LucaAltieri

I've said it once, I'll say it again... ...The Devil is Italian.

4 different countries, lovely. Mind you, Barcelona should be wetting themselves right now. The chance to make real history is sitting there right infront of them. I can see Inter beating Barca, personally. Inter have a good side, starting to gel together nicely, and can play the cynical Italian game with the best of them.

Meh. Back up where we belong.

And true. The poor lad's limitations were shown up big time. Aye. Looked good in the first leg as an impact sub but in no way should he have started in the second leg. Another stint as an impact sub might have made for a different outcome.

4 different countries, lovely. Mind you, Barcelona should be wetting themselves right now. The chance to make real history is sitting there right infront of them. I can see Inter beating Barca, personally. Inter have a good side, starting to gel together nicely, and can play the cynical Italian game with the best of them.

FFS.

My Juve-supporting mates saw a fair bit of him in Serie B. He was shite there too. The Juve support used to shit themselves every time the ball came in towards him.

I wish Almunia would stop punting it long. Has it worked once yet? No. So switch to plan B you thick mofo.

Unrealistic expectations and getting the club sold.

Hull & Wolves.

Gayer than a young Spanish striker.

Not sure if I want to watch the Arsenal game or the Inter game. What are we all watching?

Easy to keep a clean sheet when your opponents don't have a shot.

BULLSHIT!!! Since the creation of the PL we are 2nd in individuals winning the PFA Young Player of the Year, only Man Utd are above us. Really? Wasn't aware of that. Records I found only go back to 95/96. Since then we've had two: 2001/02: Craig Bellamy (Newcastle United) 2002/03: Jermaine Jenas (Newcastle United) In that time Liverpool have had 3, Man United 4. Not a terrible record, granted. Still, it's a f***ing small sample, isn't it? Haway man kidda your pissing me right?? You gotta to know how to use google or herd of Wikipedia? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFA_Young_Player_of_the_Year I was quite clear when I said individuals rather than number of winners Since PL creation: 3 YPFA winners , England U21 captain & England record U21 caps winner & shed load of other U21 players. Sorry dad. Carroll(?) and Milner, isn't it? You can play with the stats all you like, when was the last time we really brought a player on? The argument can be made for Bassong and, to a lesser extent, Bernard. But generally, we don't do much with our young players. At best they turn out pitifully average. See Michael Chopra. Even our best young player in recent memory, Woodgate, didn't actually develop his game here.

BULLSHIT!!! Since the creation of the PL we are 2nd in individuals winning the PFA Young Player of the Year, only Man Utd are above us. Really? Wasn't aware of that. Records I found only go back to 95/96. Since then we've had two: 2001/02: Craig Bellamy (Newcastle United) 2002/03: Jermaine Jenas (Newcastle United) In that time Liverpool have had 3, Man United 4. Not a terrible record, granted. Still, it's a fucking small sample, isn't it?

That has to be the most hackneyed phrase in football. There are a number of players who have done very well here, some at an early age. Paul Gascosigne is one significant example. Chrissy Waddle managed at a later age too. Lee Clark, Steve Howey, Steve Watson, Alan Thompson etc all made England squads. We might not be very good at promoting youth at times but that is another issue altogether. If a 21 year old still needs teaching how to cross a ball then the problem lies within. Charles N'Zogbia didnt seem to suffer the same (level of) problem (i.e. I didnt hide my pie behind my seat when he was looking like crossing a ball) with the same people around him did he? Viana looked shite at Wolves in pre-season friendly and hasnt cut it anywhere else since. Whose problem is that? Real talent of the Zidane standard emerges anywhere and in spite of problems. We have had problems down the years e.g. even Mick Harford became an England International despite looking piss poor here. Perhaps we're too impatient at times. Plenty of people on this board certainly are. Perhaps we have just bought another piece of turd. Or perhaps we imagine people will be better than they ever could be - consider the number of people calling themselves Taylor on here in the hope of some reflected glory. I'm way too young to remember Waddle or Gazza as youngsters, and if that's how far back we need to go to find examples for the counter point then I think that speaks volumes. Milner's inability to cross a ball clearly didn't lie within. He's twice the player now he's at Villa. Did he improve a jot while at Newcastle? Very debatable. How long was Bramble here without ever getting any better? It sure as hell wasn't through lack of game time. He appears much more settled since moving on. Louis Saha? It's good that you mentioned Viana and N'Zogbia. They may simply not have the what it takes. That's a fair point to make. That said, talent isn't innate. It requires hard work alongside the feedback and tuition of a good coach. There's a reason why the system is built that way. We may have had moderate success recently with the likes of Taylor, and Carroll is looking promising, but our recent record doesn't have a great deal to be proud of in terms of youth development. The only glaring exception in recent memory is Bassong. Excellent here, shite elsewhere. That obviously boils down to attitude... but that's half a coach's job: getting big time charlie to keep his head down and keep working on his game.

How well a player does also depends on the style of football you play, how you bring them on, where they fit in the team, etc. If Zidane hadn't signed for Juve would he have been the same player? Impossible to say. As it happens, we're shite at developing talent anyway. How many years was Milner here without ever learning to cross a football?

Don't believe you.

Joe Kinnear?

He's a MACHINE. Sprints for 90 minutes solid.

Where do these fucks get guns, anyway?

Attlee?

Nah... consider that Hull stayed up last season.

We weren't one of the 3 worst teams last season. We're still better than the 3 worst premier league teams this season. The only problem we have is getting the players to turn up and put in a decent shift on a regular basis and formulating a coherent game plan. A decent manager could see us to safety with the team we have now (including loanees).

http://www.transdiffusion.org/tmc/cityroad/images/320weather1999tynebridge.jpg There may be one or two skitty bits.