McCormick

http://www.sport.fo/sports/newsimg/Guus-Hiddink.jpg Tbh. with him or without him, spurs won't win the league, ffs

ah yes, makes more sense. sorry kev

i'd toss emre right in there if he's fit enough

wow canny business sense you have there.. thats a lot money being given away and if having 50,000 fans everygame got you into europe.. oh sh*t forgot what i was going to say

nah i'd have smith anyday i love these unheard-of players- could be amazing.. anybody know anything about him? He's a solid enough defensive midfielder, I seem to remember him looking good in the Celta side that qualified for the champions league. next!...

nah i'd have smith anyday i love these unheard-of players- could be amazing.. anybody know anything about him?

i'm containing my excitement..

Lassana Diarra would be a fantastic signing for us. Get him in if you can Sam! Another midget, no thanks. Would love lassana down here.. great potential, he's shaping up to be a fine player

true but if a plethora of clubs are after a certain player (assuming the wages are the same) that player will undoubtedly pick a more successful team. I haven't noticed Man City have any problems. There are lots of factors but using Parky's example if I was a player and had the choice of Bolton or Man City (pre season, even before Sven arrived) I would say joining Bolton would be the wrong move, even though they had european football. This would be due to the size of crowd, potential, history etc at City outweighing a few games against some Estonians at Bolton I think a high profile manager also makes a big differance. not quite fair.. in order to carry out an experiment all variables bar one have to be fixed. nobody's talking about club prestige, history etc. Here's a hypothetical example: two teams completely alike except one has european football.. who does the player choose? now thats an experiment.. As in all other warks of business you have to sell the business to prospective partners/associates ie players. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules. Of course CL football makes a differance but I don't think Uefa cup footie is really a decider. It comes down to the manager/ambition and how the club and area are perceived by the incoming player. obviously there are other greater allures than uefa.. but to dissmiss european football alltogether as one, is just silly. The higher in the league we come this year the better the talent we can attract. Can you see I'm taking great and unwieldy pains to distinguish between uefa cup and champions league? yes i can see that, but painstakingly describing the distinction is totally unnecessary. nobody is going to say that the attraction of CL football is anywhere near the attraction of uefa cup football.. but teams in like newcastle wherein CL football is out of reach, it definitely plays its role; sure managers, stadia, history,fanbase and money are waaay ahead of european footie in terms of attracting talent - but it's outlandish to say that players don't hold a place in the uefa cup with high regard- afterall its an indication of a teams position in their respective league. Won't a team be a more attractive prospect if it's higher in its league? - thats all i'm saying, its not as if AZ allkmaar has more allure than us just because it plays in europe. No. Got me there.. touche

true but if a plethora of clubs are after a certain player (assuming the wages are the same) that player will undoubtedly pick a more successful team. I haven't noticed Man City have any problems. There are lots of factors but using Parky's example if I was a player and had the choice of Bolton or Man City (pre season, even before Sven arrived) I would say joining Bolton would be the wrong move, even though they had european football. This would be due to the size of crowd, potential, history etc at City outweighing a few games against some Estonians at Bolton I think a high profile manager also makes a big differance. not quite fair.. in order to carry out an experiment all variables bar one have to be fixed. nobody's talking about club prestige, history etc. Here's a hypothetical example: two teams completely alike except one has european football.. who does the player choose? now thats an experiment.. As in all other warks of business you have to sell the business to prospective partners/associates ie players. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules. Of course CL football makes a differance but I don't think Uefa cup footie is really a decider. It comes down to the manager/ambition and how the club and area are perceived by the incoming player. obviously there are other greater allures than uefa.. but to dissmiss european football alltogether as one, is just silly. The higher in the league we come this year the better the talent we can attract. Can you see I'm taking great and unwieldy pains to distinguish between uefa cup and champions league? yes i can see that, but painstakingly describing the distinction is totally unnecessary. nobody is going to say that the attraction of CL football is anywhere near the attraction of uefa cup football.. but teams in like newcastle wherein CL football is out of reach, it definitely plays its role; sure managers, stadia, history,fanbase and money are waaay ahead of european footie in terms of attracting talent - but it's outlandish to say that players don't hold a place in the uefa cup with high regard- afterall its an indication of a teams position in their respective league. Won't a team be a more attractive prospect if it's higher in its league? - thats all i'm saying, its not as if AZ allkmaar has more allure than us just because it plays in europe.

had berbs and ronny in my team too.. replaced the lazy b*stards (had to use my wild card)

true but if a plethora of clubs are after a certain player (assuming the wages are the same) that player will undoubtedly pick a more successful team. I haven't noticed Man City have any problems. There are lots of factors but using Parky's example if I was a player and had the choice of Bolton or Man City (pre season, even before Sven arrived) I would say joining Bolton would be the wrong move, even though they had european football. This would be due to the size of crowd, potential, history etc at City outweighing a few games against some Estonians at Bolton I think a high profile manager also makes a big differance. not quite fair.. in order to carry out an experiment all variables bar one have to be fixed. nobody's talking about club prestige, history etc. Here's a hypothetical example: two teams completely alike except one has european football.. who does the player choose? now thats an experiment.. As in all other warks of business you have to sell the business to prospective partners/associates ie players. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules. Of course CL football makes a differance but I don't think Uefa cup footie is really a decider. It comes down to the manager/ambition and how the club and area are perceived by the incoming player. obviously there are other greater allures than uefa.. but to dissmiss european football alltogether as one, is just silly. The higher in the league we come this year the better the talent we can attract.

Chelsea was the wrong club at the wrong time in his career. He was too inexperienced to hold down a place in a side that was chasing the league, and he lost his way a bit. But - his potential is huge. I'd back Sam to straighten him out. my only worry is that these posters'll murder him the minute he steps into the toon... still cant believe they're slating a potential rightback.. must be absolutely terrible i'm guessing hes a youngster, how old?

true but if a plethora of clubs are after a certain player (assuming the wages are the same) that player will undoubtedly pick a more successful team. I haven't noticed Man City have any problems. There are lots of factors but using Parky's example if I was a player and had the choice of Bolton or Man City (pre season, even before Sven arrived) I would say joining Bolton would be the wrong move, even though they had european football. This would be due to the size of crowd, potential, history etc at City outweighing a few games against some Estonians at Bolton I think a high profile manager also makes a big differance. not quite fair.. in order to carry out an experiment all variables bar one have to be fixed. nobody's talking about club prestige, history etc. Here's a hypothetical example: two teams completely alike except one has european football.. who does the player choose? now thats an experiment..

he's getting absolutely beaten down on this thread... wow, tbh i havn't seen much of him or know much about him. surely he can't be that bad if he's playing for chelsea?.. but that might be my ignorance showing itself.

true but if a plethora of clubs are after a certain player (assuming the wages are the same) that player will undoubtedly pick a more successful team.

it would really be a kick in the nads if boro sign riquelme.. we're the ones that need a creative midfielder; and if he really is considering a move to boro we'd have easily gotten him.

European football is important, players want to be associated with a club that has a high league position and european football is that indication. as alex nad i mentioned before its a measure of success.. another thing to add to the club's CV so-to-speak

What age are you? If that team comes up I'll post you £10 I'd rather have taylor at rb than carr.. anyday. When's enrique getting a start anyway? and at 4-3-3 our midfield looks pretty disappointing. my team: harper taylor cacapa Rozy enrique milner geremi smith zoggy owen viduka this assuming martins is injured... guaranteed sam wont play this though, just the team i'd pick :parky: --midfield looks a lot stronger here.

hmm... Uefa most probably, but it all depends.. if we end up beating a manyoo, a chelsea, a liverpool in the final of the carling cup then i'd have to go for that instead. Uefa cup is a big deal though and, if we won, it would really boost our standings in world football

What would make you sex wee more though, Uefa cup or Carling Cup? There is no right or wrong answer, unless it's different to mine! Nobody asked me... i'll answer anyway if its attracting players you want then you can't do much better than winning UEFA. Carling cup is about as useless as a stripper pole in a church, internationally.

You can't be the chairman- you started it.

bitter, bitter, bitter I think people were saying the same thing last year tbh, the UEFA cup only gets interesting around the quarter finals mark once all the teams who, let's be honest, are just making up the numbers have been knocked out. I mean when you think about it, for our team to have progressed so far under Roeder and Souness, can it really be seen as a prestigeous competition? 'Boro in the Final? It's quite sad that the thing that has been keeping our hopes up for the last few years has been beating the likes of Zulte-Waregem, Levadia Tallinn, FK Ventspils et al, only for us to trip up when we finally meet a decent team (bit harsh mind, we beat some decent teams last season). Not inspiring, would love to win it but as far as priorities go I would prefer the carling cup as I believe it's harder to win. There is only one european competition as far as I'm concerned and it's not the UEFA cup. Any player who would go to a team because they qualified for that competition is probably a crack addict. Its a measure of success- a team which is in europe is atm more successful than a team out of europe. Players and crack-addicts alike choose to play for more successful teams.

Duff and Shola have both been much better players for NUFC. And I say that in full knowledge of how s*** they've been. I agree with you there Alex but how many chances has Ameobi had compared to Luque? You're right. I think Luque came here, was unlucky with injury under Souness and was totally discarded under Roeder and did deserve a chance after Palermo away, when although he was nothing special he scored the winner - doing a striker's job. And after Roeder had put pressure on him (unfairly) before the match. Under Allardyce he's looked ok pre-season. Better than he's looked before here I'd say. I think his attitude has been questionable at times though too. He's definitely looked disinterested mostly when he has had a chance (some would say you can't blame him). I'm not sure he really deserves to have had a run in the current team. Personally, I think he isn't suited to English football. Fans highly rating luque and saying that he hasn't had a chance, its all guilt-speak tbh. they just don't want to believe that we took on a 'class' player with a potentially glittering career ahead of him and basically f*cked him up (souness and roder); he has shown no signs that he is even remotely close to the player he was at deportivo, and its sad really.. but we cant keep him on our hands because we feel sorry for him. I wish he did become the player you lot are touting him to be, but he won't.. better he leaves and has the chance to pick himself up and start anew

bitter, bitter, bitter