Chris Banaloona

Jonas looked the same, the bloke constantly flatters to deceive. Its obvious he is right footed (won't whip a ball in with his left early) so we might as well employ him on the right hand side.

Barton has been fantastic this season and I also agree that the current board of directors have no fucking clue on how to boil a kettle never mind run a football club. But Barton is 28, on massive wages and only has 18months left to run on his current deal. This time next year are Newcastle going to renew his contract at 29 years old and give him the wages that he will want? The next contract Barton will sign will more than likely be his last so like any other player in the modern game he wants to bleed dry whoever is going to give him that contract. Because of this I have a feeling McKay is behind a lot of this speculation. Also Sidwell is in talks with West Ham so that just confirms that this story is bollocks!

I'm no business expert but surely bringing it out sooner would see more sales earlier, which would = potentially more money to spend on wages/players.

Looks unfit to me............. carrying a bit

Why not just put Routledge on........... Pancrate is gash

Struggling

Guthrie can't even cement a regular place in this seasons team

Agreed. Only thing I can think of is that he wasn't prepared (or doesn't have the balls) to deal with the negativity from fans and press alike if things weren't going as planned. Pretty much like Mowbray is having to deal with now.

Haven't read the full thread so apologies for any ignorance shown. I think we have a adequate creative player who if was given a sustained run in the middle of midfield with Smith anchoring behind him would do the trick until the summer. If only Hughton would give Danny Guthrie a chance. Then we could actually focus on signing a wide right player and not have to rely on the headless Pancrate

That's an interesting way of looking at it, and hard to argue against. The difficulty of playing a finisher on the shoulder of the last defenders is that they're sometimes no good at holding the ball up, which is what you often want the most advanced player to do. (Ref Owen). Beckford showed enough on Sunday to suggest that, while that's maybe not a strength of his, he's good enough for us in that area. Hopefully Carroll/Shola/Ranger can hold the ball up sufficiently enough to allow Beckford to take advantage of any space in behind. The games I seen over xmas when I was back (Reside in USA now) teams generally played quite a high line as they know we don't really have any genuine pace or players with pace that play directly through the middle (Lovenkrands loves drifting wide) that will hurt them. Obviously I don't see all the games so whether this has been the case all season remains to be seen.

He constantly plays on the shoulder of the centre half's looking to get into the channels between the centre halfs and the full backs. We have nothing like that at the moment. Ranger: Powerful, looks to play in front of the oppositions back four rather than behind. Carroll: See Ranger. Shola: Most luckiest striker in the history of the world..... don't know what he does! But on a serious note is similar to Ranger and Carroll in terms of him wanting to play in front of the defence. Loven: Looks to get in behind, but seems to pull wide a lot to find space, which is probably the reason for his average goalscoring record. As we don't have guile in the centre of midfield and it looks like Hughton doesnt recognise this, Beckford signing is a must in my opinion as it will slightly give us a different dimension to our direct style of play.

I've said it before on here but Pancrate is no better than some of our younger players.

What do you mean by creative? Creativity isn't just crossing a ball you know..... its about having a good first touch, being composed in possession, playing with your head up, keeping the ball moving quickly and passing with a good level of accuracy and conviction. Guthrie aint no world beater but he does that better than anyone else in our club at this moment in time including Kevin Nolan. Plus he is a Central Midfield player by trade not a Right Midfielder. Last season he had a few chances in the centre & as I said he failed in the main bar the Portsmouth away game iirc. He did do a fair bit standing on the ball on the halfway line, nothing balls & he seemed to lose drive/directness in the middle. I also used to think he was a centre midfielder but I am past that now & see it as his favored position but not his best position. He needs that bit space & time that you get out wide to do his damage. Again I don't see all the games due to living abroad but your opinion is flawed as your are basing it on last season. Last season the likes of Collocini, Enrique, Ameobi (still shocking btw haha), Smith (couldnt even get a game) et al were poor....... your expecting him to be a Steven Gerrard or a Frank Lampard. All I am saying he has what no one else has at the club at this present time. The ability to be composed on the ball and link the play together rather than just humping it long hoping for a flick on to pick up the pieces. Dont tell me what I am expecting you cretin. He is best out wide. I WANT TO SEE HIM CREATE GOALS!!! I am not arsed if he likes to play in the middle or not. I want Newcastle to have the best chance of winning football games & that means Guthrie in his most effective postion which is right midfield. Him & Jonas down the flanks offer different methods of attack. Poor opinion..... and its a wonder why I don't post on here when you have people referring to other blokes as cretin for telling them how it is. Never mind

What do you mean by creative? Creativity isn't just crossing a ball you know..... its about having a good first touch, being composed in possession, playing with your head up, keeping the ball moving quickly and passing with a good level of accuracy and conviction. Guthrie aint no world beater but he does that better than anyone else in our club at this moment in time including Kevin Nolan. Plus he is a Central Midfield player by trade not a Right Midfielder. Last season he had a few chances in the centre & as I said he failed in the main bar the Portsmouth away game iirc. He did do a fair bit standing on the ball on the halfway line, nothing balls & he seemed to lose drive/directness in the middle. I also used to think he was a centre midfielder but I am past that now & see it as his favored position but not his best position. He needs that bit space & time that you get out wide to do his damage. Again I don't see all the games due to living abroad but your opinion is flawed as your are basing it on last season. Last season the likes of Collocini, Enrique, Ameobi (still shocking btw haha), Smith (couldnt even get a game) et al were poor....... your expecting him to be a Steven Gerrard or a Frank Lampard. All I am saying he has what no one else has at the club at this present time. The ability to be composed on the ball and link the play together rather than just humping it long hoping for a flick on to pick up the pieces.

What do you mean by creative? Creativity isn't just crossing a ball you know..... its about having a good first touch, being composed in possession, playing with your head up, keeping the ball moving quickly and passing with a good level of accuracy and conviction. Guthrie aint no world beater but he does that better than anyone else in our club at this moment in time including Kevin Nolan. Plus he is a Central Midfield player by trade not a Right Midfielder.

Sorry but I agree with the original post, I think LuaLua would do a very good job in this carthorse of a team in this division and he's hardly had any time on the pitch. Hughton picks senior players ahead of kids and doesn't seem to have the balls to drop certain players unless he has to. I don't see enough of the games over here live so I will take any opinion given to me. But what I do everyday is read blogs, forums and the local rags and up until recently Lua Lua was being hailed as a very good prospect. I just feel that there isn't any point whatsover in bringing players like Pancrate to the club unless he is going to be a starter every week. Lua Lua could do what he does coming off the bench in the last two games I have seen him live, both tonight and at Sheffield Wednesday. After all if Pancrate was decent he would not have been out of contract at the time we signed him (after the transfer deadline).

Spot on with most of that, mate You should start posting here more often, glad your boys had a good time, as Dave already said. I'll leave the posting to you guys as it provides me with some good reading material. Keep up the good work. Hopefully we can get promoted although I have a feeling its going to be a lot tighter in the 2nd half of the season. Hopefully Hughton can prove me wrong with some astute signings in January but for some reason I don't think he will.

I don't normally post on here so don't shoot me down in flames if you don't agree with my opinions regular posters. I don't normally get to go to games due to me living and working abroad, but I managed to get home to Newcastle this xmas so took the opportunity to take my 2 boys to their 1st ever game at St James Park, they are born and bred in the USA, play football (or soccer as they call it) and due to the influence of me are black and white through and through. They had a great experience tonight but I just wish they had of seen a Newcastle United team that would have made that first visit even more enjoyable. Tonight I think Chris Hughton got some of his substitutions massively wrong. The game was crying out for a player to put there foot on the ball in the middle of the park and actually look to make things happen, the only player in the squad capable of doing that in my opinion is Danny Guthrie, I think himself and Alan Smith would compliment each other very well. So if I were Chris Hughton I would have taken Peter Lovenkrands off and replaced him with Guthrie with Nolan pushing in a more advanced role. Secondly what was the point in taking Ryan Taylor off, all night long he provided decent delivery into the box, surely due to the fact we were winning many corners and free kicks in good areas it would have been worthwhile to keep him on. Lastly Hughton is bringing Ranger onto the field far too late in games.......the boy nearly won it for us in the end. Maybe the last two games are proof that our luck and "doing just enough" in games has worn off. Also I think Pancrate is stunting the development of players such as Lua Lua as for me he offers nothing in the games I have seen over this Holiday period. Yes he scored a fantastic goal v Watford, but looking at the bigger picture is probably no better than some of our youngsters. Obviously Hughton doesnt trust Guthrie in that central role, so he needs to make it a priority to get someone who can run games for us and create. Its going to be hard with the budget he has but that creative playmaker and NOT a centre half should be his transfer priority.

Any club without a manager will have no strengths as the players havent got a clue whether they are coming or bastard going!

Thank fuck he's been left out the squad...... grada A tosser, rather give Lua Lua a go playing out wide.

Has he been capped at any level for France?? Has anyone seen him play on Setanta this season??

Where has he been a good coach at? In his previous jobs....... the negativity on this board is unreal. Either support the club rather than moaning everytime the club makes an appointment or signs a player. Its a fact he done a good job at Northampton..... Its a fact he done a good job at Forest, getting promotion is better than all other previous managers in there recent history managed..... Give the bloke a chance...... after all employing him wont be the reason we go down.

Very good coach by all accounts so I can only this as a positive. Done a very good job at Northampton and got Forest promoted after all.

In my post when have I stated that we should only be chasing players that CL clubs are chasing?

Its a massive pity that we are gonna spew money on someone who is s***.......... Uhhh, and where have got your knowledge from? Lets face it if he was any good, Newcastle United in the current state that we are in would not be the only club in for him. Why hasnt a club in the Champions League come in for him? You don't need to get knowledge from anywhere to work that one out. Plus after watching him in action on Sunday night he was fucking gash and ineffective....... yes I am basing my opinion on one game but fuck me they weren't playing Lyon or anyone with the quality that we are going to come up against in the fight for relegation. Lets face it this signing has desperate written all over it......... personally I dont think we'll buy anyone.