Novocastrian

Most sensible people could see O'Neill was a top class manager. Some people on here equated him to Souness.

As discussed in another thread, the most important attribute in modern football is intelligence. Viduka has it in spades, just unfortunate he has the body of a 67 year old.

Wise = Cunt Jimenez = Don't know him but probably a cunt Vetere = Don't know him either but probably a cunt Keegan = Flawed in many ways but has done more for this club than almost any other man in the last 40 odd years Allardyce = Cunt

To be fair to Venables he was once a first class coach and if he had concentrated on footballing matters could have been a massive success. Legendary player status means jack shit when it comes to management, I thought we would have realised that by now.

Can't be arsed reading the whole thread but Dunn is that speccy Scouse twat off the Sunday Supplement and he generally seems to have an anti-Toon bias so I take everything his so called news paper takes with a pinch of salt.

2-2 We are all over the place in the first half, could have been 4 or 5 down but manage to keep to 2-0 Second half we come out all guns blazing, get a goal back, ten minutes later we score another. The final 15 minutes see Pompey hanging on for dear life as we throw everything at them. It's a game of two halves you see.

I agree, he's a daft young lad who is enjoying the trappings of being a pro footballer. When he retires I'm sure he'll look back and think he could have done a lot more.

It's been obvious for some time that Ashley is waiting for Owen's contract to run out. He has no intention of keeping Owen on the wage bill. Then again, we are like mushrooms kept in the dark and fed shit, what do we know? I wouldn't blame Owen for leaving but I wish he was a bit more up front about his own intentions. Owen states that the club have not entered into contract talks with his people yet but he doesn't give any indication if he would welcome any talks.

Don't see what being "big" has to do with being "successful". The truth is most "big" clubs invariably have success, at least sometimes. We, sadly, are the exception.

I'd play him in a "nominal" 4-3-3. I say nominal because I think numbered formations are dead. Good teams move seamlessly between 4-4-2, 4-3-3 etc mulitiple times in a game depending on the tactical situation. So, Owen/Fat Duke Martins Jonas Barton Guthrie Butt The fullbacks can provide additional width, the three man midfield can drop in as required.

Fair weathers, it wasn't too long ago they were only getting 6,000 for home games.

It's very tight at the bottom and a couple of wins can make all the difference. Equally a couple of bad results may see us mired in the bottom three. Ashley has made a serious error. If Kinnear had managed to push us on and put some clear water between us and the bottom three teams I could sort of understand Ashley "rewarding" him with the job until the end of the season, if, as expected, the club isn't going to be sold any time soon. Fact is we are still in the relegation places and the appointment of Kinnear could be a huge mistake. If the wheels come off over Christmas/New Year and we are struggling for points/confidence where do we go from there?

Relegation is now a step closer. A team built around Ameobi, Butt and Duff is now the reality.

What happened to the Milner money? What happened to the three years of ST money I put in? The additional TV income? f*** all. It's been trousered by Mike Ashley. Mind you, he has paid off the debts you know..........

Owen staying until next Summer and then walking for nowt is worth more to us than £1 million in January.

Don't need to be an amazing scout to "find" two international players playing in one of the worlds top two leagues.

I was unaware games only lasted 65 minutes these days!!!!!!!!!!!! !!! !!!!! Our games usually only last 45.

Capello must sit up and take notice of Shola now!

Dyer could pass and move at pace. He never scored or created many but as part of our team he pissed on Duff's contribution from a great height. Can't believe this is even in question tbh. He really didnt. He couldnt pass, he could run.. like a headless chicken. It says alot that his entire time here he was played right back, right midfield, center midfield and secondary striker. He was useless Are you drunk? I can't believe everyone has forgotten how bad he was! Just because we got into Champs League and he doesnt play for us now, its easy to look back on him and view him as a pivotal and he contributed. He was terrible. He couldnt pass at all! He didnt have a brain. He ran like a headless chicken with no positional sense. He didnt have a good shot on him. no good in the air. Duff has a brain, can cross, can score goals. Just his legs have gone. Disagree strongly, Duff has never been anything more than a pacy forward who could get beyond the full backs. The reason he is so gash now is because he can't do that anymore. He has no guile or invention.

Colo and Cacapa want to get together and swap attackers. Zamora is too big for cacapa in the air, just won another header.

Duff's not even a tenth of the player he was at Chelsea. It's so depressing.....

Fulham may be short on class, but their midfielder are all workers. We won't win the game unless we can compete in the middle. Pity we have Nicky "the legend" Butt strolling around in the engineroom.

There is always a second chance, if Ashley dismantles the DOF system, re-appoints Keegan, gives him £30 million in Jan with the promise of £30 million every following transer window he'll be welcomed back with open arms. Not going to happen though.

I think this is very true, no-one is expecting Redknapp to break into the top 4 not even Levy. The Spurs' "Ramos Project" has put the club back 5 years and all Redknapp is expected to do is get them out of the bottom three and into the top half of the table. The media are jumping out of their foreskins because their blue-eyed boy has finally been given a chance at a big club but Redknapp was not even on the agenda when Spurs were sniffing around Ramos. I think there is a perception that foreign managers think a bit more about the game and are better educated in footballing terms. The real acid test for British/Irish managers will be the next time Man Utd/Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal need a new manager. Will one of them take the plunge on a Mark Hughes, Roy Kean or Sam Allardyce (ok that one was a joke) or will they bring in a continental big name a la Mourinho etc.

Pretty accurate but I'd swap Ameobi and Martins round. Martins scored, burst through a few times and gave us an attacking impetus. Some of his passing and shooting was awry (as usual) but he looked like he had a goal or two in him. Ameobi is much maligned but he mostly deserves it, he didn't really do anything well. Law of averages dictates he will score occasionally but it's mostly by accident. I'd also drop Colo to a six, he was pretty solid, building on a couple of impressive performances, but he was at fault for the goal.