fredbob

Dont think Keegan would want Crouch though. I persoanlly dont like him, i dont think he's a player that scares defendes but is a very awkward attacker. Dont think he has any outstanding attribtues, no real pace, no great strength, his heading is surprisingly poor, one good thing about him s that to be fair to him, his link up play is pretty good. In my opinion Keegan wont sign anyone who hasnt got an outstanding attribute, be it pace, skill or link up play.

This is the big one, aside from David Beckham, Ronaldo is the most marketable player in the world, makes absolutely no sense in selling him, £100m is silly money, but for me, not silly enough.

What about Ruud Van Horseface, dont think he'd demand a huge fee, would no doubt that he'd score stupid amounts ad would be a good name to have in the side. I know he's on the older side but i think id take him over Henry.

I disagree, the money is always useful. No player is worth £100m, not even Ronaldo. One bad tackle and it could be curtains. Spending a further £50m on the youth set up and recruitment and using the other £50m on a giant piss up would produce just as much, if not more, sucess than Ronaldo alone can potentially generate. on the other hand, he could get 25+ goals a season for the next 10 years. Right. So you weigh up the odds. Which is more likely? Alternatively you can avoid the gamble and get a £100m in your hand. I know which route I'd go. Your saying the chance of one career threatening tackle is more likely than him getting a hatful of goals and assists for the next say 6-7 years, even thought he's been notably improving for te past 4 years? Id only sell if i knew Messi would come her for cheaper, he's the only player id consider on the same level as Ronaldo.

But then thats 3 payers replacing the input of one player in a squad, how is those 3 players gonna be accomadated to put in he exact sae input as Ronaldo would?

Ronaldo is the definition of irreplaceble. £100m - no thanks.

I dont think anyone hates him, i personally dont like the treatment he gets, he;s performed no worse of better than alot of defenders in the past 3-4 years yet somehow there are a lot fo people who seem to think that he still has something to offer. I personally dont understand that view to be honest, he's responsible for his own performances and so far in 130 games he hasnt shown anywhere near a decent level of improvement. Id like to see him do well, id love him to be the next terry but for the life of me i cant draw that last bit of optimism out of me, its been drained by the past 4 years of chronically insipid performances.

The fact that Taylor has played at the back with the s**** you mention says it all. How could you learn anything from those players? Tthrow in the abject fullbacks we've had and exposure the back four got from the midfield and I'm surprised he didn't put in a transfer request. At 21 he's still learning and at least has the right attitude which can't be said for everybody. But learning from other players is only part of the process, he hasnt showed one modicom of improvement since his debut yet has had a lot of practise at defendeing. As have the likes of Beye and Faye and they have both come in and looked good in a poor back four. You learn from you're experineces. As for the exposure form the back 4 nonsense, well what are you saying? He's crap becasue he's had to defend alot? No. I'm saying he's a young lad playing in a poor back four that's had little cover from a poor midfield. He's played with a succession of mediocre central defenders that somebody listed above. Plus the fullbacks have been s**** which leads to the back four being pulled all over. I'd say that Terry looks a lot better than he is playing alongside Carvalho, Vidic alonside Ferdinand, anybody alongside Gallas. Throw in their fullbacks who can actually defend and cut out crosses and you have a back four that can play consistently well, grow in confidence and everybody improves and looks good. Taylor has never had that opportunity so it's absurd to compare him with these players who are also much more experienced. But then, if you think Faye is a good central defender as he's average at best and looked like a donkey in some games, what's the point? You'd say Terry looks better playing with Carvahllo, i'd say the Chelsea defence looks better when Terry is playing with Carvahllo. Theres a big difference there. I think its ironic that you call our best centre defender since Woodgate " a donkey in some games" yet have the audacity to defend a player like Taylor. I think you have to look at his indivudial traits such a positioning and heading and anticipation to see what mst of us are on about when we assess Taylor, saying he's poor because he's young and has played with some poor players doesnt really help assess him as an individual defender.

I just don't think he has the attributes. I don't think he doesn't have a brain or anything, just doesn't have the required attributes. What you said actually reminds me of Bramble. Fair point! Starting to agree with you to be honest, if your looking for a true measure of how good a defender is you need to compare them against the best in the world. Comparing them against equals or poorer defender will tell you absolutely nothing, its easy to say that Taylor is better than Bramble, that he's a better passer of the ball, but that is only because Bramble is a terrible passer of the ball. If Taylor wants a true measure of how good he is as a defender he needs to be compared agaisnt he likes of Terry, Ferdinand, Vidic or Toure. To say he's a good defender despite being at least 3 classes below the best isnt a good measure of aplayers ability in my book. Aren't you forgetting that he's 21 and surrounded by s****? How about the rest of our central defenders compared to the four you've mentioned? None of the ones who are 30 are going to get any better so should we ship them all out? So, your saying Taylor is crap because the defender he was with were crap as well? Well what about those defenders? Werent they crap because they themselves were playing with other crap defenders??

I just don't think he has the attributes. I don't think he doesn't have a brain or anything, just doesn't have the required attributes. What you said actually reminds me of Bramble. Fair point! Starting to agree with you to be honest, if your looking for a true measure of how good a defender is you need to compare them against the best in the world. Comparing them against equals or poorer defender will tell you absolutely nothing, its easy to say that Taylor is better than Bramble, that he's a better passer of the ball, but that is only because Bramble is a terrible passer of the ball. If Taylor wants a true measure of how good he is as a defender he needs to be compared agaisnt he likes of Terry, Ferdinand, Vidic or Toure. To say he's a good defender despite being at least 3 classes below the best isnt a good measure of aplayers ability in my book. Aren't you forgetting that he's 21 and surrounded by s****? How about the rest of our central defenders compared to the four you've mentioned? None of the ones who are 30 are going to get any better so should we ship them all out? Ah so the blaming of other people again then. Precisely. That shouldnt stop him being a good defender, it shouldnt stop the ball bouncing over his head and it shouldnt stop him tracking the run of an attacker, the defnders role is an individual role, you can only make yourself look bad because your role in the squad isnt effected much by how the rest of the team play, which is conversely different to say a striker who is practically dependant on the team. Look at Woodgate at Leeds when they were on there way down, he still looked class despite not getting much protection. How about Campbell at Pompey last year.

The fact that Taylor has played at the back with the s**** you mention says it all. How could you learn anything from those players? Tthrow in the abject fullbacks we've had and exposure the back four got from the midfield and I'm surprised he didn't put in a transfer request. At 21 he's still learning and at least has the right attitude which can't be said for everybody. But learning from other players is only part of the process, he hasnt showed one modicom of improvement since his debut yet has had a lot of practise at defendeing. As have the likes of Beye and Faye and they have both come in and looked good in a poor back four. You learn from you're experineces. As for the exposure form the back 4 nonsense, well what are you saying? He's crap becasue he's had to defend alot?

Rooney

I just don't think he has the attributes. I don't think he doesn't have a brain or anything, just doesn't have the required attributes. What you said actually reminds me of Bramble. Fair point! Starting to agree with you to be honest, if your looking for a true measure of how good a defender is you need to compare them against the best in the world. Comparing them against equals or poorer defender will tell you absolutely nothing, its easy to say that Taylor is better than Bramble, that he's a better passer of the ball, but that is only because Bramble is a terrible passer of the ball. If Taylor wants a true measure of how good he is as a defender he needs to be compared agaisnt he likes of Terry, Ferdinand, Vidic or Toure. To say he's a good defender despite being at least 3 classes below the best isnt a good measure of aplayers ability in my book.

They're both equally crap, neither player has any outstanding quality, and both seem to have the exact same attributes. If Taylor played at a lower positioned side do you think going by any of his perfomance that he would stand out as a defender? Same goes for Senderos as well. The only reason Taylor hasnt been cast off as a shit defender like Roz, Cacapa, Bramble, Boums etc is because he's a product of the youth system here, he hasnt dont anything in my opinion to clearly seperate himself from this group of write offs. Reminds me of Oba a little, seems to have the attributes, but doesnt have the brain to put it together. And hasnt done in 130 appereances etc. At least Oba has a telling end product at times.

Cant wait for the season to end, really cant wait to see Ashley show his hand, the way Keegan and alot of other people are talking it could be a huge summer. Keegans mentioned trying to break the world record, now not saying he will, but if he knew that he didnt have that sort of money available then surely he wouldnt set himself up for fall like that.

But rumours don't end after ninety minutes, or even a week. If they're all mixed in with each other then it becomes really tedious keeping up with developments in the one particular rumour that you're interested in. Time seems to be just about the worst thing to organise them with, to me anyway. If that rumour develops in any sort of way then surely it will stay at the forefront of the rumour thread?? Exactly. Rumours are rumours, they stay in the rumour thread that week and any developments or updates go into which ever week it is. If it comes something serious a new thread is made for that actual transfer. It doesn't seem that difficult to me to maintain, i'm sure James would love to deal with it no probs. Eh? So you're saying that we should just have one huge rumour thread? Well if you are, then you lads must have a lot more time on your hands than I do, if you're happy to wade your way through page after page of random rumours on the off chance that there's been some movement on the on particular rumour that you actually think/want to happen. Also, I don't see how this thread can tail off at the end of each week. The only way would be for one of us to arbitrarily lock it and cut off any conversations in their prime only to open the next week's version of the exact same thread. What exactly would be the point of that!?! Not only that, but you seem to be proposing that some poor fucker has to read every single post and sift out the tiny flakes of actual information from amongst the gallons of steaming effluent and put them in a separate thread, which will then somehow remain effluent free - Is no-one allowed to post in it then? - I doubt even James would want to do something as mind-numbing as that, I'm certainly not doing it, reading a thread like that sounds like more work than I prepared to do already!! Forgive me if I've got the wrong end of the stick here - I kinda think I must have because it looks like a total nightmare to me - if I have please explain it too me because I obviously don't get it at all. What aspect of a rumour would you be interested in that doesnt develop beyond the first few pages? EDIT You know the difference between a thread, a board, and a forum, right? In that case ^^

Strange one this, really surprised that Allardyce has done so badly, thought his revolutionary methods would really prove to be a success for the club, maybe its the physical style of football at Bolton under SA that meant they didnt need to be a CV fit as they should of been. Maybe this is why Bolton are struggling to adapt to a knew type of football. Would be interesting to see how many second half goals Bolton conceeded compared to us.

Chelsea without a shadow of a doubt, absolute hollow club. The only thing that is good about them is that they have improved the quality of the premiership by a country mile.

But rumours don't end after ninety minutes, or even a week. If they're all mixed in with each other then it becomes really tedious keeping up with developments in the one particular rumour that you're interested in. Time seems to be just about the worst thing to organise them with, to me anyway. If that rumour develops in any sort of way then surely it will stay at the forefront of the rumour thread?? Exactly. Rumours are rumours, they stay in the rumour thread that week and any developments or updates go into which ever week it is. If it comes something serious a new thread is made for that actual transfer. It doesn't seem that difficult to me to maintain, i'm sure James would love to deal with it no probs. Eh? So you're saying that we should just have one huge rumour thread? Well if you are, then you lads must have a lot more time on your hands than I do, if you're happy to wade your way through page after page of random rumours on the off chance that there's been some movement on the on particular rumour that you actually think/want to happen. Also, I don't see how this thread can tail off at the end of each week. The only way would be for one of us to arbitrarily lock it and cut off any conversations in their prime only to open the next week's version of the exact same thread. What exactly would be the point of that!?! Not only that, but you seem to be proposing that some poor fucker has to read every single post and sift out the tiny flakes of actual information from amongst the gallons of steaming effluent and put them in a separate thread, which will then somehow remain effluent free - Is no-one allowed to post in it then? - I doubt even James would want to do something as mind-numbing as that, I'm certainly not doing it, reading a thread like that sounds like more work than I prepared to do already!! Forgive me if I've got the wrong end of the stick here - I kinda think I must have because it looks like a total nightmare to me - if I have please explain it too me because I obviously don't get it at all. What aspect of a rumour would you be interested in that doesnt develop beyond the first few pages? Cant see why having a seperate forum full of rumour threads would be any different to having one in this one, i mean rumours that dont develop on the main forum usually fall to the bottom or are turned into a different topic.

But rumours don't end after ninety minutes, or even a week. If they're all mixed in with each other then it becomes really tedious keeping up with developments in the one particular rumour that you're interested in. Time seems to be just about the worst thing to organise them with, to me anyway. If that rumour develops in any sort of way then surely it will stay at the forefront of the rumour thread??

And if we had any other striker at the time scoring goals I'm sure he would have been popular too. It seems to bother you that people like him which is something you will have to sort out yourself. It only really bothers me when people actually behave like morons and put their love for a player about the love for the team, i.e. when they booed the substitution. Apart from this I just strongly disagree with the judgement of some people regarding a player's (like)ability. I don't see any reason to sort this out tbh. So you don't rate him as a player. You could have just said that and left it there tbh instead of whinging on about people only liking him because he cost a big fee and has a few decent youtube compilations, which is bollocks quite frankly. So basically you are just whinging about me whinging. I think it is quite obvious that I don't rate him - or better don't rate him as much as others do. I don't retract from my comments about the fee and the youtube videos. I see them as a perfect explanation why some ordinary players are getting totally overhyped. And for Skirge: You think Keegan backed down to fan's pressure? Hilarious. But if so, are other people allowed to boo Martins if one of his poor touches or stupidly lost balls results in the opponent scoring late in a game? Another rhetorical question btw... But at the end of the day, he's a striker who has scored goals and been instrumental in the scoring of other goals. Noone claims that he's one of the best strikers in the world, no one is saying that he is as good as Tevez or Berb or Drog, people just seem aprecitaive of his input to the team since he's been here and his general personality. I genuinely dont see what more he could do. I just cant see too many "average" strikers ecplising what Martins has done so far in his Nufc career. You have to ask yourself who else you class as avergae like Martins and ask if they could influence the results of as many games as Martins has with his goals and therefore saving the club from relegation. If not, then you#re describing something of a paradox.

Like who? Sibi? The point is that he was the one who got those goals, not anyone else but him. You cannot under any circumstance take that away from him and they were the goals that took us away from the relegation spots. Also this season he has been instrumental in our recent run, helping us save us from releagation as well. Not the only player but defintely one who stands out for me anyway. As for your second point, no one is saying he dragged the team single handedly but he scored some excellent goals for us, AZ Alkmaar, Levia Waregam(?), Blackburn, Spurs, they were games people rememeber. Fair point, but he's always reiterated his desire to stay here, he could of kept quiet like Zog or Owen but instead he has been very complimentary to the club, not only that but it shows at times on the pitch where he is one of only a handful of players trying to put in 100% every game. Sure, its fine to love the best things in life, but is everything you love the best? Its his unpredictablitly thats makes him so exciting and frustrating, i can see where your coming from though, i guess im one of those people that get excited when he's on the ball, take the goal against Spurs recently(in fact take all his goals against them), i love watching that goal becasue there isnt a single player in the squad who would of scored the goal like that. The bottom line though is that he is a striker who has scored a decent amount of goals in very poor circumstances, he's done his job. I dont think anyone should take that away from him, i can easily see why peoples love him. I think the key is is that people predominantly love Martins the person more so than they love Martins the player.

I can completely see why the fans give him this "strange love", and have no issue with fans loving him either, he's played in some terrible sides and has saved us from relegation once, arguably twice now. Despite this his commitment and attitude towards the club have been completely unquestionable. The thing is, is that if you look through this thread you'll not find too many people saying he's as good as or will be as good as players like Drogba or Adebayor because they do realise he probably wont be able to put his obvious talent together, but you will see alot of people appreciating his comments towards the club, his commitment on the pitch and the edge he gives to the side. If you cant love a player who is 100% commited to a club, gives 100% everytime he's on the pitch and gives us some fanstatic footballing moments then who can you love??

I dont understand how if nani was big Man U target then how did he get to the situation that he was about to sign for you? That doesnt sound like a club that was properly involved, that sounds like a hijacked move, completely the opposite to what happened with Bale who was courted by both clbs for along time. Although this is a bit of a poor example, we beat Liverpool to Owen, liverpool who were unwilling to pay the stupid amounts that we were, what's to say that they same wouldnt happen with another player of similar calibre? Imnot advocating that thats the right way to go about things but its another example of a smaller clubbeating a bigger club to a signing. Also theres an assuption that one of the big teams in england would be in for a player we're after. We arent going for the likes of Nani, or Veloso or even Berbatov, players who are being openly courted by some big sides, we are going for the slighlty less fashoinalbe category. i dont think its certaintly that we will sign these players, but just from the way Ashley conducts himself and Keegans speaks i dont think its an absoltuely riidiculous idea either.

I genuinely see no reason why the sigining Ronaldihno isnt a possiblity, West Ham were close to gettin Adriano, Man City seem to be in for Ronnie too, Keegan has made it abundantly clear that he is cosidering what seem like completely unrealisitc targets, a couple of months weeks ago id of thought that this talk of Henry, Ronaldihno and Deco was ludicrous, but i have this massive feeling that all this talk isnt pie in the sky and has some founding, i just can help but feel that Ashley would love to bring a big player to Newcastle, ifno to entertain himself, then definitely for the benefit of the club. Our only problem and major problem is that the likes of Milan seem to be sniffin around as well, if it was another big teamin Spain i would still be quite confident but with a big team in another league (another challenge) then i cant see this being pulled off for thoe reasons and those reasons alone. Can see the same happening with Henry for what its worth, dont know why but i think Inter will get his signature.