Shush

Martin's must play ahead of Smith, even Ameobi MUST play ahead of Smith. Infact, Smith must never play again. Free transfer the useless cunt.

This.

Bentley wouldn't come to us, see where we are in the league everyone. He's going to either stay at Blackburn or head to one of the clubs who are in Europe next year.

can't say I'm that bothered by Pearson leaving. If he was a talented coach I failed to see any of that coaching have an effect on the squad.

Leeds went down relying on players like Alan Smith to keep them up. We must learn something from this. Drop him, never play him again this year, play Ameobi ahead of Smith every time.

I'm really worried about the situation were in now. I know I can't expect wins away at Villa, but fucking hell, Sunderland 2 points off us? Boro now gone ahead? The Bolton and Boro home games we SHOULD HAVE WON. Failure in those two games, the dropping of those 4 points, has really put the pressure on. And as much as I see talented players on paper, I see gutless performances on the pitch, especially when we let one in. When it comes down to a fight for survival, I worry. Talent isn't the issue, it's the desire, concentration levels and current form. It smacks of a loser attitude, and I hope that the lads show us what they are made of and get some fucking points out of the next few games, despite how tough they are. I keep telling myself we won't go down, too many teams below us that are shite. But fuck that, we can't rely on an arrogant assumption that the clubs below us WON'T get more points, despite how "unlikely" or "shite" people think they are. We must get ourselves out of danger, not pin our hopes on how badly we expect clubs below us to be.

yay! we are winning away from home! - Fingers crossed we can snatch a win here. The points are desperately needed! Shame Carr isn't talented at over-lapping and crossing early. He's botching up Duff's hard work.

I got us finishing 12th, and boro finishing above us, with 1 point more. Got Arse to win the league by 4 points, and Everton to get 4th, with Liverpool behind them and Villa to get 6th. Got Sunerland, Fulham going down with Deby.

Yes it is exciting that we are snapping up some youngsters, although we must be realistic and understand that they are unlikely to have any impact on the first team until 2012, unless they are exceptional talents. It's also never certain that a quality youngster will acheive their potential, so you can always expect 1 or 2 ending up in the Championship or back to their native league, although I'm sure some will come good here. Planting seeds for the future, great move...

I'd shearer to be involved at the club, but its hardly a "massive setback" if he decides that he wants to do something else. Find it so amusing that the media are again, making out this is a huge "snub". So fucking what if Shearer doesn't want to be a coach, he's already stated that he wants to be a manager. I'm sure Roy Keane would turn Fergie done if he asked him to be a coach.

This game is massive for us, a must win. I believe Keegan will get the win.

lol... Mission Impossible theme tune music to be played during these 2 days.

I'd say so. We seem to be brining in people with various talents to break up the management responsibilities to a team so that one person isn't under pressure to deliver them all. Seriously hope it works, seems ways are changing at SJP to a more modern club setup. Hope we evolve well under it. Exciting stuff.

It would cost a huge amount of money in wages and transfers to get the top best players to come here for us to compete with Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal etc... - because nobody wants to join a mid table team with no European football if they are good enough to play for Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal etc... They might if the money is big enough, i.e Diarra asking for £90k a week to come here over Portsmouth. Fuck that. I'd rather we spent 2 or 3 years building the team with sensible proven purchases and spending big when we have the clout to get the better players in when they want to come here, and when the rest of the team are good enough to support them. Missing out on Woodgate is not a bad sign, it's a wake up call of where we are and how much time and work will be needed to get back to the position where Woodgate would come here. We got Duff and Parker ahead of Spurs, that didn't prove anything did it really. Just hope we spend wisely in the summer, improving the areas where we are weak and in return get a better consistent performance on the pitch next season. Move up to top half of the table and hover a few points around the European spots would show we are moving in the right direction and in a good platform to spend again to get in to Europe. If we are lucky, we may get there faster, but we can't expect to spend heavily and achieve immediate results, surely we've proved that doesn't work all the time.

The "Pulling power" argument was used against Roeder and Souness and they got big name signings e.g. Owen, Duff, Martins, etc. Thats when we thre silly money about which i dont expect to happen and quite rightly. Plus these players needed to move were as the players who we need this summer will be wanted by clubs in europe you forget to mention silly escape clauses for Owen and Martins etc. that had a factor in there decisions to move.

The "Pulling power" argument was used against Roeder and Souness and they got big name signings e.g. Owen, Duff, Martins, etc. We were still in europe then though.

Rather that than keep the manager and f**k up the next few seasons. Mick it was clear from the fallout they never took to SA and MA for some time wasn't happy with the football being offerred. Why not sack him earlier or wait till the summer? Don't come at me with your ridiculous melodrama my point has plenty of merit. earlier would never have been early enough. all they could have done would be to get rid a week or two earlier which would have been neither here nor there. to sack him in the summer could have seen us relegated and the most vicious home crowds since i've been going. there was never going to be a "right time" Perhaps the FA should create the "right time" by introducing a new "sack the manager window" where a specific time around the mid-season point is introduced where you can sack managers, but you can't sack them outside of this window or the summer. At least then it could be argued that any manager that goes in that time, went at the right time. Of course I'm just kidding, for those who seem to fail to spot this.

And no doubt devoted time to a portfolio of women he'd like to smash the granny out of.

It's also the lack of time Keegan has had to even spend a penny. He hasn't been watching players or speaking to the scouts at the club for the whole season planning possible January targets, he came in late through Jan and had a job to do at home to Bolton and away at Arsenal, yet somehow is expected by some to make wonder signings in that time too. I'd rather Keegan thought about who to sign than to sign someone after being at a club for 5 mins with even less time left of the transfer window. The Woodgate bid was a sensible one, but probs one to get someone of a proven quality in who was available. He went to Spurs, we have Faye and Beye returning to add to the defence this week, so its not that bad. In January there will be more cash to spend. Hurray.

What was lucky about Sven buying Elano? If you buy a good footballer and play to his strengths the player will do well. Something NUFC haven't been able to grasp for a long long time. I think there is an element of luck in signing any player who joins the Premier League, especially if they are coming from one such as the Ukrainian league which is a slightly different standard from top flight English league. Even Elano's old team mates said of their surprise of how well he has adapted, and you can't predict how well a player will adapt and perform in a completing different stage where far more talented players will be playing against you. Elano himself is quoted as saying that he was surprised at the tempo of the Premiership. (see Wikipedia) Not to take credit away from Elano, he is clearly a special player and being used to his strengths as you say, but there was no 100% guarantee he was always going to workout here until he came and played. Giovanni and Bianchi haven't worked out as successful, so you could argue was unlucky with these signings.

Agreed.

When you've got fuk all its worth taking a reasonable risk on someone, Barnes, Arshivan is a reasonable risk imo. Most of those duds have come as very good palyers who've done well in the league and look how that turned out. How is Arshavin or whatever his name is a "reasonable risk", can you explain that to me? Short of you being a *insert name of whoever the hell he plays for here* season ticket holder on the sly or at least having some sort of subscription to The Ruski Channel, I fail to see how you could possibly know that. Done well in Europe (nearly one in two in the Eufa cup) and NT level and has interested a lot of top clubs in Europe, some a lot bigger than ourselves, that's how its a reasonable risk. Every player is a risk FFS, surely a one with obvious talent isn't so much of one? So you need to attend 50 games to have an opinion on a player? You've just described Albert Luque there, you realise that? The UEFA Cup is f****** s*** mate, you know that as well as I do. Until the quarters, you play teams from Israeli mountain villages. Let's say he turns out to be s***, hardly out of the realms of possibility, KK's spent £10m on him, do you think Ashley's going to be overjoyed when he comes for more money in four months and Keegan says "Sorry, but he looked good on a video"? Also describes Elano. Your more likely going to buy a Luque than you are an Elano. Elano is magic. Luque is a lazy money grabbing cunt. I'd say Sven was either very lucky with Elano, or damn smart. Probably a bit of both.

This is how it is, and we need to accept it before we can move on. I want the big named stars, but would prefer many smaller improvements in key areas of our squad to make a much better team, than to put all our eggs in one basket on an expensive European player like (i.e. Luque, Boumsong). We end using and relying on the players we tried to replace when these expensive foreign flops don’t work out, so in essence we spend big but go nowhere. That’s not to say it always fails buying and spending lots abroad (Man City good example where it can lead to quick improvements), but it’s a safer bet to poach someone we know who is good in the Premier League from the smaller teams around us, or the ones that are good but in the fringes and wanting first team games at the bigger Premier League clubs.

I'd love Van Buyten too, but would he come here? He's at Bayern! He may want to stay, perhaps Klinsmann will want to keep him. As much as I'd like to see Van Buyten here, I think were just going to be a club that bids for him to encourage clubs in a better position to snatch him from under our noses. I think Ben Haim is someone we can get, and we have a knack of getting Chelsea players at sensible prices.

Hey we've lacked someone roughing people up since Shearer hanged up his boots. lol... Smith doesn't do that, he just slides in and misses...