ponsaelius

Just shut the forum down. There is no coming back from this. End it.

I wholeheartedly agree. I didn't ask for these idiots trying to prove something that is clearly flawed.. I'm with you. Saying it's in our hands when it isn't is absolutely worthy of the pedantry. Don't back down.

Very good selection.

Course he should. The bashing of him on here midseason has been ludicrous.

The switch to 3-4-3 did it for Wigan. Same players, but performances far better.

The Morosini story has really hammered home what a stunning job the medical staff have done here. I am just in awe of these people.

Exactly, two players in his general position. I'm still not even sure those two should be in - which shows how far away Parker is from being a viable nomination.

I have been waiting patiently for that EXACT post.

Messi was the best player in the world by he was 22. Players are peaking very early these days, to have 24 year olds being up for young player is just mental.

Parker is shit. He can seriously fuck right off.

Parker. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Get out.

Classic neesy.

Can't say I agree with all of them, but okay. My point still remains

I apologise for claiming you have an anti British footballer agenda. It is clear that I was mistaken. It is an anti footballer from English speaking country agenda. Based on what? All I'm saying is that there has been very few Australian footballers at the top level and even those that are considered to be the most successful would struggle to make our current first XI when at their peaks. The emotive language was because aussiemag was in the thread, point still remains. I have no agenda.

You don't disagree with my point though, that for him to be a permanent fixture in our team as it stands (and hopefully going forward) he has to become the best Aussie defender since Joe Marston? I havent disagreed Sewelly. At the end of the day my main allegiances lay with what is best for Newcastle United. So any attempt to troll me into a reaction about "Australian players being shit" is going to be unsuccessful. Posting a list of Australia's greatest footballers and future talents suggests otherwise.

Di Natale is a legend. Top bloke and a cracking player too. Fair fooking play to him.

You don't disagree with my point though, that for him to be a permanent fixture in our team as it stands (and hopefully going forward) he has to become the best Aussie defender since Joe Marston?

Seriously though. Joking aside, we're potentially signing this guy as a development player which is good and something we should be doing a lot of. However, if he is to ever become a fixture in our starting XI he pretty much must become just about the greatest Australian player ever.

The greatest Australian defender ever is Lucas Neill. Who was greedy and shit.

Dunno why we'd want to sign an Australian player. They're generally shite.

Which would be impressive, if Artur Boruc wasn't shite.

Thibaut Courtois is the 7th most expensive goalkeeper in football history. Surely even Chelsea aren't wasteful enough to buy another one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goalkeeper_%28association_football%29#Highest_fees

I didn't say that. However if the £10 million spent on Cisse means we get in the Champions league which increases revenue massively, it might encourage a slight rethink. The Coloccini contract like Ronaldo says also hopefully suggests they are willing to sway from their strict policy. The second bit is exactly what I was implying. Spending big for the extra bit of quality CAN be a good thing. Apologies for not making it clearer, I've certainly not been the type of poster on here that advocates spending for spending sake, quite the opposite.

...then hopefully sell them for big money and use the brass to subsidise losses elsewhere, and/or buy cheap replacements again. The hardest thing for me to accept - aside from learning not to become attached to our best players - is that we are able to trade up each time, whilst losing key components of our team. Whilst it's working like this season has then obviously there's no problem, I just can't help but feel that at some point we need to draw a line under it and keep the core together if we're to repeat this season's success or progress even further. Hopefully the new contracts for Coloccini ('too old, wages too high') and the purchase of Cisse ('over 25, far too much to pay') are an indication of this. If we got top four it would be almost completely down to the signing of Cisse in January, as there'd be no way we'd have hit this form otherwise. That might be the nudge they need to realise that spending big can be a good thing because it means speculating to accumulate.