Mistle17

Yeah, they are. Bassong and Davies are all over each other like a pair of newlyweds but other than that the long ball effect has been subdued.

Lovenkrands has been very poor this afternoon, imo. No end product....but in fairness he's winning a fair few free-kicks out on that right flank.

Every time Colo gets the ball at the back he fires a hopeful punt upto Ameobi which comes to nothing and we lose possession again. Very poor. The few times we've played a bit of football we've had them on the back foot. Bolton are a shit football team.

Its very simple- just get rid of the system completely!! Very straight forward. Look at Arsenal, they can unearth all these fantastic youth players because they have probably the best scouting network in the world. Not because they have a DOF.

I thought Bergkamp rounded Dabizas? I miss him...

Hmmmm......Imo, Shepherd makes a couple of valid points. BUT, he's not revealing a fraction of the bullshit he but us through. In fairness to Ashley at least he knows what the phrase 'value for money' means, something Shepherd had clearly never heard of. I agree that Ashley and co. are blaming the previous regime too much- just get on with the job for christ sake and maybe then you might get somewhere. But at least Ashley has put HIS own money into NUFC.....something Shepherd never did. All he did was take OUR money out of the club and into his bank account. Another good point FFS makes about the Ashley regime is their highly incompetent negotiation skills. They really are very poor. As he said, what sort of club asks the richest club n the world for instalments?!! Crazy. And the way our club refused to play hardball with City over Given's transfer is infuriating. BUT, Shepherd cant speak. Look at the way he handled the Boumsong and Luque transfers, and even the Owen one (we could've gotten him for a cheaper price, imo). He just threw money at them willy nilly. And the way Shepherd handled agents is shocking. A farce. The likes of Carr, Babayaro, Kluivert, Duff......they were all on over 50k a week! A WEEK! So really you have two extremes here. One chairman would break the world bank in a day, where you have the other one who would struggle to buy penny sweets. Their both as bad as eachother (maybe Shepherd a tad worse but its pretty close)

Decent coaching goes a long way. Defending isn't about talent, it's about coaching, discipline and organisation, without that talent is useless. Titus had the ability, but none of the rest, now he's getting it, it's no wonder you never see him having the piss ripped out of him on MOTD or whatever. Why did Andy O'Brien look like a kingpin at times under Bobby and Titus always looked like he was going to f*** up every two minutes? Whilst i agree that Bruce's faith in Bramble will have helped him, the main reason why he's performing much better is because he hasn't got 50,000 people on his back. Andy O'Brien never looked like a kingpin under Bobby tbh Yes he did. I'm with Ronaldo on this one- O'Brien just made me feel so nervous when he got on the ball. I've never been a fan of his,tbh. If we had a much better player alongside Woody, instead of O'Brien or Bramble, then we would've pushed Man Utd all the way.

Tbf to JFK not that I'm saying he should be anywhere near a role like DOF apparently he does have a good eye for talent as he was doing some scouting for Wenger during his time out from management. That's kind of where I was coming from - has probably built up just about enough goodwill to be accepted in the role as well. Now just need to find a manager who would work under him - Bruce or Shearer anyone? But werent there rumors that Shearer said he wouldnt work under the DOF structure? And if Kinnear is to take that job then its still a DOF structure the club has, so I cant see Big Al working for us still. Bruce? Maybe. If it goes tits up at Wigan from now and till the end of the season then he might give us a thought. Tbh, I wish we could just go back to the normal, English way of doing things at this club. Ashley doesnt understand that you can still suck up the best youth players around the UK and rest of the world without having a DOF. All you need is a top-class scouting network and your set.

You used to support Newcastle? What happened? I'm sorry but West Brom are just a nonsense team. They can't defend and they can't score. Their midfield can pass the ball decently, but none of the midfield players can shoot or tackle. Their situation is due to lack of talent and lack of good tactics. Very little luck involved. Martin Tyler was saying on Sky Sports today that WBA had a total of 3m net spending this summer. No wonder their such a poor team, such little investment. The marking of Tim Cahill for the first goal was quite hilarious, actually.

What ever happened to that flag Arsenal fans had reading "IN WENGER WE TRUST"? :laughterisnotargumentation: Horribly fickle fans.

Well said. As for Boro, well, lets just hope they go down and stay down. The biggest 'stone in your shoe' club around.

F*ck sake!!! I hate both clubs so fucking much!!!

Great guy, he deserves to have the No.1 shirt his own. We're very lucky to have him. I always loved Given when he was here, and thought he was fantastic for us, but I do remember a time when he got restless after being left out for a couple of games because Harps was doing so well. He should've taken a leaf out of Harpers book. Harper's good enough to play for England, easily. If the likes of Joe Hart and Scott Carson can get the call up, then so can Steve.

I do agree with what you're saying, but his performance against Arsenal (H) last season was outstanding, imo. He was easily our best player that night and gave the Arsenal CB's a tough time. Why he cant do that any more is beyond me.... When he played upfront under Keegan he was gash. If he couldnt play well then, what chance does he have succeeding under Kinnear/Houghton-Calderwood?

I dont like it when people critisize 'Old fashioned' English football. They say its full of 'cloggers' and players with 'no skills or technique'. Rubbish. OK, I agree, we've been known for playing the long ball and having a physical approach to the game, but what about players we've had in the past like Gazza, Waddle, Keegan, Beardsley, Bobby Charlton and John Barnes! All fantastic players who could beat players and had great skill, some of whom went abroad because they had the technique to cope. And then you've had the more recent English players like Scholes, Beckham, Lampard, J.Cole, Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney and Micheal Carrick who all have fantastic skill and technique and are a combination of exciting wide players or a core team player from the middle of the park who can dictate games. Admittedly these sort of players are drying up and too many players that come through our youth systems are nothing better than average. The national teams fortunes have, as people have stated, down to a combination of poor managers, lack of discipline, penalties and sheer bad luck. Whenever we've been in World Cups (for the last 5 WC's at least) or Euro's, we've always had teams capable of AT LEAST reaching the Quater-Finals. At least. With the players we had available to qualify for the 2008 Euros, how we didnt qualify is just disgraceful. Sickening infact. Grassroots football in England is only starting to have a bit of attention cast upon it. We've had good, old-school football people like Sir Trevor Brooking banging on the FA's door to improve youth facilities around clubs and local communities but the FA we're too busy snuggling with the 'Top 4' clubs to bother about it. It had to take failure of qualifying for a major European competion for the FA to really wake up and try and address the situation. You can say all you like about coach's in grassroots level, and part of it is down to them and their methods, but ultimately the problem we've had with producing good English players recently has been down to the FA's way of running our game.

Agreed. Emre was like a poor mans Viana imo. Still, Emre was a very talented player on his day. I'm still really disappointed with the way its turned out for Alan Smith. He has all the characteristics to succeed as a Newcastle player and become a bit of a 'fans favorite'. He works hard, he's a aggressive, passionate....but for some reason cant seem to play football for us. He could do it at Leeds and at times with Man Utd, so why not with us?! Maybe if he was played upfront for us from the start he might've been better. Would any consider Nicky Butt as a contender for this thread?

Christ, where to start, eh? Way too many... For me its got to be Viana, Emre, Woodgate and Luque. Parker as well, I guess. I loved Viana.....he'd such a sweet left foot and could've become such a star for us but it just wasnt to be. Woody was just immense whenever he played for us, but that was the problem- he hardly played for us. If he'd been kept fit and we'd brought in another good CH, we could've won the title. Great player just a shame its turned out the way it had for the lad. I always liked Carl Cort but the lad was just ravaged with injuries he never got a chance. Dider Domi and Alain Goma were favorites of mine as well who never set the world alight. Others like Zogg, Smith, Kluivert, Viduka and Acuna spring to mind. Lua Lua maybe? Steve Harper as well. Jermaine Jenas is another who never fully blossomed for us, imo. He had such potential but turning to gay sex was the start of his downfall, imo....

To be honest, Im more concerned at replacing JK with a good manager than the speculation over the transfer budget. I'm not going to bother worrying about how much we're gonna spend because in reality, even Ashley doesnt know how much we're going to spend at this rate. Its crazy.

Chelseas home and 3rd strip looks like a fucking rugby shirt! Disgusting. I just pray that ours wont be in that design.

Wonder who he was looking at Jason Scotland would be my bet. Perfect replacement for Mr.Owen....

Aye, it all sounds great, but personally Im not gonna get excited until I see results. On and off the pitch. I'm sick to my bones of having my hopes raised but only to be let down severely.

Well said.

Yes please!

No, not a chance. Nolan at a very push, but otherwise no.