Hughesy

That's brought back some memories. Have to disagree with your analysis of Brock. Brock was quite good.. Dillon was absolute turd though. Awful player.

Because there is no way that he is currently good enough??? And Johnson is? Well - yes. Johnson is a much better RB than Simpson. Have you ever actually seen Johnson play? He's f***ing s***! He's decent going forward but defensively he's an absolute disaster. Of course I've seen Johnson play. I think you would be in the minority if you continue to insist that Danny Simpson is better than Johnson. Remember that we are talking about Danny Simpson, who the majority of Newcastle fans were convinced was not good enough for the Premiership last season. He has played ok in the handful of games that he is played this season and you reckon he should now be playing England???

Because there is no way that he is currently good enough??? And Johnson is? Well - yes. Johnson is a much better RB than Simpson.

This exactly. People can't just pass off dangerous and reckless tackles as part of the game. It really annoys me when you get fans and pros banging on about how it's a man's game and it should be physical. Yes, it should be physical, but putting in leg breaking tackles isn't tough or manly. It's cowardly and the referees should do something about. Show a few more red cards and it will stop soon enough.

Elmander would be a signing I would like us to go for in January.

Because there is no way that he is currently good enough???

Heard that get a brief outing at the Arsenal game near me.

showing my ignorance here, but I used to know most of the France squad. None of those in bold I've ever heard of. You clearly need to start playing football manager...!!

Horrible feeling we'll batter them for 75 mins and lose 1-0.

Agreed. In Korea I never saw anyone wearing those shirts. A good few people wearing Arsenal jackets, who to my knowledge have never had a Korean player. I never saw Celtic shirts worn in Korea or Japan either, despite Nakamura, Ki Sung Yong and Cha Du Ri. Wearing football shirts is not that common in East Asia, and I don't imagine it brings in much revenue at all. Those clubs with Korean players are always on TV in Korea, so perhaps there is some TV money but I don't imagine it amounts to much for the British clubs. Many games are often on at stupid-o-clock in East Asia due to the time difference. Park Ji Sung was signed simply because he's a good player, as was Lee Chung Yong. I'm aware that proven Premiership players don't come cheap and I agree Ashley would be unlikely to release the kind of funds necessary, but I put his name forward as the kind of player the club should aspire to sign if we want to build for the future (as is Ashley's stated aim). He is exactly the sort of player we need, a young talented right winger who will also work hard for the team. He adapted very quickly to English football and I still think we are a bigger draw for players than Bolton. It's not a ridiculous suggestion, though I agree he wouldn't be cheap. If we stabilise in the Premiership this season we'll be looking to improve our first team which means looking at players like him or cheaper unproven foreigners. We may land another Tiote or fluke another Williamson on the cheap but to improve on your first team you generally have to spend a bit, espescially when you're in the Premiership. A point I've made during the summer that still holds true. While we've been doing an excellent job digging up relative unknowns from the UK and Western Europe, the "global reach" of our scouting team seems to be non-existant. I've been saying the same thing for years as well and been hammered for it. Tiote is the perfect example of the kind of player at the right kind of price that we should be looking for.

Yeah - can't see any way in which that wasn't a red to be honest.

Whereabouts were you standing? I assume you must have been near the front?

Thought the atmosphere was ok to be honest. I was standing right at the back on the right hand side - so away from the 'louder' Arsenal fans behind the goal - but the noise seemed pretty good. Atmosphere seemed to take a bit of a dip at beginning of second half but I think that was because: a) people were starting to take in the fact we were winning; and b) people were pretty nervous.

Absolutely brilliant performance from Colo on Sunday. Just brilliant - really seems to have improved in the air since even last season.

Think he shook Nasri's hand as well when Nasri was subbed.

Agreed. Should never have sold him. Ridiculous decision.

I feel I deserve some praise for Shola's revival. I took him out of my Fantasy League team to ensure that he scored. And he did. It was a sacrifice worth making.. On a serious note - I just hope he can keep this up.

Totally agree with that - go to get inside his head and make him start thinking too much about his game. When he was playing from instinct, he was always far better.

What I love about the Sunderland forums is how they keep protesting that Carroll isn't fit to lace Quinn's boots. Quinn's record in Premier League for Sunderland - 129 games, 29 goals.

Pretty much the same for me - I have lived in Kent most of my life, but my Dad has always had 3 season tickets, no matter how often we have gone up (rest of family all live in Newcastle so they use tickets when we can't). When I was younger we used to go up to see relatives a lot so saw quite a few games. Started to tail off when I had to go to school on Saturdays. Then uni at Durham so saw pretty much all home matches for 3 years. Now working in London - so probably 6-7 home matches a year and all southern based away games. Going up for home matches is literally the entire day taken out - so whilst I love it - it's just too much to go that often.

He looks like he needs a good dinner for a start - but I suppose its a fine balance between retaining your speed and increasing your strength Always remember reading that Milan had banned Seedorf from putting on any more muscle as he was at the optimum level before it would start to adversely affect his speed.

Thought the atmosphere was pretty good myself. Not sure how the accent of the songs would make a difference...?

RTG does make for interesting reading. I think the teams are pretty much even (I've tried to look at it as objectively as possible...) but the majority of them seem to reckon at least an 8-3 man for man. I obviously haven't seen enough of the Sunderland magic this season. The only definites from them would be Onuoha, Gyan and Bent. After that - I can't see much quality there. They do have more strength in depth currently though. However, if we had HBA, Gosling, Harper, Campbell, S Taylor all fit, I can't say their squad would be much stronger.

Bent - I agree. Bar that - can't see what they have over us. Hence why they struggled the year we went down, struggled the year after and are currently sitting one point ahead of us.

They're going into the derby game at yours for the first time in a while as, what they consider to be, favourites, and a clearly better team. Personally, I think they're getting ahead of themselves - their 2 wins have been a debatable last minute penalty scuffed in by Bent, and an own goal (in a game they were by some distance 2nd best). I think they're just putting on a face of confidence just for the hell of it. Are Sunderland really a clearly better team? Man for man, I really don't see where they are clearly better. I'm not sure how many of their squad I would take to be honest. Their team for their last match was: Sunderland 22 Mignolet 02 Bardsley 04 Turner 15 Onuoha 19 Bramble 06 Cattermole 08 Malbranque 10 Henderson 27 Al-Muhammadi 11 Bent 17 Welbeck (Gyan 65) Substitutes 01 Gordon, 05 John Mensah, 14 Da Silva, 29 Ferdinand, 07 Zenden, 16 Riveros, 33 Gyan