John P

I think so, which proves the ridiculous nature of the rule imo. More and more players are gonna be dragged across the world before they're out their teens. Not Mikel Obi right? Isn't the rule that a player has to be part of an English set-up for three years or three full seasons before their 21st birthday to be counted as homegrown. Mikel Obi signed for Chelsea when he was 19 which would make this impossible since he would've been 22 at the end of the third season. Probably not then. But the point still stands, the likes of Kakuta and Borini at Chelsea will be classed as homegrown at a point. I don't see the point in the rule if that's the case, rather than enforcing clubs to develop talent it just means they stockpile players at an even younger age. Can't be good for them. I agree, I think all this rule is going to do is make teams 'buy' or sign even more young European players. At the end of the day, we have quite a few foreign managers in the Prem now and they aren't going to care about where the player comes from, as long as they fit into the homegrown rule. Am I right in thinking that in Germany the rule is that you must have 12 'homegrown' players in the squad, 8 of whom must be eligible for the national team? Think I read it on the BBC website somewhere last week? If so, that is a much better system and one which I think will actually help their youth development and national team, whereas I think we will just be getting left behind after a few years of our 'homegrown' rule.

I was behind Chris Hughton at the self service checkouts in Jesmond Tesco earlier. Managed to see one thing he was buying - the latest issue of Zoo

Assou-Ekotto and Snoop Dogg

I walked past Ryan Taylor on Northumberland Street yesterday. He wasn't smiling.

Don't know how to post images but that ginger kid off the Bernard Matthews 'Bootiful' advert looks like Kevin Nolan http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/16/advertising-bernard-matthews-bootiful

Steve Harper at the Kasabian gig at the Arena last night. Would have thought he was more of a U2 man to be honest.

Went to Hana hana restaurant last night, Julio Arca walked in when we were sat waiting and bought some Argentinian wine for £48(!) Then when we got seated we were sat opposite Steven Taylor and one of his mates. Taylor spent the whole time texting on his phone, at one point with his fork in his mouth as well. Then he got served a drink and stirred it with his chopsticks. Came across as a right dick to be honest.

Looked very good, pleasantly surprised by how comfortable he looked on the ball. Can't say I ever took much notice of him at Blackburn but I assumed because he was a centre half that he wouldn't be too clever with the ball at his feet. Good at going round linesmen too. Looks promising.

My mate is a Wolves fan and they had Harewood on loan last season. Said he was terrible and the fans were getting on his back after a couple of games cos he was so bad. Therefore our patient set of supporters may be just what he needs

Jesus christ I don't think I could take another *insert any player* seen at newcastle airport today. But my mate has just text me saying he saw Taiwo collecting his baggage at the Ryanair luggage conveyor so watch this space

agreed, with the exception of Kadar read "Kadar to start please" as "Coloccini not to start please" take it you've missed the last 3 games Whilst away I only saw the WBA game. Saw highlights and heard various opinions of the rest. Coloccini was very solid against Reading, decent enough against Wednesday and according to a couple, our best player by far on Saturday Think Ill have to disagree with you on that one. Got caught the wrong side of his man on numerous occasions and relied a couple of times on Taylor and Enrique to cover his poor positioning

Am I the only one who thought that Ryan Taylor actually wasn't terrible and had a half-decent game? Everyone seems to be slagging off his performance but I thought, particularly in the first half, he worked his socks off. He tracked back and closed down their left back well and put in quite a few successful challenges, his set pieces were in the most part pretty good and his final ball may have been lacking at times but in the most part I think people have been overly critical of what I thought was a decent shift he put in.

Thats pretty much exactly what Im doing this season. I normally go to 3 or 4 games a season but this season im planning on going to a lot more, maybe 15-20

I thought that Esajas was the LW and Johnson the RW... Yeah I think he said Johnson plays on either wing, but he is the one with pace. Don't know anything about Esajas, just going off what my mate told me last night

Went for a pint with my Wednesday supporting mate last night (who is also going to the game with me in the home end tonight) and he said that they were a very physical side until Laws came in, but he has been trying to get them to play a bit more football recently. So it will be interesting to see if they stick to that principle tonight or whether they revert to a more physical style against us. He also said that their keeper Grant is an excellent shot-stopper but very suspect on crosses and commanding his area, and that at one point last season they conceded 10goals in a row from back post headers (!), so hopefully Shola and Carroll can look to take advantage of that. Said their best players are Beevers (centre half), Tudgay (striker) and that their left winger (Johnson I think?) has a lot of pace but not much else, so he could cause us some problems if he's up against Ryan Taylor. Might be worth playing Simpson at RB if he has a bit of pace about him. Oh and he also said that their left back Spurr is highly rated by most but he thinks he's shit! Anyway, im going for 2-0 to us - Carroll and Nolan

aye, i liked jorge albertz, remembering him having a hell of a shot on him. with that 'zidane bit' he's got going on at the back of his head, he looked from a distance like a taller nicky 'midfield collossus' butt It's Joerg not Jorge... German not Mexican! :-) Actually we are all wrong, its Jörg Albertz Joerg is how you write that weird 'o' thing so technically he was right (not wanting to be too pedantic)

Ryan Taylor, Tim Krul and Shola in Perdu last night

Would it not have been a better idea to push Coloccini to DM and bring Taylor on at CB so that Beye, Jonas and Taylor could have played in their natural positions?

Oba has fingers like ET

r4mmy is the name of the barber Haha, yeah i saw it again today and thought that might be the case! I was just living in dreamland......

Anyone know if 'NU2' is a reg of one of the players? Saw it outside wills coffee shop in jesmond the other morning. Also, just a little further up the road outside the hairdressers i saw a big range rover with reg plate 'r4mmy' today! Is he back?! Oh, and the disused garage on osborne road has been bought by shepherd offshore, saw a jag with reg plate fs4 something or other outside it on saturday. I should have torched the place

How come he's still 5 weeks away? Wasn't he back in training before the transfer window closed?

Carroll is a complete cunt. You can tell just from looking at him that he is chav scum. I don't think he'll make it as a player: 1) because his attitude would appear to stink and 2) he's not even any good, not matter how good he think he may be

'And if you look over here, you will see possibly the finest example to date of how to hang a dwarf'

nail on head Sorry but i dont think that deliberately booting someone has a place in football, contact sport or not. If it was the other way round we'd be absolutely fuming