thewellander

I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned (I haven't read all 11 pages of this thread) but I find it funny that he doesn't even mention Luque, when talking about Allardyce's striking options: "With Mark, Obafemi Martins and Shola Ameobi, I am sure that the manager is excited about his attacking options and he has been working hard to strengthen the rest of the team..." By the time he wrote this, it was already clear that Luque was staying on. Perhaps it says something about the amount of regard Owen (or the other players) have for him.

Just had a chance to read this from Owen. I'm not going to speculate whether or not he's telling the truth, or whether he will jet in January. This is great news, and I respect his reasons for staying silent, even if I don't agree with them. Now we can move on and support Owen and the team.

Even aside from customs, the MLSgear website is shockingly expensive.

I don't take it too seriously. It's all good fun.

I hope we have a change kit that colour some day. It reminds me of Arsenal's away shirt from a few years back that I loved.

Seconded.

Hahahahahahaha!! We will never be the best in soccer. Not until the sport gets rid of the politics and schmoozing just to get into a decent program. All it is in America through every university, through every developmental program, through all the u.s. developmental programs, is politics, money, and who you know in each program. IF and only if the U.S. got their best talent together, then maybe we would have a chance to make a splash on the world stage. The thing is that the US is very sports obssessed and is willing to put a lot of money into developing athletes, when they have the will to. If they decided they wanted to be a top contender in world soccer, they definately have the resources to do it. To be honest, they already have a good senior team, as well as U20 team.

Aye, seen it on SSN this morning. They have reflective dots on the sleeves to help the palyers see each other over long distances (open you f****** eyes!) and the keeper top has rugby style 'grip strips' on it. Personally speaking, I don't see wha realistic benefit that could have... Reflective dots, eh? Wow. I hope that's not the wave of the future.

I've seen a lot of De Rosario. He is not that good. A Championship player at best. Agreed DeRo is a top player in the MLS, but he would be average in the EPL. Hutchinson would be a great get, imo. I say that mostly because Edgar is making Newcastle popular in Canada, and if Hutchinson comes, maybe the team will play some preseason games over here. I can dream!

I've never done a fantasy league before, so I'm still tinkering with this. It's a work in progress, but this is what I have so far: http://chris.worldofsinclair.com/eplfantasy.jpg

Let's be honest, Newcastle United is too big a club for either of these players.

I lost a little bit of respect for Heinze for his conduct after Argentina were booted out of the World Cup in 06, but that's in the past. He's exactly the kind of LB that we need at Newcastle, imo. He's experienced, has natural ability, and would have something to prove. If he leaves Manchester United, he will do so because he wants to play first team football and excel. If we can get him for £4-5M, I think we would be ideal at this point.

The Portsmouth kit is nice and all, but I figured they would have something really unique with Canterbury making them.

As long as he's cheating for us, you mean?

Of course, now that we're linked with Deco, Manchester United will go in for him.

I just rolled out of bed to this rumour! I'm floored. I don't want to get my hopes up too high without this being confirmed, but..... Anyways, I think that Barton could fit in nicely as a holding midfielder, if we bring Deco in. So, realistically, I think our squad could end up looking like this: -----------------Given--------------- --Geremi---Roz---Taylor---Heinze? ----------------Barton--------------- ---Milner------Deco-------Duff---- --------Viduka--------Owen------- But Milner can play on both sides, correct? We might end up in a situation where he goes in on the left, and Dyer comes in on the right, with the current squad as it is. Of course, if we're signing guys like Deco, Milner quickly becomes the weakest link, and we'll probably have to find someone better.

Worst of all, Dale Mitchell begins the job as head coach of our senior men's team as of tomorrow.

Sports Illustrated just put out a list of all the best athletes to wear certain numbers. Check out the list of athletes who they regard as the best to wear #9: Winner: Ted Williams Runner Up: Gordie Howe Worthy of Consideration: Bill Elliot, Mia Hamm, Bobby Hull, Bob Pettit, Rocket Richard So, Mia Hamm makes it on the list, but not Alan Shearer?

I don't know. Onyewu, to me, isn't all that great. And he should have cost the US the Gold Cup against Canada, except that the referee made the worst call in football history.

This is great news. I think Milner is the kind of player who genuinly wants to improve and wants to win every single time he goes out there. That can't be said for a lot of the players that have come through the door in the past few years. He should have a bright future with our club, as long as he gets time on the pitch.

I won't understand for the life of me why our coach waited so long to bring in a seconder striker. Lombardo should have been in there much earlier. The only realy chances Canada got came from Lombardo in the last 10 minutes. If they had made that change at the 60 minute mark, things could have been different. Personally, I thought that Edgar played well last night. He did make some mistakes in the opener, though. Moe-Ali, how was the crowd in Edmonton? It looked pretty sparce on TV.

1.Man U 2.Liverpool 3.Chelsea 4.Arsenal ----------- 5.Spurs 6.Newcastle ----------- 7.Portsmouth 8.Everton 9.Villa 10.Bolton 11.Boro 12.Reading 13.Sunderland 14.West Ham 15.City 16.Birmingham 17.Blackburn ------------- 18.Fulham 19.Wigan 20.Derby

If you're talking about the Canada game, then the three behind the goal would have been Edgar's sister and cousins. I was standing with them, but in a Canada shirt. I was right drunk, so I was walking up to everyone in toon shirts and talking to them. On Monday, I was wearing last year's 3rd shirt. I had a Liverpool fan tell me to f*ck off just for wearing it. I guess he knew we would be taking their spot in the top four soon enough.

One of them's probably that lad from Wimbledon. One might have been me. There were about 10 or so people walking around in Newcastle shirts at Monday's game.

I have a feeling Dyer is going to be spending a lot of time on the bench for us this season as well, so I hope you're right, Shak. I wouldn't be sad to see him go, though.