MKSC

Owen may be overated now but at his peak he was truly international/world class. Sadly we never got to see it and now he is well and truly a shadow of the player he was in the early part of the decade. We've had so many players who underwhelmed me in the last ten years it's hard to pick just one. I guess Luque having seen him play in spain he looked class but was just a total waste of space for us.

Whilst I'm aware it's highly unlikely we'll win the FA Cup it doesn't mean we should just go down and roll over. Give a rest to a few of the lads who have played most of the games (Harper, Enrique, Colo, Nolan, Jonas) but still send a competitive team. It's a hell of a long way to go for our fans to see the kids play, even from London it's a good 5 hours. A good cup run can really boost morale and give us some much needed cash to stop Ashley raping the squad in the window(obvs I'm crediting him with some foresight that we could reach the QF's or something). I'd go for --------------------Krul---------------------- Simmo-----S.Taylor--Kadar----R.Taylor Pancrate--Smith-----Guthrie---LuaLua -----------Ranger------Loven------------- Subs: Soderberg, Tozer, Butt, Geremi, Vukic, Carroll, Ameobi. I won't cry if we lose, but we should at least try to win out of respect for the competition, the oppo, and our fans.

Puma shirts are ok, in my role as a bit of a football shirt collector I have a few and they are decent. I can't say I'm too fussed about the maker of the kit. As long as it stays black and white. You can just see Ashley's brain ticking over, thinking "I know what I can do next to really really wind up these northern monkey's. I'll change the colours, no more black and white stripes. That's it, next seasons home kit - orange with pink flashes, and obviously keep the banana yellow away kit and maybe a white third kit with red bits. hell yeah, derek get on the phone to puma!"

I was expecting a little more to be added, they were wasting time from about half hour in. That bit where savage spent two minutes on the deck with play going on round him, then another two getting 'treatment' then wandering slowly off the pitch. And then after they had said three minutes there was the player being sent off followed by the slowest ever walk off, then the substitution with both players taking an age to go off/on. It just seemed to all be over very quickly.

Just got back to Londonistan. Would have been really annoyed had I travelled to Newcastle just for the game as it was one of the worst excuses for football I'd seen in a long time, fortunately I was in the area seeing family so it wasn't a completely wasted journey. For what it's worth I think had we stuck one of those chances away in the first half we would have gone on and won convincingly. I recorded the match and haven't had a chance to review it yet, and I really can't be bothered to read the whole match thread, but did the chance at the end go over the line, it certainly looked it from behind the goal where I was sitting. We've got a pretty quiet month in terms of matches, especially if we get beat in the cup at plymouth, hopefully down to one match a week will give the players some time to recover and get firing again. Providing we don't lose anybody in January and can get one or two in, Harewood back would be a decent shout and maybe another defender and/or midfielder with a little experience to bolster the squad, then we should have enough to scrape promotion (and obviously get relegated again without major revamp on the squad).

They did this about 10 years ago, maybe more, in the Isthmian (Ryman) League. It was a bit of a joke and they scrapped it. It hapened exactly how you would think, the teams with someone who was excellent at Corners and Free Kicks flourished and the teams who couldn't get it right got stuffed. Teams were launching it in to the box about 40 times a game from as far back as the half way line. It would need accompanying rule changes like it would need to stay on the floor or this would happen with the majority of teams.

Not sure about him. He has done really well at Scunny and now at Donny but you have to wonder why Sheffield United would not play a proven goalscorer at this level?

No, clearly he deserves to be in prison. Preferably one in a third world country with a questionable record on human rights.

Indeed, I overheard Arsene Wenger telling Carlo Ancelotti that same thing just the other day. It was right after Carlo phoned Gary Megson to enquire on Kevin Davies availability. Cock. Chomp-tastic.

I see the Chelsea (football factory) and West Ham (green street) hard men are not living up to their reputations. Time for a north east based footy hooligan film I think. I'd be an extra in that, any excuse to go smashing things up in Sunderland (more than they are already) is fine by me.

Deffo a blues boy - red have 2 CB already Fine by me, I can already feel the passion overtaking me. COYB! Unless of course I end up playing for the red's, in which case, I'm gonna smash you blues, grrrrrrr.

yes i because i don't rate mascherano at all... jimmy bullard is better player when he is not injured. And Gareth Barry is miles away ahead mascherano to be DM. I was almost with you on the Mascherano being a little overated but you've done yourself right up with your examples of better players. Bullard?? You might as well have said "d'you know what - if I was maradona I'd play Julio Arca over Mascherano any day of the week."

Indeed, I overheard Arsene Wenger telling Carlo Ancelotti that same thing just the other day. It was right after Carlo phoned Gary Megson to enquire on Kevin Davies availability.

To be fair to Geremi he was a cracking little player in 2001. I wouldn't ever boo one of my own players, IMO it's uncalled for and won't solve anything. Even after travelling for three hours through the rotten conditions on tuesday night to go and watch my local team, Hampton and Richmond, play away at Lewes in an FA Trophy replay, amongst 15 other hardy souls, and watching us lose 3-1 whilst putting in probably the most abject display ever seen against a team who are so broke they are having to play their under 18 side in senior matches. Even after this I still clapped the team off the pitch, it's what I believe a fan should do. I won't tell anyone else not to boo though if they want. We are all entitled to an opinion.

I'm up for a game. Be a good chance to meet some of the famous Newcastle-Online Posters. Obviously as I'm travelling from London the earlier the date can be confirmed for me the better as I'd have to organise my travel and a hotel room if there is likely to be alcohol involved later on. Don't mind which team I go on, whoever is most in need of a 6'3" centre half who did play a decent level but is now overweight and out of practice.

I come from Twickenham so baically everything round here is geared towards rugby. I'm not a big rugby fan, I watch a bit on the telly and have been to a few games down at Quins (union and league) but I don't subscribe to the view that it's only popular with the middle/upper classes. I can also appreciate the skill and physicality of the game. Also the tactical side can be just as intricate as anything in football. Plenty of people play/watch rugby who went to comprehensive/state schools. It's all a matter of what you prefer. Also not all rugby fans are completely anti football. Plenty are but, obviously from the posts on this thread, it cuts both ways. There seems to be a lot of 'i hate rugby because (insert stereotypical resoning) so there'. Just the same as the rugby fans who roll out about football being rubbish because of soft players etc. I've got two mates who are massive rugby fans. They watch England all over the world and watch Quins play home and away. Neither of them are posh public school boys. One of them likes football and goes to Arsenal if there is no rugby on, the other consistently rolls out about how rubbish football is and how he has no interest in it (although he is still going to watch the world cup in the summer - only because he is a proud englishman though, obvs). There's no reason for all the hatred between the two sports. I love all sport and will literally watch anything on the box that has a competitive edge to it.

It does seem that most managers (and chairmen for that matter) fail to grasp that the old saying "if it aint broke don't fix it" still stands up in modern football. Change for change's sake really. Team finishes two places below last seasons spot, sack the manager. Player has a bad few games, drop him to the stiffs and spend 20m on a replacement. Just imagine if Souness had come in and said: "Right lads, I know you've had a bad few games but you've been excellent for the last four seasons so we'll just work hard and get through this. Don't worry about new players or anybody geting sold as I have faith in all of you." Would that story end in relegation, I wouldn't have thought so.

Amen to that. You can't knock a pint of anything in a pub down here with footy on for £2 no matter what it is.

Me too. Ricoh Arena, Jewson Stand, Block 8, Row NN, Seat 11. It will live in my memory forever. Easily the biggest noise of the night greeted Nile as he stuck it away. First of many I hope.

We'd have to beat Italy second round, then probably Holland in the quarters, then Spain/Argentina/Portugal in the semi's. I guess it just goes to show that it's not just about the group you get drawn into, but who's in the group you are paired with as you could end up with a really hard route to the final.

You might take that group but it looks tough from there on if my predictions (based entirely on speculation and opinion - not to mention the randomness of my draw) are correct. 2nd Round Denmark vs Nigeria Ivory Coast vs Ghana ------------------------------ Brazil vs France Germany Vs Slovakia ------------------------------ Holland vs Paraguay England vs Italy ------------------------------ Argentina vs Portugal Spain vs Uruguay

Did a little draw of my own just now. This is how it came out. A: South Africa, Mexico, Paraguay, Denmark B: Holland, Australia, Nigeria, Greece C: Italy, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Switzerland D: England, Honduras, Ghana, Serbia E: Brazil, USA, Algeria, Portugal F: Argentina, North Korea, Chile, France G: Germany, Japan, Uruguay, Slovenia H: Spain, New Zealand, Cameroon, Slovakia Anyone know if they have published the way the draw progresses, i.e which group winner plays which runner up and so on.

I know. I am still working on it. Oldest one enjoyed SJP on saturday and is coming with me again for the Derby game. There is hope yet.

As far as the kick off times go I'm not fussed. I gave up work to look after my kids so I'll be home for all the games. I reckon I might miss the start of the 3.30 kick offs due to the school pick ups but it's nothing a little sky+ won't solve if I can't get someone else to pick them up. Looking forward to the draw though, you know it will take forever but that's all part of the suspense. If I was France or Portugal I'd be able to cope with being unseeded as there is always the prospect of drawing South Africa. I know with the home crowd behind them they might up their game but they really are a poor side. Just imagine if we get drawn with Portugal, USA and Ivory Coast while the French are faced with RSA, New Zealand and Algeria. We'd not be so happy with getting seeded then!!!

I guess what we are hoping for, with all of the players not just Colo, is that they are so shamed at having to play in the championship this season that they make it their lifes goal to never return. In the most part they are certainly showing the desire needed to get back to the prem, albeit lacking in quality a few times. Maybe for the players it is a case of having to take a step back before they can move forward to becoming better at their job, it happens to people in the real world all the time. With regards to Colo, he was very poor last year but he seems to have become a bit more robust this season and is clearly enjoying being technically better than 95% of the players he is coming up against. He has all the attributes to be a good premier league CB if he can stay focused, one of the few players we have who I think would fit into a top 10 club.