cubaricho

Yeah, everyone found out that the "Wise System" isn't actually that bad and he's done a great job with the youth/reserve squads and little to nothing with the senior squad. About as close as he got to the senior squad was Bassong whom they probably thought was going to be in the reserves (until he turned out to be massive). Probably the same with Xisco who has spent more time around the reserves than the senior squad to be fair. any proof of this ? Any proof of anything? Other than Keegan being a big baby and walking away leaving a s*** storm in his wake where all the blame went straight to Wise and "the system"? We'll never know what goes on behind the closed doors. we'll never know if keegan was a big baby or justified. pissed off abouth that really. Unfortunately it's part of football. And to be clear, I was just stating the opinion to muster some debate. Maybe things weren't nearly as bad as people have made them out to be? It will be hard for a lot of people to fathom considering the amount of energy I've seen spent, on this board and others, making Wise et al out to be the bad guys when maybe they weren't nearly as bad as they have been made out to be. Who knows.

Yeah, everyone found out that the "Wise System" isn't actually that bad and he's done a great job with the youth/reserve squads and little to nothing with the senior squad. About as close as he got to the senior squad was Bassong whom they probably thought was going to be in the reserves (until he turned out to be massive). Probably the same with Xisco who has spent more time around the reserves than the senior squad to be fair. any proof of this ? Any proof of anything? Other than Keegan being a big baby and walking away leaving a shit storm in his wake where all the blame went straight to Wise and "the system"? We'll never know what goes on behind the closed doors.

No way in the world would he get rid of Ameobi, they get on really well don't they? Wasn't Ameobi meant to be his little protege or something?

touche.

Would love to see them as a front pairing. I think they would compliment each other brilliantly with a bit of influence from Shearer.

Yeah, everyone found out that the "Wise System" isn't actually that bad and he's done a great job with the youth/reserve squads and little to nothing with the senior squad. About as close as he got to the senior squad was Bassong whom they probably thought was going to be in the reserves (until he turned out to be massive). Probably the same with Xisco who has spent more time around the reserves than the senior squad to be fair.

I'd have Xisco over Carroll any day of the week. Ditto, actually. Glad i'm not the only one I feel like if Xisco could just get a few games strung together in the first team people would see that he's actually a very good striker, much better than the dross we have in Ameobi and Carroll.

I only just changed mine from Shearer during his Roeder-assistant stint too!

I'd have Xisco over Carroll any day of the week.

Someone said something along these lines in another thread and it made me think about it quite a bit. With clubs like West Brom and Stoke, they are fighting to stay in the Prem because they are, on the majority, Championship players punching above their weight struggling for survival when our lads know they will get a cushy move elsewhere if Newcastle were to go down. They've got no real reason to play their hearts out.

Our squad will be decimated if we go down. The majority of our players are Premiership quality players (even though we'd be down) that will go elsewhere if we go down. We will find out how much of a "legend" and loyal a lot of these guys really are.

To think that he only cost us 2 million quid too. What a fucking bargain.

This is a good sign that Capello can actually make "tough" decisions when it comes to selecting a team that, under other managers and when players were fit, used to select itselfs for better or worse. Capello has the balls to drop any big name that isn't going to fit into his plan. I am excited to see what squad gets pulled to WC2010 when England is playing exactly the system that Capello wants. He's treating this like a club team which is the way it always should have been treated. Regardless of name/popularity, if you don't fit into the system you don't play. As for Owen, someone hit the nail on the head when they said that he just doesn't fit into Capello's system. He might've if he was fit and scoring when Capello took over and worked out his system to include Owen. That's just not the way it worked out and honestly, it's probably better news for us that Owen isn't in the England frame at the moment. He'll be trying to get back in so (hopefully) playing his heart out and it's also less matches we have to worry about Owen getting hurt in.

Great end to the US/El Salvador match last night. USA really should've won by a long shot considering the opposition but still a great match.

The problem with MLS is that you can be a horrible team, lose half your matches, and still make the playoffs and get on a hot streak and win the whole thing. There is no meaning behind the regular season matches, especially with the West/East divisions. That being said, DC United do relatively well, they generally make the playoffs - but that's not saying much. They've still got two great supporters clubs in La Barra Brava and the Screaming Eagles though.

Hopefully we pull him back now that Duff is done.

What happened to Red Bull Park? Are they playing there this season or any time soon?

I will also say that it was great to see Seattle do such a great job with opening night there. Great crowd and great atmosphere, good to see a town that really appreciates it.

Two cities that really need teams: St. Louis (the cradle of football in America) and Montreal. The stadium in Montreal is magnificent and the crowd there is very cultured and knowledgable. I was fortunate enough to be in Montreal when Italy won the World Cup and it was great to be in a city that actually celebrated. The streets filled with people and cars waving Italian flags around - the high percentage of French in Montreal took it very well too. Anyway I digress, those are two great footballing cities that each need a club. There are no teams from Chicago to Houston and Colorado to Columbus/DC. It is ridiculous to see such a large swath of America being completely left for dead. And I won't even mention being in Florida and there not being a first division club here or anywhere in the South East for that matter.

That forward (Monterro or something) looks pretty handy. Really hustles the ball off the back four and makes a general nuiscense about himself. Like they asked Keller after the match "how long do you think you'll be able to hold onto him?" He scored 43 goals in two seasons or something like that in the Columbian league. Doesn't turn 22 until July.

This, seriously. This is why he gets played. He knows, more than a lot of the douche bags in our squad - what we need to stay out of the shit. He is a great guy to have around the club talking sense into the youngsters.

Should be something more like: Beye--------Colo---------Bass--------Jose --------------------Guth ------Barton---------------------Jonas -------------------Owen --------Love-----------------Oba But can anyone in that squad take a free kick as consistently as R. Taylor?

Maybe if he comes out Kinnear will play him just so he is not called homophobic. Would love it.

The only reason I might disagree with that is because Nolan is more apt to score goals that Guthrie is.

Harper STaylor Colo Bassong Enrique Raylor _____ Nolan ______ Jonas Owen Lovenkrands _ Martins We simply can't drop (S) Taylor for this one, there is no way Beye is match-fit at this point. Also, Owen will have to start and I'd love to see him in the hole behind two pacey strikers helping pull the defence apart creating some space for Owen to either 1) shoot or 2) create something. Nolan is a machine and can do the box-to-box and breaking up of the play. ® Taylor plays for his set-piece skill and Jonas will scare the fuck out of Eboue down our left (and Enrique is just plain better with Jonas in front of him).