a replacement for Dyer then its gotta be Smith, does anyone know if there have been any "Smith holds talks with Newcaslte" stories, not that that is a great indicator, the thing is, and i'm clutching at straws here(hoping its not Smith) is that Smith seems pretty high profile for nothing substatial to be said about advanced talks....just a hunch.

Shola in the wings??? Get to f***. :lol: What a crock of s***. If we are talking about LEAGUE goals, which is the only real barometer, and what people always meant when they spoke about "20-a-season strikers", we have none. read it differently mate, it makes sense somehow, dint mean shola waiting in the wings, mentioned shola seperately from the 3, 20 goal a seaon strikers AND caroll in the wings, yeh but we're not, we're talking bout strikers who can score 20 goals in a season. By your criteria is there many teams who have 20 LEAGUE goal scorers, Drogba? Rnaldo? Emile Heskey???

I cant think of a single squad which has 4, 20 goals per season strikers, we have 3, with shla and Carrol in the wings, i'd say we were pretty comfortable in that area, defienelty needs to go to defenders but the only defender we've really bee linked with in the meadia that i saw was the Drame who's gone to Sochaux(?), i'd be livid if Smith turned up here with a £6m prie tag, i dont understand why there doesn't seem to be many links with dfenders in the media, is nufc being super secretive with there pursuits or are they just plain inactive or is it that Smith is actually a genuine link.....

See, i wdn't have Eidur or Smith as a replacement or Dyer, i cant see either of them being the type of plyaer who can break from midfield with such pace like Dyer, i know there are a lot of Dyer bashers out ther but really would lovehim to stay, by far one of our best players despite being a cock. For me Smith doesn't seem to offer anything we havent already got, Eidur has the natural intelligence which would come in useful, from what ive seen, Barnes ooks the ideal replacement, i rememebr one match and he was part of 4 goal that derby stuck away scoring a couple himself, he seems to be like dyer but mayber better.

Crikey, i didnt realise its been just 2 weeks that they've been in charge, puts it all in perspective, nice rant bytheway HTT made complete sense a helluva lot to look forward to

I dont think it'll be smith either, he seems pretty adamant that he wants defenders, so i think it'll be someone cheap and someone he knows of, i recon it'll be Faye.

ISn't that called opinion?? People not allowed to interpret stories then?? STORIES being the clue there Does that even make sense?

ISn't that called opinion?? People not allowed to interpret stories then??

Now, am gonna try and be careful not to sound like on of these doommongers and am sure to fail, but i read to taday about 5 or 6 newspapers all sayin the same thing, about money being made available, now generally i usully take what the papers say as horse s***, especially the small print and vain attempts to try and squeaze any drama out of a minor altercation, but today unlike most other days, the papars have been writing substantial amounts about the same 'money plea' subject. To me there does seem to be a shred of truth of wats happening, HTT has pretty summed up my feelings abo the present state and i have been very optimistic about everything that SA has done, but i feel that Ashley being an agressive astute businessman is unable to release any substantial funds into a company with debts of £80m, it wouldn't make sense....not yet anyway, which puts us in a difficult place

People are ridiculously impatient, i cant understand what people are giving Ashley such a hard time, he has just spent £150m on this club, and i cant seem to find a single quote which suggests that money isnt available, quite the contrary to be fair, all i seem to be hearing is SA complaining that the player we are targetting are going elswhere, and he does seems to be targetting a lot a players, this to me suggests that we are being slow in the market, i dont think it makes business sense paying way over the odds JUST to get the player you're after, thats historically what we do. Add to that mix that we have a new chairman who doesnt know the ropes too well then you're bound to come short somewhere, the difference with SA, is that he seems to be targetting the players that we defineltey need, and have needed for yearsie 4 defenders, you look back to the old regime/regimes and you get inactivity due to incompeent managers, and poor charimanship. I dont really remember such a concerted effort to get a new lb or rb in such a long time.

I think that its clear that we do need 4 new defenders, and slightly dissapionting(nothing more, nothing less) that we seem to have hit a brick wall in our acquisition, but i think people seem to forget that SA organisation alone of our current defence would make an improvment of 10-15 goas, how many points would that equate to??