thewellander

Steven Taylor has played RB before has he not? It's possible they might put him out there for Simpson and have Zurab and Colo in the middle on the weekend. Most likely not, though.

I don't expect to see Zurab play until Colo goes away on international duty again, assuming that he would have to miss a game to make the trip to South America.

Find a better buyer? Ashley will want £300m again.

I guess I'm just not convinced that Moat has the ability to spend on our team. I'm afraid we'll go from an owner who is unwilling to invest to one who is unable.

To be honest, I would rather have Ashley in charge until the end of the season and hope that we get promoted than sell to Moat. I have no confidence that Moat will be able to provide funds to bring the club forward. Some key loan deals will likely put us in a decent position to return to the Premiership next year, and we should be able to find a better buyer at that point. If Moat is the only option on the table, I don't want him.

Not sure how good he is, but we can expect Colo to be away on international duty a few more times this year, I think, so it's probably a good thing to have cover at center back. It's also good to see that we are finally getting more bodies in.

We'll regroup during half time and win this game, I'm sure.

Can't see the game, but I blame Nicky Butt for our lack of ability to boss this game.  

He's been great. I didn't think he could replace Beye, but he's done a great job and seems to be growing more confident every game. Would be pleased if he received a contract at this point.

This thread is pure class. The Phil Brown and Ameobi on the bike ones are my favorites, but all are great. 

I'm bumping it up to four. I'm feeling better about this year, but still not convinced of promotion.

De Guzman will be great with TFC. Would have liked to have seem him with Newcastle, but I'm glad one of my two teams got him. I do agree that it's a strange move, in the sense that I would have thought that a better team would have went in for him.

I've always believed that these are the types of wins that count in the end. Teams that win leagues get results away from home when they don't necessarily deserve them. Couldn't be happier with the result and the determination our players showed today.

Hughton should have his manager of the month award taken away from him for those substitutions, though.

I truly believe Beckham will go if he's fit. But if there was an England manager who wouldn't include him, it's Capello. He's going to bring who he sees fit to bring, and whoever his squad is, I think it will be the right decision. The man is a genius.

It's really quite amusing that they can lose so many games, be playing so poorly, and still have a shout of getting to the World Cup. I think they'll make it there, but they certainly don't deserve it.

Englands goals: a penalty, three free headers and an open net from a mistake, Croatia were unbelievably poor. The easy chances we got we missed (Heskey fluffing his 1 vs 1s). We still have a long way to go to be beating the likes of Spain et al.

Kill joy. 

If we get back into the Premiership and get bought out by a serious owner, I would hope that we would offer him the moon to come to Newcastle. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Strange, he was pretty decent at Deportivo.

 

But you have like a million central midfielders already, don't you?

Not one at his level, though.

I'm sure he'll claim that he wanted to play for his hometown team and all that, but he'd obviously be settling for a club like TFC. I was pretty surprised to see him on the free agent list, let alone not have anyone go in for him. Must have flown right under the radar. Hopefully he'll tear through the MLS and help Toronto into the playoffs this year. I plan to go to their first playoff game if they get in (four hour drive for me).

I know there wasn't a lot of interest in this thread for Canadian international Julian de Guzman, but it looks like he's on his way to Toronto FC. I think he would have been a decent signing at this level.

If we don't end up in the six by the end of the season, we will only have one person to blame: Mike Ashley. I think our top 11 guys are far and above most of the teams that we'll come across and the only thing that is going to keep us from promotion (or at least a playoff spot) is injuries.

As for the quality of the games, if I could watch every game (or most games) I would be happy for us to play at this level forever. The games are fun to watch and I'm still enjoying every minute of being an NUFC fan this year, in spite of the turmoil and the lack of televised matches. Just wish that I could watch more.

Can't wait to watch a full allotment of NUFC fans make the long trip to Cardiff to watch us get another win. Hopefully we'll have some new loan signings in the squad.

2-1 for us. Would love to see another clean sheet, but reckon it won't happen.

No fker knows anything, not even Ashley, if we are sold great if not argg but TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!

Lets worry more about promotion lads and leave the sale in the hands of the gods.

Agreed. I think we should all just enjoy some football and stop worrying about the club sale.

I can't understand people who say Xisco was never given a chance. I think coaching him day in and day out gives you some indication of how good or how bad he is.

Have to agree.

If we never get promoted.

It's like a paradox. Can Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that even he cannot eat it?

Yeah, he was strong on the ball from what I saw and kept his composure well in the second half. Of course an 18-year-old kid making his first start isn't going to tear the house down. He looked good and I'm happy to have him in the squad based on what I've seen so far.

I'm confident you lot will get sold before Christmas. Thing is that the situation you were after getting relegated, losing all your better players, etc... was very bad looking. You had a lot of people even pointing you to drop like a stone and beating Leeds' run into infamy. With that kind of thing only chancers and cheap bastards were probably willing to invest on the club. Now with the ball rolling, you getting good gates and winning games... everybody can see you're not going straight into oblivion, so I'm sure that other investors will see you as a potential good investment. And you might end up with a better owner that if you got fire-saled during the summer.

I think you're right, and if the best we could have done for a new owner this time around was Moat, then not selling right now is not necessarily a bad thing. IF we can get back up or look like we're near certain to at Christmas (and that's a big if, mind) then I think we'll find that we're in a good position to get sold and have a decent owner. Relegation might end up being a blessing in disguise in this situation, as we would have purged the rot in our club.

But that being said, there are too many "ifs" in that scenario to feel anything but dread if you're an NUFC fan at the moment. We'll have to just wait and see.

If we were likely to sign any of these free agents, you would think that we would have by now. We signed one free agent, and Ashley left it until transfer deadline day to make it seem like we did some business when we did not.

Ashley clearly thinks that we can at least get to January at or near the top of the table with our current squad.

Happy about this signing. He'll make a difference for us and should score a fair share of goals at this level.